Netflix DVD Scratch or Dirt Problems?

Peter writes, "I've been a Netflix customer for 4 or 5 years. It seems that 50% of the DVDs get stuck and then return to the beginning of the movie. Or, they simply skip. I guess most users don't care a damn about how they handle the disk, but wouldn't one think that Netflix would have a process that at lest cleans every returned disk?"

I know that Netflix workers look at every DVD and they have a disc cleaning process, but I'm wondering if this is a DVD player problem. Is anyone else having problems playing movies from Netflix or Blockbuster? Take a look at the movies you have at home -- are they scratched or dirty?

Comments

[Mizery_Made]

Even though the discs often look scratched beyond playability, I've not had much problem in playing them. Maybe once in a while a movie may stutter a second or two here and there but nothing scratched beyond playability.

Some of the discs I've bought at yard sales and such have had trouble playing in one player, yet plays perfectly fine in another. I'd say the majority of the blame would have to lay on the player, based on my experience.

[redbill]

50%?! Peter needs a new DVD player...

[machinegunn]

Agreed, redbill. 50% is most likely a gross exaggeration. If not, spend some money on a new player. It's not feasible for Netflix to clean every disc every time it comes in. If I have problems, I wipe the disc down with glass cleaner and pop it back in. I've rented at least 150 discs from Netflix and had at most 5 that gave me any problems after cleaning.

[paving]

Almost certainly it's your $50 dvd player. The lenses that are used in lower-end players are less likely to be able to manage data inconsistencies. If you spend closer to $80 you probably won't have as many skipping problems.

It's also possible that the dvd player lens itself is just dirty, reducing its error correction. If you've had it awhile i suggest getting a cleaner disc (Netflix probably rents those huh?).

[Tim]

We have to use a lens cleaner about once every 4 months or so. It usually clears up after that. And occasionally we have to play a disc in our computer (hooked up to the tv). And once the disc arrived with a crack from the outside to the center, and there was nothing we could do about that.

[Brian O'Neill]

I have only had a problem with a few DVD's in the the 3-4 years I have been a customer. Even then the movie was still watchable.

[netflixfan101]

I use a Sony dvp-2360 player made back in 1999 and actually found out about Netflix from a flyer packed in the same box. I have sent maybe a total of 5-10 dvds back in 725 movies ive rented so far.

[calig]

I had a problem similar to it awhile back. I owned a Sony player and sometimes discs would just skip back to the beginning. I mentioned it to the local video store i rent at and the guy behind the counter's first question is "do you own a sony player?" Turns out that Sony's have an issue when the lens starts to get dirty the laser has a tendancy to skip to the beginning of a movie especially on dual layer discs.

Quick remedy is just to put in a lens cleaner in the player. Never had the issue again for the 2 years after it.

[IowaHawksFan1]

I can count on one hand the number of disks I've had from Netflix that haven't worked, skipped, froze, etc and I have been a member for several years.

I do find it interesting though that there are a lot of problems. Do the problems seem to be greater in one part of the country over the other?

[barcodez]

I've been a netflix member since 1999. Maybe it's because I don't usually get the latest releases until years later, but I've had a terrible track record with Netflix DVDs than I ever did with brick-and-mortar stores. Although 50% is probably a little high, not much. And my DVD player is only a year or two old. Most of the time I fast forward through the unplayable parts. Skip forward than rewind. If a DVD skips or gets pixelated and I finish watching it, I still tell Netflix about it on their website.

Ultimately, I think the convenience of Netflix is worth the extra hassle.

[Flizzzipper]

From my own personal experience (I go through a LOT of netflix) I would recommend to anyone who is having these problems to, at the very least, try and run a disc cleaner through their player or get a new one. I used to have a similar problem but started noticing they worked perfect on my pc DVD-Rom. I got a new player and have had great success. There are still some you get that will have unreadable areas where it is scratched but the frequency is very small. I've had probably 5 or 6 in a year that wouldn't play and three of those were cracked.

[DrHannahMD]

I have been using Netflix for almost five years, and honestly I can't recall any time that I have had a problem with a movie skipping. I do find 50% to be kind of dubious and clearly a bloated figure.

[eazyguy52]

I've rented about 180 discs in just under a year. Of those, there were probably two or three that I had a problem with that a quick cleaning took care of. I've only had one that wouldn't play at all and it had a small but noticeable crack in it. So I can't complain.

[Pocket Rocket]

On my old DVD player I did have problems with about half the discs. Since replacing that player, I have had very few problems, and most of the problems I have had since then have been solved by a light cleaning of the disc. Only one disc had a scratch so severe that the player could not continue. Actually, it looked like someone spilled some glue on that disc or something. Now I actually have several DVD players and I have very few problems w/ Netflix DVDs. I guess my old one was just a piece of crap, even though it was a $200 Panasonic carousel model.

[Old Timer Too]

Less than 3 discs in 100 have problem so severe I cannot play them. In most cases, the problem disc is either broken or has a manufacturing defect.

Between NF and BB, BB ships a higher quality product. About one in ten NF discs had to have something done to them to play without any skips at all. I don't have that problem with BB discs.

The player makes a big difference and the newer the player, the better it plays, especially if it is designed to uplevel standard DVDs to a higher resolution.

Cleaning doesn't hurt, either and cleaning discs are available from a wide range of stores that carry retail titles.

One other thing - kids movies rented from the local BB or library are often the least playable. Parents need to teach their children to take better care of those seemingly indestructible discs (or not let them handle them at all).

[netrapture]

The report of large percentage (> 5%) unplayable disks or "need cleaning" disks from Netflix - my experience is no friggin' way.
damaged: 26 discs out of 800, so less than 4%.
need cleaning: very few

Sounds like what needs cleaning or is damaged is the players.

[trickiewillie]

I've found that some discs will play fine in one machine but not another. And then a different disc will not play in the first machine but plays flawlessly in the machine that would not play the first disc. It does not seem to be directly related to age or brand of machine. I rent a lot of discs from my local library and if you think Netflix users don't take care of discs you should see what the library discs look like. I do strongly recommend getting a lens cleaning disc and popping it in the DVD player as needed.

[peter]

Are 2 Peters better than 1?

Setting the record straight, I'm not the Peter that asked the question.

I certainly never had a 50% failure rate....but I think it runs about 10% if u include cracked discs (on the 8/mo planm)...still a lot.

Last month, to replace a cracked disc, I was sent one that skipped a 5 minute segment, 10 minutes into he flick....the 3rd replacement worked!

I have to clean a couple of discs per month to get them to play.

Cheers

[shadoh]

Just adding my two cents. I RARELY have problems with Netflix DVDs. Most of them are in very good to flawless condition, though there have been a few that are scratched or "dusty looking", but out of the hundreds of DVDs I've received, I think I've had problems with two. Only one major one that I had to send back, and one that was easily fixed with a little glass cleaner.

[gir]

With millions of customers, it's a veritable statistical certainty that some will have problems with large numbers of disk, and some will have no problems ever. Even discounting the ones with problem players, there will still be some who experience lots of issues.

For myself, I experience problems with a few disks a year (~2%, cracks and scratches) and find about the same number dirty enough that they need cleaning to play well. >96% seems pretty good to me - I have no complaints.

[lynn117]

mine too skipped and froze and i bought a new dvd player and havent had anymore problems. i did receive a disk that was covered in chocolate (at least i hope it was chocolate!). in regards to a previous post i purchased a $60 SONY and it has played flawlessly for the past year so not all sony players are defective.

[Hudd]

OK, I am seriously doubting the idea that it is just a cheap player in my case. I have a Toshiba HD-DVD player, and I'd say that 100% of my HD discs that I received scratched have had a hiccup multiple times. One of them I could not even watch all the way through. These were all scratched heavily. No deep scratches, just a lot of hairline scratches that cover the majority of the disc. I'm guessing the issue here is that Netflix has less HD-DVD's, so they are reused more often than standard DVD. Or, HD-DVD's are more succeptible to skipping from scratches, or HD-DVD owners are really klutzy...... OR Sony is renting all the HD-DVD's and scratching them! haha, just kidding about that.

[nuggsgalore]

been a member since feb 2004, never had a bad disk yet. Been through 2 ($100) cheapo DVD players, but every time I have a problem it always turns out to be the player. Just my two bits.

[typekey_user]

I returned a bunch of Netflix discs as scratched until I finally realized that all the discs were stuttering in the same place. (My DVD player had an option to show where on the disk the player was reading at the time, and they all skipped just a little before the edge of the disk.) Seems I damaged the mechanism in my DVD player somehow by trying to play DVD-R DL (double-layer recordable DVD) in it. (The player didn't support that kind of disc and spent a lot of time thrashing around before I gave up on it and hit the eject button.) I replaced the DVD player and haven't had a problem with playing Netflix discs since. Yes, they almost always look pretty beat up (I generally rent older movies), but they play OK.

[rjm]

I kept having a problem with discs from both BB, NF and BB instore, but not all discs.

Bought an optic DVD cleaner from walmart and havent had a problem since.

The rep at NF told me that. I honestly had no idea they needed to be cleaned.