Property of Netflix Stickers - Problem?

Netflix is testing new stickers on movies, possibly to thwart theft:

Wendy notes that there might be a problem with the stickers: "I attempted to play the new discs in my DVD player and neither of the 2 discs with the stickers will work. I can play any other disc in my DVD player without problem. My PowerBook will read the dvd's, but I really don't want to watch all my dvd's on my computer from now on. This could be a serious problem for Netflix, unless its just me. I tried to remove the stickers, but they are seriously affixed. "

Wouldn't the stickers prevent Netflix from reselling the previously viewed movie?

Has anyone else seen the stickers? Have you had trouble playing the movies?

Thanks to Wendy (photo) and Lamont for sending this in.

Comments

[kurros]

That's interesting. I haven't seen these yet, though I haven't been getting many new releases.

I am curious how this affects them being able to sell DVDs as well.

[Old Timer Too]

I haven't seen the stickers but I can tell you from experience with some of my daughter's audition CDs that stickers, even those designed to be used on CDs and DVDs are a problem. On recordable media, the least thick plastic is on the label side and so any pressure applied against that side of the disc can cause playback problems.

It appears these are hub stickers that do not extend over the recorded area of the disc. If that is the case, then the problem playing them may be the fault of the player, which is being affected by what may be an off-center label.

As to being able to resell the discs, all Netflix would have to do is to put a blank label over theirs before they shipped the disc to the buyer.

[MCW]

This does not sound good at all. My DVD player is one that "Sucks up" discs. No drive tray. I can just see it sucking up a sticker and ruining the machine. Bad idea on Netflix's part, and completely unnecessary.

[BoB]

These hub labels should cause no problems in players. The 2 parts that clamp the disc cover more area than these do.

Full face labels are a different story. They can cause wobble issues because of the high spin rates but there should be no problems with these hub ones. I routinely use them on my home discs.

They do not cover any data areas and they have an adhesive that will not roll off when discs are "sucked" in. Besides, many mom-n-pop stores use them on their discs as well to ID them.

If you really want to remove them, peel all the disc off you can, use your fingernail to scrap what glue or paper off then use a little WD40 to soften the glue right off. Clean the disc and its good to go.

[WendyD]

I sheepishly let Mike know this already, but I did eventually get the discs to play in my dvd player, but it took 6 tries (because I really, really wanted to watch 'House') and even then I'm not sure why they finally played. All other discs I tried in between trying these new "with sticker" discs worked fine.

On one disc, the sticker was only on the labeled side of the dvd, but on another, it was on both the labeled side and the data side.

I am curious about the resale as well. I wonder if these will show up on discs that they figure they won't resell? These 2 discs are part of a 5-disc tv season set, and I've never seen them reselling the tv series discs yet.

[snowmaiden]

I haven't seen any of these new red stickers, but Netflix has been using white stickers like this for some time to label discs that don't have any writing on them. Two series I know of with the stickers are Moonlighting and Bullwinkle. I've never had any problem with the stickers in my DVD player or computer, fingers crossed.

[type-cast]

Many video stores have stickers on the discs to discourage thieves. Someone could copy a DVD (printed label and everything), or trade it for their own copy that was scratched, or upgrade to a newer edition. The labels have tamper-proof features, usually. There may be special solvents to remove them.

They should also put labels on discs if they don't have the title on the DVD. Fight Club, for example, just says "Disc 1."

[Complication]

Disc 1 of House MD arrived with stickers on both sides. Disc 2 arrived with a sticker only one side. Disc 3 had no sticker at all. Perfect Stranger with one or both stickers but it was unplayable so I already mailed it back. You can hear the unplayable disc wobble as it spun up no matter what player I put it in.

My company has been using hub labels for many years now without serious complaint. The problem here seems to be that in an effort to make the stickers non-removable, they have introduced imbalances.

Given that only some of the discs have the sticker, this looks like a test to me. The likely reason they are trying this is because of postal losses. When a postal machine rips the envelope the disc will likely fall out of the sleeve. If the owner of the separated disc can be identified then it will be returned in one of those clear plastic "we sorry" envelopes. I'm sure the postal sorting machine is an equal opportunity envelope mangler so BB (and us) get hit just the same.

Hopefully NF will quickly fix the issues. I would not like to get another unplayable copy of Perfect Stranger.

[bradbogner]

I received the labels yesterday for my copy of Lives of Others. It played just fine on my XBOX 360 player.

[hawk5391]

I got a disc two weeks ago ("Smokin' Aces") with a sticker that said "Family Video" or something like that. Is Netflix buying used discs from other video stores to supplement high demand titles? But I think the real question here is: Why would a place called "Family Video" carry Smokin' Aces? And the other question here is why did I waste my time watching the crap anyway?

[danb]

DVD/CD ROM drives are notoriously picky about the media they play. Also, they tend to spin the media faster (at least initially) than a stand alone player does.

As for other aspects of this, search "dvd label problems" on Google and you'll find a lot of information out there. The Digital Digest forums had a somewhat interesting thread, it shows up in the first page of results.

[Nialla]

The public library where I work has used hub stickers for years without reports of problems on DVDs and CDs, and I know a lot of rental stores use something similar.

In our case, the hub stickers have a surface like a regular label, so we write the item's ID number on it as well, which comes in handy if a CD from an audiobook gets separated from the rest.

If the item is sold, we simply mark a line through the number, so if it does show back up after we've deleted it from our system (which does happen from time to time), we know it's out of our system.

Not sure how Netflix will handle that issue, but I've seen many ex-rentals that still had ID tags on them. If someone's determined to sell Netflix DVDs online or at a pawnshop, there's not much to stop them, especially if they're stealing them from mailboxes.

I suspect the DVD player was being picky over the balance. I've rarely seen that, but it can happen. Sometimes just opening the disc drawer and resetting the disc can make enough of a difference for it to play.

[Old Timer Too]

Family Video is a chain with stores throughout some of the midwest. I worked for them in the pre-DVD days and they even had the infamous "back room" which the girls refused to go into if anyone was back there.

It was "family" owned and had no restrictions on what they would carry. I still see stores in the area where I live now, but I never go in (no reason to).

[smgpugfaw]

Just received a 'red sticker' disc today. Works fine.

[cotton]

I received 2 of the stickered disc yesterday. Only had a problem watching Perfect Stranger because the sticker had been affixed to both sides of the disc instead of just the top like the other selection Broken English. I removed the sticker from the underside along with alittle sticker residue with goo be gone and it played just fine. Im not feeling these stickers though!:(

[Manda]

My local library uses similar stickers, and I've had two DVDs become stuck inside my DVD player because of them. Now I'm careful to check for any stickiness.

[corey3rd]

it's bad enough when he folks at Netflix keep allowing flipper titles to go into the wrong envelopes. I had this problem recently with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Addams Family. So now they have a reason to cover up the barely readible ring so I won't know it's the wrong disc until its in the player.

[jimofoz]

We have Family Video here in Michigan. It's a pretty good store with $1/5 night rentals on most older DVDs. I used to use Hollywood Video until they raised their prices 4X a couple year ago - coincidently the same time I joined NetFlix. I now use Family Video when I'm in between Netflix fixes.

[Complication]

Luckily, replacement copy of of Perfect Stranger did not have the hub label and played perfectly. In this case, at least NF is smart enough not to send the same thing. Although, if it is just excess glue that creates the imbalance then the next one with a sticker might have worked.

[shinji]

I had not seen those hub stickers. I have seen them from time to time on other discs but it is only so they can identify which is which when the dvd has no real indication of what that dvd is for.

[silverball]

We receive Perfect Stranger that had the stickers on both sides and the disc would not play in any of my 3 dvd players. I peeled off the label on the movie side of disc and it played fine.

[bobbyk]

One of the previous commenters indicated that the labels were virtually impossible to get off. My copy of Perfect Stranger had one of the new stickers, but I was easily able to peel it right off, and I then threw it away.

I plan to do the same thing with any other discs I receive with a sticker. Just to screw with them if nothing else. Maybe then they will eventually stop doing weird things that just cause problems, especially when there is no explanation or reason as to what the point is.

[Complication]

bobbyk, did you try the disc before taking the sticker off? The copy that didn't work for me had the non-removable sticker.

There is an explanation... NF is trying to recover more lost discs (as I explained). We do the same thing by printing our PO box address on our hub labels. About a quarter percent of all our shipments get chewed up by the postal machines with the disc often separated from the envelope (and likely removed from the sleeve in NF's case). We (or our customer) will get an empty torn envelope in a little plastic bag. Some of those lost discs show up later in another plastic bag because the USPS was able to identify that we owned the discs.

My guess is that once NF has figured out which glue works best, the stickers will be put on every disc. People that remove the stickers will probably get a similar email to the people that include notes with the disc (e.g. please conform to the process divined by your red envelope overlords).

I'm annoyed that I got a disc that didn't play but won't care once they work out the bugs.

[SmoovySmoov]

Got one of these yesterday. Put it in my player, and it sounded like the thing exploded inside. Woke up my dog who was sleeping nearby. Looked like he had been shot. This idea is horrible. Now I can't even watch my third movie. :kicksrock:

[cufarley]

I got Lives of Others and it had the sticker on both sides of the disc. It seemed to play ok in my stand-alone DVD player, but when I put it on my computer it did what SmoovySmoov's did. I swear I thought it shattered in my drive. If the stickers are not supposed to be put on the data side, it's a big screw-up on someone's part at NetFlix. If PC drives spin differently than players do and this is some attempt to prevent people from ripping movies, I hope they are ready for people complaining about damaged drives.