DVDs loose in their cases = death sentence?

[Vandelay_Inds]

Probably we are all acquainted with the ubiquitous floater. You order a disc online, and upon receiving your order you notice a distinctive rattling sound as you handle the package. Your heartbeat accelerates, and as your trembling hands remove the DVD from the box you pray it won't be that bad. After the half hour necessary to remove all the security tags, you open the case and behold the horror of your fragile and precious DVD brutally lacerated.

Now the question emerges. Will it play nonetheless? I have received three DVD mercilessly scratched that will play without a flaw, yet today I had the rotten experience of receiving a floater (from overseas for further aggravation) with a single scratch. I thanked the lord and proceeded to test the disc nonetheless. Sure enough, the piece of garbage won't play.

What's your experience?

[Leechboy]

My Hard Boiled: CC I bought back in 99 was a floater. For some really odd reason there was not a scratch on it though.

[Maxflier]

That is one of the main reasons that i don't order online unless i absolutely cannot find what i want anywhere else.

[Geofferson]

Had this happen once or twice to a DVD, but they turned out just fine.

[asianxcore]

I've only had one or two that I can remember and both have played fine. They only ended up with a handful of light scratches.

[TomOpus]

Another vote like above ^^^

It's only happened a couple times but no problemo.

[neo247]

Another reason i don't buy online.

[kvrdave]

Never had one not play

[Fok]

When I buy in the stores, I always do the shake test.

[Maxflier]

When I buy in the stores, I always do the shake test.

Yeah,same here.

[Legolas]

When I buy in the stores, I always do the shake test.

To loosen it for the next customer? :)

[TomOpus]

To loosen it for the next customer? :)Ya snooze, ya loooze :D

[tofferman]

With the exception of new releases, I usually order existing catalog titles online. If a disc is loose, I will check for visible damage. If I can't polish out the marks with my rotary cleaner, I will call and request a replacement. Both Deep Discount DVD and Digital Eyes have been great whenever this happens. They will even send a shipping label to your email address in order to return the dvd. Out of my six years of buying dvds online, I have had only one disc that was marked and couldn't be replaced (Shoah), since Deep Discount said they no longer carried the title. Usually a rotary disc cleaner is your best friend.

[Mike Lowrey]

I've had several floaters over the years. I can't recall if any of them had any playing problems. The most they get is light scuffs if anything at all. The most recent examples have been both seasons of Dark Angel and the first season of 24. Because their hub system is terrible. Damn things won't hold the discs very well at all.

The only discs that I have gotten that won't play or have playing problems are those that have surface flaws on the recorded surface. Swirly marks and such. I bought Bat*21 from DDD a while back, even got a duplicate order that time, and BOTH copies were bad on BOTH sides (FS & WS)! Majorly bad manufacturing.

[Squirrel God]

We call them rattlers over here as the term 'floater' is used to describe a turd that will not flush :lol:

I get them now and then but the disks almost always play just fine. The only times I have had a problem is when the disks have come loose within a digipack (and you end up with an imprint of the disk ring on the disk) or the digipack/case was smashed during transit and sharp bits of plastic come into contact with the disk.

[LasVegasMichael]

have received some from DDD and Amazon. They play fine for the most part. I think it also has ot do with the quality of the DVD player, regarding playing scratched discs.

[Subgeniusguy]

I've had two floaters with playback issues. One was a domestic disc that I just exchanged at Wal-Mart. It was one of those damn Monster Legacy releases. The other was a foreign disc that I took to local used DVD dealer and had cleaned on their cleaner. It worked fine after that. With all the damn stickers they put on the outside of these cases, you'd think a little piece of styrofoam would fix the problem.

[gutwrencher]

Guess I'm lucky. Out of 1,900+ titles....I have ordered about 40% of those on-line. I've had 2 floaters....and they were both too scratched for my taste. sent them back to Amazon....replaced right away, no further problems. As for local retail, I have given the shake test every time and have never went home with a loose disc. And any tray I find with broken teeth...I return.

[natevines]

I rarely order online, so I only have had 2-3 floaters. I actually bought one in a store since they only had two copies of a movie and both were floaters! They all played fine, though.

[LikeMiamiVice]

if it happens and the store i got it from doesnt want to return it,i just rent it,switch the dvds and all is well

[Apone]

God! I can't believe this. As soon as I clicked on this thread I received my door mail for Collateral 2-disc and guess what? I could feel a loose DVD inside.

"Oh rats..."

There are few scratches (some look pretty fatal) but I will pray and watch it tonight. Just hope if there is any damage done it would be at the last part of the film...

ps. my first encounter

[ernestrp]

I have several floaters over the past 5 years or so and I cant remeber ever having to return one because it would not play no matter how bad it looked. I have had to return a few that looked just fine (no scratches) but were manufacturer defects and wouldnt play in anything.

[phr33k]

yep, ordered angel season2 on dvd 4 months ago got a "floater" and guess what! it didnt play. I had to send it back.... so 3 weeks later i get it and omfggdsob it's another floater but it played.

[Dabaomb]

if it happens and the store i got it from doesnt want to return it,i just rent it,switch the dvds and all is well

you justify this as being ok? So now the rental store has a defective copy? -rolleyes-

[slowcloud]

I recently received 2 used DVDs in the mail as floaters. Both were scratched to hell. I didn't even bother playing them they looked so ruined. I also recently received two floating new DVDs from Columbia House. I didn't even bother opening them, based on these past experiences. I was planning on selling those, and I would never sell them as floaters.

[matome]

I've had plenty of floaters, but none have given me any playback problems

[Ghery]

Fortunatly, it doesn't happen that often to me. But, when one arrives I open it up to check. If it has a scratch, I send it back to get a replacement. DDD has never given me a problem with it, they always send a replacement pretty quickly.

I shake them when I'm at the store too though. :)

[Mr. Cinema]

I hate getting a dvd that isn't loose, but still has scratches on it. :( or fingerprints....

[mookiemeister]

I've bought many DVDs online over the last few years and have encountered quiet a few scratched up discs. Just yesterday I received an anime boxset I bought from Overstock.com and when it arrived, all 3 cases were broken and disc loose. One of the discs is all scratched up. I haven't had the chance to play through everything yet but from a random play of several scenes, they seem to play fine.

In this case, the disc was loose in the case. In other cases, sometimes the disc is still in the case but for some strange reason, the disc has a few deep gouges that freeze up in certain scenes. This happened with my Sex and the City Season 6 Part 1 DVD and a few others too.

[eau]

I hate getting a dvd that isn't loose, but still has scratches on it. :( or fingerprints....
I know what you mean. I got a MGM DVD that had a HUGE scratch while it's still securely held in the keepcase.

[Snowmaker]

When I buy in the stores, I always do the shake test.

Ditto!

[JCFantasy23]

Another reason i don't buy online.

Ive had this happen to me, but usually from stores like Walmart and Best buy. Not sure ordering online has much to do with it. Thankfully all of mine have played fine.

[Norm de Plume]

I opened this thinking I would be voting on giving a death sentence to the morons who can't design a foolproof spindle.

[Chris777]

i have only gotten a few but they were playable, my phantasm case had a broken hub though, so i just got a new case.

[Mr. Cinema]

I was in Best Buy the other day. And I was looking at the After the Sunset dvd. I shook about 20 of their Widescreen copies and they all sounded like the disc was loose. I've never found that many of the same movie in 1 store before.

[Chris777]

^^ yeah i get alot of those too, but sometimes it's just the book moving back and forth but some cases are really like that which sucks, because if there is only one left i'm left to suspect it has "accidently" hit the floor at least one time

[Perkinsun Dzees]

I was in Best Buy the other day. And I was looking at the After the Sunset dvd. I shook about 20 of their Widescreen copies and they all sounded like the disc was loose. I've never found that many of the same movie in 1 store before.

Are you sure that wasn't an insert or booklet shaking around? Sometimes it's hard to tell. I've had a couple of instances where I shook a case and thought I heard the DVD rattling around, but then opened it and found out it was just the insert or booklet that was moving.

[onebyone]

I have received some. About 60 percent were frelled beyond believe, and the other 40 percent played just fine. Usually Tv dvds have the best luck with floaters not getting scratched to hell.

The worst ever was my Dracula dvd from Universal Classic Monsters set. It was scratched so bad the dvd player laughed at me, and to get one that worked at all, I had to return the entire set. Gah.