topics
GreenCine Tech Talk
	Hardware, Software, Tech. The nuts and bolts of movie making, home theater, and DVD.	76

Blu-Ray Rental Problems
	Topic by: manuelvillanueva Posted: March 15, 2008 - 12:04 AM PDT Last Reply: March 19, 2008 - 4:50 PM PDT

author	topic: Blu-Ray Rental Problems
manuelvillanueva	post #1  on March 15, 2008 - 12:04 AM PDT   Will the transition to Blu-ray put online DVD delivery services out of business? I'm hearing problems one service is having with Blu-ray rentals. More Blu-ray discs become unplayable compared to DVDs in this business model . Here is my take on the problem: Blu-ray discs (BD) hold 5 x more data than DVDs. The data consists of microscopic pits embedded in the disc. DVD players do a decent job of playing through scratches and dirt. There is so much more data on BDs that scratches and dirt cause serious playback problems: "BD is much more sensitive to scratches and fingerprints compared with DVD. Slight scratch or fingerprints will cause deterioration of error rates and/or loss of a tracking servo control." In short, the scratches you typically see on a DVD rental would be fatal to a Blu-ray Disc. A solution to the scratch problem is the BD cartridge. It encases the disc much like a floppy disc although this would require a player capable of accepting a cartridge. Blu-Ray tried to do away with this cartridge by applying a "hard coat" in attempts to prevent scratching and smudging. Under normal circumstances, this hard coat should protect a disc (i.e. disc in owned by one person and stored in its proper case). The BD cartridge was designed for "severe environments." I believe the online DVD rental model qualifies as a severe environment: 1) no protective case (i.e clamshell) 2) frequent handling/mishandling 3) shipment without adequate packaging It will be interesting to see how Blu-rays fair in the rental model. The brick and mortar models should do better as discs are rented in their clamshell cases. PS: Think twice about repairing a scratched Blu-ray with SkipDR. The Blu-ray data is only 0.1mm from the surface. Grind too far and there goes the movie! References: Blu-ray Disc Format: General Blu-Ray Scratch Repair FAQ's
kaream	post #2  on March 15, 2008 - 3:17 PM PDT   > On March 15, 2008 - 12:04 AM PDT manuelvillanueva wrote: > --------------------------------- > Will the transition to Blu-ray put online DVD delivery services out of business? > --------------------------------- Interesting, and worrisome. I hadn't thought of this problem at all, but my own suspicion has been that we may already have seen a peak in the number/percentage of movies issued in any DVD format because of the growing popularity of VOD. Whether or not the issuance of hard copies may already be peaking now, I'm sure that VOD will start eating into availability in the near future.
kaream	post #3  on March 19, 2008 - 4:50 PM PDT   I think I may be hijacking this thread -- sorry, Manuel -- but as a followup to my previous post here, I see in the new March 24 Newsweek an article by N'Gai Croal discussing Blu-ray vs standard DVD, and purchasing vs renting vs downloads. Croal owns some 600, and joked about how many were still shrinkwrapped. Personally I've never understood the impulse to build up your own private collection. I can see there might be a very few that you would want to revisit for some special reason. But unless you have small kids around, who keep wanting to watch the same thing over and over again, who wants to watch a movie more than once in any given 5- or 10-year period? There's a brief shot, I think in Napoleon Dynamite but am not positive, in what appears to be the family's living room or den, and I was amazed to see bookshelves in the background, filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling, with books -- when was the last time you ever saw *any* books in an interior shot in an American movie? Ah, but no -- they weren't books at all, but DVD clamshells. Wow. So the hardcopy format probably isn't dead quite yet. But I'm still pessimistic about the evolving economics of more marginal, non-blockbuster, films being available except as VOD. I hope I'm wrong about this. Any industry insider insights? And of course Manuel's concern about the evanescence of Blu-ray durability will be a major issue in the meantime. (And not just for rentals, for that matter -- as we all know, shit does happen.)