indiboi.com

I’ve been a Netflix customer/member since 2003. I’ve never had much trouble with the service, I can only remember one DVD that arrived damaged.

A month ago I switched to Blu-Ray.

Almost half of my Blu-Rays are arriving damaged. There is a characteristic crack at the edge, sometimes they’re still playable, sometimes they’re not. It’s the ones that aren’t that is really the problem, because they’ll play up to about an hour into the movie and then the picture will suddenly freeze.

It’s really a shame that Netflix is ignoring the problem. It seems to me, and quite frankly I’m certain of it, that Blu-Ray discs are just not as durable (or more precisely, not as flexible) as DVDs. This apparent brittleness makes them much more prone to damage when they pass through the USPS processing machinery. The result is that very distinctive crack at the edge.

Netflix could very easily resolve the issue by putting a thicker cardboard overwrap around the disc sleeve. Gamefly does this in order to avoid damage, but I suppose it simply isn’t cost effective since Blu-Ray renters are such a small portion of the overall customer base and even then not all areas of the country seem to be effected by this cracking.

To make matters worse when trying to discuss the issue on places like avscience.com, posters not experiencing the problem are typically adversarial and prone to blame the problem on the person experiencing it and refuse to put any blame on Netflix or the USPS. Bad luck and sabotage seem to be the only possible reasons, they’re not willing to consider that if hundreds of DVDs arrive okay, but a good portion of BDs arrive damaged, that perhaps it’s the BDs that are the defining variable. They’d much rather have you believe that the actual postman (not the machinery) is somehow able to determine that it’s a Blu-Ray and they’ll break only those, leaving DVDs okay, I’m personally insulted by the behavior there. Heaven forbid anyone suggest that Blu-Ray is imperfect in some way.

In any case, it looks like my days as a Netflix customer are coming to an end. It doesn’t matter where the blame lies at this point, I’m throwing my money away renting from Netflix when nearing the majority of my BDs are unplayable. I’m even considering just returning my Blu-Ray player; the thought of using Blockbuster, even with their online service, is quite repugnant.

My gender-bending Angelfish Oliver has died. She’s been ill, but undefinably so, thus accurate treatment wasn’t possible. Once the swelling begins it’s just a countdown until the end most of the time anyway. It’s one of those things… fish die, as does everything eventually, so I’m not really one to get terribly upset about it. The death is still distressing though, one additional little notch taken away from contentment and happiness.