Has CD Quality Control Slipped?

morris57 asks: "In the past few months, I have had at least 3 brand new compact disks or DVDs not work right out of the box. I don't mean that any sort of copy protection on the disk prevented me from using them; they were simply defective disks. I was able to exchange my DVD of 'The Matrix Reloaded' at Best Buy for a working copy, but some disks I got for Christmas I just recently opened and they are either unplayable or garbled. It is not a hardware issue, either. I've tested the disks in several types of players: new, old, component, computers, etc... It seems to me to make a very good case for downloadable media files, although I know these tracks are not available on iTunes or audible.com. So, I guess I'm wondering if the Slashdot community has noticed a decline in quality control of CDs/DVDs. What can be done (individually or communally) to not get burned by defective disks?" The solution for this particular type of problem boils down to simple consumerism. If you get a defective product, return it! If manufactures notice a high rate of return (and they should), they'll hopefully address the quality of what they ship. Has anyone else noticed an increase of non-working DVDs or CDs?

Comments

I haven't noticed much

[DetrimentalFiend]

I've only had one new DVD ever have any issues. That one DVD would freeze up at one spot, but it only did it on one DVD player. I suppose that it's probable that manufacturers are taking more and more shortcuts, but I haven't been affected by it yet. I hope it stays that way too.

Falling life of CDRs

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought a 100 pack of Philips CDRs and I thought it was a freak case - perhaps it is not.

Almost 30-40% of the disks scratched easily, and didn't work after 2 months of safe storage. They seemed to develop scratches for no reason at all.

I have read that the normal life expectancy of a CDR is about 2 years, in my case, the life expectancy seems to be 3 months.

Note: Other brand CDRs bought more than 2 years ago record just fine, and have survived for 2 years or more.

Has anyone else seen this trend? Cost cutting perhaps? I know that CDR manufacturers are experimenting with cheaper variants of pthalocyanine to get more bang for the buck.

Holiday Season

[Merlin42]

I haven't noticed it with [C|DV]D's personally, but I have had problems in the past with electronics I purchased around the holiday season. My guess is that on occasion a manufacturer will push manufacturing beyond what QA can handle in order to meet demand at the end of the year. The only choice is to return, of course at this time of year the manufacturers expect high return rates so it might not make a difference.

Re:Stating the Obvious

[Trolling4Columbine]

Unfortunately a lot of stores won't accept opened CDs or DVDs; afterall, it's easy for someone to buy a CD or DVD, burn a copy of it, and then return it the next day claiming it was defective.

It's a shitty policy, but this is a perfect example of how a few bad apples can ruin it for everyone.

New DVD Rentals

[GeckoX]

I've deffinately noticed HUGE issues with DVD's.
I rent probably 3 new DVD's a week on average, and without fail, one a week won't play in either of my players (Component and PC).
Brand new discs, very often the very first use of the disc no less.

I've also noticed that looking at the edges of the disc, that they are way less than perfect. Usually the layers don't line up very well, there's usually a very obvious seam, sometimes even with adhesive squeezed out the edge. I'm thinking super cheap-assed production.

I haven't noticed similar problems with CD's, although I've almost entirely stopped purchasing them because they're almost all NOT cd's anymore.

Re:Stating the Obvious

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Well, any "exchange" includes a "return" but not every "return" includes an "exchange", if we are defining an exchange to be the reception of the same DVD or CD. When I exchange a product, I return the defective product to the store and receive a new copy of the product.

And if all they want to give me is store credit after two defective copies, I will immediately be placing calls to the Better Business Bureau and never shop there again. I can usually create enough of a stink before leaving the store that I get my money back. Sure, they'll initially try to stick you with store credit but if you push, you can get your money back. Ask them what the store would do if they got a shipment of the wrong product and sent it back to the manufacturer who then told them, "Oh, we'll cover you on the next round." It doesn't fly with the store and their suppliers and it sure as hell won't fly with me.

The only time I would try to get my money back would be, again, when I've found that a same title for same title exchange results in another defective copy. Of course, all this talk of getting my money back hinges on me not being able to find any other product in the store that I want - sometimes a reality, but oftentimes not.

Re:They don't care

[Jerf]

Technically, this would not be "the recording industry" but "the manufacturing industry". I don't know but I'd bet significant money that physical CD production is outsourced by all RIAA members; it makes zero economic sense for them to do otherwise.

If returns become a problem, be assured that that information will wend its way back to the CD manufacturers eventually, with direct economic consequences.

Direct economic consequences is why this occurs; I posted about this on my weblog in relation to a similar Ask Slashdot regarding hardware. The CD manufacturers will be using the exact same statistical techniques I mention in my post on CDs that electronics manufacturers use on their stuff.

About two years ago [now more like three], I took Statistics in college. The second most interesting part of the course was the industrial manufacturing focus, specifically quality control.

Even more specifically, reliable ways to determine how much quality you can take out of the product and still meet some specification with some good probability....

On the other hand, these are the techniques used to reliably manufacture a device that will fail in 2 years, plus or minus 3 months, with 50% probability. This is the source of the flood of cheap garbage that has really only been gaining steam in the past four or five years; yes, in the 80s and 90s people were decrying "consumerism" but it's gotten several times worse as some of these techniques become refined and universally applied.

The upshot of all of this is yes, the quality of consumer electronics has been steadily declining for a decade or two now, along with everything else that comes off the factory floor, and the better the statistical techniques get, the closer to the consumer rejection threshold this stuff will get.

(New emphasis; as I'm quoting myself "emphasis mine" doesn't make too much sense ;-) )

It may be more than manufacturing flaws

[Go Aptran]

This may be my imagination, but CDs that I bought in the early 90s felt a little heavier and appeared a little bit thicker than CDs that I buy now.

I noticed the same thing with videotapes and floppy discs.

In the case of CDs and DVDs, I think that cheaper material translates into higher flaw and failure rates... as the data has less plastic to protect the data from wear and tear.

Has it occurred to anyone that the machines that use the media also use cheaper parts as well? Portable CD players that I've used in the recent past seem less forgiving of scratches than the big clunker that I owned ten years ago.