Self Destructing DVD's come to a store near you.

[next]

I'm confused. Are you stating facts or opinions?

If fact then stop buying milk in plastic containers. Nobody ever complains about milk.

Having worked in retail for 15 years I've seen it all first hand and having a B.S. degree in environmental science/minor in business I have a decent grasp on what happens in the real world.

BTW...I buy my milk in a cardboard container.

Hopefully you won't mind if I quote again. Not trying to be rude. Just trying to tend to the tide.

Here goes: After the B.S degree and your minor I'm suprised that you are not claiming a lamenting doctorite on the current state of things. Time marches on.

[next]

This topic has been discussed several times in this forum and I still think it is a stupid idea,here's why:
1.Plastic takes 500+years to decompose,environmental nightmare.
2.If the packaging is torn during transit to store the disk will be useless,unhappy customers.
3.The manufacturer of the disk(GE)hasn't tested the disc at large to see if oxidized coating will be safe for DVD players or humans,possible lawsuits.
4.A customer could watch the movie and after 48 hours complain to store that the disk was unwatchable,store loss.

1. All plastic takes that long? Don't think so and after the degree you claim you don't think so as well.

2. Unhappy customers? An assumption. Easy to fix in the real world. Happens every day with other mass produced products.

Hate to burst the bubble but it's just a MOVIE. How many other $4.95 rental 48 hour products do we get so hyped about. Get a replacement if you're unhappy. The media is cheap. It's just a movie. So cheap that it doesn't matter.

Cheaper than a chicken. When is the last time you returned a chicken?

3. Tested. Done deal. Big bucks,

4. Happens every day at retail. A format killer? Maybe but I doubt it.

[MOVIEGEEK]

@next,
I wasn't bragging about my education,I was merely stating I have experience and knowledge in this subject."Divx" for instance was a marketing failure due to the fact that the consumer had to use a special player and had a limited viewing period,as others have stated if I purchase an item(whatever the cost) I want to watch it for years to come not just over a 48 hour period.
And yes polycarbonate disks can last 500+years(under the right conditions),yes disks are recyclable but as others have stated only a small percantage will:
http://www.gelexan.com/gelexan/features.html

You don't have to believe anything I say about my education or experience,but that is your opinion.
Remember opinions are like a**holes everybody has one.

[Greg12]

This is sooo ******* wasteful. Think of all the plastic and crap that's gonna do to waste with this.

Sorry but i have strong feelings about the enviroment.

[next]

@next,
I wasn't bragging about my education,I was merely stating I have experience and knowledge in this subject."Divx" for instance was a marketing failure due to the fact that the consumer had to use a special player and had a limited viewing period,as others have stated if I purchase an item(whatever the cost) I want to watch it for years to come not just over a 48 hour period.
And yes polycarbonate disks can last 500+years(under the right conditions),yes disks are recyclable but as others have stated only a small percantage will:
http://www.gelexan.com/gelexan/features.html

You don't have to believe anything I say about my education or experience,but that is your opinion.
Remember opinions are like a**holes everybody has one.

Dude.... Lexan is pretty serious stuff. I believe you.

As far as opinions - I have one. You may have two. Comparing Lexan to the simple stuff we are discussing is the oximoron you may want to avoid.

More complicated than you are able.

[thayne]

Cat fight!

[next]

By the way the Lexan folks get it.

[next]

This is sooo ******* wasteful. Think of all the plastic and crap that's gonna do to waste with this.

Sorry but i have strong feelings about the enviroment.

OK....only Coke in a glass bottle...no plastics. When was the last time?

[MOVIEGEEK]

@next,
Maybe you can explain to all of us the properties of polycarbonates?
I may have missed that day in chemistry.

In the article GE claims to have altered the properties of Lexan but NO where do they state that they shortened the life of the disk,only it's transperancy.

[next]

@next,
Maybe you can explain to all of us the properties of polycarbonates?
I may have missed that day in chemistry.

I'm convinced that we all have.

That is why I'm stunned at all of the experts that come out of the woodwork when it comes to the environment. Plastic milk cartons are ok but AOL gets a pass.

A rental scheme that can't get close to the proliferation of AOL gets tanked. AOL gets accepted. Just think of all of those disposable discs.

I want Barney!

[thayne]

Who said anything about accepting AOL disks? I think they are the scourge of the earth! I actually just got another one today. The point is there is already a big problem and this will only add to it. If people would just pull their heads out of their asses and just recycle all plastic I would see nothing wrong with this, but fact is billions of these things will end up in landfills.

[next]

Dudes...ok. No more waste. OK.....so now what. I'm loosing my perspective.

I get it.

[next]

Who said anything about accepting AOL disks? I think they are the scourge of the earth! I actually just got another one today. The point is there is already a big problem and this will only add to it. If people would just pull their heads out of their asses and just recycle all plastic I would see nothing wrong with this, but fact is billions of these things will end up in landfills.

Billions? Only if it becomes mothers milk. It's only Disney folks. Eisner only wishes.

[thayne]

Only Disney? For how long? Look how bottled water took off. So what's okay a few hundred thousand? A few Million? a Billion? Like I said, I'm not against this if they can find a way to compel people to recycle them, but I don't think anything will do that cause people don't care as long as they don't dump them in their backyard...

[next]

Think about the pints/quarts/gallons of milk containers that find their way to the landfill.

[next]

I think it's a winner if we all get environmental.

[The village idiot]

[SatStorm]

I don't know for US, but here in Europe we have milk on paper bags (special kind of paper bags) and all the refresments (like coke) are on aluminium - type cans. There are also bottles still in the market. I have to admit they taste better on bottle!

This idea for DVD rental is stupid. And if those discs are not ecological friendly, I see lots of $$$/Euros for the ecologists!
The only think I see, is an increasing piracy. Nothing more...

The movie and the music indestry, have to change their system.

[thayne]

Think about the pints/quarts/gallons of milk containers that find their way to the landfill.

That's my whole point. There is too much already and this will only make a bad thing worse.

[The village idiot]

Here are some excerps form http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20021202dvd1202p6.asp

Both Flexplay and SpectraDisc add a chemical time bomb to DVDs that begins ticking once the package is open and the discs are exposed to air.

SpectraDisc applies an outer chemical layer to the disc that begins evaporating and changing in color as the expiration time nears. Flexplay integrates its chemicals into the inner layers of the disc.

SpectraDisc DVDs turn blue. Flexplay discs also turn darker, becoming so opaque that the laser inside a DVD player no longer can read the disc.

While self-destructing DVDs would give content providers more control over distribution, it still wouldn't prevent illegal copying.

"It only takes a half an hour to rip a DVD," Jones said.

Self-destructing DVDs would create considerable waste. A study conducted for Flexplay by environmental policy expert Jonathan Koomey found that if disposable DVDs made up 10 percent of all U.S. video rentals, an additional 350 million DVDs would be discarded, creating 5,600 metric tons of solid waste annually. The environmental impact would be mitigated somewhat by fewer cars making return trips to rental stores, Koomey suggested.

SpectraDisc's self-destructing DVDs can be reused if a new coat of the play-limiting chemicals is reapplied, Lawandy said. Flexplay's discs can only be broken down and recycled as plastic waste.

So I guess that the SpectraDisc version would suffer from the effects of a DVDoctor polishing the coating away

I still can't wait until they hit the shelves. Gotta get one just to have it

[The village idiot]

Also of note:
http://www.flexplay.com/press_spectradisc.html

New York, New York January 13, 2003; Flexplay Technologies, Inc., a privately held company based in New York, today announced it has acquired all of the assets of SpectraDisc Corporation. SpectraDisc Corporation, a spin-off company of Spectra Systems Corporation

[miketree]

Think about the pints/quarts/gallons of milk containers that find their way to the landfill.

So what are we supposed to do? Cup our hands and hope we get home before we spill it all?

You are right, we do use too much packaging these days. I would like to see minimum amounts of packageing on everything I buy, but to intentionally go out of your way to re-manufacture a product so that it will turn into trash just so you can put a few more people out of work seems idiotic. Unemployment wont help them, they've just reduced their customer base.

Rant Over

p.s. Not all plastics are recycleable - so let's burn 'em - oops air polution - OK there must be an answer here somewhere....Chop down loads of trees and use cardboard - hmm Nope -Recycle paper to make cardboard & use loads of electricity & bleach and stuff.... OK I've really finished now. for a while at least.

[mkelley]

Anyone remember the scene in "Back to the Future II" where all the disposable laser discs are bulk packed in the alleyway? Looks to be too true to be funny -- except they got the media wrong.

I can almost promise you this won't work -- at least in the Disney incarnation. Obviously, most of you here don't have kids (or, in my case, grandkids): if there's one thing they want, it's to watch the same video over and over and over and over and over... well, you get the idea. I think it takes about 150 showings (and about a month) before they are through with any particular movie, one reason why most young mothers are completely insane (my daughter can quote from any Disney movie made in the last three years verbatim, and often does even during telephone conversations :>).

In any case, just one purchase and three days after the kids start screaming for the movie again the young family will *never* do this again -- you can take that to the bank. This scheme might have a chance of succeeding, but not for the current target audience (not Disney films).

[Gazorgan]

Just so you all know, AOL produces slightly over 100 CD's for every new customer that uses one to sign up. Last year that was something over 2 million customers. That' means there was over 200 million CD's that went to landfills alone, just from junk mail.

In the US alone, assuming this catches on, we are talking....let's see, 10 rentals/year * 100,000,000 households with a digital player....that's 1 billion disks to the landfill. Even at 3 rentals and only 20 million households with a DVD player, that's 60 million....far less than AOL junkmail. Where are the liberals to legislate a national re-cycle policy? It's illegal to throw a computer away in the US (for businesses, they contain lead), but not for the home consumer....go figure.

[miketree]

Just so you all know, AOL produces slightly over 100 CD's for every new customer that uses one to sign up. Last year that was something over 2 million customers. That' means there was over 200 million CD's that went to landfills alone, just from junk mail.

In the US alone, assuming this catches on, we are talking....let's see, 10 rentals/year * 100,000,000 households with a digital player....that's 1 billion disks to the landfill. Even at 3 rentals and only 20 million households with a DVD player, that's 60 million....far less than AOL junkmail. Where are the liberals to legislate a national re-cycle policy? It's illegal to throw a computer away in the US (for businesses, they contain lead), but not for the home consumer....go figure.

Sod the re-cycle policy! Why make the stuff in the first place!!

AOL is wrong to produce so much waste & now disney is also going to be wrong. I wonder if they could see all their waste for 1 year piled up, if the problem would sink in to their tiny little brains.
If they didn't make all this crap (which nobody wants) in the first place, re-cycling wouldn't be an issue.

[END RANT] Think I better go for a little lie down

[twinches]

One thing the stores will need to do is protect the packaging that the disk are sold in. If the package is just a air tight shrink wrap pakage then I can image some kids going in there with pins and poking holes in the packaging to expose the disk to air making them usless when someone buys them.

[miketree]

One thing the stores will need to do is protect the packaging that the disk are sold in. If the package is just a air tight shrink wrap pakage then I can image some kids going in there with pins and poking holes in the packaging to expose the disk to air making them usless when someone buys them.

Hmm! Even more packaging to protect the packaging!

[ChrisX]

I've seen reports on self destructing DVDs being at your local store and this is what I heard "Disney" self-disposable DVDs before. This was months ago.

I wouldn't touch them and prefer not to rush into the 48-hour deadline. I am a DVD collector and I only hire one occasionally.

Another thing, self destructing DVDs is pollution to the planet and we already got so much rubbish on Earth as it is.

It is disgusting of the marketers not thinking of the environment and the self-disposable DVDs will become another problem just like throw away cameras, disposable shavers, plastic bags and many others.

When the disposables and the self-disposables going to end and they are adding more and more into our rubbish. One solution is don't buy self-disposable DVDs.

[OzzieKris]

Unbelievable!

What will they think of next, what a waste of time money and the enviroment. This will surely put alot of video stores out of business not to mention other workers, hence raising the unemployment level, and how dare they even contemplate adding insult to injury by introducing these things as a more destructive method to our enviroment, I recycle eveything i possibly can, and i have a great recycling plan for these things.


Krissys guide to recycling

1. Buy dvd destructo disk

2. sabotage plastic before you get home.

3. take disk out of packaging, carefully as to not damage sabotage

4. rip disk

5. take disk back to place of purchase, showing sabotage and stating that it was not watchable and ask for full refund

There now you have just recycled your first destructo disk.

After a few hundred thousand returns they might get the messege.

[MpegEncoder]

Hmm, just had an interesting thought

If these are sold for around the price of a rental, or even just well below normal retail, and 'fair use' allows you to make a personal backup copy of any media you own, well............

They're not going to be sold, they are going to be rented. You just don't have to return them.