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Posted by The man whose head diminished on 02/18/07 01:38
On 17 Feb 2007 17:11:26 -0800, "anthony"
<anthonyjhcnospam@netscape.net> wrote:
>A friend just loaned me a copy of the Guerilla two-disc edition of
>Istvan Szabo's 'Taking Sides' -- the dramatised doco about conductor
>Wilhelm Furtwangler on trial after the 2nd World War for alleged Nazi
>sympathies.
>This was sent to her here in Australia by a friend in the UK who
>purchased it as a present; supposedly brand-new from a Virgin retail
>outlet. My friend had not played it; mine was supposedly the first-
>ever play of the disc.
>I found the first disc covered with surface abrasions, and with even a
>circular scratch going right around the disc. The second disc was even
>more abraded, but without the ruinous circular scratch.
>The first disc halted mid-play, but I was able to copy the major VOBs
>from it and watch it that way....
>I'm curious -- is this a problem with Virgin stores? Do they store
>blank DVDs with sheets of sandpaper in-between them?
In "the olden days", in Australia at least, record stores used to keep
the sleeves on display and the discs behind the counter, which always
annoyed me since the sales drone that did a ridiculously superfluous
visual check of the vinyl before putting it in the sleeve for you,
would invariably put their grimy mitts all over it. This carried
through to the early CD days (and didn't I really LOVE watching the
way they put the CD in the case with the patented "5-finger-push-down"
technique...). In more recent days though, with the invention of the
anti-theft price sticker, the only store I have noticed still storing
the discs out of the case is Sanity. How the UK Virgin chain does it I
don't know, but it could be a factor. Of course a big clue would be if
it was still in shrink wrap or not...
Also, from experience with mailing first vinyl and then CDs/DVDs from
the UK to Australia, another thing to be wary of is the packaging it
came in. I have found that the standard DVD case "grips" the disc far
less than the CD jewel case "spider". As a result, the disc can spin
around inside the case during transit, and cause a concentric scratch
in the most extreme cases. Perhaps this is partly to blame? If you
return the disc to the case and shake it, does the disc turn in the
case?
AN.
"I'm in love with the girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore checkout
desk"
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