As a (brick and mortar run) Adult Video store owner I have purchased tens of thousands of dvds in the past 5 years. However I am noticing a very disturbing and alarming trend in recent months. Studios are starting to ship defective dvds, I must have purchased 30 different duds online in the past few months. Original packaging/no scratches but when you observe the dvds themselves, you don't see the normal shiny look on the bottom, I see "marble" greenish tone look bottoms and quite often, they will play halfway through and freeze up or they won't play at all. I'm not referring to the redlight district red colored or various colored dvds. The ones I am referring to are the normal colored gold ones. They appear dull green with that fragmented "marble" look. And I purchase movies right across the board from all kinds of studios. The latest defective movies came from well known companies like Andrew Blake (Countdown to Orgasms), Diabolic (Oil Spills 2), Robert Hill Releasing (Little Black Book of Trannies 3), Elegant Angel (Starlets), Venom (Double D Nurses), and even a high end studio Digital Playground (Teachers). More often than not, even the replacements of the same titles I got were defective. I exchanged Oil Spills #2, Countdown to Orgasms, and Little Black Book of Shemales #3 over 3 times and each replacement was still defective until I finally gave up returning it. The shipping costs to reship them back over and over again I know times are hard and studios are trying to scale back costs, but this is ridicious. At some point, there has to be quality control otherwise you will end up pissing off customers and store owners. Obviously, with Digital Playground, Teachers was an exception because almost always, their dvds are of high quality and we see no problems But these other companies, I have to wonder as it's becoming a normal business practice to produce these low grade defective dvds. In the past, I might run across 2-3 defective titles all month, now whenever we open a box of titles from these studios on a weekly basis, I am certain the find a title or two specific titles which are defective, and the whole batch of those titles are defective so they all have to be shipped back and we are ordering 10-15 deep of each title. It's frustrating from a business standpoint because customers who purchase these titles are coming back to return them and they think as a store, we are somehow intentionally carrying defective titles. One thing is for certain, these studios better get their act together and not go "cheap" on the manufacturing end, otherwise, they will tarnish their ability to push their products. We have already stopped carrying Venom, Diabolic, Robert Hill Releasing, Andrew Blake, and Elegant Angel releases in our store. It's a shame but enough is enough. We even posted a sign which explains why we stop carrying these studios so customers are better informed. Anyone else see this disturbing trend with adult dvds recently. I can't be the only one seeing this...
As a matter of fact, yes! I don't buy a lot of new titles, mostly pre 2000 stuff. But almost all titles I buy are manufactured mid-2000. I had problems with a lot of titles from one of my favorite companies: Anabolic, especially the last year and a half. Like you said, titles that don't play on my dvd stand alone player nor on my laptop. They freeze up like crazy or don't play at all. I don't know if companies are manufacturing their products in third world countries due to the economic recession (and consequently with the result: cheap ass low quality products), but it seems like these defects are de facto something from the recent past. The frustrating part is that anabolic's dvd's aren't cheap: they're all like $23-26. I have send lot's of stuff back to adult dvd universe( and I think adult dvd empire too) and had to pay for the shippingcosts myself. I didn't got a refund, WTF!!!! BTW, wath out for third world media, and evasive angels, I recently got "blue colored" copies while still paying the full prize for an original dvd !!! A lot of them are defunct too..... Crazy! Edited by - adt44 on 11/29/2009 12:44:38 PM
I got a bum copy of Elegant Angel's Starlets, but it was a rental so I easily got my money back. Probably sucked more for them, though. First layer played fine, but the second layer was unreadable in all the dvd drives I have on hand here. I didn't compare how the dvd appeared, though. And it's the first time I've ever received a bad disc, porn, hollywood, or other. Regards to the above post, dvd-r discs don't bother me at all - it's the content I'm paying for, not the choice of medium.
I'm glad to know there are other folks noticing it too. As ADT44 mentioned, these cheap defectives freeze up like crazy halfway through or they won't load up at all. I'm not surprised that you having problems from Anabolic titles. We had more than our share of duds from them. They have one of the worst track records as far as defective titles are concerned when we bought their titles. And you are right, it started happening in the past year or so and with their prices being above the average norm, we would think they could afford to manufacture non defective titles. And if I recall, they are the same company as Diabolic so if we put 2 an 2 together, it explains alot why we are seeing crap defective titles both companies. The blue dvd-rs I see from time to time, that is another issue on its own. I make it a point not to carry any movies that are dvd-r, for the most obvious reason, how will customers know they are getting a legitimate copy from the studio or if some store is pirating it, making copies and selling them. It's a thin line between the two. So we don't even sell the blue colored dvd-rs. just_me, I believe there is a huge chunk of Elegant Angel's Starlet movies which are on the market that are defective. We ordered over 20 deep of that title and every one of them exhibited the same problem you described. Halfway through, it locks up on any dvd player and freezes. I have spoken with other retailers as far away as the East coast and they are all complaining about Elegant Angel's Starlets. I'm not sure where you are located but if you are experiencing the same problems too, the problem with Elegant Angel's Starlets is definitely widespread. I would caution anyone from purchasing Starlets until Elegant Angel addresses the issue. And as ADT44 pointed out, shipping these defective titles back are costly and a waste of time. And you are not always guaranteed to get a working replacement. Edited by - analprince on 11/30/2009 2:33:14 AM
I could not agree more with the gist of this thread. Crap is crap and it will come back to haunt those producing it. I'm a little surprised by Elegant Angel. Didn't they go down this road a few years ago and then struggle to regain their credibility? I'm also a little surprised that some industry flak has not jumped in here to refute the charges of increased defective product. On a different but similar note, what's with studios shipping product with a small hole through the DVD case? I have two instances of Zero Tolerance and Third Degree titles having a hole through the DVD packaging. Note that the hole is positioned to miss the actual DVD. When I questioned the retailers about the holes I was told that the holes were put there by the studios to prevent the DVDs from being returned. Kind of makes one wonder what the studios are thinking: "Our product is so consistently bad we don't want it back." Sounds to me like we need a studio "black list". Edited by - Badkarma on 12/1/2009 6:39:09 PM
I have to agree with you. I recently purchased Digital Playground's Teachers and I tryed playing it in 3 different dvd players and my laptop and none of the discs would play.
This was for a promo where the studios in question where offering a buy-one-get-one. They wanted to make sure the bundle was not split up and returned separately. As soon as we noticed the hole we returned all of them. XRentDVD
I have been contacted multiple times on cheaper replication. I was told most of the studios are sending the material to 3rd world countries and getting disks made for less than half of the cost in the states. I have heard to many bad stories on disks from other producers that get stuck or skip. I stay with a company out of the Orange County called IDM, They have never let me down. Chester Kingwood, Clover Enterprises
The only way to produce a DVD at less than half price is to use an unlicensed replicator, meaning that they do not pay royalties to Philips/Sony. Aside from quality issues, if these disks are caught by customs they will be destroyed. Usually you can tell by them not having a number in the circle around the hole. Jacco
After getting Digital Playground's Teachers with the same symptom as Starlets, decided to take a closer look, and this appears to be just the latest deliberate anti-piracy attempt.
I've noticed this problem for a while. I still, to this day, have not been able to get a copy of JJ's "Flesh Hunter 7" that plays properly. I can't even remember how many times I've tried exchanging it or buying it through another vendor, I simply cannot get a good copy. I gave up on Evil Angel and JJ for a while because of it, I was so irritated. I've also had the problem with Adam & Eve, specifically on "Bree's Slumber Party," which won't play at all, despite several exchanges.
Thanks for the reply. But, in an email exchange with XRent customer service on this 'hole' issue I was told that XRent was getting new packaging from the hole-punching studios and repackaging the affected DVDs. So which is it? Sent back or repackaged? Perhaps the webmaster should check with customer service so that we have a definitive answer. Also, two (2) of the hole-punched DVDs were from XRent and were single DVDs and not part of any buy-one-get-one-free promo. So my question is: is XRent getting two-for-one promos from the studios then splitting them and selling them separately? Porn consumers would like to know. Also, IMHO, punching a hole through the DVD packaging is the stupidest idea ever. What the hell were the studios thinking? Oh wait, they weren't thinking. And in closing, I have personally 'blacklisted' the following studios due to the 'hole' issue: Zero Tolerance Black Ice Diabolic Third Degree Edited by - badkarma on 12/16/2009 12:52:04 AM
Cutouts are discontinued titles or overstock titles that a company will sell to retailers at a drastically reduced cost. In the mainstream DVD, CD world etc, the cases are punched or have a slit cut in them to so the company knows it was a cutout and won't give back full price to the retailer.
Thanks for the info. I've never seen cutouts at any retailer I shop at. I think the answer to your previous question is yes, these are cutouts, since stated purpose of the punched hole is to prevent the return of packaged multiple DVDs being returned as individual DVDs. The problem is the hole is 'punched' through the shrink wrapped DVD packaging, which cracks the cases and fills the affected cases with small plastic chips. It seems that some online retailers are getting these punched DVDs from the studios, separating them and selling them individually.
Happy to see this thread and that someone brings those problems up. We also notice a drastic decrease in disc and case quality from US publishers. There is one type of case a lot of publisher use, it already feels cheap when touching it and it does not hold the disc that good. So when shipping such a product chances are high the disc fells out of its tray and gets scratched. Publishers can be seriously happy that there are still people around that BUY a product. It's easy to loose them too if they continue on this cheapo track. Also the hole story on Third Degree/Zero Tolerance DVDs is ridiculous. Meanwhile they have stopped drilling a hole through the whole box. They make a bigger hole into the cover sheet. I understand if they do this on the "free" disc they add. But to the NEW release? Who wants a f***ing whole in a new product? So far the europeans seem to stick with better quality replicators. Hope that lasts.
After we had some problems with customers recently receiving faulty discs I checked and indeed, we're seeing more disc problems with US studios too in the last few months. And then they tell us it must be our DVD player, while we check it on several players and in our computers. Not a good thing. Jacco
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john_qyoo_public Deactivated User
265 Posts 7/05
Posted - Jan 16 2010 : 11:31PM
So what's the ballpark figure for per disc cost for porn DVDs? I'm aware it's a range that depends on batch size and repeat business. For those who don't know, the discs cost jack squat relative to the cost of the DVD, but I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering why halving pressing costs is worth getting broken products.
I've received 2 defective copies of Real Wife Stories #6 from Brazzers. These are both rentals from Sugar DVD. They both freeze during the same scene, at almost the exact same spot, and if you look at the disk, you can see a color change, like a rainbow effect, where the error is. Whats going on ?
Long time lurker, first time poster. Sorry to revive an ancient thread, but as an avid DVD collector myself, in the last two years I have begun to receive DVDs that appear to be DVD-R pressings from studios like Heatwave, Legend, Macho Man, Pure Filth, etc. They have a tell-tale blue underside and a decidedly washed out top disc image artwork (although the image is the same). The external paper insert is of the same high quality as in previous products it's just the disc pressing itself that has me scratching my head (top one) as to the authenticity of these products and their distribution by online sellers like ADE & ADM. These are not new release titles, so perhaps this is an example of MOD (manufacturing on demand) for titles that aren't expected to move, especially titles 5+ years old. In these same two years I have also received DVDs from Redlight and Platinum X that do not have the standard red pressing on the underside. If it ain't red it ain't real, right? Again, these were titles from around 2005 and 2006 ordered in 2009 and 2010. Topside disc pressing appears to be of same high quality standard, it's just that the underside ain't red. Should I be concerned about pirated discs here, or is all of the above just par for the course in today's adult DVD manufacturing and distribution world? Before closing, I should mention that all questionable DVDs that I have received have played fine without any issues and equal image quality.
Red light district discs being red is a relatively new thing, maybe 4 years now? If you received discs older than that they may very well not be red. I think several companies have started using DVD-R's for cost reasons for titles. Some seem to switch back and forth even. I don't know which ones are and are not using DVD-Rs at the time. The best suggestion I have would be to e-mail the company and ask about those titles.
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Jun 12 2011 : 7:44AM
DVD PORN MANUFACTURES SEEM TO BE EXTREMELY CARELESS about the discs. I have about 300 or more movie dvds with NEVER a problem. Problems only occur with porn dvds once in a while for me. Sometimes they don't at all load on my old Kenwood dvd player and those same dvds pause and play on my new Toshiba dvd player but have NO problem playing on the dvd drive of my computer. I read on internet that when problems like that occur on some dvd players but not the computer that means those dvd players have detected a flaw with the discs. Like I said they are careless, as long as they get our money they dont give a rat's fuc what they put us through in having to return them for an exchange. Edited by - dom dome on 6/12/2011 7:48:03 AM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:43:05 PM
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Jun 12 2011 : 8:24AM
I noticed a new but strange problem with a few new porno discs. A vibrating or buzzing sound occurs on both of my dvds players when the discs are loading or while on the menu screen only. Although they play perfectly well and during play the vibrating sound goes away completely but only occurs on the menu screen. I read on internet that this defect is the result of the discs not being balanced properly. And what do they mean exactly by that? Fuc, whats the next defect they're gonna throw at us? Pop crackle and pop sound coming from the dvd players? It wouldnt surprise me if one day I see piss shooting out of my dvd player as the cheap disc is loading. Wtf. Edited by - dom dome on 6/12/2011 8:26:28 AM Edited by - dom dome on 6/12/2011 8:28:46 AM
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Jul 14 2011 : 2:45PM
ONCE AGAIN I BEEN SCREWED BY PORNO COMPANIES and thats not in the butt.(im not gay). I've been screwed mentally because some weeks ago I bought Winkers 4 dvd on Sineplex for half price. When playing the dvd chapter 2 became unplayable on all 3 of my dvd players. The defect is visible on the disc looking like a sand paper effect as in light silver dots in one portion. I bought a second Winkers 4 dvd and it arrived today and guess what the defect is pretty well identicle including the same sand paper light silver dots on the disc meaning its a manufacture's defect which they should of thrown away instead of selling it at half price and make us suffer and im upset because some really hot camera angles and scenes are screwed and not watchable. What do I do now? Edited by - dom dome on 7/14/2011 2:49:31 PM
I think it's gotten to the point where the studios could care less about the distributors and brick/mortar stores. They are moving towards and concentrating on the online subscription system cutting out the distributors and stores. They aren't going to spend money on quality discs, a format which seems to be on it's way out in favour of downloading directly from the source (studio sites), which means they'll take the cheapest route when it comes to printing their discs to save money as it's not a priority. The local stores in my area (there are about 6 within a 10 minute drive of me) are hurting BADLY. Rentals have dropped off in a serious way. It used to be the biggest part of their business, now it's the cheap sell-throughs. But most of those are not sold to regular customers which means less business in the long run. Most of the regular customers are over 40 years old, younger people are downloading. People would rather pay a subscription and download at home than drive to the store. I see my local stores gradually shifting over to toys because they see the movie business is dying. But the toy business seems to be more difficult to make money on if you don't already have an established online presence. I still go to two of my local stores as I've been a regular renter there since the early 90's. Drop by to say hi and rent a few flicks. But times are really tough these days. Everyone is hurting and trying to eke out a living, keep their heads above water. Adapting and recognizing the prevailing winds of change is the key to surviving. Edited by - m.b. on 7/15/2011 7:10:33 AM
Hi DD, Listen- good thing you got a Sineplex DVD. We are willing to replace the DVD for 1 buck- but its a DVD2BURN. Means you will have to follow the instructions and get your new working DVD. Sineplex has not sold a DVD for 4 years now. Could be a rental resold. I know they use to get 100's of defectives every month, was a gimmick some distributors used to lower their bill. They would send you DVDs that had DVD PLAYER burn marks from playing the DVD over and over about 1000 times on replay in their jerkoff booths. Sorry you got fucked. Email support and we will replace an online version for you! support@gtlfix.com c one more thing ALL DVDS ARE GUARANTEED FROM ANY DEFECTIVES- FOREVER! MEANS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD AGAIN FOR 1 BUCK IF YOU BOUGHT ONLINE BEFORE! Edited by - christian_stephanomi on 7/16/2011 5:18:35 PM Edited by - christian_stephanomi on 7/16/2011 5:21:00 PM
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Aug 9 2011 : 2:39PM
Are you serious? You mean the sand paper effect on a disc is due to them playing the disc 1000's of times in a jack off booth? Is that why i paid $7.77 for it? WELL IT WASNT EVEN WORTH A FUCKING PENNY because THE DISC IS FUCKED. But its not only discs that have a visible flaw or that were played 1000's of times that fuck up in your dvd player, its also brand new discs that were never played and have no marks or visible flaws of any kind that also fuck up on the dvd players AND THIS MUST END, I DEMAND IT. Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 2:48:01 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:20:22 PM
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Aug 9 2011 : 2:45PM
PORN COMPANIES/MANUFACTURES SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR SELLING LOW GRADE CHEAP DISCS THAT FUCK UP IN YOUR DVD PLAYER-
Well just the past 30 days I received these defective dvds.-Sex in da butt 4 disc set,Black squirting 4 disc set, Blow me sandwich 11 and Winkers 4 dvd. These discs have serious defects where they don't load on my older Kenwood dvd player, and they play and pause, picture breaks up, can't fast forward search then permanently freezes and cannot skip ahead on my other 2 new dvd players, Toshiba and other brand. HONESTLY these porn companies/manufactures SHOULD LOWER THEIR HEADS IN SHAME for being so G D careless in the defective dvd products they want money for.AT LEAST the porn sites where you buy them from should send you a free replacment of the same title without having you going through the trouble of repackaging them,driving doiwn to the post office and having to pay the postage in order to return the defective dvds back.BY ALL MEANS I shouldnt be held responsible in waisting my time,buying an envelopee, payinmg for gas and postage fee in shipping a defective dvd back when theyre the ones who shipped it to me at first thus they should be held 100% responsible and at least send me a pre-paid shipping return label but many dont. Theyre the ones who failed me and should be held responsible in either sending me a replacment of the same title without me loosing a single penny or giving me a full refund on the money I lost because to be very honest I didnt ask for a defective product to be shipped to my household after I paid money for it. I can take a picture of my 300 plus movie dvd collection of normal movies and BE PROUD BECAUSE THERES NOT ONE DEFECTIVE DVD but of the 200 plus porn dvds I encountered quite alot of defects and as I already said these porn companies should be ashamed of themselves for being so g d careless.MESSAGE TO PORN COMPANIES-Can you please upgrade your fuc'in dvds to a higher quality so you can stop trying to sell cheap products because to be honest a defective dvd that totally screws up on my dvd players isnt worth a fuc'in penny,its worth NEGATIVE $100 FOR THE AGGRAVATION IT CAUSES. I mean its quite upsetting, I find an extremely lustful female on all 4's as she arches her back with wet butt up and clun as she looks into the camera or low cam of the prettiest of females with her legs up,bent at knees and spreaded with pretty face in same angle and then the picture FUCS UP. PLEASE STOP IT U DUMMIES. Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:09:06 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:46:45 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:49:40 PM
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dom dome Doug V
50 Posts 1/11
Posted - Aug 9 2011 : 2:59PM
AND FURTHERMORE when recieving a defective dvd BY ALL MEANS I shouldnt be held responsible to ship the fucing disc back and be out $4.50 shipping plus $2.00 for the envelope, plus $3.00 gas to drive to the fucing post office plus the time it takes DUE TO THEIR MISTAKE. WHY SHOULD THAT BE MY RESPONSIBITY?, IT SHOULD NOT BE, IT SHOULD ONLY BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WEB SITE THAT SHIPPED ME THAT FUCKED DVD AND ABSOLUTELY NOT MINE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. They should ship me a replacment of the same title WITHOUT ME TAKING MY TIME AND MONEY TO SHIP IT BACK, as only the best of websites do this like adultvideouniverse.com(I love them because they treat customers right) or they should mail a pre paid return postage label.AND IM VERY ANGRY AT VISA for its required for customers who recieve defective discs to ship it back and guess what, if the dvd is lost its game over for the customer unless he FORKS OVER ANOTHER FUCING $8 TO SHIP IT BE REGISTERED MAIL. I feel like saying to the adult web sites that expect me to do all that for their mistake and be out $8 to ship it back, "YOU WANT ME TO SHIP IT BACK? WELL HOW ABOUT PAYING ME $20.00 AN HOUR FOR MY TIME IN ORDER TO SHIP BACK THAT DEFECTIVE DVD THAT I NEVER ASKED FOR plus the $8 im out". I WANT SOMETHING DONE ABOUT THIS AND I MEAN IT. FORM A WEBSITE OR SOMETHING WHERE IF YOU RECIEVE A DEFECTIVE DVD THATS NOT PLAYING PROPERLY ON YOUR DVD PLAYER NO MATTER WHAT MAKE IT IS, THAT WEBSITE WOULD LEGALLY HOLD THE OTHER WEBSITE 100% RESPONSIBLE IN SHIPPING YOU A REPLACMENT OF THE SAME TITLE MAILED TO YOU WITHOUT YOU LOOSING A SINGLE PENNY AND YOUR TIME IN HAVING TO RETURN THE DVD BECAUSE THAT SHOULD NOT BE YOUR RESPONSIBLE IN ANYWAY SHAPE OR FORM BECAUSE THE WEB SITE FAILED YOU AFTER THEY TOOK YOUR MONEY AND SHIPPED YOU FUCED DISCS. Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:04:30 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:16:15 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:26:50 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:35:33 PM Edited by - dom dome on 8/9/2011 3:41:43 PM
interesting thread. Yesterday I got a sealed copy of Charlotte Stokely's All Girl Violation. Obviousy the main scene with Charlotte was the reason I purchased it. Imagine my annoyance when the dvd blurred for a split second before that scene started and then 1.5 scenes from some other flick show up as overlaid. I anticipate a lot of possible bad things buying DVD's but a sealed screwed up scene overdub surprised me.
I ordered some classic Western Visuals titles. These were ordered from V9video (aka Effex Media aka IVD) which, according to AVN, owns the rights to titles from this studio. So I ordered directly from the distributor. The discs were absolute shit. First was Club Exotica. Most of my players wouldn't recognize the disc, even though there was no obvious physical damage and this was not a DVD-R. I did finally get one drive in my PC to recognize it. Turns out they crammed the 80 minute movie into 1GB and left the remaining 3GB on this single layer disc blank. For those who know anything about DVD/MPEG-2 encoding, this results in unbelievably bad picture quality. And there is absolutely no reason to do this for 80 minutes of video. Whoever authored this disc is incompetent beyond belief. I returned the disc, but of course their DVD player did play it, so they said I cannot get a refund. In fact, they had the balls to say if I wanted the disc back, I'd have to pay extra money for shipping! Again, this is straight from the distributor. Second was a 4 pack of the series Blacks and Blondes, Volumes 9-12. I watched Vol. 11 on their VOD system. The movie on the Vol. 11 DVD is a completely different movie! The VOD has "Vol. 11" listed within what are obviously the original credits, so the VOD contains the correct movie. (I found the same problem with one of the other discs in this set, too). At least V9 did give me a credit for these. In the past, I ordered another title from V9 that was distributed under the V9 name. I had no problems with that disc. So it appears to be their Western Visuals DVDs that are utter crap. These should be avoided.
The last 2 releases that I rented from Kelly Madison productions were defective. There's that blue rainbow colored stripe on the disc, it's clearly visible. The disc freezes at that point, 23mins into the movie. These were rented from Bush DVD, when they sent me a replacement disc, same problem, in almost the exact same spot.
My Elegant Angel's The Greatest Sodomania Scenes Ever Volume 1 Disc 2 has disc rot. I bought it new. I wrote the company about it later trying to get a replacement (even offered to send them the defective one at my own cost) and they said it was not their business to replace DVD's.
