You don’t need to throw away or replace a DVD just because it’s scratched up. With some careful rehab, you can get the disc back into playing shape. [More]
dvd’s
Best Buy Upgrade & Save Promo: Upgrade, Don't Really Save All That Much
By 1.11.12
It seemed like a pretty solid promotion: bring in one of your old DVDs to Best Buy. Trade it in at the customer service desk. Receive a coupon for any $5 off Blu-Ray with a price of $9.99 and up. Step 4: Savings! Except, according to the employees on the floor while Carl was shopping, the deal changed while he ran out to his car to grab another DVD. [More]
100,000 "Atlas Shrugged" DVDs Recalled
By 11.11.11
100,000 “Atlas Shrugged” DVDs have been recalled for an important danger they posed to unwary consumers: the title sheet suggested that viewers help someone out besides themselves. [More]
Movie Studios Create Special Blu-Ray Slipcovers For Target, This Target Tosses Them In Trash
By 11.3.11
Michael has a cool hobby that I had never heard of until today: collecting new Blu-Ray disc releases, especially limited editions and interesting slipcovers. Studios issue exclusive slipcovers to certain retailers: a great marketing opportunity and plenty of fun for collectors, right? Sure. If the employees at Michael’s local Target hadn’t been ordered to slip off those neat slipcovers and toss ’em before putting new movies in plastic security cases before they go on the shelves. [More]
Dish Network Keeps 1,500 Blockbusters On Life Support
By 7.22.11
New Blockbuster owner Dish Network believes in its near-obsolete movie rental chain so much that it’s keeping 1,500 of the stores open. This means more than 15,000 employees will get to keep their jobs. The optimistic move runs counter to previous reports that Dish would keep only 500 Blockbusters open. [More]
How To Remove Scratches From CDs and DVDs
By 6.24.11
If you lend a movie, CD or game to a friend and get it back with scratches, it isn’t necessarily cause for rage. With the right technique you can easily remove the damage and have the disc playing as though it were new. [More]
Sorry, Best Buy Can't Sell You A Non-Scratched DVD
By 6.16.11
If brick-and-mortar retailers and entertainment companies want their customers to keep showing up and paying for content, it might help if they worked together to make sure that the DVDs on their shelves are playable, and not mysteriously scratched all to hell. Spencer bought two “American Dad” box sets at his local Best Buy, seeking out the least-mangled one on the shelf. He checked the DVDs of one set when he reached his car, found scratched and smudged discs, and headed back into the store to see if he could get a refund. Unfortunately, he could have ripped the DVDs in his car in the intervening ten minutes, and Best Buy wasn’t interested. [More]
People Buying Even Fewer DVDs Than Before
By 5.13.11
Poor DVDs, sitting on store shelves with dwindling hope passers-by will make loving homes for them. According to a report from a research firm, both sales numbers and revenue have dropped more than 43 percent last year from 2009. [More]
Netflix Stops Letting You Add To DVD Queue From Streaming Devices
By 1.18.11
For years, Netflix steadily made its service more user-friendly by adding devices on which it let you stream films and improving the apps that let you do so. But now the company has taken a step backward in functionality by removing the ability to add DVDs to your queue from everything but the Netflix site. [More]
Movie Studios Blocking Special Features On Rental DVDs
By 12.9.10
In an apparent effort to give customers a reason to buy DVDs instead of renting them, movie studios have begun disabling certain features of new releases on discs rented out by Blockbuster and Netflix. [More]
Netflix Now Considers Itself A Streaming Company That Happens To Also Mail DVDs
By 10.21.10
Netflix is now an online content streaming company that has a nice little side business in mailing DVDs, according to CEO Reed Hastings. [More]
Best Buy Finally Figures Out People Don't Buy CDs
By 10.1.10
Reacting to fading sales in most types of disc-based entertainment, Best Buy plans to slash shelf space for CDs and DVDs, making room for things that sell better, which encompasses just about everything else at Best Buy. [More]
Report: Blockbuster To File For Bankruptcy Tomorrow Morning
By 9.22.10
About a month ago, we wrote about reports that Blockbuster Video would be filing for bankruptcy in mid-September. So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Bloomberg News is reporting that the video chain will be making the filing official on Thursday morning. [More]
Why Did Walmart Add A $3 Warranty To This DVD Purchase Without Asking?
By 7.21.10
Would you buy an extended warranty for a DVD? We can’t imagine that most people would…and if they did, it would last longer than a year. John, however, sent in this receipt from a Texas Walmart store. He writes that the store tried to sneak a $3 “protection” plan along with his ex’s purchase of a $15 DVD. And not just any old warranty: it’s an extended warranty that, as far as we can determine, Walmart doesn’t even sell for DVDs. [More]
Blu-Ray Redbox Spotted In The Wild, Rental Costs $2 For First Day
By 6.10.10
While Redbox says that they’re still figuring out price points for Blu-Ray discs in their movie kiosks, reader Dave discovered a box in the wild near San Francisco–clearly part of some test marketing effort. The price points are different from anything we’ve heard before. The machine offers Blu-Ray rentals for $2 for the first night, then $1 for each subsequent night. Yes, he sent pictures. [More]
Skip Pesky Trailers And Ads On DVDs With Not-So-Secret Codes
By 4.21.10
Sometimes the ads and trailers at the beginning of a DVD give you interesting information about upcoming releases you otherwise wouldn’t have heard of. Most of the time, though, they’re just annoying as all heck. Here are some not-so-secret remote control codes that can help you skip the ads and get right to the movie. [More]
Group Critical Of Baby Einstein DVDs Gets Evicted, Blames Disney
By 3.15.10
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) was the group responsible for pressuring Disney into offering refunds on Baby Einstein DVDs last October. Now the CCFC says Disney threatened the mental health center where the group had offices, and consequently the center booted them out in January. [More]
