Mr. Reindeer wrote:But maintaining the integrity of the discs themselves is my biggest priority, and it’s always frustrating when I have to make a choice between transporting the discs to jewel cases vs. just storing them in the package they were actually intended to be stored/displayed in. I don’t understand how in this day and age, DVD/Blu Ray manufacturers haven’t managed to weed out the packaging designs that are damaging to playback. Like, that should be first-day stuff. How does this kind of thing get to market? The absolute worst was the complete Mad Men box set, which is beautifully designed except that the excessively tight disc pockets literally make the discs impossible to remove without scuffing them and making them unplayable. Honestly, any prestige set like this should hold the discs in a “jewel”-type design, elevating the discs from the backing to prevent scuffing. There’s SO much free unused space in the box, they could have easily done so. It’s just cheap to use an “envelope” format, and the particular design of this release feels cheaper and more damaging than the disc storage on the previous two TP releases. It’s an insult to fans.
Tell me about it! The design of the previous sets was at least consistent in terms of sleeve function. I think blurays are protected enough by their coating that cardboard in an ideal case is no issue. The sleeves on Z to A, the more I look at them, seem like they're meant to protect the surface labels, that the pockets are what make contact with eachother and the discs themselves don't rub up on each other. BUT the problem is that at least in my set, the pockets will range from loose to super tight, and some of the discs have trouble even fully going into the pocket, which means the top layer (actually more important to protect) are making contact with other discs and cardboard, but also that the bottom layer is rubbing on the cardboard edge constantly.
Disc integrity is a huge rabbit hole that still makes my skin crawl... make sure to store them in cases that don't 'outgass.' If you don't know, plastics in discs are susceptible to chemical change from other materials, including other plastics. In fact, some releases of things are doomed to rot in the original packaging they were put in, which were certain low-grade plastics that emitt fumes overtime and CHEMICALLY alter the discs... it's already becoming evident (in limited cases) but in 30 years or so, I can't help but feel the true outcomes will be unable to be reversed, and what releases will eat themselves alive will come as surprise. And the worst part is, if it's the original packaging, that would go for replacements you might try to find. Not to mention flaws in the discs themselves that, again, become evident only with a few decades. How truly reliable discs are is something time will tell. The actual long-term solution is to rip them and back them up into uncompressed ISOs, which is a huge pain I'm putting off until maybe half my discs are dyin' anyway. The packaging integrity, honestly, because the discs are gonna die anyway, perhaps no matter how hard I try, is something I just find easier not to think about, and hope it's all cool for another couple years before I back them up. Otherwise it's a descent into madness imo.
BUT I see the label says these are 'copy-protected'!
