While WB told us they would replace all defective discs, many readers report radio silence from the studio despite repeated emails.

A few weeks ago, we dropped what turned out to be a bombshell story here on JoBlo. As I wrote previously, almost every DVD manufactured by Warner Bros between 2006-8 is unplayable now. The list of DVDs affected contains many titles that are out of print and nearly impossible to replace, including many classic Hollywood titles, vintage WB cartoons, TV series, and many more. It’s a devastating loss in some ways because one of the appeals of physical media has always been its permanence. When you buy a film digitally, you’re really only buying a long-term license. Physical media was supposed to be different, but now it turns out that discs are very prone to laser rot, where not only will a DVD essentially “go bad” at some point, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You could have a factory-sealed DVD, but it is still affected by laser rot. Basically, if you have a DVD manufactured by WB between 2006-8, it’s an expensive coaster now. The same goes for HD-DVDs, although I doubt anyone is too broken up about that.

Worse than that, it seems Blu-rays are also somewhat prone to laser rot, although not to the same extent, and it’s not as specific an issue – so far. VHS tapes, on the other hand, seem to hold up perfectly well, as do compact discs. Why are DVDs affected? It has something to do with the layering, but at any rate you can learn more about it here. Usually a DVD should hold up just fine, but something went wrong during the manufacture of these dics, which came along at a time when WB was easily the most prolific disc manufactures, as it was around this time that they really opened up their vaults For me, the biggest loss has to be the fact that all the amazing box sets they put out, including most of their famous Film Noir ones, no longer have playable discs. WB has issues many of the titles digitally or through the Warner Archive on Blu-ray, but they’ve also lost the rights to many titles, which are hard to find now.

The silver lining, if there was one, was that Warner Bros reached out to us and promised that they would do right by their customers, promising to replace DVDs when possible, and if the films didn’t happen to be in print, they’d offer customers something of equal value. Here is their official statement:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is aware of potential issues affecting select DVD titles manufactured between 2006 – 2008, and the company has been actively working with consumers to replace defective discs. 

Where possible, the defective discs have been replaced with the same title.  However, as some of the affected titles are no longer in print or the rights have expired, consumers have been offered an exchange for a title of like-value.

However, it’s come to my attention that WB has been less than responsive to the many readers who have contacted them via the email address we were given ([email protected]). I’ve received dozens of complaints from readers, while none have contacted me saying they successfully got replacement discs. 

So what’s going on? Was Warner Bros Home Entertainment not serious when they stated they would replace the discs? To be sure, we were NOT the first ones to reveal that there was a problem. This was a known issue in the home media forums for months before we wrote about it. It seems like our story shone a particular light on the issue, subsequently covered by Forbes, Morning Brew, John Campea, and several other big outlets. 

To give WBV a chance to have their say, I reached out to the same contact who sent me their initial response. Here’s the statement I received back (in full):

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and its customer support partners will respond to all product inquiries.  We appreciate our customers and thank them for their ongoing support. 

So, they maintain they will respond to product inquiries (note they dropped the part about replacing the discs), but the people who have contacted me have said otherwise. At this point, I’d like to open it up to our readers and see if anyone has successfully gotten replacement discs or even an answer from WB. We want to be fair with them, as it’s possible some readers have had success with the company. So please let us know in the comments (or you can email me at [email protected]) with your experience.