Rarely do I rent DVDs. This evening I had the distinct misfortune of renting a DVD from Blockbuster. I obtained a copy of Hutch, which had many copies available despite being prominently displayed in the new releases section, immediately visible when you enter the store. After paying just over $5, I brought a copy home. Not thinking much of it, as I treat my DVDs with care, I failed to notice the horrendous quantity of scratches on the play surface of the DVD.

Obviously, it failed miserably at playing. I hit it with a copy of DVDDecrypter, which failed almost immediately with retry after retry. I phoned Blockbuster, which was happy to exchange a supposedly working copy for my damaged DVD. I drove all the way back to Blockbuster to exchange my worthless DVD with a working copy. I retrieved several copies and had the cashier open each in turn so I could inspect them. I snagged the one with the fewest blemishes.

After returning home, again, I found that even my lightly scratched copy failed about half way through the film. Oops. Never again. It’s not worth the bother of returning it again to obtain a credit or whatever the cashier claimed was offered if the replacment DVD was scratched. Worst rental experience ever. I have only had that experience once with VHS, the one in question being an old, severely worn copy of Blade Runner.

If only video on demand were offered, I’d happily subscribe, given reasonable terms and DRM technology that isn’t complete obtuse.