Despite all this, we experience a very low fraction of unreadable DVDs from Netflix. Presumably DVD players vary in their ability to deal with flaws. Also, more and more we along with everyone else streams when possible, so the DVDs we order are often the less popular kind and so have not had a lot of use.
An example I'll recommend is the superb "3 Idiots", a fairly recent film from India that is just wonderful along many dimensions. Read the description somewhere. I've heard it's being remade in many countries including the US (the original is in Hindi with much admixture of English, but with excellent subtitles). It includes two of India's biggest stars, and they're terrific. Bruce On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > > One thing to consider is that as time goes on, the disc population 'ages' >> - probably discs are only replaced when they are completely broken, or >> enough people complain. >> -Arlo James Barnes >> >> I think there may be a little more going on than this. It feels like a > soft "tragedy of the commons". > > Disc-based Netflix is going on at least 8 years old now, it seems unlikely > that the halflife of discs being shipped around and handled by random > people is more than months, rather than years. > > I think the *only* way discs get retired is if they are reported > nonfunctional by a customer. I don't think there is anything more than > casual inspection happening at the remailing centers (our closest may be > ABQ?). > > It seems likely that something more subtle (or blunt?) is going on. > Perhaps many people are depending mostly on streaming movies (as we are) > and many may not bother to report a bad disc and simply return it in > frustration. A positive feedback loop could emerge with the more bad discs > they find, the more likely they will just send the movie back without > watching. > > Another aggravator may be if the remailing centers have changed their > inspection and possible automatic cleaning policy. I would imagine that > they might have a process for very simply cleaning the DVDs when they come > in or before they ship out. > > It seems likely that the "tragedy of the commons" may be a hard one to > resolve. > > - Steve > > ==============================**============================== > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/**listinfo/friam_redfish.com<http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
