[_____V_____]

Well, life's hectic right now so whatever spare time I get during the weekends I spend watching movies on DVD with the wife. Earlier last week, we had a viewing session which included all Terminator movies back-to-back, and just about 25 minutes into T3, the movie started freezing up.

Now, I thought it was an annoying speck of dust which was doing this, so I took it out, puffed on its surface once, and put the DVD back in. Same freezing as before. Took it out yet again, and turned on the lights (we usually watch our movies with lights dimmed in our bedroom), and checked it very carefully.

And what do I see? A long, very-thin crack which started from the central loop's edge, and stretched right into the middle of the DVD in a thin, straight line! :mad:

Naturally, I felt very angry at damaging my copy. Maybe I pulled it out a bit harder or something - I dunno how you all take your DVDs out of their cases, but I usually press the central spindle of the case gently and firmly, and it gives way, easing the DVD out - or maybe I pushed the disk back in more firmly than I should have, the last time I took it out for a watch.

That made me have a real alarming thought. I went through the rest of my DVDs and sure enough, 3 other disks have long, thin cracks stretching from the center to about one-third into the disk.

This is getting worrying, and annoying.