A post and 3 photographs of a rotten BluRay disc in AVS forum have spurred several users to post their own BluRay rotting stories.
It seems that the problem is confined to a limited number of discs of specific movies. The movie most commonly affected by the defect is "The Prestige" from Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE), but it has also been witnessed on copies of "Stranger Than Fiction", "The Departed" and "Gone in 60 Seconds".
According to the forum users, the "rot" forms in less than a month and renders the disc unreadable. It is visible to the naked eye and appears as a pattern of dots on the reflective surface of the disc. Users are reporting that the surface of the unplayable discs is still smooth to the touch, indicating that the defect is occurring beneath the top coating.
Sony was quick to admit the problem. A Sony Pictures Blu-ray Disc engineer replied in the thread: " I did some checking on this issue and found out that this is an isolated case with a limited number of discs affected from 1 title. Apparently there was some sort of impurity that was mixed in with a batch of material used for this production run and it was simply a fluke. Your Blu-ray library is safe. "
Users who were affected by the flaw said that they received postage-paid envelopes from Buena Vista Home Entertainment to return their discs.