Steve Investigates: The Verdict Of 145 Speed Test Runs

**Note: The following has some adult wording. Discretion is advised

For exactly two weeks from the night time of August 18, 2025 to the wee hours of August 31, 2025, I conducted 145 speed test runs of physical media items that I own(ed) for any potential playability issues, as I never again want to go through another ordeal of a Flickuum evaluation going to complete shit, on the basis of a defective item, and especially after what happened with my first DVD copy of “Strange World” 18 days ago. So, with all of that being said, I will tell you all my verdict of all 145 speed test runs and what to look for on the media side of any DVD that you haven’t broken in as of yet, and will do as such throughout this entry.

Let’s begin.

Alright, so for those of you who don’t know what a speed test run is, it’s when you fast forward through a DVD (or a Blu-ray Disc) at “1X” speed, as hitting fast forward at that specific speed will give you an accurate reading of whether a specific disc is 100% playable or not. And to do so, I suggest that you get a Blu-ray player, as such a device is stronger than a DVD player in detecting the issue of a disc freezing then skipping, which is what I had experienced twice in 2022 with my Sony region free Blu-ray player. And not only is freezing then skipping via a Blu-ray player an issue, because in addition, there are three types of freezing then skipping, with them being 1] The player can skip over a damaged part of a disc and then have the rest of that disc play perfectly fine, 2] The disc freezing then skipping to the insert/eject disc feature of your Blu-ray player, and 3] The disc freezing then skipping more than once before skipping to the insert/eject disc feature of your Blu-ray player. Of course, all three types suck, especially 1, as you can still see the end of a movie yet miss a lot of good aspects via that stupid skip ahead feature. Yes, I don’t think any fan of In The Heights (myself included) would want to be gipped of hearing the song, in which Vanessa painfully questions the strength of Usnavi’s commitment to her, as that song is so pivotal in that movie. But more on that movie later.

Alright, so out of the 145 tests that I conducted, 142 of them were DVDs, as A] I never tested the condition of my “Legend” VHS tape at all, prior to the night of August 19, 2025, B] I had to test my Blu-ray copy of “Back To Black”, due to one of my houseguests having his bare feet near the spine of that movie’s case on the living room table during the night of my most recent birthday, and C] I had to test my Blu-ray copy of “Doctor Strange”, as I accidentally dropped it, while re-organizing my closet five days ago. But luckily, there was no spoilage (speed test run in my VCR) of the tape roll in the aforementioned VHS tape of “Legend” nor any damage to either Blu-ray Disc. And while eventual evaluations of movies that have Mia Sara (Legend) and Marisa Abela (Back To Black), as well as the eventual 1,367th evaluation (Doctor Strange), won’t succumb to playability issues, I unfortunately can’t say the same about all 142 DVDs that I tested, as three of them had playability issues, with the first one being “The Wolf And The Lion” via a tiny scratch on the edge of the media side, which first caused wonky playability from the 77-minute mark to the 78-minute mark of that movie, and then caused it to completely skip over the final 17 minutes of that movie’s overall 100-minute runtime. And as to which other two DVDs that endured the playability issues, well they were “Big Night” via it having an FBI warning notification at the 59-minute mark, and “All’s Faire In Love” via it having a “freeze-skip” within its first 11 minutes, which also caused a fragmented frame in that movie, followed by another “freeze-skip” not too long after, thus I quit conducting that speed test run, on the basis of what could have happened next/possibly for the remainder of that speed test run. And of course, I almost immediately ejected that DVD from my Blu-ray player to inspect the media side of it again, and discovered that the irregularities within that side looked as if that DVD was on the receiving end of major DVD rot. So yes, good thing that I inspected the media side of that DVD beforehand, but it sucks that I had to junk it for an eventual new one, especially since that movie features Nadine Velazquez. Plus, it also sucks about the other two DVDs, but better to learn that stuff during speed test runs than during eventual Flickuum evaluations.

In summary, what I went through with my first DVD copy of “Strange World” has caused me to re-commit to condition testing for specific/eventual physical media items in my collection, along with adding measures to prevent such experiences from ever happening again. So, with that being said, here are the re-committed/added measures for specific/eventual physical media speed test runs via the bullet points below:

• If there is line or wave irregularity on the media side of a DVD, it gets tested
• If there are scratches or smudges on a DVD that gets ordered as used, it gets fully tested
• If there is an untested VHS Tape that could be at risk for spoilage, it gets fully tested
• If any DVD or Blu-ray Disc is accidentally on the receiving end of my (or anyone else’s) hand pressure, it gets tested
• If a DVD in a flimsy case gets dropped, it gets tested
• If a DVD or Blu-ray Disc in a jacket gets dropped, it gets tested
• If any DVD or Blu-ray Disc is accidentally bumped against any hard surface, it gets tested
• If any DVD or Blu-ray Disc is sitting in a mailbox or a vehicle for very long periods of time, it gets tested
• If a DVD or Blu-ray Disc comes loose in its case via online shopping, it gets tested

Yes, the recommitted/added measures (that I’m also imparting onto others) to ensuring perfect playability for every movie that I either own or will eventually own all seem extreme, but I much rather have these stringent protocols in place than leave anything to chance ever again. And given that there likely won’t be a total of 145 speed test runs to conduct, let alone that many to conduct in two weeks, future speed test runs will be much more feasible from here on out. Oh yes, and before I wrap this up, my DVD copy of “In The Heights” that I purchased from the Barnes-N-Noble website back in December 2023 was also one of the 145 physical media items that was tested, and was also one of the 142 physical media items that came back clean, thus I won’t have to worry about being gipped from Vanessa questioning Usnavi’s commitment to her in song form, as well as any other part of that fantastic movie. Plus, I won’t have to worry about the other 141 tested physical media items (and counting) from enduring playability suppression.

Well, that does it for this entry. But before we reach the very end, I want to let those of you reading this entry know that you are totally free to comment on the content of this entry, as well as share your own experiences with physical media items, via both the comments section below and an external comments section, in the event that you don’t want to jump through the hoop of e-mail verification to post your comment for this entry. So yeah, totally share your feedback.

Pay it forward, don’t hold it back.