Dang CD/DVD Packaging.

I've ranted this before on some DVD board sites, but I don't think I've mentioned it here on my Blog. One of the things that really gets me is the silly security stickers that keep CD and DVD cases closed.

OK so with the CDs there is a little trick you can do that makes it a little easier and most of the time it works. After taking the outer plastic off they usually just have one of those silly plastic stickers on the top of the CD case. The thing to do is carefully "pop" the hinge on the bottom of the CD case that way you can open the thing from the bottom to the top using the sticker as the hinge (the case has the hinge on the left side so you normally open it from the right to the left.) Once you have it opened up you can separate the two halfs fairly easily and then take the sticker off the remaining side.

The other day I got a CD from Best Buy and while in the parking lot decided to open the CD to listen to it in the car. I got the wrapper off and then went to pop the hinge on the bottom, and the hinge broke. ARGH. Then I went to separate the two halves of the case and the sticker broke off from the top section. It only came cleanly off the back part of the case. The front part of the sticker came off in about 3 pieces.

Now DVD cases are completely different. Some of the companies like to put the stickers on all three sides that open up, those type really suck. Fortunately most DVD cases like the CD cases will just have the sticker on the top. There is no secret way to get the sticker off cleanly though. The one exception is the type of plastic that Warner Bros. Uses on their "Snapper" cases the ones that are plastic hinged but have cardboard as the main part of the case. They don't make those much any more so most of the "Snappers" that are still around are old "new" stock. Anyway what really sucks about DVD cases and the security sticker label thing is sometimes the paper from the cover of the DVD (front or back sometimes both) will be just far enough out of the plastic sleeve part of the case that the sticker is in contact with the paper, and no mater what you do the sticker will take some of the cover away with it. This has happened to way too many of my DVD covers.

Now when these stickers come off, or don't come off completely they usually leave sticky residue that fortunately there is a product called "Goo Gone" that if used correctly and carefully can keep some of the headaches from this security sealed stickers that the CD & DVD Manufacturers like to use.