bluedragon1971 said:
Huh? The PS3 is actually one of the more affordable Blu-Ray players on the market, and arguably one of the best, since it also does MUCH more than just play movies.

How is it more affordable? It's $400 on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ps3&x=0&y=0

Any other Blu-ray player is $300. Yeah, it's one of the best, but only because the profiles can be upgraded and because it has a few games (that I wouldn't be playing anyway).

bluedragon1971 said:
Read what I wrote again: scratches on the bottom side can be repaired, scratches on the top cannot. That is why I still think it's stupid to put discs down on the label side. I've had far too many discs ruined by scratches to the label side, but few if any have ever been permanently damaged by a scratch on the bottom. A little bit of disc polish and they play just as good as new again.

It's also possible that the bottom side was exposed to UV light. I know that at least in the case of DVD-Rs, exposing the bottom to UV light is even worse than putting the disc down on its bottom. That's why I always place any kind of DVDs face down if they're going to be exposed to direct sunlight. Otherwise, they get put label side down (I've yet to end up with a single damaged disc doing this).