That's the word, with a small but vocal group of subscribers claiming their discs are repeatedly arriving with small cracks on their outer edges. It's unclear what might be to blame, even with the extra coating to prevent scratches on Blu-ray, they could still be susceptible to automated mail processing machines, manufacturing defects or perhaps a spontaneous game of mail Frisbee. The Mars Box blog experienced this issue back in '07 with the disc pictured above, but in the last few months reports seem to be picking up again. It's really too bad those extra costs can't buy tougher packaging like the cardboard slips GameFly uses, but Netflix told Wired the problem is "infinitesimally small" and changing shipping wouldn't be cost effective. We know plenty of you rent your discs, let us know, have you been afflicted?

[Via Hacking Netflix]

Read - The Mars Box
Read - Wired
Read - AVS Forum

Whoa boy, this could get nasty. Cable giant Time Warner Cable has brought out the legal team against rival AT&T in Western Texas, where it alleges that the latter company "destroyed and misappropriated cable company equipment when it rolled out its U-verse video service." By way of "sheer acts of vandalism, trespass, conversion and misappropriation of Time Warner's property," TWC says that AT&T actually marred some of its network, though spokespeople for both outfits didn't really have anything juicy to say on the matter. Analysts in the space have been quick to point out that these type lawsuits have been common for the better part of a decade, and in 2006, AT&T actually sued Time Warner Cable as it alleged that "its technicians illegally damaged its network when hooking up phone customers in apartment buildings." Wouldn't the world be a better place without this litigation and with lower prices for all? We say "yes." [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Via Broadband Reports, thanks Anthony]

For the second time this season, Charter Communications and its Malibu, California-area customers are dealing with outages stemming from wildfires. Granted, one's cable service is the least of our worries when dealing with situations such as this, but a whopping 12,000 feet of the operator's primary fiber optic cable was recently torched and will have to be replaced. The cable also provides feeds to homes in Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Hidden Hills, and while the firm is working to provide service to those affected, it's having to wait for power crews to sweep through first. Notably, Charter was already in the process of constructing a "redundant path to make the company less vulnerable to fire damage," and the latest word is that it's still a few weeks away from being completed.

If you noticed any outages earlier this week -- particularly when trying to view A&E HD, The History Channel HD, YES HD and NFL Network HD -- chances are an early morning fire at a Stamford, Connecticut building were to blame. Reportedly, the fire broke out in a building "that houses facilities for several programmers and a company that does uplinking for them," and while it took less than a day for A&E HD and The History Channel HD to resume operation, the other two channels took a bit longer to get back on track. Nothing like a brief outage to make you realize how critical HD is to your well being, eh?