Got Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syd (1983) [V3D-107~8] and when playing the movie it does skip and distort a lot. The audio also sound like a really dirty or worn LP with a lot of static and pops. Inspected the disc it self and can't really see anything wrong with it. There are a couple of black spots on the outer edge of the disc, but it doesn't seem to be the problem. The opening logo plays fine, the first skipping happen right after the movie title shows. The movie does distort and skip way past the black spot.

A bit disappointing. Can't really find much info about VHD online. Not sure how common it is with "disc rot" or defective discs in general. Anyone got any experience with it?

The other movies I got play just fine without any form of distortion. Even the audio is spotless. Not sure if this is because it is a 3D title, the other movies are regular non-3D stuff. The player is a Victor HD-9500.

This week I got what is only my 2nd VHD disc, containing the Japanese theatrical feature "Ultraman Story" (1984) (title submitted and pending at LDDb). When I tried to play the disc today, it gave me a heavily distorted image and sound. In play mode, the player would repeat the same scenes over and over. Only by fast forwarding I could progress, but after returning to play mode, it would start to repeat again. The sound of the movie is gone, only some electronic noise (that hurts the ear) can be heard.

I thus decided to have a closer look at the disc itself, after both sides of the disc gave me the same results (my other VHD plays fine throughout). This investigation revealed a fine crack on the disc, which appears to be the cause of the playback problems. So what I got was actually a broken disc – inside an otherwise intact caddy and hull.

You have my condolences! Guess the discs actually need to be physically damaged on VHD in some way for them to skip. I've heard even brand new old stock CEDs and a brand new stylus can still skip.

I received some new VHDs a couple of days back, mainly the "Anime Vision" series of "video magazine". I have not watched them yet, but did capture the first volume to test out some new avisynth filters.

I noticed that there was some distortion in several places when I flicked through the AVI. It looks the same as a worn VHS tape. There was also quite a few laser rot-like lines through out. I have 2 other titles that exhibit the "worn VHS lines", but they do not have the laser rot lines, not to such an extent, anyway.

VHD has been quite a disappointment to me. I read that it was less noisy in chroma than LD and did not suffer from rot. From my experience, the picture is barely better than VHS and quite inferior to LD and it does indeed suffer from picture wear. Comparing a title on VHD to the LD version shows just how inferior it was. I will never understand what Victor was thinking. Perhaps if it at least had the resolution and sharpness of LD rather than the soft VHS look, it would have been a better match. But still, there are a few more rare anime titles not on LD I hope to own eventually. Even though I wonder if the same titles played on a Victor HD-20000 or HD-W1 SVHS player would be superior... If I do manage to find them, hopefully they will not be worn.

Let's not forget that these discs are 30+ years old, and many of them possibly suffered abuse/mistreatment of some kind during the years.

That is very true, especially with a "junk" item like VHD. I am sure they have all inhabited Hard-Off and worse for many decades. BUT, the design of the caddies was supposed to eliminate damage to discs as they are not touched by human hands.

Also, as I said, another advantage of VHD was supposed to be no rot issues. I have discs showing rot-like noise, as well as terrible "worn VHS lines". Not to mention that they look like rubbish compared to LD. Comparing something like my Bari Bari Densetsu movie LD to my BBD OVA VHDs is quite a joke. Same goes for others like Outlanders and Jyuuichinin Iru. It's a damn shame OVAs like Hell Target, Bari Bari Densetsu OVA, Cosmos Pink Shock and SCOOPERS never received the LD transfers they deserved.

Well, VHD does not have the same resolution that LD has. It is comparable to VHS in quality. Funny enough, the same company invented both VHS and VHD. It is in general more noisy too.

However, I have a little theory... CEDs are coated with a thin layer of oil or whatever to help reduce friction during playback. I would assume VHD have something like that too. Perhaps this oil film dries out (or gets gradually removed during playback) over time?

Finally watched my Dark Crystal and Labyrinth VHDs and they both suffer from skips and jumping and lines like an old worn out copy of a VHS but in small sections. Oddly it made it more charming and enjoyable to watch. I'll have to watch BladeRunner and see how it is. I enjoy this format more than CED, the player has a good build feeling and looks nice.

It could be a lot like the storage of CEDs that can mess them up.

I've read that if you stack CEDs too high you get damage from flattening of the grooves, I can't really see how this is possible but who know.
Could be the same issue for VHDs?
And I was always under the impression that brand new CED discs and styluses are perfect with no issues only used ones that were worn or mistreated are bad.

Heat and humidity changes go right through a caddy.

So if someone sells you a VHD and it doesn't play back is that common? I wanted to get some anime and Star Wars, and Indiana Jones on this format. But how many sellers can test a disk before they sell it?

I know someone bought Return of the Jedi and said a side didn't play. Maybe i should just quit while i'm ahead and stick to Laserdisc.

I can’t think of any reason whatsoever to buy VHD, especially for common crap like Star Wars.