Defective Copies of ‘Wolves’ Plague Market

A rash of defective copies of Orion’s “Dances With Wolves” is plaguing video retailers and renters.

The best-picture Oscar winner is the biggest rental in home-video industry history, with 655,000 copies on the market. But consumers are finding that the tape breaks, becomes unwound or detached from the spool.

Paul Wagner, Orion’s vice president of public affairs, said that the problem affected about 5% of the shipment, adding that it might grow to 6% to 8%. The usual defective rate is less than 1%.

The root of the problem is that “Dances” is a three-hour movie that has been squeezed onto one cassette. Movies of this length often are released on two cassettes. But retailers, due to the extra shelf space needed, and video companies, because of the extra cost, shy away from two-cassette packages. Orion has a no-cost, no-fault plan and has been sending out replacement copies with its usual shipments.