DVD cleaning- a cautionary tale

[Rave]

I was watching a rented copy of 'Hedwig and the angry inch' last night, when it started to skip shortly after it got on the second layer (I think). Anyway, I was really enjoying it, so I pulled the disc out and gave it a wash with some washing up liquid and a sponge- that made no difference, it seemed the surface of the disc was pretty pitted and knackered. So, I thought I'd give it a go with the scourer side of the ponge, after all the scourer bit's only platic and can't really damage the disc, can it? Wrong! After I'd given it a good scrub the disc was scratched to hell and my DVD player wouldn't even recognise it.

"Sh1t", quoth Rave, "I shall have to buy a copy tomorrow and return that, else I will be charged an extortionate sum by the shop".

Anyway, since I'd pretty much resigned myself to having to buy a new disc, I figured I had nothing to lose by having a go with some toothpaste and kitchen towel (toothpaste contains powdered glass as an abrasive agent). Sure enough, after 10 minutes, I managed to at least get the disc to be recognised again although it wouldn't play. So, after about another three sessions of polishing, totalling about half an hour, I managed to get the disc almost perfect, although about 10s of the movie skipped right at the end and the disc wouldn't rewind/ff without skipping. You can still see the scratches from the scourer (and from the toothpaste, slightly) but the disc now plays a lot better than it did when I got it, so the shop better not complain.

So, if you've got a dirty or scratched disc, DON'T use a scourer, DO use toothpaste.

As for the film, it's great and I highly recommend it.

Rich :¬)

[Flibb]

I have a selection of interesting chemicals from work, industrial alcohol, acetone, DCM (great degreaser), anyway tried acetone once, melted the coating on the disk. Then tried water, that got stuck between the layers in the middle. Was a crap film anyway

[Butuz]

Your better off using nitric acid and sandpaper.

Gets rid of all that nasty sound&video-quality-reducing plastic...

Butuz

[Flibb]

No nitric is boring. The plabce i worked before here, we used HF to etch images into glass. The main use was for tank optical sights. Evil stuff

[Rave]

Originally Posted by Flibb

Then tried water, that got stuck between the layers in the middle. Was a crap film anyway

Yeah, I'm hoping they don't spot the toothpaste in the centre of the disc.

Rich :¬)

Edit: w00t 1000th post

[Bindibadgi]

98% ethanol and tissue paper works for me. Just make sure you let the EtOH evaporate before you put it back in your player otherwise you might find yourself putting out flames.

It pisses me off how people treat rented disks - i get some which are COVERED in crap and scratches. Its like they dragged it across the floor or used a scouring pad on it or something...

[Flibb]

I have refused to take new dvd's before. When some spotty oik puts his sweaty fingers all over the playing surface. They look at you like your mad when you ask for another.

[subucni]

this subject is one of the banes of my existense, i work in a video shop and the way some people treat disc is astonishing, especially if they have a kid with them, they just hand the thing straight to the kid to carry and shortly after drop the bloody thing or try to eat it.

our shop is underneath some flats, and i've actually walked down the shopping centre before and seen someone throw one of our dvds out of the window of their flat to someone so they can drop it in, only for them to drop the box, the disc fall onto the floor, and the guy kick the thing accidentally as he picked it up, he just looked at the disc, brushed it off and put it back in the box. i just couldnt believe it, i believe that one turn out to not work after that. surprise surprise

[Flibb]

I blame it on tomorrows world. Anybody remember them showing how DvD's were indistructable? They had some odd form of industrial dvd and sandpaperd it and the soddin thing still worked. That seems to have stuck in jo publics head.

[KBeee]

Yeah - CD's, and by implication, DVD's were marketed as "Indestructable!! No More Clicks Pops or Scratches!!! Perfect Sound Always..."
Got to get the suckers to re-buy all their vinyl albums somehow....