DVD cleaning- a cautionary tale
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:mad:".
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:mad:.
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:D.
Rich :¬)