DVD cleaning/resurfacing

[rhuala2]

Can anyone recommend a good dvd resurfacing product or really good cleaner... I've got so many dvd's that have little scratches in them making them unplayable but heard a good resurfacer could fix them...

Thanks in advance...

rh

[pepegot1]

Get a program like ISOBuster and rip the DVD. Then burn a new one. Everything should be Ok. Much better to have a good DVD than a damaged-repaired one that may get worse. I have done this many times, thus insuring the durablity of my DVDs.
This will work for minor problems-not major cuts, etc.

[jameshgross]

It is possible to polish the surface of a DVD using tooth paste. Jewelers rouge used lightly will also work.
May take an hour or so of polishing. I have saved about 6 DVDs using these products.

[Bjs]

Wipeout ... a product sold from uk company ... hard to find here now but this is the best product you can buy without moving onto machinery that dose the job.

http://www.repair-cds.co.uk/

Or some elbow grease and 300 grade (remove scratches) followed by 900 grade (polish) wet and dry sand paper ... the good stuff .. not that cheap bargain basement junk.

[lordsmurf]

Most do-it-yourself methods screw up the disc worse, not fix it. Beware.
- Toothpaste has turned out to be an old wives tale more than not.
- Those POS "CD/DVD repair" toys you find for under $20 in stores usually screw the disc up more than fix it.

Take it to a mom-and-pop movie rental store -- many of them now have the ability to re-buff the disc with one of those machines (forget the price, several hundred bucks) and only charge maybe $2-4 per disc.

[Dv8ted2]

I have read that you can also use Brasso, but I would lean more towards Lordsmurf's suggestion. Even if they charge you two dollars a disc, it would be worth it.

[Captain315]

I have tried EVERYTHING, even the machinery and there is only one product that I've found that will make them play when nothing else does. That product is called PLEXUS and can be bought at many motorcycle shops. That along with a micro-fiber cloth and I've fixed many a DVD that would not play. That in conjunction with ISObuster or other such program will fix it if anything can. I suggest highly that you try the Plexus and microfiber cloth before doing anything else with the DVDs. Any machinery is apt to damage the disk beyond repair.

[bendixG15]

PLEXUS got the best of my curiosity, so I googled it .. http://www.autogeek.net/plexus-plastic-polish.html

The ad says its also good for "LCD computer screens"
Who wants to be first to try it on their LCD ??

[Captain315]

Well, I guess I have to admit it. I have tried it on both my desktop lcd and my brand new HP laptop. In fact, I spray it lightly all over, keyboard, screen, case. It does a wonderful job making everything look brand new. And again, it's the only thing I use on my DVD collection. BTW.... I am not affiliated with Plexus in any way. Just found out how great it works and passing the info on. Also, I have never tried it on glass so I will leave that up to someone else. I might mention to anyone cleaning their DVD with this or any other product to be sure and use a microfiber cloth like I mentioned.

[VegasBud]

rhuala2,

Yes, a good resurfacing machine, properly used, can restore optical media to "like new" condition (in terms of making the disk readable again) in many (but not all) cases.

The machines are too expensive for consumer use, but there are also services that cater to the consumer. I've had several disks resurfaced by my local HollywoodVideo. I think it was like $2-$3 per disk, but they did a very good job.

Afterwards, I saw that Azuradisc, a company that markets resurfacing equipment, had spun off a subsidiary that uses their machines to resurface disks for consumers. For 101+ disks, they charge $1/disk...for 26-100 disks, it's $1.25/disk...for 11-25 disks, it's $1.50/disk...etc. That's the cheapest I've seen for professional resurfacing.

I've never used their service, but if I had some scratched dvds, I wouldn't hesitate to give them a try. Of course, I would start by sending them a smaller batch of the least valuable dvds first, just to see the quality of their work, before considering them for larger batches.

If you want more information, here's a link to the consumer service's home page. You also might want to see what putting "Azuradisc review" (without the quotes) into google turns up.

Something to keep in mind is that resurfacing works by grinding down, then polishing the read surface of the disk. It's something you don't want to do very often. Making and using backups is still the best course of action, but you probably already knew that.

[tomlee59]

Toothpaste? Nah. I'm with lordsmurf on this. I had my students test this out. Toothpaste was close to useless. Maybe if you polished for hours toothpaste would work, but none of us had this kind of patience.

Brasso was pretty successful (not 100%, but pretty darn good), but you must be patient and gentle. Polish radially, not circumferentially.

If your discs are very rare/expensive, I'd probably not use Brasso on them, but for just about everything else, I'd have no hesitation.

[Gunslinger2]

I have been using the Game Doctor for many years. It goes by many names. I have seen it called disc doctor and dvd doctor as well. The company that markets it is Digital Innovations. They have a manual version and a motorized version. The product works very well. I have used it on game discs and on movie DVD's (most often on the ones I rent from the video store) and it has worked on all but the very severe scratches. It runs about 30-50 dollars (US). I HIGHLY recommend it.

[videobread]

I tried toothpaste once. It did not work.
Re-Rip and burn is best.

Or:

Go to your local video store and offer to pay to have your disks resurfaced. The professional machines do a really good job.