Good Scratch Removing Paste?

[cornemuse]

I thought I'd post here in 'Restoration'

What do you all use to polish out scratches on DVD's?
I had been using "Scratch Out!" liquid. It has always worked for me, but the company has gone out of business/defunct.
I used to get it at Frys but they are gone.

Reason being, I got a dvd series "The Pacific", an HBO series from 2010±, lotta scratches!
How good are those electric and/or hand crank polishers?
Googling (duckduckgo!! quacking?) comes up with a lot of polishers but no abrasive treatments. (Scratchout is/was abrasive)

Any suggestions??

-corne-

[davexnet]

Look in the car accessories aisle, I use a scratch and swirl remover, "scratch out". It's old, but there must be
loads of similar products for vehicles

[johnmeyer]

1. If the disc plays, leave it alone. Polishing doesn't always improve a disc. DVDs (and CDs) were designed so that they will still play, even when lightly scratched.

2. If you have a DVD recorder on your computer which supports disc error checking, use that to determine how bad the disc is. This software (like the old Nero DVD Speed) actually reports errors, both those which can be corrected using the redundant information encoded on the disc, and those which can't. It will show you which parts of the disc actually have problems.



3. When I have had discs that were unplayable because of surface damage, I used my buffing wheel, using red rouge. This is a very tricky thing to do because if you press too hard or too long, even for a second, you will ruin the disc. However, I've been buffing things for 60+ years, so I can usually recover the disc. The one advantage of buffing compared to polishing compounds is that you can remove deeper scratches.

Once again, if the disc plays, leave it alone and enjoy it.

[cornemuse]

I want to rip it but get error message at about 3%. Looking at disk, damage is really bad at about 50%. Its from the library @ 6 disks. I prefer to rip & watch at my leisure, deleting when finished with each disk.

[usually_quiet]

Since the discs belong to the library not you, don't try to fix them and risk further damage. Return the discs to the library and report the scratches. The library may have the means to restore them.

[lordsmurf]

Do not use toothpaste, random stuff from the auto parts store, etc. Don't just smear random stuff on the disc, and think it'll work. It's not much better than eating TicTacs for a headache, just because it's pill shaped.

The disc needs to be properly resurfaced. It's easy. But it requires the right tool, an RTI DiscCheck. Libraries, DVD rentals shops, etc -- almost all have these.

Weak player lasers are usually the culprit, not discs.

[SaurusX]

I agree that since the discs aren't yours to not do anything. If they were yours I'd suggest taking them some place that has a real commercial-grade disc polisher and see if they'll run the disc through. Those machines are the size of a small filing cabinet and can make the disc look like new if they're just surface scratches. Deep gouges and the disc is garbage.