Ironing the scratches out of your DVDs

[SingSing]

Skip-Away uses a special combination of solvents and pressure to heat the plastic, essentially melting the surface, then pressing it back into shape so it's smooth and clear again. (Traditional disc cleaners either grind off layers of plastic or fill in scratches with wax. Venmill describes its OptoClear process as akin to "ironing a shirt.")

See :
http://tech.yahoo.com/ces/null/11882;_ylt=AiQfFy0yNnan7lYmlW_fD4jxLJA5

[Dv8ted2]

Interesting, but I was reading about one disc taking 30 trips through the machine. It may be more feasible to just buy another copy of the disc again.

[vico1]

Looks nice!
Wish it came under a $100 pricemark...
$249 system, as it sez...
"designed for rental outlets, high-end home theater freaks, and gamers"

Puts it WAY over my meager budget.

[Conquest10]

Unless you got Parkinson's and two hooks for hands, it seems cheaper to just repurchase the disk.

[SatStorm]

There is a market for this. For keeping my archive on a perfect condition, I wouldn't say no to get one of those...

[mar-mar]

I couldn't even say that machine would pay for itself in 10 years let alone right away..like the member said earlier, take care of your stuff and you will not have problems..

[redwudz]

Maybe a great machine for DVD rental sites. I'm thinking the DVD better be spotlessly clean or you could 'iron in' a chunk of dirt and make all these efforts useless.

I guess I'm a little surprised that you could 'melt' the plastic layer without distorting the disc. But if it works.......

[Cornucopia]

Thing is, Ironing/Melting and Abrasives/Polishers are modifying the outer layer, which was originally manufactured to very precise dimensions with very tight tolerances. Once applying these things, yes they may do the trick temporarily, but they are also permanently ruining those tolerances. There is an acceptable level of thickness difference, opacity difference, approach angle difference, etc. which these devices are encroaching upon. How much is too much? You probably won't know until it's too late.
For a 1-time fix, it's probably good odds that it's OK, but certainly repeat usage is a NO-NO. Fix once, then immediately copy...

Be careful.

Scott

[Bullworth]

Well said Cornucopia. I don't take any chances once I manage to get an unreadable disc recognized again. At that price it would have to be a last,last resort if nothing else worked and you were unable to buy the disc again. redwudz had anoter good point. I imagine it would since it says it will clean smudges and fingerprints.