You can use a few different things. Toothpaste, dish washing soap, pledge, carwax (the paste kind, not the liquid kind).
You can try toothpaste to lessen the severity of scratches.
Yep, just put a small dab directly onto the scratch, use the traditional white variety not the clear gel type. I then use a soft tissue wipe gently in only a radial direction (a straight line between the hub and the rim). Since the data is arranged circularly on the disc, the micro scratches you create when cleaning the disc (or the nasty gouge you make with the dirt you didn't see on your cleaning cloth) will cross more error correction blocks and be less likely to cause unrecoverable errors.
If you continue to have problems after cleaning the disc, you may need to attempt to repair one or more scratches. Sometimes even hairline scratches can cause errors if they just happen to cover an entire error correction (ECC) block. Examine the disc to find scratches, keeping in mind that the laser reads from the bottom.
There are essentially two methods of repairing scratches:
Fill or coat the scratch with an optical material.
Polish down the scratch.
There are many commercial products that do one or both of these, or you may wish to do it yourself with polishing compounds or toothpaste. The trick is to polish out the scratch without causing new ones. A mess of small polishing scratches may cause more damage than a big scratch. As with cleaning, polish only in the radial direction.
ok.... now that you are using desent media.....I presume your TDKs are made in Japan or Taiwan......and it still skips and freezes up in your DVD player.... well here is a link to a site where you can look up your DVD player and see if you have the current firmware that will recognize your disks!!! Sometimes a disk won't be playable until you update your firmware: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters.php
type in your drive and it will show you many things about it including other peoples comments on what you can use and whether it's a good drive or not!
Hi Steve,
My guess, based on your comments that the program DVDs are themselves scratched, is that they are in fact the "problem".
I rent a LOT of DVDs from NetFlix including MANY concert/music DVDs and a high percentage of them come already VERY scratched and prone to problems as you describe. I tried many things to try to "fix" those scratched DVDs and several of my own that my kids had pretty much "ruined". NOTHING has worked so consistently well in "rescuing" these damaged DVDs as using the VERY inexpensive ($3 per 8oz bottle) and widely available "Brasso" "mulit-purpose" metal polish. I found out about this "miracle" treatment through sereral postings on forums like these and links to articles including these...
On the "Burning Issues" web-site (above link) they actually ran electronic tests using commercially available scratch repair solution kits to several "home remedy" recommendations. "Brasso" performed the "BEST" of all in these "controlled" tests. The testers commented...
"Well . . . . by looking at the above table you can see that CD scratch repair kits are not worth the money compared to Brasso.
Burningissues' overall best of show must go to Brasso: it's easy to use and is available in most grocery and hardware stores. It ties with Crystal-Disc Restorer in absolute performance - but just look at the price difference: $7.99 for 20ml of Crystal Disc vs. $4.69 for 235ml of Brasso Metal Polish.
It's been fun [if laborious] finding out a mad-sounding recommendation of a household product rather than "the real thing" is for once on the inside straight: we believe our tests follow a solid methodology; but please keep in mind these results are for your information only, & carry no warranty."
Although probably more than a BIT obsessive, I follow the testers regimine on VERY scratched DVDs and apply 3 seperate applications of "Brasso". I use a hand held hair dryer to dry the "coats" of "Brasso" and remove and "polish" the DVD after each application with a soft cloth, usually cut-up old t-shirts that I bought for this purpose at a local thrift store.
I have yet to have a DVD, NO MATTER how seemilngly scratched, not play or copy perfectly using the "Brasso" technique.
very informative Dig..... nice job! I dont' have to go to the store to get Brasso!! I have a bottle of it here! I will try it out on a bad disk! whenever I get one..... so far there hasn't been a disk that my drive can't read or I rip!!! I feel very lucky! and I used disks that looked like one step away from the garbage pale!
I just love the thoroughness of Digeeedad's Brasso technology! And his above presentation. If an original is scratched, this or that software or ripper may be "more" tolerant to scratches or take hours to read damaged areas of your original, purchased dvd. None to perfect avail!
Stop wasting time. There is no way around it ... you have to bite-the-bullet and polish out the scratches ... Period! Most computer rippers have SOME reading tolerance but don't have the excellent "scratch-tolerance" of standalone players.
I, however, suggest spending $39 on a Digital Innovations (Skip Doctor) Automax. If used according to directions, I've never not been able to get a backup from a scratched original. And you don't have to sit there holding down the trigger like the previous SkipDoctor models. 2-minutes to grind and 2 minutes of hand polishing with a felt pad. Done! No need to over-repair the original. A scratch does not need to be completely removed in order to get a good rip. The disk just needs to be resurfaced so the optics can see the data better ie so the laser beam doesn't get deflected as much from the original raw scratch.
Just MHO but it seems less messy and time consuming than the brasso method. It's true that there are some crappy disk resufacing kits on the market but the Automax DOES work.
Edit: Oh yeah, after polishing and before ripping, I always wash and and extensively finger-rub-in, with a concentrated dishwashing liquid, the entire play surface of the disk from hub to outer edges. Then rub & rinse the disk to be almost completely free of dishwashing liquid. Beleive it or not, dishwashing liquid has optical-improvement qualities that help with it's readability. So it's OK if there is still a thin, watered down concentration of the dishwashing liquid on the wet disk prior to drying. Dry the disk completely with a soft towel and then blow-out, at an angle parallel to the disk layers, any remaining water from the bonded layers at the hub with compressed air. Then towell dry again those little droplets of sprayed-out water resulting from the blow-out.
