Tips to clean a DVD

[Alan Medic]

I was going to watch my favourite movie yesterday and found that the DVD appears not to be working properly. It's not the machine, its not been watched very often and the disk looks ok. I've trying gently cleaning it with some anti static liquid I happen to have.That didn't work.

Anything work for you I could try please?

[DulwichFox]

Toothpaste..

http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-a-CD-With-Toothpaste

Fox

[ianr]

"Do not rub the disc or move the cloth in circular motions, and avoid following the circular lines in the disc." http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-clean-a-cd-or-dvd.htm

I can't give a convincing justification for this advice but I've seen it often and assume it's well-founded. I'm also doubtful that all paper towels are not abrasive.

[Alan Medic]

Just tried that Fox. Didn't work. Do you know how a machine reads a DVD? I think it's just the start there is a problem with?

[Huguenot]

A CD or DVD reads data in a similar way to an LP - in concentric circles (but from the inside out rather than the other way).

If you scratch it in parallel with the data stream (ie. in a circular action) the reader can easily lose its path by following the scratch. However, if you scratch perpendicular to the stream (along the radius of the disc) the reader will just hope across the gap and carry on wherein left off.

So that toothpaste recommendation looks crazy for two reasons - one is that the circular action will result in parallel scratching, and secondly that some toothpastes are abrasive.

I tend to use spectacles spray and a spectacles cloth, gently stroking the spray off from the inside edge to the outside - to avoid scratching and leave the surface completely clean.

I'm not sure what the long term effect of this is, but it's never failed to rescue a DVD.

[Alan Medic]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> A CD or DVD reads data in a similar way to an LP -

> in concentric circles (but from the inside out

> rather than the other way).

>

When you say inside out as in LP's, as I'm old enough to have had LP's, surely they were read from the outside inwards?

[Huguenot]

Yes, that's why DVDs are only similar to LPs, but the other way around? DVDs are read from the centre of the disc out, not from the outside in.

In DVD R discs there's a second layer inside the disc, and usually the laser would read from the outside in, but that's literally inside the disc. In a single layer pre stamped DVD there's no inside, just the outside.

This reminds me of a tea towel description of cricket...

[Alan Medic]

Apologies. Didn't pay enough attention to your original post. So, in theory if the fault with the DVD is at the start then it is somewhere in the part closest the centre as opposed to the edge. Must have a closer inspection.

[DJKillaQueen]

Isopropyl Alcohol is what you should clean the disk with. Failing that, rip the data to your PC and burn onto a fresh disk.