CD cleaners and scratch removers (1 Viewer)

[Road Runner]

Do they really work as dont want to waste a tenner?

 

[madbluemad]

Imo there ok but there not a master class in digital remastering. If they dont work you can get Brian to shout at them. That'll make anything work.

Jim

 

[Peter James]

I have had limited success with a wax polish like 'Mr Sheen' sprayed on the disc to cover scratches, probably as much success as you would have with these kits. A lot of scratches are caused by cleaning with a dry paper tissue - one of the worst things to clean CDs or spectacles with or plastic windows, because although it feels soft because the fibres are so fine, the fibres in paper are derived from wood which can be harder than a plastic lens - especially if it has impurities in, and scratch the surface of the plastic. Worst of all if there is already dust on the surface it sticks on the surface of the paper turning it into sandpaper! - the best thing is rinse them under the tap to remove as much dust as possible, then dry them on a cotton towel as cotton fibres tend to be much softer than wood, cotton is less likely to have scratchy dirt in it than paper since it is washed, and any dust or grit left will tend to embed in the deep pile of the towel rather than stay on the surface of a comparatively hard and flat paper tissue like sandpaper.
But I have usually found that it isn't scratches which are the problem. Commercial producers use CDs pressed from a Glass master copy which are the most compatable type, but home recorded CDs are made in an entirely different way using dyes as the recording medium. There are many different makes of dye, and unfortunately, not all dyes are compatable with all players, although improvements have been made so the latest dyes and players tend to be the most compatable. Also the 'tracking' can vary on different recorders. So a disc which skips on one player will often play faultlessly on another, or a computer deck. Where this is the case a copy can be made from that on to another brand of disc which plays fine on the first player, so the copy can be better than the original - digital media like CDs and DVDs is effectively just a series of numbers, so if the computer can read them, it can write them out more clearly on another disc.
Home recorded CDs have another problem is that the recording medium is just a coating on to the top side of the plastic disc, if that is scratched it is not recoverable. (Home recorded DVDs have the recording medium sandwiched between 2 plastic discs so are far tougher.

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