Topic: Best CD/DVD cleaner?

[jmz93]

Hi folks.  What cd/dvd cleaners have you used that actually worked?  Is there anything that will actually fix small scratches, or is removing fingerprints and the like the best I can expect from these products?  I've seen several in local electronics/computer stores, all from say $5-$35, and all about the same thing. You squirt some magic fluid on the disk, and either wipe it with a cloth by hand, or put it in a little case with a crank on the side that does the same thing.  Is there anything better, before I spend my $20? thanks.

[pjdavep]

I have used the hand crank thingy and it worked OK for a heavily scratched DVD that would skip pretty bad.  It takes quite a while to crank it through and then hand polish the surface of the disc though, and I could never get the disc polished back to the 'factory look'.  Are your small scratches preventing the disc from playing correctly?  If not, I'd say copy the disc to a new disc.

There are also "audiophile" type cleaners, but I haven't used any of those -
http://www.vhaudio.com/cdtreatment.html

Later,
   pjdavep

[anodyne33]

I managed a used CD/DVD store for a few years and we had basically a 1/4 horse bench grinder set up to have two muslin buffing wheels on it. used one wheel to put on wax (jeweler's wax for plastic surfaces) and the other wheel to take it off. worked like a charm, but it does take some time to figure out how to do it without melting the disc (which is VERY easy to do).