fixing DVD scratches

[brettS4]

For the past 10 years or so I've gotten essentially all my movies from the local library. I haven't rented a movie from Netflix, Redbox or any streaming service since the Blockbuster days. Everything I could ever want is available free if I go on my library's website and add titles to a queue similar to the days of Netflix dvds. There's the obvious drawback that you have to wait for it to become available, which is no big deal to me. And of course, you have to pick it up and drop it off again. A small price to pay for free movies for a decade.

The one thing that can be an issue is the condition of the discs. I picked up an older movie recently and my dvd player wouldn't recognize it. Looking at the data side, I saw that it had been 'fixed' with one of those old Disc Doctors. It had serious holograms all around it. So I pulled out my GG6 and some SF3500 and had at it. In less than a minute I had what looked like a brand new dvd that my player happily booted up. This isn't the first time I've returned a disc to the library in better condition that I got it.

Just curious if anyone else does this?

[Setec Astronomy]

More times than I'd care to remember. What size pad did you use? I usually use my GG 3" and a MF cutting pad, the problem is holding the disc while you do it--how'd you do that?

[brettS4]

I've used a 3" pad on my PC but this time I didn't bother to dig that out and had the GG6 handy. It had a 5.5" Thinpro orange pad. I just put a sheet of paper on the kitchen counter and laid the dvd on that. I held the disc in place with two fingers on the left side while spinning the pad on the right half of the dvd. You gotta be a little careful so you don't send the disc skipping off, but it's pretty easy once you figure out how to position your fingers. Then just rotate the dvd a couple times to get all the way around.

I don't remember how easy it was with the 3" pad. Maybe a little easier than the full size. But either way works pretty well.

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

For the past 10 years or so I've gotten essentially all my movies from the local library. I haven't rented a movie from Netflix, Redbox or any streaming service since the Blockbuster days. Everything I could ever want is available free if I go on my library's website and add titles to a queue similar to the days of Netflix dvds. There's the obvious drawback that you have to wait for it to become available, which is no big deal to me. And of course, you have to pick it up and drop it off again. A small price to pay for free movies for a decade.

The one thing that can be an issue is the condition of the discs. I picked up an older movie recently and my dvd player wouldn't recognize it. Looking at the data side, I saw that it had been 'fixed' with one of those old Disc Doctors. It had serious holograms all around it. So I pulled out my GG6 and some SF3500 and had at it. In less than a minute I had what looked like a brand new dvd that my player happily booted up. This isn't the first time I've returned a disc to the library in better condition that I got it.

Just curious if anyone else does this?

Yes, my daughter destroys all of her expebsive dvds.

She some how same way gets her hands on them and scratches them.

I polish out and fix all her dvds.

My neice had a limited edition peter pan that you cant buy anymore, it had laser burn from the xbox.

I fixed it with a 4 inch hex logic pad on a pc with 205

I even sanded one disc with trizact 5000 once and fixed it. (Very light sanding)

Whenever my daughters disc dont work or my neices my brother or my wife tells me to polish them lol.

[Setec Astronomy]

Hm...I usually hold it in my palm when doing it with the 3". I'll have to try your method (perhaps with a larger machine). I got as a gift a box set of DVD's that had like 50 discs in it that were all scratched, so I have plenty of practice doing it my way (not that I had to do all 50, just when they didn't work).

Oh, and those disc doctors didn't work, I tried that first, it was useless as I recall.

[Setec Astronomy]

Yes, my daughter destroys all of her expebsive dvds.

She some how same way gets her hands on them and scratches them.

I polish out and fix all her dvds.

My neice had a limited edition peter pan that you cant buy anymore, it had laser burn from the xbox.

I fixed it with a 4 inch hex logic pad on a pc with 205

I even sanded one disc with trizact 5000 once and fixed it. (Very light sanding)

Whenever my daughters disc dont work or my neices my brother or my wife tells me to polish them lol.

Ha ha...laser burn? Can that happen? I forgot, last time I had a disc problem it was frustrating me and I had just been doing some headlights with my GG 3" so I sanded the disc, I think with 3000, maybe I followed with the 5K trizact, I remember it was pretty hazy looking but it worked.

[brettS4]

Just be careful if it's a two-sided disc. You can scratch the other side if you lay it on something coarse while polishing. Probably the best choice would be a soft thin cloth rather than paper. I think that's how I did it in the past because I remember that the disc didn't move around while correcting.

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

Also a tip is it to use a wax or a glaze to fill in the scratches you cant get out.

It helps for the laser to read the disc

[AC in OC]

Good tips here. I have a bunch of my kid's DVD's that I thought were hopelessly damaged. I'll give these tips a go. I always thought they were too delicate to polish the way you guys describe. I guess I'll be adding this to my to-do list.

[Setec Astronomy]

I always thought they were too delicate to polish the way you guys describe.

As I said, recently I had a disc with a bad scratch, and I had all my headlight stuff laid out, so I just sanded it...I think I may have even gone down to 1000 grit before going back up.