CD cleaning

Hi,

Sulabh good to hear that it worked !! the use of lens cleaners is only limited to certain level ! I mean if you have not used them since you bought the equipment say 1 or 2 years then all of a sudden you buy and use it,this won't help ! you have use it regularly to get proper results !!

Also when trying to clean the optical sensor (lens) use extreme caution otherwise it could lead to damage of it ! if even some amount of moisture is gone inside the sensor unit and touches the semiconductor laser then kiss your lens goodbye !! also they are very sensitive to static !! so you have to be in some kind of anti-static condition when you have to touch such sensitive devices !!

Believe me I have lost hell lot of lens by trying to do similar cleaning !!

Regards.

1. First of all, its good practice to handle CDs with care & consideration.
Keep them in the case right after use, handle them with the centre spindle hole/outer edges.
2.Use a soft cloth( no T shirts/banians ! ) e.g the velvet cloth they hand out with spectacles to wipe dust off the CD, wiping radially from the centre to the edges; DO NOT wipe in a circular, concentric direction.
3. If still reqd, next wipe radially again, with the soft cloth slighly dampened with water.
I have been following this method & have had no problems.
4. In case of scratches which interfere with playback, use a soft cloth dipped in Brasso/Silvo & polish the CD, again in a radial direction. This really does work in removing scratches & restores the CD ! This will however not help in case the scratches are deep & have penetrated to the dye layer/reflective layer.

...and I thought I was weired!

Glad to know there are skeptics like me out there!!! - I do exactly the same, along with parallel back-ups on harddrives as well in wave. I even prioritize my choice, the originals CDs are exclusive to my beloved Marantz Reference gear (yeah, yeah I used the R word, bite me!), the backup cds goes to the other systems!

Hi all,
Sulabh please dont do that again. Ur player may never read a disc again as the lens is delicate.

Soundsgreat banyan may not be a good idea as it has some percentage of lycra so when u swipe the cd am sure there is some kind of friction.

Vinay in that case i hope the cds are not wiped on ur pant pockets!!! Hahaha.

Mekr prior to loading u should be inspect every cd (especially in the mumbai rains) for moisture droplets as that screws up the cdp. Many years ago my Sony cdp always showed "NO DISC" during the monsoon and some of the cds (mainly CDR s) even had some wierd crackle sound.When i inspected the cds they actually had moisture droplets on the playing surface!!!!!! This happened in spite of them being in their covers and in a closed CD rack!

Buy some MICROFIBRE cloth and save those T shirts/Banyans!!!!!!!! Hahaha
Or as Kamalji suggested use the cloth supplied with spectacles.BTW kamalji am off to buy some Brasso/Silvo as the shops open as i have a few ancient cds which have scratches and skip at the same point everytime!! Hope it works.

Best Regards

It is very good that there are so many suggestions, the do's and don't's.

I can never even dream of wiping the DVD/CD on pant pockets, i try to take the best of precautions.

I handle the DVD/CD near about the way kamal has written, in-fact the greatest thing is that I never hire DVD from the library, my all 200 DVD's are original, and I never lend my DVD's whosoever it may be, my theatre room is always closed so there is no question of dust and related, not to forget that i stay on the 10th floor and than every 15 days the room is vacuum cleaned.

At the end of the day I am always learning from you people on various aspects of av entertainment and precautions, etc.

The cleaning of hands in the pockets is a great idea, you stand only to benefit and nothing to loose, after all, one does get fed up with the routine of going to the basin and cleaning the hands.

Thank You.

Vinay.

Dinyaar-
" BTW kamalji am off to buy some Brasso/Silvo as the shops open as i have a few ancient cds which have scratches and skip at the same point everytime!! Hope it works."
Did it work for you, Dinyaar?
If you have'nt yet attempted it, I can post detailed directions on how to go abt it, w/o jeopardizing the CDs.

Kamalji,
Recently my DVD player swallowed a super cd of mine. Had to open the case and found the cd stuck and had to remove it manually. Unfortunately its badly scratched and now skips on the same tracks every time. I tried Brasso on it but it still skips.
Please post detailed instructions at ur convenience. Will be highly obliged if it works as i dont get this CD here.
Thanks in advance.

Here you are Dinyaar,it worked well for me & I hope it helps you.Plz give a FB.
Fixing Scratched CDs
A simple and safe-to-do-at-home repair for scratched and scuffed CDs
When CDs first came out, there was a remarkable amount of sales hype about how indestructible they were. Those of us who work in radio stations soon found out! CDs are easily rendered unplayable by a small scuff or scratch to the playing surface. Fortunately, these minor abrasions can be easily fixed.

I'm making the distinction between scuffs and scratches because they interfere with the laser tracking and reading mechanism in two different ways:

a scuff mark renders the surface of the polycarbonate milky, rather than clear. This diffuses the laser beam, making it impossible for the tracking mechanism to locate and focus on the pits which carry the sound and tracking information.
a scratch which runs at an angle to the track usually poses no problem for the tracking mechanism. Indeed a well adjusted CD player should be able to track a disk on which a 1mm strip of black tape has been stuck - providing it is stuck on radially. But if a scratch is approximately tangential or circumferential, it can obscure the track below for enough time that the tracking or error correction cannot cope.
Both scratches and scuffs can be removed by the same method - by polishing them out using Brasso. Engineers have been using Brasso as a polish for plastics ever since it was released as a polish for brass.
Use the Brasso in the normal way. A drop or two is usually sufficient (one tin will last you a lifetime of great listening!). Use a soft clean cloth to rub the affected area with the Brasso until the mark is almost gone. Polish scuff marks radially. Scratches are best handled by rubbing along the direction of the scratch. With a scratch it usually is not necessary to polish it completely away - just clean it up enough for the laser to be able to see through it.

Finish up by letting the Brasso dry on the surface, then use a fresh soft cloth to rub it off. Just for good form's sake, do this last stage radially. Remember radial scratches won't generally interfere with the tracking mechanism.

When trying to work out which scratch is to blame for a mistracking, keep in mind that ones at an angle to the direction of rotation are not likely to cause problems. Also keep in mind that a CD plays from the inside out, so that a problem on an early track is more likely to be near the centre than the edge.

So far I have not found a scratched or scuffed CD I cannot fix using Brasso. I hope it works for you too!

Terry McGee


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Postscript
It's now many years since I wrote and published this article. Seems like not much has changed however. A recent study of the various fancy products now available for fixing scratched CDs reveals that they found Brasso is still the best! For more details:


CD Repair Kits from Burning Issues: CDR Repair Kits Writing



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Thanks a ton Kamalji. Will definately give u a feedback once i do the above and HEAR the cds.
Regards

kamal,
what an enlighting issue you have tried to solve and many thanks for the same