I have never tried commercial cd polishing machines. I am not sure if they really help or not. As some others have said I think it would depend on how good or poor condition the CD was already in. |
I would not buy a used CD that was "fixed" in this fashion. The polishing takes away the scratch but in doing so, takes away layers of plastic, thereby decreasing the thickness of the material layer between the data and the surface. This would not be a problem if the laser within the CD transport could auto-focus, but this is not the case. CD transports & players utilize fixed focus lasers. This can reproduce errors, enacting the electronic error correction -- just as the scratch does -- so no benefit has been gained, only further destruction of of the disc... |
Sometimes work, sometimes not. I have tried that service, and the success depends on the conditions of your disc. |
I've used a good quality metal polish like "Maas" to polish out some nasty scuffs and not too deep scratches from abused library cd's. It works quite well as long as things aren't too far gone. It's a bit faster than toothpaste, which does work as a good polish for all manner of things. |
I've also seen some serious commercial CD polishing machines.
Doesn't make sense for most of us but I think these services and DVD rental chains may be using them.
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I bought a Disc Doctor off of Ebay a few years ago. It is essentially as the others have descrbed: a crcular platform to hold the disc and a soft cotton pad to polish out the scuffs. You apply a cleaning solution and it will buff out the problems. |
Seriously - toothpaste, rinse with water. And don't forget to go from the inner hole outwards, not circular. |
I have found that some of these cd repair kits can work well. There are others that are more hype than anything when you actually use them to try to repair scratches. |
I've read in an audio magazine years back,if the disc has a large scratch or hole,somebody suggested tapeing a peice of aluminum foil shiny side on label side to reflect enough light to make a copy.Make sure it is secure on label side. I have not tried this. |
No machine can fix scratches that take away data. I have not had to send mine off for fixing, using the OTC methods noted above. Your local DVD rental place has a machine that fixes rental DVDs. They are expensive but effective and they may be helpful to you. Another way to go is to use Exact Audio Copy to burn a new copy, unless of course it won't play at all. I have used it on CDs that skip and because it continues to sample the music many times during error-checking, it has reconstructed the data that wouldn't play on a standard player. The new CD sounds better than the old one even when it was new, according to some including myself. Good luck. |
I've seen the machines advertised.
The 2 companies I mentioned in my original post (and I'm sure there are others) actually repair the CDs. You send them your scratched CDs, they repair and return them.
Anyone ever used such a service? |
I have bought used CD's at stores that specialize in it. They
all looked brand new.I asked the employee's about it,and they
responded I don't know.The jewel boxes looked bad.My guess is
they sure are doing something to them.I've seen CD scratch removing devices selling in magazines $20-40 or so,but know nothing about them.If the CD is that bad,it might be something to try?Here's a link to what I've seen.link >>[http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1835760,00.asp] |
Agree with Roxy54, Get some polishing compound very fine and a buffing wheel you can attach to a drill, Fine cotton only. Avaialable at HD and Lowes etc. Go slow at first on some discs that you can practice on. Keep the wheel moving and do not let it sit in one spot too long or it will burn the disc. (Try not to let heat build up). I have also had good results with Crest and Colgate toothpast. Very mild abrasive action. No cavities:) |
I have polished damaged CDs with jewelers polishing compounds of several types and high speed spinning buffs. On a CD that has seen a lot of abuse, it will remove 90% of the scratches, but the really deep gouges will resist being removed completely. I have also found that even though some CDs that look bad will play well, seemingly insignifcant scratches near the table of contents can render an otherwise good cd useless, and sometimes polishing won't fix it. |
