How to Clean DVDs and CDs
Clean DVDs and CDs in the Comfort of Your Own Home
One of the best investments I've made is buying Novus Plastic Polish from Albertson's. It came in a ziplock bag. It has a Novus Plastic Clean & Shine spray, a Novus Fine Scratch Remover, Novus Polish Mates cloth, and instructions. It was $10, and it works. Now, if you don't have this product, can't find it, or don't want to buy it, there's another solution. Just look in your bathroom, or in your cleaning closet.
Take your lightly scratched DVD or CD, go to your bathroom, and use toothpaste. Yes, toothpaste! Spread toothpaste on all the shiny part of the disc. Spread it liberally. This means, don't be stingy. Set the disc down for a minute or two. Wash off the toothpaste with lukewarm water. Shake off excess water, and then dry.
The cloth you use to dry makes a huge difference. The best type of cloth is nonabrasive, absorbent, and lint free. Do NOT use a towel. Do NOT use toilet paper. Do NOT use paper towel. Do NOT use the shirt you're currently wearing or anything in the hamper. Make sure the cloth you use to dry is not rough, or you'll end up with more scratches. A towel may be soft, but it's not smooth. Paper towels are not smooth either. Toilet paper and clothing adds lint. Lint will add more scratches and mess up your DVD or CD player. Find the type of cloth described above. The Novus Polish Mates cloth are sold in stores. Or use a clean soft cotton cloth (like a diaper). Don't use polyester or rayon wipes. If you're going to give in to using clothes (like I have in the past), use a clean, white, plain cotton shirt.
Be absolutely sure that the disc is completely DRY before inserting it into a DVD or CD player or game console.
You can also go to your cleaning closet and use Windex. Yes, Windex! Just spray on your disc, then wipe and dry as described above.
If you're wondering how these methods work...
Light scratches just needs to be refilled with a paste like substance that hardens, like toothpaste! This would not work on deeper scratches because toothpaste cannot replace the lost parts of the disc. Light scratches make the disc skip. Toothpaste or the Novus Fine Scratch Remover work to fill in the gaps so the skipping will stop. A heavily scratched disc is like a disc with a deep scratch. Toothpaste cannot replace the information on the disc. It's just an agent to make the playing smoother.
Windex is like the Novus Plastic Clean & Shine spray. It protects the disc from lint and dust. Sometimes, all a disc needs is to be lint free!
So take our your scratched DVDs and CDs and take a trip to your bathroom and cleaning closet. This is one cleaning you would want to do!
Published by Angela S.
A freelance writer who loves light-hearted movies and everything creative. View profile
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- Use toothpaste.
- Use Windex.
- Use a clean soft cotton cloth.
21 Comments
Post a Comment..nd clean. Most light surface scratches respond to 2 then 1, heavier scratches 3 to 2 to 1. A little elbow grease and your disc will look new. Remember though, for Blu-ray and PS3 games, there is no cure for scratches. On a CD, DVD or previous generation of game disc (PS2 etc.), only 10% of the thickness was data, with the majority 90% being label and polycarbonate plastic protection, which allowed lots of room for buffing out scratches (up to 3 treatments per disc even). With the new generation, the majority 92% is data, and only a tiny 8% is coating...a fraction of a millimetre thick. This is why PS3 and Blu-ray are coated with Durabis, making them very difficult to scratch. They CAN be scratched with enough abuse, though, and only the tiniest of scratches will result in loss of data and read errors. So in their case, prevention is the ONLY cure. For retro games, CD's and DVD's though, Novus polish is the best home remedy.
Sorry, that is wrong. The toothpaste doesn't fill in the scratches, as does furniture polish such as Pledge (a quick but temporary fix for light scratches). It has to be totally clear to act this way and toothpaste isn't, not even the gel. What the toothpaste does is act as a light abrasive, which *removes* a fraction of the top layer, effectively getting rid of the scratch altogether. But I suggest caution here, as I have had success just one time in ten attempts - owing to the different gradient in coarseness in different brands and formulas of toothpaste. And for fear of encouraging others to ruin their expensive discs further still, I also recommend the Novus plastic polish you mention, as I use this myself to great effect. This is the perfect stuff and is basically the same/similar formula to what your local Blockbusters use in their expensive professional disc repair machines. Novus is numbered 1-3 in gradient, 3 for heavy scratches, 2 for light, 1 for the final polish an
I'm using it to clean Pride and Prejudice too, Niles! I hope it does indeed work, otherwise I won't be able to watch the second half...
IT WORKED%21%21 MY PRIDE N PREJUDICE DVD WORKS AGAIN%21%21%21 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH%21%21 SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET%21 I SWEAR ON COLIN FIRTH THIS WORKS
This was very helpful ,but it didn't clean it to where the dvd worked
Perhaps it bears saying not to use a gel toothpaste, but a real paste toothpaste like Pepsodent. Ever notice how pasty toothpastes have a more grainy texture than gels? That grainy texture is what helps smooth out the scratch.
Perhaps it bears saying not to use a gel toothpaste, but a real paste toothpaste like Pepsodent. Ever notice how pasty toothpastes have a more grainy texture than gels? That grainy texture is what helps smooth out the scratch.
please tell me more all my dvds are scrached
...now my dvd smells like toothpaste...magic!
i hope it works