Here is some interesting reading on Discs & burners... -The quality of the burner. A borderline defective burner can “under expose” the media to the laser beam, producing a seemingly good recording (at the time of burning) that will “fade” over time (failing weeks, months, years or decades sooner than it should have had the laser beam intensity been correct) -Recording speed. Fast burns (52X) are probably less stable than somewhat slower burns (say 16x to 32x), but you can burn media too slowly also. There is a very good analogy here to photographic film and exposure levels . The dyes on a given media have a certain range of acceptable “exposures” and outside of that range, you can either under or over expose the media to the laser beam. However, mechanical jitter and certain other variables -Labeling: The glues in adhesive labels, or the solvents in pen-type markers, both applied to the label side (the side containing the data) can SLOWLY penetrate the reflective backing and dye layers and destroy the data. Therefore, for archival media, the safest policy is to not label the CD or DVD itself at all. If you do label it, with either a label or a pen, you are, at best, taking a chance with your data (hint: it is safe to write on the clear inner hub (where there is no data at all) with a suitable pen that won’t rub off). (largely a function of the quality of the drive) generally will be unconditionally worse at faster speeds. http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=152618&messageID=1698511&tag=nl.e497 Very interesting Article -Your own handling and storage practices. On a CD, the data “exists” in a dye layer on the label side of the media. This can be scratched from the back (from the label side), which will literally and directly destroy the data. The front side is clear plastic but can also be scratched. While front side damage may make the data less readable or completely unreadable, the data is still intact and undamaged on the label side, and the scratches on the front can normally be removed by polishing the plastic. On recordable DVDs, the data is on a layer “inside” the media, but the media is a laminate of several layers and can delaminate, destroying the data. Flexing – even VERY minor flexing – is particularly bad at causing such damage. And, also, recordable DVDs tend to fail from the outside in, so you can increase your success rate and decrease the incidence of failures by not recording such media beyond 80% to 90% of capacity, leaving the outside edge, where the failure rate is greatest and failure occurs first, blank anyway.
Is there a top notch disc cleaner out there, the kind that cleans and or removes scratches and so forth, I know there are a lot out there or is all just bull or are any reputable.
Fred.. If you have light to medium scratches on dvds and cds use Brasso. Works fantastic, kinda stinky but it works. Dont use a circular pattern, rub it in top to bottom or left to right till it dries then wipe it with some windex , make sure its 100% dry before playing it again.
dilligaf, Wow, I haven't heard anybody mention the word Brasso since I last used in Vietnam back in 68, brought back some memories, anyway thanks for the info, now that I think about it, some time ago I did see one of those cd scratch removers and the consinstancy was the same as Brasso.
For additional 4 bucks, I'd take Verbatim's 50 pack than the WinData's 50 pack. Verbatim deserve the extra 4 bucks for all those fancy holographic numbers and imprints on the inner edge. But both are better than Memorex's
