Anyone having success with DVD repair kits?

[krys]

I wanted to get some reviews before I wasted my money, I have many DVD's with light wear that wont rip smoothly with LMCE. Anyone able to fix this issue with one of those DVD repair/resurfacers?

[Dale_K]

This is going to sound crazy, but you'll have to trust me a little.

I've used two different types of DVD repair gadgets and both had limited success.  Maybe 2 out of 5 DVD/CD's were made to work.

Here's the "trust me" part.  What I do now works extremely well for me, almost 100% success.  (Remember, I already said it will sound crazy.)

What I do is sit down wearing denim pants so that the denim is stretched tightly over my thigh (this is actually important as folds in the denim will further damage a disc).  So with the denim smooth and tight across my leg I put my hand flat on the disc applying pressure as evenly as possible and I rub the disc in a circle pressing down reasonably firm.  I do this for about 1 minute and almost always the disc will play/copy perfectly.

Like I said, it sounds stupid but it works great for me.

[krys]

hmm, that is interesting... I also thought about wet sanding one with like 2000grit sandpaper like you do when you paint a car....
Any other crazy ideas, I would be willing to try just about anything.

[Marie.O]

Buy again?

[nosebreaker]

If you are going the denim route, go from the center of the disk towards the outside, don't rub in circles!

I've used those DVD repair things, they did help but essentially all they do is grind off the top layer of plastic.  If they play fine but don't rip fine try a more powerful burner (stronger laser).  Sometimes a better brand can fix it!

[skeptic]

I've had some success with the DVD repair devices, both a hand crank one (which leave noticeable marks but seem ok) as well as an electric one that isn't as aggressive but will polish it nice and shiny.  When those didn't work for some of my movies and I was faced with tossing them anyway I decided to try polishing compound (for cars) with a foam waxing/polishing pad and my cordless drill.  I wouldn't want to do it often as I'm sure it took down some plastic, but in the end the DVD looked new and played fine.

I've also heard you can use something like pledge that will fill in the scratches for an effective temporary solution, but I'm not sure I want that kind of wax being anywhere near the inside of my DVD drive.