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Compact Disc advise


Mike

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You may or may not have read about this web/graphics designers horror story about his CD's rotting "literally" and I have experienced a few incidents of scratched/chipped "label side" ruining a disc. So we were all groomed to beleive the only fragile part of the cd was the underside (read side) that the laser reads. Not so, infact "that side" has much more protection than the label side. So take note and keep your investment as long as possible.

Mike

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  • 3 months later...

Use lens paper or a piece of cloth and if it's smudged; it's perferrable to use a moist piece of cloth using water rather than benzene or other cleaning solvents. The only CDs I've ever had serious problems with are CD-Rs from Maxell and TDK. Maxell because it's such a shoddy product from the get-go and TDK because the read-only side gets easily scratched from seemingly nowhere and both brands will skip like crazy at the most minute damage/wear ::

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I have many, many CDs and I'm really starting to dislike them. My experience shows one little nick and they are ruined.

Cleaning, I've just been using a cotton cloth and glass cleaner (Windex) and do like Jayson says, rub from center to the outside edge, never in circles. Something I don't do is leave CDs in the carousel but put them in their protective case.

There's been discussions about CDs verses vinyl but I can honestly say that vinyl can take more abuse and still play without skipping than a CD.

I've got some vinyl records 40 years old and they still play excellent. Just yesterday I took a CD out that I hadn't heard in a long time and it skipped on a certain song for no reason whatsoever. Visually it was flawless and a year ago it did not skip.

CDs; I don't hate anything but I'm getting close.

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Well, if you are talking about CD-R's, I never trust them. I only use then for back-up and I store them only to take them out when necessary. When I burn music, to me is like a disposable tape. I listen to it at night before going to bed, then give it away at work or something. Music CDs I buy, I don't even listen to them hardly. I rip them and pretty much put them away too. And like Jayson sayd, leaving them laying around is very bad. I learned the hard way. I also make back-ups of all games I buy and use only the copy. I'm very paraniod about losing my data. My next invesment is gonna be a DVD burner for mass storage.

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Ive Found The Same With CD´s When Cleaning Them Use A tissue And Clean Away From You When Cleaning The Disc.The Worst Has To Be Cd Cleaners For Your CD Player.But Thanks For The Info,I Always Thought On Dvd´s It Was The Top Of The Disc You Have To Be Careful Of Thanks Guys Anyway :bow: :bow:

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On cleaning cd's, this may sound stupid but use hair conditioner. Not only does it clean but it creates a filler for slight scratches. The lint free cloths made for this purpose are best, but just as for dusting furniture, cloth baby diapers work well too. They are also lint free. As far as skips where there were none before, and nothing visible, check out your carousel. Minute dust particles in the tray can cause this. Seriously though, the hair conditioner thing really works well unless you've got really deep scratches. Honestly I think nothing will ever beat vinyl for durability. Even tapes, unless you break the tape or melt them hold up better than CD's. The thing about CD's is the digital music quality, not durability.

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Well, if you are talking about CD-R's, I never trust them. I only use then for back-up and I store them only to take them out when necessary. When I burn music, to me is like a disposable tape. I listen to it at night before going to bed, then give it away at work or something. Music CDs I buy, I don't even listen to them hardly. I rip them and pretty much put them away too. And like Jayson sayd, leaving them laying around is very bad. I learned the hard way. I also make back-ups of all games I buy and use only the copy. I'm very paraniod about losing my data. My next invesment is gonna be a DVD burner for mass storage.

Ha! Same 'ere. I buy all the albums of my favourite artist(s) and then record them on 80-min CD-Rs back-to-back. The originals remain in their case until I have to make another copy. This is becoming quite frequent lately, though, as CD-Rs are of such low quality they start skipping with minimal damage (as I said before). The fact that my car's CD carousel skips over minor damage is no picnic either. I noticed that my Aiwa CD boombox will play any damaged CD well, but my Kenwood carousel CD player in the car will make my CDs sound damaged. Therefore, not only do you have to keep your CDs clean, but also the lens of your players :headphones: One point to note, all my original CDs play in excellent condition - even the ones I bought used or damaged by cleaning with regular tissue paper!

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I solved the scratching problem. I buy blank cds, then burn a copy as soon as I open a new cd. It's relatively inexpensive, and my cd collection stays in mint condition.

Plus, I'm lazy about taking care of my cds, so in the long run, it saves me money, because I only spent, maybe 20 bucks for a 50 pack of blanks.

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Get that CD Doctor thingy and tell us how it works :) I've never had to use it myself and I've damaged (or had other people damage) a ton of CDs - yet they still play well =:P Hopefully, it was a cheap CD which you could replace by buying used again. If you can afford to buy blank music CD-Rs, I'd recommend you do so. It saves you a lot of pain and mortification.

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The way a CD works, as it has been taught to me, is that there is some thing metal thin that the information is actually inscribed on, and then about 5 layers of plastic to protect it. So if it gets scratched, it's just the plastic layers, and it's possible to have the scratch buffed out. I know they make litte machines to do it, maybe that's what that CD doctor is. I remember once I rented a scratched DVD and they put it in some little thing to buff out the scratch.

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This sounds ridiculous, but listen: if the scratches aren't deep, or they are those slight "scrapey marks" or they simply seem to skip for no real reason, try hair conditioner. It sounds stupid, but it works. Clean them with whatever you use, then apply the conditioner the same way. Continue to wipe the residue off until clean, across of course. Let them air dry 10-15 minutes or so and voila! Something about the dried conditioner as a protectorant. And the scratches fill up with the conditioner. I learned this from a radio dj. Sometimes you might have to repeat it every so often, but if it gets more wear out of the cd why not? ;)

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how much did you use? don't use it sparingly. Then continue to wipe it off (across from center out) until all the streakies are gone. I tend to Herbal Essence (you know for that orgas.. oops organic experience) but I really think any type would work. I also use soft lintfree cloth(like a baby diaper). Don't use paper towels. Just like with eyeglasses they will cause scratches

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