Advice on cleaning a Blu-ray disc (1 Viewer)

[BillBR]

Hi folks, I've done a lot of internet searching in the past hour, but can't seem to come up with a decent ballpark answer so I thought I'd poll you guys here. I had a skip scare earlier tonight when I was watching my BD copy of Vertigo (out of the Universal box) for the first time. There were no issues at all until about an hour and 45 minutes in, when Judy was writing a letter to Scottie. The disc skipped playback for about 6 seconds of the film. I instantly rewound and resumed playback to before the skip, and it did it again, at the exact same spot. I did that one more time, and again it skipped, then stopped the disc and looked at it in the bright light. There's a slight scratch on it, not very deep, probably received during packaging or shipping (I had only handled the disc once before, a month ago upon opening up the set). I used a cloth to wipe the surface of the disc (no cleaner liquid or anything additional) and popped it back in, went to the correct chapter, fast forwarded to the part that had been skipping...and then it played straight through, no problem, all the way to the end of the film. I then ejected the disc, put it back in again, went back to the same spot and it still played through without skipping. So! I'm a bit (well, a lot) anal retentive about these things and I wanted to know if A) it would be worth cleaning the disc with some cleaning solution anyway, just in case, B) what type of cleaning solution to use (some say window cleaner, others say a special liquid I'd have to buy online, one website said toothpaste!) or C) if I should just leave it alone and not make anything worse. I'm just interested to hear about any methods some of you may have that have worked for you, or certainly methods that didn't.

 

[moviepas]

I used toothpaste on digs in received Laser Discs and it worked well but no success with DVDs. I would suggest it would make a mess of a Blu Ray as well.

 

[mrz7]

I always use toothpaste to clean both CD's and DVD's and never had any issues. You just have to make sure once you apply the toothpaste, rinse it off with cool to luke warm water. Then wipe the disc with a lint free cloth towel from the center of the disc out (NOT in a circular motion, like a record). A Blu-Ray disc would be no different than the CD or DVD. In fact, I believe a Blu-Ray disc has a special scrach resistant coating, so you won't damage the disc. I highly recommend this method, it's always worked for me!

 

I always use toothpaste to clean both CD's and DVD's and never had any issues. You just have to make sure once you apply the toothpaste, rinse it off with cool to luke warm water. Then wipe the disc with a lint free cloth towel from the center of the disc out (NOT in a circular motion, like a record). A Blu-Ray disc would be no different than the CD or DVD. In fact, I believe a Blu-Ray disc has a special scrach resistant coating, so you won't damage the disc. I highly recommend this method, it's always worked for me!

Do you use regular or mint-flavored floss?

 

[Richard V]

Someone on YouTube has posted a video using a banana to clean scratched DVD's. For what it's worth.

 

[Dick]

I use a simple lint-free cloth like the ones used to clean glasses. Works perfectly, and you can save the toothpaste.

 

[BillBR]

I use a simple lint-free cloth like the ones used to clean glasses. Works perfectly, and you can save the toothpaste.

Yup, I have glasses too so I already have some of those, and they do indeed work well. I can't believe all these homemade methods I'm hearing about though... ...seriously, a banana?

 

[KMR]

I'd be leery of using toothpaste. Many toothpastes can have abrasives in them, and that would not be good for the disc.

 

[Citizen87645]

Windex is the de facto cleaner for optical media. I would mix that with a good helping of Don't Obsess.

 

[Vincent_P]

Be careful getting your Blu-ray discs wet, the water can cause the anti-scratch layer to come off, ruining the disc. I learned the hard way when I lost a bunch of Blu-rays due to Hurricane Sandy flooding, while all of my DVDs, HD-DVDs, and LaserDiscs survived just fine with a cleaning. Vincent

 

[Citizen87645]

Good to know Vincent. Sorry about all the flood damage.

 

[KMR]

Yikes, thanks for the warning, Vincent!

 

[Yorkshire]

I use a simple lint-free cloth like the ones used to clean glasses. Works perfectly, and you can save the toothpaste.

I have a glasses-cleaning pack from Boots (UK pharmacist supermarket) which includes a lint free cloth and a spray.

I use the cloth to clean discs. If there's a large amount of 'gunk' on the disc I use the tiniest mist from the cleaning fluid too.

Strangely enough, the discs most likely to be covered in said 'gunk' are Madagascar, Cars and Ice Age. Can anyone explain this bizarre phenomena?

Steve W