Arfa Daily wrote:
"Ken G." wrote in message
...
It does not matter what direction you wipe the disk . I dont care
what someone said or the myths that go with it .
There is no such thing as a ``lint free`` cloth or lint free
anything . Just use some sort of soap , Windex is always handy .

We have one of those pro cd cleaning machines at work it sits right
behind my workbench . It has a water tank on top that sprays a
constant stream of water on everything . You can start with
different grit wheels depending on how bad the disk is .
Normal every day scratched disks will come out like new with only the
last step which is a foam pad with goop on it . This machne really
does a good job .
I have fixed some totaly un-playable disks in it .


Where do you get the idea that the direction of wipe is a myth ? The
data layer on a CD or DVD is a spiral behind a plastic guard layer.
If you put a scratch radially across a vinyl record, it will click
every time the stylus passes over it. If you put a scratch along the
groove, it will disturb the output for as far around the groove as
the scratch goes.
Likewise, if you put a scratch across the protective layer a CD or
DVD, it will be largely ignored because of the way the data is
encoded by interleaving and spreading it around. However, there is a
limit to the amount of data you can corrupt before the hardware and
software error correction systems fall over, and you lose output
which is correctly usable by the servo and music / video data DSPs.
This becomes even more important on DVDs which have much less margin
for error because of the much smaller data pits, and the speed at
which the data is read off the disc, and on any player where the
laser is even slightly below spec.
Whilst it may be true that your fancy machine spins the disc and
applies several grades of sandpaper or whatever, it is a professional
machine, and does this in a controlled and designed manner. This is
why it gets away with circular cleaning. Joe User, on the other hand,
is a ham fisted biological machine, who can't tell the difference
between carefully cleaning fingerprints off a disc, and doing the
disc more damage by scrubbing around it with a caked snotrag. I
therefore stand by the contention that the best way for an
inexperienced average user to clean a disc is by rubbing gently
across it, with the aid of a little dishwashing liquid to help remove
greasy marks.
As far as there being no such thing as lint free cloth, there are many
manufacturers who would disagree with you, and advertise products as
exactly that. Whilst no cloth can be declared perfectly lint free,
synthetics such as polypropylene are considered to be near enough to
meet the definition. Next time you clean your glasses, try using a
cotton dish drying towel instead of the polyprop cloth that came with
them, then tell us again that that a lint free cloth doesn't exist.

Arfa


Terrific post!

Wish all of mine were this good. ;-)


Mark Z.