Archive for November, 2007

CD Maintenance – How to make sure you CD stays in good shape

As we all know CDs & DVDs are prone to scratching, marking, cracking & breaking.

If you leave discs out near your PC or stereo, dust will settle or the data side will get scratched or marked. Now the best ways to prevent this happening are simple. They may sound straight forward but you’ll be surprised how many times CDs & DVDs are not protected properly. Following these simple steps will ensure you can use your CD’s and DVD’s for dvd copying and
cd copying for years to come.

Keep your CDs in there Jewel Cases. If not there are PVC wallets which act as ample protection or Card Wallets. For you DVDs you must keep them in their DVD boxes or, as previously mentioned, PVC Wallets and Card wallets will do.

If your CD or DVD gets scratched, you may think that it’s damaged forever……..Wrong! The scratching on the surface of the disc simply fools the laser and makes it skip. Or, if you’re player has difficulty in loading the data, it’s due the surface being scratched and unable to read the digital data below.

However, do not panic! There are plenty of repair kits around to eliminate this problem and allow you to perfrom that all important cd copying or dvd copying. If you’ve thought you’ve lost a CD forever due to mark or scratch, think again!

These repair kits are a compound mixture of polish, which are specially designed for plastic (which discs are made up of). The mixture interacts with the polymer and allows the polish to get to work on the scratch. This polish will remove the majority of the disc that has been damaged and restore the music/data back to full playability.

Therefore, you revive your discs using these kits. However, I suggest you look after your CD or DVD by putting them back into their Jewel Case, DVD box, PVC Wallet or Card Wallet. Keep them in a dust-free environment or storage case.

Keep your discs playing longer…

When you remove your discs from their CD Jewel Cases or DVD box then you risk the centre-hub cracking or breaking. This will lead to disc failures. Especially for console playing or DVD films. Having looked around for a remedy to this common problem, we have found a solution…

It’s in the form of a metal reinforced centre-hub. It’s easy to attach and will reduce the stress that is normally applied when removing CDs or DVDs from Jewel Cases or DVD Boxes. This will prevent the discs from cracking at the centre. “Hurray!” I hear you say.

New Disc Technologies

When talking about the future of CD duplication, DVD copying or just disc technologies in general, currently only one thing springs to mind…Blu-ray.

The name “Blue-ray comes from the colour of the laser used to read and write this type of discs i.e. blue-violet.

The Blue-ray discs can hold more data than a DVD because of its short wavelength (405nm). A DVD, which uses a red laser, has a wavelength of 650 nm.

As we know a whole DVD can hold up to 4.7 GB of data. One layer of a blue-ray disc can hold 25 GB. Dual layer Blue-ray discs can hold 50 GB. So, this gives you an idea of how far the technology has increased from our day-today DVD disc – a very long way.

It was a collection of several companies who specialise in; consumer electronics, computer hardware and motion picture production – that developed the Blue-ray disc. They are now known as the Blue-ray Disc Association.

Currently only HD DVD is competing with Blue-ray to be the leading carrier for high-definition content to consumers.

You will find Blue-ray technology in some of the latest game consoles available today e.g. Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360