I put kittens in the microwave to cure them too.

Works wonders.

Is it worth trying to boil the defective old WAMO Universal DVDs ?

Well if they won't play, nothing is lost by trying...

Though AFAIK the WAMO problem was a problem with their early DVD-9 discs that caused oxidation of the data layer, hard to see how that could be reversed.

heating up the disc so the glue settles better? but won't that in theory also allow the hot water to seep in-between the layer at the edges, doing more damage in the long run??

The first time I heard of this was from The Offical Dreamcast mag. I called in about a disc and they said to boil it. I was like Huh? I called back a few days later and had them send me another one.

I've never had to do it myself, but my friend thought I was insane when I suggest that it might fix her unplayable DVD. She never did do it, thinking somehow it would damage it more. If it can't even play in the first place, what's the harm? Oh well...

Had he been there in person, I imagine the buyer saying this while shifting his eyes around and slowly backing away.

Here's another great method to make your DVDs play better - Use a green sharpie and draw around the edge of the disc. The movie looks sharper and the sound is clearer - try it!

Also, if you buy those new black CD-R's, the sound quality is much improved over those old silver ones.

I've heard of this theory for years actually, I believe the science is that it loosens up really tiny particles of "stuff" that are in the grooves or something that the laser is catching on. There are enough people posting that this works that I think we can dispense with the smartass comments.

I never posted it earlier because I was practically crucified for another "odd" application I suggested here: putting mattes over the black bars on your screen. It makes an incredible difference, but all I got were smartass responses about taping cardboard to your TV. Ya'll's loss I guess.

why did you do that with the mattes over the black spaces?

just curious

There's no question about this working or not. If you don't believe it, take a DVD that you don't care about all that much, a cheap $1 DVD or something, and put some light scratches on it yourself to the point where it skips a little bit, or doesn't play, then try this out.

Just remember that you can't fix scratches that are too deep. There comes a point where some scratches just can't be fixed.

Is this true!?

I use my TV for too much everyday viewing to bother with it, but I tested it with some poster board once over my screen.

One of the reasons for it has to do with people obsessing over the black bars instead of just watching the movie. It's easy for someone used to letterboxing to accept, but one of the concepts that got brought up was how the black bars are being created: they're not an absense of light on the screen, they're a "projection" of the color black. Thus they have some luminence to them. If you accept that all people see differently, (we just have agreed upon baselines) you can accept that the glowing black can actually bother some people. If you have a tv with different input modes, try switching it around to one that's just black, then turn off all the other lights in the room (do it at night) give your eyes a few minutes to adjust, and you should notice that your screen is "projecting" black. If you put mattes over the black bars so that only the actual movie image is showing, your eyes only have to focus on that part of the image, and you can accept the fact that you're watching something that isn't 4x3 shaped. (It may also be psychological, by hiding the "wasted" space of the 4x3 screen so that the viewer can focus only on the movie.)

You would need to create mattes of at least two different sizes, 1.85 and 2.39, and make them out of a dark blue or black material (nonshiny) so they wouldn't be reflecting more light around. I've heard of hardcore HT enthusiasts that have them mounted to the ceiling and can be lowered in front of the screen as needed.

As I said, it sounds odd, but I once tried it just by taping some posterboard to my TV and the difference was amazing. I learned long ago to accept the blackbars, so it's likely not a project I'd undertake unless I create a full blown Home Theatre in the basement or something.

I'm just guessing here, but in a darkened room, even the black bars give off light. If they are masked off, it makes them that much more unnoticable.

Milo beat me to it, with a much more detailed explaination

And if boiling doesn't work, don't forget about that other crazy sounding fix method: toothpaste.

LOL. I tried the toothpaste fix. It helped a little bit but since the disc was scratched up really bad, it still skipped.

If the scratches go so deep that the data layer is nicked, no boiling or toothpaste will help. These solutions can only help surface damage.

Ok, there was a disc that I found a couple of days ago, with what looked like a hair, but was actually a scratch. It played, but would freeze up after a minute or two.

I tried boiling it, now it won't work at all.

Oh well.

did this with my DVD of Basic Instinct that was skipping due to the plastic around the disc being loose. i found a website that mentioned how one could fix the old Xbox demo discs by boiling them, so i figured what the hell. it worked like a charm, and with no water penetration or anything. i was amazed!

DVDs are not glued, this has nothing to do with glue. They are put together with an acrylic epoxy, and it is cured with UV light to seal the DVD, not dried like glues. (exact materials depend on the manufacturer) Not unlike white fillings for teeth. The melting point of the acrylic and polycarbonate used in DVDs is something like 400 deg, boiling water being 212 deg.

Boiling cleans the DVD, plain and simple. If this scares you to death, try running them under hot water, which is most likely 120 deg at your house. Almost as good as boiling, has worked every time for me.

Spikey, is there a chance of the water seeping in the edges during this process and harming the metal layer in the long term?

I've heard about this often. The Demo Disc that comes with the Official XBOX Mag has stated it also. I'm sure it works, I never have used the method though. I think you DON'T want to touch the edges of the pan though with the disc

NO.

I've done this maybe 25 times now and have had no problems. But be advised: Don't leave the DVD in the boiling water for an extended period of time. You can reference my link above.

Agreed. The way these are put together, and you can see some of this just by examining them on the edge, they are basically melted together with the epoxy and curing process. So it should be fully sealed on the edges. If it isn't, it probably won't work right out of the box. Which anybody would just exchange for a new one. Not really the topic of this thread.