OK, I rented the theatrical version of ET and it locks up like crazy. I'm going to try this on it, but the one thing I'm not clear on is if you leave the water on the flame and drop the disk in in it, or take the water off the flame once its boiling then put the disk in.

I have always left the water on the flame, but I'm sure you can do it the other way also.

That's what I did, 3 times.

Although it did seen to help a little, this disk is just too far gone.

Yeah, like I said a long time ago, there is a point where this wont help at all.

I'm glad that it's worked for other people though.

I recently tried this on a DVD I purchased used that wouldn't even pull up the menus. Now, it is working fine. When I put it in the player and the menus popped up like there had never been a problem, I got to admit it, I was very shocked.

I wonder if this will work on my Pianist DVD. It loads the menu but then...that's it. It used to work just fine. No visible scratches or anything

John, it can't hurt to try. The disc doesn't work anyway so there's nothing to lose to give it a shot.

this was asked by someone earlier on this thread but I don't think it has been answered yet so I'll ask too

for those who've boiled their discs does the disc art get affected? if so, in what way? ie, cracking, peeling, crinkling/crumpling, or whatever else may apply...

It didn't affect the E.T. one I did, and I boiled it 3 times.

thanks for the reply.

unbelievable...I'm beginning to think maybe DVDs can even withstand bullets

I am about to try this, first time.

I bought Me,Myself and Irene a few weeks ago, so it's brand new with no scratches, yet it pauses and delays (like a crappy layer change) about 4 times throughout the film.
So today I returned that copy and got another. This disc is actually worse than the last one, pausing in most of the same places, and also in others. This is on my sweet Denon 2910, which so far handles everything I throw at it. It plays fine in the pc, but it's not an option for me to enjoy it on.

Water is boiling now, will update my results...

I'm not sure that it'll help in that situation, but it's worth a shot.

The Superman tin set that I ordered from B&N showed up and the last disc was loose and ended up being scuffed up pretty bad and it froze on chapters 13 and 14. I boiled it, and it now works perfectly fine. I'd just assume keep it instead of returning it now that it works like new.

^
Well, it didn't work. I boiled it twice with no noticeable improvement.
Brent, why did you say it might not work for me, because I had two copies with pretty much the same issues? Maybe a bad batch of discs or something else?
Is it likely an issue with my player? That would totally suck.

Just my two cents, but any seller who asks me to do something like that is gonna get a negative feedback and the disc back in the mail with a demand for a refund or replacement. It doesn't matter where I'm buying DVDs from, I'm not expecting a "fixer-upper". Besides, I keep my DVDs away from all moisture, so I'm sure as hell not going to dunk it in a pot of boiling water because some careless seller sent me a scratched-up disc. I mean I've seen some used discs that were so nasty they probably needed to be boiled before being sold to anyone, but I just find the whole thing ridiculous. It's like those places that buff the crap outta the bottom of the disc in order to get it to play again. Sure it might play, but it looks like hell.

Okay, I'm done venting now. I just think it's funny that people can't be bothered to do simple shit like putting a disc back in the box after playing it, but they'll try just about anything to get them playing again after they're scratched all to hell. Weird.

^
Your 2 cents isn't worth it, since you obviously didn't read the first post or much else in this thread.

Yeah, I want a refund on my time I spent reading your post. Do people even read threads anymore? Or just look for titles they think they can make their mark in?

I keep my discs clean but there have been a few times I've tried a NEW disc that did not work but just a few seconds of boiling made it all better.

What's more ridiculous is going through the whole process of having them send a non-working disc back, doing a refund and then if the disc gets lost in the mail you have THAT hassle to go through.

It may not work all the time but it DOES work.

What the fuck is this, a fucking dictatorship??? How the fuck was my opinion that I'd be pissed at any seller who asked me to go through all that crap instead of admitting he sold me a bad disc in any way off the topic of a thread titled "I told an eBay customer of mine to boil the DVD...", especially when the first fucking message in the thread asked "would any of you guys do that? I was surprised she did but I'm glad it worked" or something like that?

Come on, I was replying to the original goddamn post! If my reply didn't fit into some threadjacking shit you guys had going on, then excuse the fuck outta me. Sheesh!

The following is EXACTLY what I was replying to, and yes, I did fucking read it before replying. Mind pointing out how my post was so fucking off-topic, smart-asses???

In an open forum like this, people have the goddamn RIGHT to express their opinion without being bashed just because you don't happen to fucking agree with what they post. Grow up and learn that not everyone is always gonna agree with you and join your little circle-jerk. Jesus F'n H. Christ!!!

What I wanna know is if this is having the same affect on discs as those expensive disc finalizers that promises better working dvd's and cd's....Or is that another thing entirely?

Mike Adams, do us all a favor and calm down before you make any more posts. Name calling is against forum rules and your general tone is very rude.

Stuff like this really isn't helpful either. You might try the ignore list if you don't like someone's posts.

I'm sure you'll find that posting here is a privilege, not a right.

Glad I saw this thread, since I've got a CD that looks perfect but has all kinds of problems playing in any player I've had recently. I'll give the boiling method a shot.

Those grind down the outer surface if you are referring to Skip Dr., etc....

FIXED!



One thing I want to mention is that boiling can make the disk art start to peel off, depending on the way the artwork is applied.

I boiled a Badder Santa I had rented because it would not play in 3 different players. It didn't fix the problem, but the paint bubbled and peeled in one area.