I had to check out the banana theory after I saw it on an Amazon discussion board.
I won't be trying it. But, I did, and do use something that does work. I ordered a complete DVD set of Mash, and since the DVD disks had been inserted into stiff cardboard sleeves, they were scratched upon first being inserted, and when I tried to gently pull them out.
Some disks in the middle of the set were scratched badly, and skipped and stopped. Some wouldn't play at all. Of course I only found this out after I had had the set for a couple of months and couldn't return the $300+ (retail) set. So I bought two different commercial "scratch" removal systems and tried them. They helped on some disks, but didn't work at all on a few disks.
Since I already had a bottle of "Blue-Magic Plastic and Plexiglass Cleaner" and a bottle of "Eagle One Plastic Polish" that I use to clean up and polish the visor on my motorcycle helmet, I figured I'd try that.
I took one of the disks that had terrible scratches and wouldn't even read, and lightly hand rubbed the Blue-Magic on the disk first, to remove the worse scratches, using a plastic eye glass lens cleaning cloth. I then applied a "finish" coat of the Eagle One polish and polished it completely clean and shiny with the same lens cloth. I allowed the disk to dry completely for about an hour.
The cleaned and polished "bad" disk played almost perfectly, with only a couple of slight pauses. I didn't try to completely remove all of the deepest scratches, but the polish smoothed them out enough to actually play and watch the "bad" DVD.
I now use that same method on all of my new, or older, DVD and CD disks that give me problems. It had worked every time in around 40+ uses.
I won't be trying it. But, I did, and do use something that does work. I ordered a complete DVD set of Mash, and since the DVD disks had been inserted into stiff cardboard sleeves, they were scratched upon first being inserted, and when I tried to gently pull them out.
Some disks in the middle of the set were scratched badly, and skipped and stopped. Some wouldn't play at all. Of course I only found this out after I had had the set for a couple of months and couldn't return the $300+ (retail) set. So I bought two different commercial "scratch" removal systems and tried them. They helped on some disks, but didn't work at all on a few disks.
Since I already had a bottle of "Blue-Magic Plastic and Plexiglass Cleaner" and a bottle of "Eagle One Plastic Polish" that I use to clean up and polish the visor on my motorcycle helmet, I figured I'd try that.
I took one of the disks that had terrible scratches and wouldn't even read, and lightly hand rubbed the Blue-Magic on the disk first, to remove the worse scratches, using a plastic eye glass lens cleaning cloth. I then applied a "finish" coat of the Eagle One polish and polished it completely clean and shiny with the same lens cloth. I allowed the disk to dry completely for about an hour.
The cleaned and polished "bad" disk played almost perfectly, with only a couple of slight pauses. I didn't try to completely remove all of the deepest scratches, but the polish smoothed them out enough to actually play and watch the "bad" DVD.
I now use that same method on all of my new, or older, DVD and CD disks that give me problems. It had worked every time in around 40+ uses.