Aleratec Motorized DVD CD Disc Repair System - Playback Restoration and Cleaning Device for CDs and DVDs - Includes Repair Solution - Portable Cleaner for CD Player Discs with Read Errors

First off I see a lot of reviews with people having issues. I don't know if they are reading the instructions or not but you definitely have to read them. This thing fixed every single disc I have used it on which is pretty good because I didn't think it was going to work. I only used it on a couple of discs so I can't speak about the longevity. First thing you should do is get cotton pad with rubbing alcohol on it then wipe the disc with it. Use circular motions. Then use the included (or another one laying around) fine small microfiber cloth. Don't use the other microfiber with the bigger strands/bristles that's for applying or removing wax or cleaning windows. Make sure you wipe from the center out when using the fine microfiber. If that doesn't fix your disc and stop it from skipping then you should use this device. This thing isn't magic and it can't fix really bad discs. This thing does leave scratches on your disc so if that bothers you then shouldn't use this product. I have a large collection of all kinds of discs and this thing is a god send. I love this thing and it is very fun to use for some reason. I just hope that it lasts.

Item as described, good quality, looks great

Okay, the wife and I were watching a new used blu-ray and while it had some skips it was fine till the final chapters.Bought this to see if it could help. With the buffing (as someone else mentioned it will leave circular scratches the can be buffed out with the yellow pads). The buffing solution is just aluminum dioxide cream which does help.On the blue ray it did improve the load and all intermittent skips but there is one divot that I believe is causing issues on the final chapters.This device did help with another DVD that was just having minor skip issues.I had a similar device in the past that helped with an old PS2 game I scratched up but it took about 200 runs. So take that into account. Its not a miracle machine but lightly scratched discs can be saved.Little bit loud at times.Understanding it's limitations is important. Only reason for the one star drop is the fact that the buffing pads are separate from the mounts used on the polishing pads. So when you go back and forth you need to remove the buffing pads from the plastic cylinders and reinstall to the polishing pads. For the price would think another pair of plastic cylinders with a spring would be minute.With discs going out of style I'd say get one and work to keep your older ones alive. It probably wont fix everything as mentioned but if it just fixes 6 in your collection you saved yourself in lost media.Instructions are kind of poor so do play around with it.Also the isopropyl cleaning inserts is kinda a waste if you have hot breath and a shirt.

Started out with high hopes. Reading through the instructions got a little murky. “the box labeled wet” - there was no label on the box. Opened the one with cleaning solution to find “wet” in tiny letters. Popped the heads in to run the cleaning process. Ran fine. Here’s the fun part. No way to get the cleaning heads out to install the next set. Dry head came out easily, cleaning heads disintegrated. Head still stuck. No lever, no assist, no room to pry. Cleaning solution now everywhere in machine. Machine not working. It is now in pieces in my garbage. I have now guaranteed that these pieces are so mangled that they will never be a disappointment to any human being ever again. At first I thought I wanted my money back, now I’m just thinking of taking it as a life lesson on what garbage products to avoid in the future. Don’t waste your time or money.

I've rewritten this review to reflect my latest experience. Just know up front that you may not be able to save your CD, but it's worth a try. As the Three Stooges once said when they were "doctors": "We kill or cure!" Same with this machine!First, about CDs, DVDs: The "playing" side is the thickest part of the CD, with clear polycarbonate meant to be scanned through to read the "pits and lands" at the data layer. The label side of the disc is the thinnest and closest to the data bits. If the label side is scratched, the disc is probably a goner because it's probably reached the data bits. If you hold a disc to the light and can see holes through it, you're probably out of luck unless they're very tiny holes your player can correct for. If the scratches are only on the playing (silvery) side, then you can probably fix it if you can polish or buff your way through the scratch (if it's not too deep).If you're looking for a simple, one step solution to all your unplayable optical media, this is NOT it! If you just want to keep it simple, try washing the disc in the sink, or buying another one. Or take your disc to some place that sells used CDs and see if they have a professional machine to take the scratches out. If you're patient and willing to work with a machine that's not perfect and work within its limitations, keep reading to see what I've discovered.There are much more expensive and bigger machines here that get the same complaints, so you might as well take your chance with this little thing and pay less for it if you're patient and willing to take a risk.First, this machine seems to do OK with very light scratches (the kind your player can probably read through) with the "repair" and "clean" pads (yellow and blue). Three very small drops of the repair "sauce", and one run makes it nice and shiny. As for the "clean" (blue) pads, they just use isopropyl alcohol to clean the surface of the disc. If you're only cleaning one disc, don't waste the solution by filling the reservoirs, just put a few drops on the small blue pads and go. If all you have is finger smudges on the disc, you can wash it in the sink with hand soap or dish soap, and you're good to go.What about deep scratches? For those, you'll want to pull out the red "buff" pads, and they will likely make your disc unreadable. So, if your disc plays but it's just ugly, don't use the red pads. Other reviews here say one pass with the red pads is OK, but my CD needed much more than that. Start looking for a new disc, and be prepared to give your disc up for dead before you pull out the red pads!I have two disks I've run through this machine. One was severely damaged with lots of tiny pits, and I had at first tried using sandpaper followed by Novus polish. (You can find this method on line: Start with 1000 grit wet sanding, and work your way up to 7000 grit, then polish to make it shiny again.) This manual method still did not take off enough polycarbonate to get all the damage, but did not introduce any new errors, at least. This was an audio CD, and the tracks that were good before I took the CD to hell and back were still good, and the ones that were bad before were still bad, though the disc was uglier after the process.So, I did several rounds with the red pads, and then took it through the yellow and blue, but I knew it was bad when I saw severe clouding in the inner (where the TOC and important data is) and outer edges of the data area. So, now the CD is completely unreadable. My advice: Never use the red pads unless you've already given the disc up for dead, because it'll take a miracle or a lot of manual intervention to bring it back. If one pass with the red pads doesn't fix it, be prepared to go the manual wet sand route.Anyway, the good news is, I had another CD with a deep scratch that I also wanted to fix. It was the worst kind of scratch: An arc right in the direction the disc spins, which affects too many bits for the reader to correct. I learned my lesson about the red pads, so I went with the manual sandpaper method above, which I had to do several times to get the scratch out. Finally I was done, but the disc was hazy after all that "torture", even though it now read the problem track. So, I ran it through this machine using only the yellow pads and washed the residue off under the sink. Now the disc looks almost new, and reads every track. (Your mileage may vary, of course!)Use this device with caution, and realize you may have to manually intervene to save discs with deep scratches. Also, if you're ripping or testing audio CDs, all that sanding and polishing may introduce other, hopefully correctable errors.For the most part, if you can avoid using this machine, do so. Try washing the disc under soap and water first. Most players can read through light scratches or correct minor errors, especially if they go from the inside out. If they follow the curve of the disk (like the pickup scratched it), you may be out of luck. Deep scratches may need the yellow "repair" pads and solution (sparingly, three tiny drops). You may need to be a skilled craftsperson with fine sandpaper to fix the really bad ones.If I do manage to save the ruined disc, it won't be thanks to this machine.The only reason to try to save a CD with this machine is to save another piece of polycarbonate from the landfill, and avoid having to buy another one if possible. Collectible and Out Of Print CDs will be worth less after taking them through this process, but if you succeed and make them playable again, that saves you from hunting for another one and paying through the nose for it, doesn't it?If you're handy with tools and like to invent hacks, I could see how this machine could be a platform for improvements, such as making it take fine sandpaper and polish pads.

I read a lot of reviews on CD/DVD none sounded very good, but I tried this one. I found it to work quite well.I have been able to clean some DVDs that would not play well. After the cleaning, I was able to play them again. Some reviewers mentioned that the cleaning process leaves swirls on the disks making it worse than the disk before cleaning. Yes, there are swirls when you do the deep cleaning process, but these swirls do not interfere with the ability of the disk to play. I like the tool. It may not be perfect but it can do the job.

Used it to fix a 360 game that I’d bought as “new” from a Walmart seller but it had a laser disk burn. Followed the instructions and that failed so I then buffed five times, repaired three times, cleaned and then tried disk and it didn’t work. Repeated again four and twice then cleaned, still didn’t read it. Tried again four and twice respectively and it worked. I figured, given the type of damage, it was either it fixes it or it wears through it, either way I can’t use it like it is. It worked so my son is happy and so am I.

It's pretty good it's more than half decent it's got things that would never work before to work it won't get all the scratches off especially all those deep ones but for some reason it's got some magical enchantment about it that makes it to where it will work it's a great product for the price

Funciona bien.

First thing to know is the instructions are amazingly weak at properly describing how to use this (This works for me and I offer this as advice without any guarantee it will work for you without ruining your discs or equipment)I purchased this item because my 400 disc dvd changer died and I had no intention of buying a second one to replace it and some of my discs are 20 plus years old and needed to have scratches removed through a more professional buffingThe first thing to know is the red buffing pads are a worst scenario use only, do NOT start with them. I had a couple double sided discs that needed it because the one side that was not facing inwards in the cd wallet took a beating. If yous use it try it once with the "repair" button and look at the problem area after, if it is still visible give it a second runThe yellow pads are the main user here with the repair button, for the discs that have become cloudy this will fix that or even some light scratches, my warning on this is use a very very small amount from the repair tube, if you use too much it will gum up the pad and cause excess friction which will stall out the machine, you will be able to see the disk slowing down or even stopping the machine when this happens (and it will until you get good with it) you can fix the pad by using some dish soap and water and gently rubbing it on the palm of your hand then rinse it off and let it dry fully (give it an hour), once it takes the buffing marks from the red pads out (might take 2 turns, only need to apply the paste the first time if you do it in quick successionthe blue cleaning pads are good if you mom would look at the disc condition and pull a kleenex out of her purse and lick it. Warning on using there, while they come with a tank for holding the provided solution, only use it if you are going to be cleaning many discs in a short period, to buy this is expensive on its own and with the bottle you get just apply a little bit to the top of the wet pad and use it that wayHopefully this helps especially all the people that gave it negative reviews, there have been a couple that I tried this on that looking at them (and guessing they lost a fight with Wolverine) I knew I should have just thrown them out but I was curious to see just how much damage this could restore and common sense was correct on each one.

Not UK compatible not the right ac dc adaptor so definitely not worth the money

I'm converting my CD/DVDs to my hard drive (then cloud). For most, I just use Novus scratch remover and K&F microfiber clothes. Add in Exact Audio Copy (music) and Recovery Toolbox (data) freeware and I could transfer about 98% of my discs without errors. This product was for the other 1-2%.I strictly use it for it's repair feature which involves grinding the surface of the disc with a very fine abrasive (sandpaper). I also bought. I know someone said throw the red discs out and ignore the instructions in another review but I specifically needed to use the red discs so I did follow the instructions. And it worked! I was able to recover a couple of dozen heavily scratched CDs that are long out of print and not available on streaming sites (or even torrents), so this product was worth it.For most discs, you can get away with the products and software I listed but if you need to try something when all else has failed, this is worth a shot.

As advertisedpro : works great on discs that have few scratchescon: deep scratched discs require more pressureHappy with purchase