|  Disc
repair for scratched DVD and CD collections is a need with few real options available.
Alera Technologies offers a solution with their DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus™
system. The package includes a Repair Kit, Cleaning Kit, 2 extra Repair Wheels,
2 extra Buffering Wheels, a Super Buffering Tool, AC Adapter, and an Anti-Static
Cleaning Cloth. The motorized system can repair and clean scratched DVDs, CDs,
Game Discs, VCDs, DVD+Rs, DVD-Rs, DVD+RWs, DVD-RWs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs. The kit
is designed to give users the maximum capability to restore discs with minor to
more serious scratches. The motorized unit relies on an AC adapter instead of
batteries, which produces consistent performance when repairing, buffing or cleaning
discs. Two separate kits are provided for repairing and cleaning, each of which
include liquid solutions and buffing wheels that install into the main unit. The
user guide categorizes three levels of disc damage (minor, major and super major)
with recommendations for each.
Our
experience
The Alera system looks more complicated than some of the other
solutions that we have used. However, it produced the best results on troubled
discs based on our test results. Some of the tests we performed were on rental
discs, which often suffer from significant scratches due to frequent use. We could
not play one of the discs we had on two different DVD players, so this was a good
test of the product's capabilities. We first performed the repair procedure using
the supplied wheels and three drops of the bottled solution. After pressing the
Repair button and waiting a minute or so we were finished and ready to begin the
polishing process, which is similar, but uses a different set of polishing wheels.
Once the process was complete, the discs clearly looked better. We then tried
the same troubled disc in our DVD players and it worked without any problems. Conclusion
The DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus™ system is a fine product worthy of consideration
for anyone seeking to repair their 5-inch discs. The performance exceeded our
expectations and fixed all of the scratched discs we had on hand. The price of
the system is clearly a bargain considering it can save a large number of expensive
DVDs in your collection that may have some damage. We found that the kit successfully
repaired many of our test DVDs that would not otherwise play or had problems with
discs errors. Obviously the DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus™ or any other consumer
repair kit cannot fix discs that are warped or have damage to the data layer.
The company claims it can repair 99% of discs and this may be true since all of
the discs we tested did in fact work after the repair and buffing process. We
can certainly recommend this repair system to anyone in need of repairing their
5-inch discs, especially given the excellent performance and relative low-cost
of the product. -
Kevin Nakano |
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