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NEWS
September, 2005
Game Industry News / by Greg Crowe
Compact disc repair has been a concern for gamers for as
long as they started putting the games out in that format,
about ten years ago. Back then, if a CD got scratched so much
that it could no longer be read, your only recourse was to
throw it out and get a new one.
After a few years, disc repair technology became accessible
to the general public. Unfortunately, these first few attempts
either produced inconsistent results, or required massive
amounts of physical labor (and what gamer wants that?). As
the years went on, the fact remained that you were either
going to get a device that didn’t do perfect repairs
every time, one that took forever to run or a more reliable
system that cost you thousands of dollars.
Enter the Disc-Go-Pod Plus. This is a well-built system that
repairs a single disc in one step, with no user effort needed
once the process starts. It is durable enough to repair disc
after disc without falling apart or needing complicated maintenance.
And it does this for under $500.
Setting up is easy. Just pour the polishing solution into
the well in the back where the pump is. Then, you plug it
in, clamp in the CD, close the lid and hit the start button.
That’s it. And in five minutes or so, it is done. Just
take the CD out, spray it with the finishing solution (which
is mostly just for cleaning the remnants of polish that the
Pod leaves, but they insist is an important final step), and
wipe it with the cloth, and you are done.
Sometimes the damage is heavier than one pass will fix. If
you know that going in, you can hit the start button twice,
and then it will run for about 10 minutes. If the damage is
too much for that, then you can just run it again. The folks
at Disc-Go-Tech say that you can put the same CD through the
machine for about 100 5-minute runs before it will finally
wear through the plastic to the foil. Scratches on a CD look
deep, but in reality most have a depth of only fractions of
a millimeter.
And clean-up is a bit painful, but not overly so. When you
are done with disc repair for the day, you must empty the
polish out of the reserve tank. Unfortunately, there is no
easy way to do this, as the tank is attached to the whole
device. You have to lift and tilt the entire assembly to get
the polish out of there. Then, you fill the reserve tank with
water, and run the Pod for about 30 seconds. Since pushing
the start/stop button begins a 5-minute cycle, you have to
push it again after 30 seconds to get it to stop. Then drain
out all the water (again by tipping the whole thing), and
let it dry.
Since the polish costs money to replace (albeit reasonable
amounts of money), they suggest upon cleaning to pour it out
into a sealable container. Also, they say that you should
top off the tank with water every 4-5 repair cycles, but they
aren’t too specific as to when you should stop doing
this and add more polish instead. An FAQ on their website
indicates that you should try changing the polish if the disc
you are repairing doesn’t come out repaired, so maybe
you’ll just have to wing it.
In the box with the Pod Plus is eight ounces (about two tanks-full)
of polish, which should last a while, depending upon how much
cutting with water you manage. Also included are two replacement
scrubbing pads, which probably won’t be needed for a
while. You also get a lint-free cleaning cloth and one ounce
of cleaning spray, which the bottle claims is good for 400
discs. There is also a piece that the owner’s manual
doesn’t cover in the slightest, but I believe is an
adapter for three-inch CDs (just use it instead of the normal
clamp.)
We took a scratched up disk that got messed up by rubbing
against others while traveling. It was so bad that the CD
could no longer be read. We tried this CD in another repair
system and guess what? It only made it worse. Now, when we
dropped it into the Disc-Go-Pod, it took two cycles, but came
out looking clean as new. And we could read data off the CD
once again.
While the $495 price tag might seem a little high to most
video gamers, if you play a lot of games and they get some
pretty rough treatment, a few runs of the Pod Plus may end
up saving you money. But for the retailer who needs to maintain
rental stock, this device can be a godsend. It is also possible
to make a decent amount of money performing a disc repair
service for customers.
The Disc-Go-Pod Plus is durable, consistent, and easy to
use. It is built for anyone who has a large library of CD/DVDs
that get a lot of heavy use.
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