Somewhat on, somewhat OFF topic...dust on discs before recording.

[gastrof]

How serious is it when there are a few specs of dust on a disc that's put into the machine to record on? (On the recording side, naturally.)

The stupid thing is that I've been making DVDs for well over a year now, and only now started noticing dust on some discs as I put them in.

I'm just wondering if it ever wrecks the recording.

Recently I had a recording go smoothly, only to have the disc jam up on playback...turned out there'd been a spec of something on it.

It was a RW, so I flicked the speck, erased the disc and tried again. Second recording played back flawlessly. Thing is, it'd given no "failed" warning during the recording the first time, yet the recording was no good.

How bad is a few dust specs on a blank disc about to be recorded on?

(I wonder how many R discs may have been made that'll turn out to be no good when I go to play them.)

[MungoJerrie]

Although I don't have an answer, I had a similar problem with a large fingerprint on an RW disc. It recorded fine; I didn't test it and let my friend borrow it. He told me it froze on playback and gave it back. I looked at the bottom and it didn't look obscenely dirty although there was a fingerprint or two on it. I tried it and it froze. I cleaned it, re-burned it and it was fine. I guess I'll be looking at the bottom a little more closely now, but dust, that's surprising.

[lafos]

In many cases, burning a disc only gives an error if there is a framing or sync error during the burn process. Computer programs have an option to verify the data after a write (Nero, Roxio, etc.), but my Toshiba RS-TX20 doesn't have that.

A small speck of dust or other foreign matter can be just enough to block a few bits, and that could be enough to confuse the error-correction on playback. If the disc is dirty enough, it could result in a burn failure.

I buy blank discs on spindles, keep the case closed, and still inspect the burn surface. I keep a can of air and a microfiber cloth around to clean rewritables before burning. Even then, I can get an occasional glitch, such as pixelation, on my discs.

[gastrof]

It's the ones that've been taken out of the spindles and are "on their own" for a week or four as I'm recording on them that are the problems.

Suppose a better way of keeping them in between would be in order....

Gonna have to think about this. :(

[lafos]

I use disk sleeves that have clear plastic on the front and what appears to be Tyvek backing. The backing doesn't scratch the disk, and seems to do a good job of keeping the burn surface clean. The front has a slot, so the disk can be removed by putting a finger in the center hole. No need to touch the disk except at the edges.

I don't recall who produced the ones I like best, but Staples sells sleeves that are very similar "25 double-sided CD/DVD sleeves". Each can hold two disks.