Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue - Gizmodo Comments

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

mor10 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:56:53 EDT

Don't click on this video. You end up giving the creator money for a bogus tip. This does NOT work. There is a huge uproar in the MetaCafe community over this user - he posts bogus advise and gets sites like the Giz to feature him so he can earn producer rewards.

mor10

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

CAPNSIGNAL — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 01:45:42 EDT

I tried this with an iPhone and it works great. Just rub the disc with your Apple iPhone in a circular motion and the scratches disappear as if by magic! The iPhone even removes scratches on bananas. You have rub those in an up-and-down motion though.

CAPNSIGNAL

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

toyotaboy — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:43:54 EDT

It.. sorta works, not bad for fruit. If you want something that works a bit better, try using "brasso", which is intended for polishing brass, but also does a great job on clear plastics.

toyotaboy

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

king_of_fools — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:39:06 EDT

I'd say skip all steps except for the last one and you should be good.

king_of_fools

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

whitenerdy — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:47:06 EDT

man,I don't think Taggart will be fallin' for no banana in his tail pipe no more! ...

whitenerdy

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

almostinfamous — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:24:36 EDT

@wow3dset: God.

almostinfamous

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

magnification — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:41:34 EDT

I tried it. It isn't the greatest solution but It did get it a little bit better looking than it originally was. Hopefully now FYE will take it.

magnification

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

kingwallace — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:12:40 EDT

Alright guys, I tried this and it worked! All of the small scratches on my CD were gone, and the only one that remained was a very large scratch, which was noticeably smaller after being banana'd.

kingwallace

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

LinuxGalore — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:04:15 EDT

WD-40 or light machine oil I find works for recovering data on scratched CD/DVD's too

LinuxGalore

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

wow3dset — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:30:55 EDT

hmm, so who do I sue when this non-ergonomic cleaning device gives me carpal tunnel?

wow3dset

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Fierock — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:23:15 EDT

"and its shape that fits so well into a human hand AND points the curve of the banana into the mouth when held properly"

@qbrad: this is also proof that God intended for man to receive fellatio.

But regarding scratches on the disk, once its scratched the damage has already been done so buffing out the scratches only causes more potential damage. You may want a nice shiny looking surface, but the onluy reason to wipe it is to remove grease, dust or other residue.

Fierock

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

jonb4more — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:34:38 EDT

finally something useful and non-apple.

jonb4more

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

ludwigk — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:24:46 EDT

@FredicvsMaximvs: I want to repeat what Fred is saying here. DVD's are made of polycarbonate, which will erode over time if treated with glass cleaners, especially those containing ammonia, like Windex. You need to use a cleaning solution that is safe on plastics.

Further, DVD's are "less intuitive" when it comes to scratches and performance. DVD pits are around 1.3 micrometers, and are read with a 650 nm wavelength laser. So things that cause disruption on that level tend to matter more to DVD readability than visible scratches, which may be too coarse to actually interfere with disc reading.

In short: Rub your DVD's with banana? Why not.. go nuts.. unless bananas contain some organic solvents. Best feed a few bananas through a gas chromatograph to see what's going on.

Clean afterwards with Windex? No!, use a good plastic grade cleaning solution.

ludwigk

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Tedinasia — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:50:06 EDT

So how many fruits & veggies did he try before he set on bananas ?
Gotta get a life / girlfriend if your spending your friday nights alone in your room with fruit & scratched cds...

Tedinasia

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Altanader — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:35:19 EDT

Probably the circular motion is to get the banana in the grooves.
My personal cure is pledge or toothpaste.
Id be too afraid that banana bits would get in my cd player.

Altanader

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Balance_In_Life — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:48:58 EDT

Personally i use toothpaste. I have found it works wonders.

Balance_In_Life

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

FredicvsMaximvs — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:16:11 EDT

I'm sure the banana does a lovely job of filling in the scratches, but no thanks on the "window cleaner." The ammonia in that stuff etches plastic. You're probably doing more damage to your disks in the long run with this method.

FredicvsMaximvs

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

desimal — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:58:23 EDT

At least with a watermelon you can do 50 cds at once.

desimal

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

banmojo — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:57:16 EDT

Hmmmm, rubbing a cloth (abrasive) on a scratched disc for "a few minutes" smooths out the scratches (with OR without bananas, btw) ?? Who woulda thunk it?

banmojo

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Mike918 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:33:47 EDT

MMM well i already try this and it doesnt work just like the video but definitely take off some scratches =P

Mike918

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Mike918 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:22:34 EDT

I am going to try this in the name of science (and i dont have anything to do)i will tell you if it works

Mike918

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

NicleT — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:58:53 EDT

Hey! it also works with videotapes!!

@AFROABDUL
Crunchy Peanut Butter, of course.

NicleT

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

afroabdul — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:49:12 EDT

I've done this with Peanut Butter after a recommendation from a friend. It works. For reals. You can do the circular motions because you are basically buffing it.

afroabdul

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

RemyRed — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:35:12 EDT

"It even leaves your disks smelling like fresh cut Banana! Order your kit now for the low price of only $19.95 and we'll throw in some background music in our next demonstration!"

I usually get my scratches out by burning a new copy and add the old one to my coaster collection.

RemyRed

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Hunty — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:31:21 EDT

for eating!! Of course!!

Hunty

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

bluedot — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:26:14 EDT

Or, more likely... he first filmed the last part of the clip, with the new clean disk... then scratched it and did the whole banana work on it. A little editing magic (i.e. reverse the order of clips) and voila!

Certainly, the better way to fix scratched disks would be to turn back time... but time machines that fly and run on bananas and other garbage won't happen until 2015 of course.

bluedot

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

qbrad — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:25:40 EDT

@jibbly: Not Growing Pains, man... It's from Kirk's newfound Christian website stuff. His Australian bedfellow makes remarks about the evidence of Intelligent Design and how a banana is proof of said design because of its "perforated" peel that so easily comes off cleanly, and its shape that fits so well into a human hand AND points the curve of the banana into the mouth when held properly.

qbrad

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

BZATWORK — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:16:04 EDT

Time for someone out there to confirm the results. Anyone? Anyone?

BZATWORK

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Justapspfan — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:13:52 EDT

I dont know about you guys but I like to use Watermelons to cleand my CD's

Justapspfan

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Atrocious — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:04:18 EDT

I was taught to defend myself against a man carrying a banana. Could be worse though. If he'd used red currants the tiger would have probably just have re-scratched the disc.

Atrocious

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

jibbly — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:59:43 EDT

Jibbly says Charlie and QBrad are totally awesome for picking up on a Growing Pains reference.

jibbly

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

qbrad — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:52:14 EDT

Charlie, I think I'm the only one who got the Kirk Cameron ref there. Nice one.

qbrad

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

GoPadge — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:43:22 EDT

@michelinman85: Looking at the logos on the inner edge of the disc, if it's a different disc, he at least was smart enough to use a similar CD.

GoPadge

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

SneakerFiend — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:36:39 EDT

@michelinman85: Well its true i would've liked to see the video if it wouldn't have been spliced/edited. He could've also done some major editing or filmed a CD with a gree stick going through the middle and just moved it over. Or just gone the easy way and gotten another CD.

@logikgr: ROFL Mr. Miyague

SneakerFiend

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

Crackmonk — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:27:16 EDT

@bigb252: What does that have to do with any? So he's emo. bfd.

Crackmonk

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

barrywe — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:21:14 EDT

Wait, so the banana did the miraculous cleaning and the window cleaner just sorta "helped"? Really?

barrywe

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

logikgr — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:08:37 EDT

Holy crap! That ACTUALLY works!

logikgr

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

michelinman85 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:06:46 EDT

Thats a chain.

michelinman85

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

bigb252 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:59:33 EDT

Did you see the big cut on his right arm (our left) in the beginning parts of the video?

bigb252

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

logikgr — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:52:37 EDT

@rentahero1: Wax on, wax off.

logikgr

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

michelinman85 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:52:33 EDT

Has any other person actually tried this...better yet...filmed it WITHOUT cutting away or splicing the vid? I just cant imagine this working with a banana and it coming out THAT clean. Do I think it's practical...yes..but there has got to be better footage of the process, there is no way the disk he started with is the same disc he ended with. Thoughts?

michelinman85

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

rentahero1 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:41:24 EDT

This guy is "special" -- doesn't he know you should NEVER rub a disc in circular motions? Rub center to edge on every disc, people!

rentahero1

Scratched Disc? Banana to the Rescue

andrebasso — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:36:45 EDT

Do I have to repeat this process when the banana "goo" ie, sugars and starches begin to fall off and separate from the CD??

LOL.

andrebasso