Has anybody ever run into scratch-resistant CDs? I know it wouldn’t be cost-efficient, but I’m surprised that in a world of $10,000 speakers, $200 basketball sneakers, and $7 cigarettes, we don’t have anything like lexan CDs, however costly it would be.
My experience with CDs is that you have to scratch them up pretty damn good for it to matter. I’d say we already have scratch-resistant CDs.
And since when does lexan not scratch?
Slight hijack: does anyone remember way back in the day of the first CD-ROM drives, when the CDs remained in small, tight-fitting cases that allowed the player to access the data but wouldn’t allow Joe User to scratch it up (much like floppy discs)? What happened to those? I was hoping they would try them again for DVDs since every single DVD I get from Blockbuster (it seems) is scratched all to hell. Did the industry get the bright idea that consumers were careful? Because they’re not.
BTW, Google’s first hit on “lexan CDs” is a page from GE’s 1994 annual report, where they say they are going to make lexan CDs. Guess they never got around to it (or maybe they did?). link
chris: my very first CD-ROM drive had one of those. Problem was, they were expensive, and people didn’t like having to buy one for every single CD if it was really to protect anything.
Sony MiniDiscs use the same principle, though.
Regarding DVDs–they do gt damaged much easier from scratches than CDs, because the data stream that the laser reads is much smaller than an CD. A scratch that might not affect CD could affect DVD.
Really? A good 10-20% of my discs skip somewhere. Then again, that has to do with the way I keep them. Normally stacked on a table without cases. I really should change me ways…
Eh? CDs are made from Lexan. That GE report is simply talking about “a new process to improve quality and reduce cycle times in manufacturing Lexan® polycarbonate for compact disks.”
Lexan is just a brand name for polycarbonate, which is the material all CDs are made from. I’m not saying they’re all Lexan, as they presumably don’t all use GE’s branded material, but to all intents and purposes it’s the same stuff.