Cleaning freezing/skipping 4k discs??

[metalgrinch]

Hi all. So my 4k copy of Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder has been skipping and freezing like crazy. Granted, i'll be honest right off the bat, I paid $3 for it at a thrift shop and the case looked somewhat scratched. Anyway, I put the disc in, start watching and probably around 10 minutes in it starts skipping and freezing. I did the usual wiping with a cotton cloth, no change. Was a bit more meticulous the second time and used my breath on it and wiped and no change. Then used some glass cleaner with the cotton cloth, still no change. The only thing I can think to use is maybe alcohol?? Although I don't know if that could damage anything. Upon inspection, the disc looks clean but when breathing on it I do see some hairline scratches that do show themselves, but it seems no matter what I'm doing the disc seems beyond repair.

If there are any other methods you guys know of I can try it. I've had random freezes happen with brand new 4k discs in the past but a quick wipe usually clears it up. I know these things are a lot more delicate than blu-rays considering how much more info is on them and also that the discs are the same size. Thanks for any info!

[Kyle15]

If cleaning it does nothing and it's grime-free you're out of luck. Most definitely the scratches.

[meremortal]

Price is usually the deterrent for me not buying many uhds these days but the extremely thin protective layers don't help as well. It'd be nice if the discs could have been engineered to at least be on par with regular blu technology as far as scratch resistance goes. Blus generally are pretty strong in that regard for people who already take care of their stuff. It might take a little effort for anyone on these boards to actually scratch one.

But uhd is more fragile and thus more worrisome. I can accidentally scratch dvds even cleaning them with a clean microfiber cloth or storing them in paper sleeves, though luckily they're just cosmetic; you'd generally have to have reasonably deep scratches for dvd playback errors while blu and uhd can be the tiniest surface scratches to cause chaos.

[rroeder]

You could try warm water and dish soap maybe is has some type of residue on it but yeah probably the scratches

[Moonlight Shadow]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Price is usually the deterrent for me not buying many uhds these days but the extremely thin protective layers don't help as well. It'd be nice if the discs could have been engineered to at least be on par with regular blu technology as far as scratch resistance goes. Blus generally are pretty strong in that regard for people who already take care of their stuff. It might take a little effort for anyone on these boards to actually scratch one.

But uhd is more fragile and thus more worrisome. I can accidentally scratch dvds even cleaning them with a clean microfiber cloth or storing them in paper sleeves, though luckily they're just cosmetic; you'd generally have to have reasonably deep scratches for dvd playback errors while blu and uhd can be the tiniest surface scratches to cause chaos.

4K UHD discs have exactly the same protective layer than standard Blu-ray Discs. Hoever the data pits are much smaller so if the laser isn't perfectly aligned it's much more likely to lose track when it's disturbed by scratches.
If you have a problem with lightly sceatched 4K discs it's your player that causes the problem, not the discs.
I have NEVER had a disc skip from a few scratches.

[Kyle15]

What you're forgetting is it also depends on where the scratches are. Concentric circular scratches no matter how minor can be a kiss of death. It's also possible the disc is just defective and that's why the owner donated it in the first place, scratches only coincidental.

[benricci]

Your disc is scratched. Just replace it and move on with your life.

[ste71]

My copy of Suspiria (Synapse) got scratched in transit - it always froze at the same place. I cleaned it with glass cleaner, works like a charm now.

[emailking]

Originally Posted by ste71

My copy of Suspiria (Synapse) got scratched in transit - it always froze at the same place. I cleaned it with glass cleaner, works like a charm now.

Like just a $10 of it? Or an expensive kind.

[ste71]

Originally Posted by emailking

Like just a $10 of it? Or an expensive kind.

Just cheap stuff. Im in the UK, cost me a quid!