Blu-ray Lens Cleaner?

[HRC]

What do you guys recommend to clean the PS3 with? Just a regular CD/DVD Lens cleaner? I bought a new one but wanna be sure before I use it.

[Jokerboy649]

I just use a toothbrush and scrub the lens...

[WickyWoo]

Don't use them period. No dust should get in there, and all those things do is ruin your lasers if they scratch them.

I don't even think they'd work with a slotload, probably jam anyway

[HRC]

Originally Posted by Jokerboy649

I just use a toothbrush and scrub the lens...

Your a bright one, huh?

[HRC]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Don't use them period. No dust should get in there, and all those things do is ruin your lasers if they scratch them.

I don't even think they'd work with a slotload, probably jam anyway

Really? I mean I'm not having any problems yet but my machine is in a smokers house. What would you recommend when and if the player starts having trouble?


Thanks for the tip though.

[WickyWoo]

Really? I mean I'm not having any problems yet but my machine is in a smokers house. What would you recommend when and if the player starts having trouble?

That you don't use them period, and try to keep your system away from the smoke. That little brush wouldn't clean off the tar anyway, you have to pull the drive and HAVE A PROFESSIONAL clean the lens. It is far easier to screw up a blu lense than a DVD or CD lens. Rememeber that anyone but an authorized tech opening your deck can void your warranty

[Bobby Henderson]

Tell the smoker to go smoke outside.

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Tell the smoker to go smoke outside.

agreed. all smokers outside! that includes the rare times i do.

not good for any electronics let alone anybody

[Jokerboy649]

even better, tell them to quit, they'll live longer.

[X-Ninja]

Originally Posted by Jokerboy649

even better, tell them to quit, they'll live longer.

I was gonna say to kill them. Oh well, You guys are too positive for me.

As for the lens cleaner, i personally wouldn't stick one in the ps3. I would probably just call up sony and get them to do it. Id rather pay the 150 dollars for sony to clean my lens then have a lens cleaner break it beyond repair, you know?

[Shinma]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

That you don't use them period, and try to keep your system away from the smoke. That little brush wouldn't clean off the tar anyway, you have to pull the drive and HAVE A PROFESSIONAL clean the lens. It is far easier to screw up a blu lense than a DVD or CD lens. Rememeber that anyone but an authorized tech opening your deck can void your warranty

Not that I'm advocating any non-professional to try cleaning their blu-ray drives before any approved tools comes out on the market, but I'm curious as to why it would be easier to screw up the blu-ray lens? As far as I know the vast majority of DVD and CD combo lenses are plastic (I assume polycarbonate for the increased index), but that the majority of blu-ray lenses were compression molded glass. I believe that Sony, and maybe others, have a solution out there that is plastic now, though few companies started this way. Of the materials I know in use, I can't think of any reason why cleaning would be worse for the blu-ray material. Assuming the lens is AR coated, though I don't know if they choose to incur this cost, even the coating should be reasonably resistant since we are talking wavelengths significantly above 300nm..... actually the plastics would degrade much more rapidly under a cleaner than would an AR coating on glass. If the optics are AR coated plastic, that is a little less durable, but I would hope not so much different from the bare plastic surface. Now, one thing I know is a problem is that alignments are insanely critical for blu-ray because the numeric aperture is so high, so if the mounting isn't "solid" enough, I could see alignment issues instead of actual material problems. BtW, I haven't looked in the latest PS3s to see if they have moved from a two head system to a one head system. Early blu-ray drives used a CD/DVD combo and a separate blu-ray head. My impression is that they have since combined the read heads into one, and all three of the lasers into a single T0 can. In that case, I would think the manufacturing tolerances, dispersion characteristics, and thermal expansion would make a plastic option difficult, but I believe that is what they will be, or are, using. This option will certainly require either split paths or a hologram (most compact) to correct for wavefront distortions from the different wavelengths. I would think the hologram would be on the laser side of the objective lens to reduce the incident angles, leaving a standard (though high optical power asphere) lens as the last surface. This should make cleaning no worse. However, if the hologram is the last surface, you don't even want to think about cleaning it, as they will grab and trap particles from anything that comes in contact, and any kind of fluid that doesn't evaporate off will change their functionality.

[Beta-guy]

I'm a computer tech, I've cleaned computers of smokers, and one thing I'd recommend, is habitual smokers should open thier computer (once it's off) and look inside, look at the CPU fan, the tar build up in some of the computers is down right disgusting, after trying to clean a computer filled with tar, I dare you to light another cigarette, and not think of what it is doing your your body...

after cleaning my first smokers computer, I vowed that I'd never smoke. I've hated the anti-smoking ads, they are just annoying, but seeing it effect computers, causing over heating issues, getting that gunk in the power supply... it shortens the life of the computer, and that is why I'll never smoke...

[MatintheHat]

When I first started receiving emails from Samsung in regards to problems I was having with my bd-p1200 one of the suggestions was to use a "standard lens cleaner". So I bough one at K-Mart - the kind with six little brushes on it - a "Memorex CD/DVD Optidisc". Didn't fix anything on the 1200 but didn't hurt anything either (also cleaned all my other drives including a dvd-rom drive I thought was almost dead and apparently it just had a dirty lens as it works like new now).

As I was ready to chuck the 1200 out the window anyway, I didn't mind giving it a try; so if Samsung said it was okay...

[WickyWoo]

Not that I'm advocating any non-professional to try cleaning their blu-ray drives before any approved tools comes out on the market, but I'm curious as to why it would be easier to screw up the blu-ray lens?

Shorter wavelength, lower tolerance for possible screwups

[Shinma]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Shorter wavelength, lower tolerance for possible screwups

Sorry, but it doesn't necessarily work that way. A truly opaque obscuration scaled as a function of F/# produces exactly the same scaled diffractive effects. If you have a 2% obscuration on a red or blue laser with the same F/#, they will produce the same spot shapes with the errors scaled. Neither the percentage change in your spot size, nor your Strehl ratio should be any different. Since the spot is in the image plane, and the input beam is nominally collimated, the spot shape is essentially a Fourier transform of the "plane" containing the lens. The Fourier transform has a simple scaling with wavelength, but not a different shape. I will grant that some materials may partially transmit at one wavelength and not the other, and that if the contaminate does transmit at both wavelength the contribution to phase error is more significant for the shorter wavelength, but this shouldn't really be a factor. Exceptions would be when the size of the particles are similar to the wavelength. You would have different scatter effects (more of a stray light issue), but still approximate the same spot size and shape.

Honestly, I design optics for wavelengths between 193nm to 10um on a weekly basis, so I'm pretty familiar with the impacts of a change in wavelength. If there really is an added sensitivity in the system, it should be related either to the numeric aperture being so high or the system being so at the edge of being manufacturable that there isn't as much of a tolerance budget. I probably wouldn't have commented (been purely lurking for over a year) except that my curiosity was raised by the cleaning comment. I know exactly how difficult it is to combine three wavelengths through the same optical path in a system with that high an NA, so I was curious if there is something utilized at the output surface of which I wasn't aware. Unless they have moved the hologram to this surface (which would surprise me a little), I don't see why this would be the case.

Anyway, at this point I don't think I'm contributing much. The real point of the original question was to find out if it is safe to clean the lens, and the warnings against damage caused by smoke are probably more helpful. I don't see a fundamental reason why a cleaning kit should be a problem in the future, but I agree that cleaning the drive yourself would be a very risky and foolish undertaking on such a higher dollar piece of equipment at this stage.

[gpriore]

Originally Posted by HRC

What do you guys recommend to clean the PS3 with? Just a regular CD/DVD Lens cleaner? I bought a new one but wanna be sure before I use it.

The laser lenses of practically all cheap disc players are made of plastic, which can therefore easily be damaged if you attempt to clean them. Also, since they are made of plastic, their lifespan will be horrific. Even if you never attempt to clean them, they will become 'permanently' tarnished on their own with age. The laser lenses of a truly fine quality disc player, such as the brand Oppo, is made of 100% pure genuine glass. As a result, these disc players have true intrinsic value, because they can actually last forever with no problems whatsoever; a highly used one will still hold its' value with literally no depreciation. If it ever seems like disc playback quality is slightly reduced, all you need to do is open the system up and clean the laser lens as if they were eyeglasses, using a cotton swap or q-tip with rubbing alcohol.

[dreckigerlump]

Hi,

I have a Samsung USB Blu-ray Writer SE-506 that doesn’t play any Blu-ray Discs any more (it only plays CD and DVD). That’s why I thought that there’s a problem with the laser lens and bought a laser lens cleaner from hama (German manufacturer, I live there, has good reviews).

But that doesn’t help either because the disc isn’t being recognized, it’s exactly the same as with every other Blu-ray disc that I try to play.

Isn’t there any other option? I don’t want to buy a completely new player.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

Originally Posted by dreckigerlump

I have a Samsung USB Blu-ray Writer SE-506 that doesn’t play any Blu-ray Discs any more (it only plays CD and DVD). That’s why I thought that there’s a problem with the laser lens and bought a laser lens cleaner from hama (German manufacturer, I live there, has good reviews).

But that doesn’t help either because the disc isn’t being recognized, it’s exactly the same as with every other Blu-ray disc that I try to play.

Isn’t there any other option? I don’t want to buy a completely new player.

Thanks for this post. I'm having the exact same issue with my Blu player (won't play Blu's, only DVD's). Haven't tried to clean the laser yet, but based on what you're saying that may not work anyway.

Originally Posted by gpriore

The laser lenses of practically all cheap disc players are made of plastic, which can therefore easily be damaged if you attempt to clean them. Also, since they are made of plastic, their lifespan will be horrific. Even if you never attempt to clean them, they will become 'permanently' tarnished on their own with age.

This is very useful info. - Thanks for the post.