Cleaning/repairing DVDs?

[Unicron]

I need some advice. I recently bought a four disc DVD set of a series, and when I went to watch part of the second disc today my laptop got hung up on what it thought was a "damaged" area. When I was able to get the DVD ejected (after a little effort ), I noticed a sort of black smear on the reading surface. I've had my Macbook for a few years and have never had any issues playing media on it, but the only thing I can think of is that something in the drive could have caused the smear. The first disc, which is the only one I've completely watched and had no problems with, has a perfectly fine playing surface.

Any help and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

If you're going to try cleaning the disc, you'll need optical cloth and lens cleaning fluid, the kind that you spray on spectacles.

Clean radially, from the hub to the edge, not circularly. And gently.

As a last ditch... lukewarm water and kitchen detergent. dab a little on with your finger tips and rub... Gently, you don't want to scratch it, and don't whatever you do, use your fingernails.

Some game shops and DVD rental places do a disc repair thing where they buff scratches out of disc (the disc will look mega scuffed afterwards but will play fine) and expensive ones will remove a fractional layer of the disc...

But since you just bought it, and you don't know for certain that your Macbook was responsible, I'd get a refund or exchange before trying any of that.

 

[Unicron]

Well, I'm tempted to say unfortunately that it's a laptop issue, as I've used this disc before with no problems and no odd stain. It's not scratched or anything, thankfully (and I pray if it gets cleaned it'll stay that way ), and it doesn't make sense that it would have already had that issue with the second disc when I bought it.