In response to a statement made by a writer for the New York Times that DVD technology is clearly superior in every way to VHS tape technology, I suggested that perhaps the writer lived on another planet. My point was that I still have tapes from over twenty years ago that are watchable, whereas I have DVDs that unwatchable on a regular basis from Netflix, and even have a Simpsons season set from two years ago that contains one unplayable disc. I was advised to try out one of the DVD cleaning solutions that are available on the market to see if perhaps it would change my mind about the reliability of DVD technology. I decided to go with the Memorex Opti-Fix Pro that allows both cleaning and repair of not just DVD discs, but CD and even video game discs. Well, do I still stand by my contention that VHS tapes have a longer shelf life?
The jury is out, to be honest. The Memorex Opti-Fix Pro is easy enough to use, that’s for sure. First you must decide whether the disc merely needs a good cleaning, or should it be repaired. Either way involves placing colored pads into a motorized mechanism, lightly soaking those pads with the included solution (a different solution for cleaning and repairing) and pressing a button to the process can be completed. This process of cleaning or repairing a defective disc takes about a minute in total. I tried the Memorex Opti-Fix on both DVDs I burned on my computer, as well as professional produced DVDS. I also tried both cleaning and repairing, usually trying cleaning first and if that didn’t work, I went through the additional step of repair. The very disc was one that my DVD player no longer would even try to play. It wasn’t a matter of skipping or freezing; the player came up with a message telling me the disc could be played at all. I first tried simply cleaning with the Memorex machine. Then I popped it back in. Hey, what do you know, there were four King of the Hill episodes I had taped off the TV onto a DVD recorder. First time out and the Opti-Fix Pro came through like a, well, you know. A pro. The second time I tried a disc that I knew was playable, but began to freeze about an hour into The Leech Woman as done by MST3K. First I tried just cleaning it. No go, it began to freeze at the exact same point. So I tried the repair solution. Alas, it remains unwatchable.
I’ve tried the Memorex Opti-Fix Pro DVD cleaner and repair device on several other damaged discs and it’s working out to a roughly 75% success rate. And I must add that my success rate is apparently significantly higher than others, as this machine gets shockingly low ratings, but then again it is quite possible that those reviews were written by people paid to downgrade. (A sad, but increasingly relevant bit of advice is to never take capsule reviews too seriously, as many writers make some decent money by being paid to write up one product or denigrate another on these so-called consumer review sites.) Discs that I feared were gone forever are now actually watchable; others have been relegated to garbage can, unfortunately. I stick by my contention that VHS tapes were more reliable over the long term.
