Petroleum jelly, furniture wax, Brasso, and shaving foam !!!! I am impressed.
Do you guys know that any wax like surface on the CD or DVD will only obstruct the laser beam and create more issues? The lasers in these players are very weak, and any film like addition on top will only aggravate the issue. All the solutions suggested above are meant to reduce friction, and in laser based drives there is no friction at all !! Nothing touches the disc excepting a laser beam.
The other issue with a wax like cleaning method is that some of the wax will be left on the tray, and that will attract and stick dust like mad. In addition, the heat of the laser beam could melt the wax and get it coated on the lens thereby creating more issues.
Though you can use any method to clean the disc, it must be spotless before being inserted into the player. Buy a professional cleaning solution most of which use some form of isopropyl alcohol or weak detergent.
I have generally found that a few drops of pure drinking water and cleaned with a spotless soft cotton cloth is the best. There are some cloth available that actually lift the dirt off the surface such as those used in spectacles.
If there is a physical scratch on the surface, the way the discs are made, data is not lost unless the scratch is very deep. The outer surface is actually a protective layer, and the data is stored on an inner layer. If the scratch is very deep and the inner layer is also scratched, the data is gone, and no amount of cleaning or waxing will bring the data back. I suspect the wax just fills the scratches and helps the laser beam move forward thinking it reading the surface. You will certainly have a part of the video or music skipped, however small the skip will be.
If using wax is a suggested way, I would prefer to get a link and some professional opinion.
I am sure I will be bashed for this, but I find the solutions offered quite strange.
Cheers
