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Topic: Freezing CDs and DVDs (Read 18735 times) previous topic - next topic
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Freezing CDs and DVDs

I suppose it's cruel to laugh, but in a magazine circulated by Russ Andrews is this...

Quote
Russ's Top Tips

Freezing discs

Customer Mr Harrison of Doncaster range to tell us how much success he'd had with freezing DVD discs as well as CDs. he'd followed Russ's instructions on freeznig CDs (the theory is that it de-stresses the metal layer on the
discs) and enjoyed the improved sound quality, so he tried it out on DVDs too. The result? A much clearer picture, with more accurate, contrasty colours and more detail. Not bad for a free upgrade!

To enhance your discs by freezing them, pop them in a domiestic deep freeze for 72 hours, followed by 24 hours in the fridge to bring them back up to temperature slowly. And don't forget that we can Deep Cruogenically Treat
(DCT) your discs from £1.50 per disc.



I always thought the problem with MPEG encoded video was that the raw bits were just too warm!

Seriously though, it sounds like a great way to reduce the lifespan of your media! I have no evidence for this, but I'm guessing that freezing and then warming could stress bonded plastics.

Cheers,
David.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #1 –
Man, I don't know who to laugh harder at, that guy or the guy who actually does/pays to have it done.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #2 –
The discs are probably OK if liberally smeared with snake-oil prior to freezing.

Cheers, Slipstreem. 

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #3 –
Beltism at its best!

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #4 –
I'm sure you could test this.....rip the disc beforehand, get this freezing done, then re-rip.....I'm guessing it'll be pretty much identical

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #5 –
Enhancing sound/picture quality is obviously total bullshit, but putting CD/DVD into a fridge can really help with damaged discs, I used that a few times to save (create a backup) an otherwise unreadable disc.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #6 –
How/why does that work then? Unless something associated with the process (e.g. wiping the mist off?) closes the scratches somewhat?

Cheers,
David.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #7 –
Put a disc in liquid nitrogen, wait 10 minutes, get it out, smash it on the floor. The whole process sounds great and looks amazing. Very musical.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #8 –
The results depends very much on the type of music.
It works best with Cool Jazz.

I also tried Vivaldi’s Il quattro stagione
L'inverno sounded much better after this treatment.
L'estate sounded worse.
In case of La Primavera and  L'autunno I couldn’t detect any difference

Schuberts Winterreise and Stravinsky's Firebird might also be excellent material for testing.
TheWellTemperedComputer.com

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #9 –
 
I went looking for the article, just to see if it was released on April 1st...  Nope!  The article isn't dated, so I guess it wasn't intended as an April Fool's joke.  Here's what I found:

Quote
At last I have found a series of treatments that, used together, transform the performance of every CD and DVD so much that it is worth all the trouble. So much difference, in fact, that I am eager to treat my entire collection – no small undertaking! In good recordings, the dynamic range seems to increase with sweeter treble and deeper, tighter bass and with lots more information. And much more rhythmic and musical – the music envelopes you as if you are in it rather than observing it. Bad recordings become playable – if not perhaps actually enjoyable!

So what’s the treatment? First, I clean the disc with ReVeel, then freeze it in my deep freeze for at least three days (leaving it for 12 hours in the fridge to warm up slowly). Then I trim the edge with the Audio Desk CD sound improver, then treat both sides in the Nespa CD & DVD Finaliser. Last of all treat it with ReleeS. Simple! It’s a chore, but if I am prepared to treat my entire collection of discs you had better believe I think it’s worth it (good news though – you only have to treat a disc once!)

Don't worry if you can't run to the full treatment for discs. Simply using ReVeel, freezing them and using ReleeS will bring big improvements on their own... plus, our CD upgrade labels take the confusion out of remembering which discs you've treated!


My favorite part is "more rhythmic".    I guess you get an instant dance-mix!   

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #10 –
Quote
...lots more information

I wonder if this "extra information" comes in the form of a casserole recipe. He didn't mention anything about this information being audible, just that there's more information.

You know, I've heard that if you freeze The Dark Side of the Moon, you can detect a really bitchin' guacamole recipe as you play it!

I rather like the treatment he's described, of course. It isn't the slightest bit demented!

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Roseval on
The results depends very much on the type of music.
It works best with Cool Jazz.

I also tried Vivaldi’s Il quattro stagione
L'inverno sounded much better after this treatment.
L'estate sounded worse.
In case of La Primavera and  L'autunno I couldn’t detect any difference
 

You are kidding right?

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #12 –
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
How/why does that work then? Unless something associated with the process (e.g. wiping the mist off?) closes the scratches somewhat?
Purely theoretically speaking, the media could also change shape a bit by the temperature difference. Not much, but maybe enough for the laser beam to go a slightly different way, possibly resulting in a few bits read differently as well, on the lowest level. Or not.
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #13 –
He's not kidding at all. In fact, when you freeze a cool jazz CD, you get cold jazz.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #15 –
I tried this with my Vanilla Ice To the Extreme CD but it just got too cold on track 12 and the particles stopped moving. So.. much... ice...

Also improves graphics on ps2 games
[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\']"We will restore chaos"-Bush on Iraq[/span]

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #16 –
I tried this with a SD card full of photos and they looked much better after freezing and then thawing it.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #17 –
One time, my porn drive crashed, and I stuck it in the freezer then thawed it out and was able to recover my porn.

True story.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #18 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on

I went looking for the article, just to see if it was released on April 1st...  Nope!  The article isn't dated, so I guess it wasn't intended as an April Fool's joke.  Here's what I found:

My favorite part is "more rhythmic".    I guess you get an instant dance-mix!   


This Russ is sooooo great, just ordered a pair of BiFocal-XL KIMBER Speaker Cable Mono, they are only GBP 925 (a piece), just look at this:

A bigger soundstage and better bass than BiFocal-X

   Hyper-pure copper
   Teflon™, titanium dioxide & polyethylene insulation
   BiFocal XL™ 36 VariStrand™ conductors 31mm diameter
   X38R core compound

Bi-wiring loudspeakers can be a good idea – but only if you use a properly designed bi-wire cable. That’s one that uses high quality materials to preserve the signal, and isolates the separate high and low frequencies so they don’t interact and affect each other.

Enter BiFocal-XL. It does all of that with KIMBER performance. You’ll hear a vast soundstage and a sweet, natural and tuneful sound.


In an e-mail Russ guaranteed they work particularly well with Trance & Progressive (slightly less with Techno), more specifically with Lame 3.98b7 MP3's (as tested by him)...

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #19 –
Heres something fun to try, I've never tried it myself but it supposedly works.  Make a copy of a CD then with the burnt copy lay it with the recorded side facing up and tip some beer onto it.  leave it to dry and go moldy then stick it into a CD player and play it.  Instant remix

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #20 –
http://www.russandrews.com/category-CD-DVD...s-PACCECDDV.htm]
Quote
our CD upgrade labels take the confusion out of remembering which discs you've treated! [/b]
What, you mean you can't just pop the disc in the player and immediately hear the difference?


I love this bit - make sure you have a visual cue of which discs have been treated, or just maybe the treatment won't be audible... 

Cheers,
David.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #21 –
Quote from: Slipstreem on
The discs are probably OK if liberally smeared with snake-oil prior to freezing.

Cheers, Slipstreem. 
To quote the lyric of Steve Earle - Snake Oil:

Ladies and gentlemen, attention please
Come in close so everyone can see
I got a tale to tell
A listen don't cost a dime
And if you believe that we're gonna get along just fine

Way too appropriate for this instance.....

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #22 –
well, as it's internet, one could believe, it is one of those many fake-fun sites.
But, audiofools, Joe Average, believe in the green marker CD pen, they believe in freezing Cds, and they wipe their Cd each time before playing in cd-player with a special cloth. I know such persons in real life. At least, this guy and a few others have plenty of nice CDs, but some marked green at the edge

There are speaker developers/sellers, who manufacture 230 V fuses/installations for cleaner voltage/current etc. (and who incidentally produces real great speakers even for audiophiles, but at reasonable prices!)
As I or you know them in real life, you cannot even start arguing about snake oil, like we can do here.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #23 –
The Russ Andrews site certainly isn't a joke.

Browse around and you'll find plenty of products that most HA regulars would praise - e.g. see the headphones and earphones sections. Some of the CDs are great too. His latest blog post raises an issue interesting that is well known in the power industry, though existing electricity meters mean that the cost is born by the industry overall, rather than the individual consumer (for now), so he's wrong on the cost front at least.

You can't discount the site it as a joke, or the product of a fool.

Cheers,
David.

Freezing CDs and DVDs

Reply #24 –
I guess you're talking about the Watts vs VA argument regarding CFL "energy saving" lamps, David.

Despite having been a qualified electronics engineer for my whole adult life, it hadn't even crossed my mind to take the power factor into account. I'd mistakenly assumed that they were power factor corrected, even if crudely. This appears not to be the case.

When an "energy saving" lamp consumes 50% more power than the rated wattage leads you to believe and seems to output dramatically less light than its rated equivalent filament lamp, a person might start to believe that it's all a big con.

Having used a W/VA meter to confirm Mr Andrews' findings for myself only last night, I'm inclined to agree with him on this one. The man is certainly no fool!

The measurement I carried out was on a 26Watt (100Watt equivalent) CFL that I use in my kitchen. I bought it as a replacement for a 60Watt filament lamp having already been aware of the lower perceived light output of the CFL lamps. After just a few months of occasional usage, the perceived light output has already dropped below that of a 60Watt filament lamp and it consumes 45VA as opposed to the 60Watt filament lamp that consumes (surprise, surprise) 60VA.

It's costing me personally slightly less than half as much to run as the 60Watt filament lamp, but the energy consumed at the generating end is still three-quarters of what it was for the 60Watt filament lamp. Where the heck do these figures for "between four and five times as efficient" as quoted on the Compact fluorescent lamp WIKI come from?!

Add to this the fact that electricity cost per unit when purchased from the supplier here in the UK has approximately doubled in the past 12 months and it now costs me just as much to run the same CFL as it did the original filament lamp last year. The cost of running everything else has, of course, doubled. Is the hike in unit price partly in response to the W vs VA discrepancy of the widespread usage of CFL which means that we pay for less than we actually use for lighting?

Cheers, Slipstreem.