All Frosted CD are not created equal!
 

I bought a pack of 100CD's today and was happy to find not one, but two frosted CD sandwiching the pack. This was great because my test frosted CD is pretty scratch up right now. I took off the scratch one and tried the new one - warped. Ok, it happens. It was scratching against the casing for the CD motor something awful. No problem, the next one. Same thing! Yikes, this is getting to be a problem! I don't know if anyone else found the same thing. I have one more frosted CD to try from a spindle pack of DVD's. I hope this is the one!

CORRECT.

Some CD spacers are from source other than the CD-R production run. These are identifiable sometimes by small cutouts on the outer edge and molding marks on the surface. These are not optically true, not mechanically true and will give you a lot of grief.

Other clear CD spacers are a layer of a CD-R diverted from actual production which might have failed a quality test or simply diverted to make up a set number of spacers. Whatever, these are more likely to be optically true. They can sometimes be identified by a trace of the guide track being visible on one surface. These are good stock for making your own gg disks. You dress the surface which has the guide track on it. This surface is seasily found by rubbing across the guide track witha soft cloth. On the guide track side, the guide tracks partially polish off.

These clear disks are also found in some DVD+R packs. I found them in a Lazer brand pack.

CD-R spacers which are translucent white may not perform well, especially if they are of a molded origin. If the opacity is through the entire material of the disk and not confined to one surface, there is too much dispersion of the image through the disk and the result will be a soft indistinct image. If they dont run true, you get a moving focal plane which produces both soft focus and interlace artifacts.

some time ago i suggested to use (instead of frosted CD) frosted window foil, like somtime is used in offices so you cannot see thru, but light is wisible. kind of mate glass. yo can buy it in any store where you can find other adhesive fooils for "home". it looks very interesting. and can mimic frosted CD perfectly. you cannot find the difference (i'm talking about GOOD frosted CD)

will try to find a link to that pages.

filip

i just founded:

take a look!

http://www.moorefilms.com/filip.htm

with courtesy of taylor moore!
(he published my pics on his server)

filip

So does that work well (enough) Filip?

I've mentioned the GG I’ve made, a clear CD (just polished a CD until all silver coating came off) and put one layer of tracing paper on it with a glue spray. It looses a bit more light but the image is very sharp.
I wonder if the window foil (and also the frosted CD) gets a sharp image because the structure is a bit rough.

I'd prefer the foil because the tracing paper gets dirty after a while.

I got the brightest picture by graining the CD with very fine sand paper (waterproof , nr.800). But the pattern was too irregular across the CD, so the image was flickering.
Maybe we can find a way to do this better. I'm thinking about a sanding machine with a plane (custom made) bigger than the CD, so you just hold the disk in one place.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : So does that work well (enough) Filip? -->>>

for me - perfect. picture si sharp. no problems. structure is irregular and you cannot see any repetable lines in the picture. but - it's so cheap that you can test it for yourself. ind you can cut out as many cds as you want. no need to buy 100pcs to hav just ONE frosted CD.

filip

Window foile (aka: contact paper)
 

has anyone shot any footage with this setup. I'm curious to see the results, as my own attempts (even with a very rough sanded disk) look pretty good. this looks even better..

I am going to look into the clear foil stick-ons. They look really good. The frosted CD I use for testing isn't perfectly round. I can tell when the motor is starting up on the CD, it wobbles slightly, but after it hits full speed, I cannot tell. Still I would like to find one that is a perfect circle without warps - so that means I might have to go the ClearFoil route and polish down a CD.

Bob Hart : sir, it amazes me the extent of your knowledge on numberous subjects!

I have posted footage with a regular factory made Frosted CD, but I am endeavoring to make my own. I will post when I have done so.

i just found one of these actual run cds and i cant figure out white side the coating is on. its clear but there is something on it making it reflect the rainbow colors. i dont want to grind the wrong side off of it.

Hey I just finished grinding the same CD! It is a little thinner than the others - I am presently uploading the footage with the new GG that I did myself - using that Rainbow-reflecting CD.

Filip,
I went out tonight to look for the sticky frosted stuff 'KleeneFoil' to use and found that Home Depot had something like it -$60.00 worth for a large package - they don't sell strips or small amounts! And the size of the bumps were too large to use. I wonder if there is another place that would sell it by the foot or yard instead? Anyone had any luck finding this stuff?

Everyone at DVinfo

I have updated my site :

http://dvstuff.250free.com

There are two clips on it. These clips were made with my home-made GG CD. I found a 'spacer CD' that was more flexible and thinner - and when looked through cast a rainbow-like reflection. So I got out some wet-metal sandpaper and made the GG. This was easy to make, but getting it right was not possible by hand. I think if there was a uniform buffer, it would do alot better of a job.

In these tests you can clearly see the non-uniform scratches in the CD.

Bob Hart and others :

Also, this is really important to me - why is the light spilling like this? Has anyone else come across this? I am not using a MACRO filter just yet (until I get one) so this could be the cause.

Also, I noted that my image look great in the middle, but seems to flare out at the edges - like a radial blur or something - another problem I need to overcome.

What do you mean by light spilling?

The light in the second footage is just a regular overhead light. It is spilling out and looks like a gas blob or something!

tried to go to your site but I can't seem to access it. :(