Smudging the surface as in fingerprints can't really hurt. Just wipe it off. The layer you burn is under the plastic. Scratches are different, although the format should contain enough error correction data to cope with a few scratches. What you don't want to do is leave them out in sunlight, that is bad for the dye (the datalayer). So if you're going to make them yourself get some good cases for them, preferably black, no see though cases. So in terms of scratching and smudging, factory pressed dvd's are just as vulnerable.

There should be DVD's available that are more durable, intended for longterm storage, you may want to look into that. They're probably a bit more expensive, but from the sound if it, you need it.

Now you can always burn one and see how much abuse it can take. In the end, destroying one will only set you back 1-2 dollars :) ps. when wiping a CD/DVD clean, always wipe from the center outwards. Never wipe in a circle. Why? Because if something is caught in your cloth, you're going to draw a nice circular groove on the surface. Wiping from the center would only leave a scratch that the player should be able to cope with.

Message edited on: 12/27/2005 22:35

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