NEW SKINS FOR OLD DISKS

We've hadn't seen these before, but they sure seem useful. They're clear plastic covers that snap onto CDs and DVDs to prevent them from being smudged or scratched. The disks can be played with the covers on or off.

After renting some movies on DVD recently, we found that some of them, about one in four, froze while being played. We thought the problem was the DVD player. But after some examination, we realized that the disks had tiny marks or pieces of dirt on their playing surfaces.

When you think about it, these rental disks are handled by many people, often by children, and getting smudged or dirty is not remarkable. When we carefully cleaned the offending disks, they played with no problems.

For your own disks, particularly video game disks, it would be a good idea to cover the playing side with one of these clear shields. They're thin and snap securely onto the disk. We got a package of D_skin Protective Disc Skins. A package of 20 costs $20 from Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com), but you may be able to find a better deal. (When you're looking for any product, it's a good ... // 78% Remaining