Does playing a badly damaged CD or DVD harm the player? © Getty Images

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Can playing a badly damaged CD or DVD harm the player?

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It's difficult to do much damage to a CD or DVD player, but this largely depends on how the disc is broken, whether warped, smudged or scratched.

By Carla Pearce

Asked by: Amelia Sharp, by email

It’s difficult to do much harm to a CD/DVD machine just by playing a damaged disc. Unlike the needle on a record player, the laser doesn’t make contact with the disc. So scratches and blemishes won’t cause any harm. But a dirty or greasy disc might smudge the laser and cause problems that way. And a disc that’s warped or misshapen might mess up the workings of the player too, I guess.

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