Excellent question. On the playing side there are about a dozen tiny brushes fixed into the disc, spread around evenly. The disc contains a simple menu so you can select to clean the lens, this makes the reader access the part of the disc where the brushes are. Then the brushes gently fly over the lens. This usually works for regular dust. I found an upscale Marantz DVD player while e-thrifting, it didn’t read discs in the store, but one pass with a DVD lens cleaner and it works again.

I find DVD lens cleaners regularly, this was the first time I found a Blu-ray. Plus it was only 2$ since it wasn’t a movie.

Two pictures, depending on which side you put them on!

Sounds like a challenge… I don’t have much VHS media, and I usually skip over tapes at the thrift stores, except when shrink warp glints in the corner of my eye!