DVD Shrink, RipIt4Me, DVDDecrypter, DVDFab HD Decrypter...what next??

[LunaMoon]

Hi everyone!

I recently purchased, ex-rental from my local DVD rental shop, the Charmed box sets. Some of the DVD's are great, no scratches whatsoever. But a couple have deep scratches in a circular pattern, which I'm attributing to people turning the discs while they're in the covers. Anyway, I bought them back to the shop to have them cleaned, and they refused, saying that I'd scratched them myself. I want to back all of the DVD's up just in case, and of course, when I went to back them up, nothing worked.

First, DVD Shrink "cyclic redundancy check" so I used Ripit4Me. Errors came up on that one too, and I knew it was the scratches fault, so I went to DVDFab HD Decrypter. It processed the discs, even though one took nearly 6 hours to do. When I went to put the files through DVD Shrink, through the encoding stage, I got errors and it shut itself down.

So...my question is...if DVDFab won't fix the scratch problem, is there another program (free!) that will? I tried looking around for info but got totally confuddled. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance! :)

[polychrome]

When a DVD has circular scratches they often overwhelm both layers of error correction in the DVD drive. The exceptionally slow data reading performance indicates that the software was trying over and over and over to read the data. Eventually the software gives up and either uses whatever data it got from the drive even though it was known to have errors, or replaces tha bad data with a block of 0's. You didn't mention if your software was set to ignore errrors or replace with nulls, but in either case the resulting MPEG data stream is invalid. There are tools you can use to repair the MPEG, in essence they fill the gap with duplicate frames and audio. Its OK for a frame or two, but circular scratches usually cause long gaps and then the usefulness of the result depends on what's happening in the video.

You will probably be more satisfied with the results if you do you best to fix the scratches before you read the disc. There are kits sold for the purpose. If you can't afford one, a very temporary fix is possible. Begin by cleaning the disc as you would window glass but wiping radially. After drying the disc, put 1 and only 1 drop of mineral oil (aka baby oil) on a clean soft lint free cloth and wipe it over the surface as if you were drying it, not wetting it, wiping off almost as much of the oil as you can. The surface tension of the thin film of mineral oil will cause it to cling in the scratches filling them, temporarily. Slight hazing from the thin oil film doesn't seem to interfere with reading the disc. Make an immediate attempt to read the disc, with as few software retries as possible, or set to ignore errors if necessary. Remove the mineral oil promptly. If left on the disc, mineral oil will collect dust and polymerize, becoming sticky in a matter of days. Some other oils work better and some worse. Very light silicone oils like trumpet valve oil are better, cooking oil is worse, as is motor oil. Used motor oil from wiping the dip stick is an exceptionally bad idea. Some oils, especially those in spray cans, contain solvents that can damage a dvd. Test anything you plan to use on one of those clear blanks from a pack of recordables or a coaster (a recordable dvd that didn't).

[setarip_old]

@LunaMoon

Hi!Anyway, I bought them back to the shop to have them cleaned, and they refused, saying that I'd scratched them myself.It seems that "others" have a habit of scratching your DVDs:

http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1013263&postcount=1

Be that as it may:
Virtually all legitimate rental shops guarantee the used DVDs that they sell. It's bad enough that you were accused of scratching the already-used DVDs - but to refuse to polish them for you is unacceptable.

First of all, it's good business to remember that, "The customer is always right" and second, it's no big deal to polish a few DVDs. Speak to the owner or manager again...

BTW - When purchasing used DVDs (or anything else, for that matter), you should always examine them before paying...

[LunaMoon]

Hi setarip_old.

I know, I've had a LOT of problems with people scratching my DVD's. I'm not happy! I try to take good care of my discs and when these things happen it's really frustrating. That's why I tend to back up everything I buy now.

I've had words with the owner of the rental shop where I purchased the DVD's from, and she says all their ex-rentals are polished before being put out for sale. Which I don't believe. I pointed this out to her and she is adamant that I either live with the scratches, or pay $4 each disc to get them polished. I don't see why I should, to be honest. I won't be shopping there again.

Thanks, polychrome. I might take your advice and invest in a scratch removal kit. In the meantime I'll try the baby oil trick. Thanks very much :)

[fazzaz31]

When rephotographing old and damaged photographs, photographers immerse the photo in a bath of glycerin. This has the same effect of filling in the scratches and slightly bending the photons' path to look at the info "sideways."

I suspect that, like polychrome's baby oil, glycerin applied to the surface of the disc will also work, and it's easily cleaned with a mild soap solution.

Good luck.

I

[Wombler]

All this baby oil stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me.

Proper polymer based disc repair fluid is cheap and a little goes a long way.

Most kits also include a special cloth for wiping the disc clean.

I'd be wary of anything though that might impregnate the plastic of the disc and cause unknown longer term effects.

Oils are very highly penetrative and would be at the dubious end of the spectrum in my mind.


Wombler

[LunaMoon]

Thanks, Wombler.

I didn't realise you could buy repair fluid. I shall be checking that out promptly on Monday morning. I bought a great little kit that comes with a spray and a chamois cloth that removes dirt and fingerprints brilliantly, I use that quite a bit.

[RunningSkittle]

most music shops have a disc buffer, im sure if you ask nicely a person would buff it for you, for a small small fee or maybe free.

[Wombler]

Thanks, Wombler.

I didn't realise you could buy repair fluid. I shall be checking that out promptly on Monday morning. I bought a great little kit that comes with a spray and a chamois cloth that removes dirt and fingerprints brilliantly, I use that quite a bit.

It's a similar type of kit but with polymer repair fluid as well.

The polymer fills the scratches and when dry has the same optical properties as the plastic of the disc.

It'll only work on relatively minor scratches but at least it's non-destructive and if it doesn't do the job then you can always go down the more extreme routes such as disc polishers etc.

I bought a Maxell kit with a disc holder, repair fluid, polish/sealer and wipes in a local music shop and have found it useful on numerous occasions.

It's supposed to repair up to 100 discs but I think that's a trifle optimistic.


Wombler