Went to the local Video rental place and they had the usual bunch of previously viewed movies. So, I bought a couple, one of them was KingKong, was never a big fan of that movie, but it was only 6 bucks.
Brought it home and put it into my player and it had several skips and one spot where it froze up for almost a minute. I thought why not try a backup with DVDFab? Did a copy and the copy plays just fine, no skips at all. I did a "customize" and the compression was at about 56%, if I recall, (it is over 3 hours).
I really can't tell any difference on my "state of the art" 27" JVC
Probably never watch the stupid thing again mind you.

Colin

Hi Colin,

I'm glad to hear "Backup scratched/dirty disc" feature of DVDFab works for you.

Enjoy your movies

Best Regards,
Fengtao

Hi colin and welcome to the forum. I too have done that as well. I had bought a previously viewed copy of the first Pirates of the Carribean and it was loaded with skips and freeze ups. I thought it was my player but it didn't repeat with any other title. So I figured, what the hay, I'm about to throw it away anyway, why not give it a last ditch effort. And of course the rest is history. And it's a really cool movie too. ~ Mike

I'm always afraid that a badly scratched DVD will cause my PC to switch from DMA to PIO mode. Is this something I need to worry about?

I didn't have it happen to me. I mean I always check it to make sure or click on the reset DMA button just for the halibut ya know. But I'd guess it would mostly depend on the severity of the scratches or errors. I think you get like 5 or 6 times before it reverts back to PIO mode. Hopefully someone smarter than me will jump in here ok ! ~ Mike

Hi HDFATBOYDOC,

It's possible to make your DVD drive switch to PIO from DMA on Windows XP when you copy heavy scratched/dirty disc, but don't forget DVDFab's "Reset DMA" feature

Best Regards,
Fengtao

Thanks Fengtao.