I was wondering if anyone had any advice for dealing with a problem affecting "Queer as Folk", Season 2, Disc 3? No other disc has caused any problems, including the remaiining Season 2 discs, but three distinct copies of disc 3 have all produced the exact same result.

My layman's understanding of what I'm about to describe is that I've encountered a mastering error which cannot be overcome with my physical DVD drive. Before I go out and try using a different drive, I thought I would float a question here...

The outcome of the following five methods will be described:

1) DVDDecrypter running by itself (AnyDVD disabled)
2) DVDShrink running on an AnyDVD-decoded drive
3) Windows Explorer copy of an AnyDVD-decoded drive
4) AsusDVD software player viewing episode 11 (Both with and without AnyDVD enabled)
5) RCA hardware player viewing episode 11

Results:

1) DVDDecrypter running by itself (AnyDVD disabled)
This works fine until VTS_03_01.VOB. At this point the overall status meter is at 50% if a full disk read is being performed. The errors continue through well over a thousand errors with less than two Megabytes of progress, probably all dummy sectors. I have attempted different "Interface" options under Options->I/O and also tried both disabling and enabling "Detect Mastering Errors" under Options->CSS.

A sample log from reading just VTS_03_01.VOB follows...

I 15:14:47 DVD Decrypter Version 3.5.4.0 started!
I 15:14:47 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2)
I 15:14:48 Initialising ElbyCDIO...
I 15:14:48 ELBYCDIO.DLL - Elaborate Bytes CDRTools - ElbyCDIO DLL - Version 5.1.1.2
I 15:14:48 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 15:14:48 Found 2 DVD-ROMs and 1 DVD±RW!
W 15:14:54 Possible Structure Protection Found!
W 15:14:54 1 area has been marked as 'suspect'.
W 15:14:54 Dummy sectors will be inserted where necessary.
I 15:15:24 Operation Started!
I 15:15:24 Source Device: [1:0:0] SONY DVD RW DRU-810A 1.0a (E (ATA)
I 15:15:24 Source Media Type: DVD-ROM
I 15:15:24 Source Media Region Code: 1
I 15:15:24 Source Media Copyright Protection System Type: CSS/CPPM
I 15:15:24 Source Media Implementation Identifier: Spruce Technologies
I 15:15:24 Destination Folder: D:\stage\
I 15:15:24 File Splitting: By File
I 15:15:24 Read Speed: MAX
I 15:15:24 Remove Structure Protection: Yes
I 15:15:24 Bad Sector Removal Method: Aggressive
I 15:15:24 Detect Mastering Errors: Yes
I 15:15:24 Multi Angle Processing: No
I 15:15:24 Remove Macrovision Protection: Yes
I 15:15:24 Stream Processing: No
I 15:15:24 Decrypting VTS_03_1.VOB... (LBA: 1895742 - 2419943) - KEY: C0 00 03 1E D7
I 15:15:24 VOB ID: 1 - CELL ID: 1 - LBA: 1895742 - KEY: C0 00 03 1E D7
W 15:16:09 Failed to read Sector 2006352 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:15 Failed to read Sector 2006368 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:21 Failed to read Sector 2006369 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:26 Failed to read Sector 2006370 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:33 Failed to read Sector 2006371 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:37 Failed to read Sector 2006372 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:42 Failed to read Sector 2006373 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:46 Failed to read Sector 2006374 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:52 Failed to read Sector 2006375 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:16:56 Failed to read Sector 2006376 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:01 Failed to read Sector 2006377 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:06 Failed to read Sector 2006378 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:12 Failed to read Sector 2006379 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:17 Failed to read Sector 2006380 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:23 Failed to read Sector 2006381 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:28 Failed to read Sector 2006382 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:33 Failed to read Sector 2006383 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:38 Failed to read Sector 2006384 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:42 Failed to read Sector 2006385 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:48 Failed to read Sector 2006386 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:52 Failed to read Sector 2006387 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:17:58 Failed to read Sector 2006388 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:03 Failed to read Sector 2006389 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:08 Failed to read Sector 2006390 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:13 Failed to read Sector 2006391 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:18 Failed to read Sector 2006392 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:23 Failed to read Sector 2006393 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:27 Failed to read Sector 2006394 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:33 Failed to read Sector 2006395 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:39 Failed to read Sector 2006396 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:44 Failed to read Sector 2006397 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:49 Failed to read Sector 2006398 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:54 Failed to read Sector 2006399 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:18:59 Failed to read Sector 2006400 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:04 Failed to read Sector 2006401 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:09 Failed to read Sector 2006402 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:14 Failed to read Sector 2006403 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:19 Failed to read Sector 2006404 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:24 Failed to read Sector 2006405 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:29 Failed to read Sector 2006406 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:33 Failed to read Sector 2006407 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:38 Failed to read Sector 2006408 - Unrecovered Read Error
W 15:19:44 Failed to read Sector 2006409 - Unrecovered Read Error
I 15:19:46 Abort Request Acknowledged
W 15:19:49 Failed to read Sector 2006410 - Unrecovered Read Error
E 15:19:49 Failed to decrypt VTS_03_1.VOB!
E 15:19:53 Operation Aborted! - Duration: 00:04:28
E 15:19:53 Average Read Rate: 825 KB/s (0.6x) - Maximum Read Rate: 19,174 KB/s (13.8x)

2) DVDShrink running on an AnyDVD-decoded drive
The AnyDVD status window reports:

Summary for drive E: (AnyDVD 5.9.4.1)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Media is a Data DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (opposite)
Size of first Layer: 2006352 sectors (3918 MBytes)
Total size: 4006262 sectors (7824 MBytes)

Video DVD (or CD) label: QUEER_AS_FOLK
Media is CSS protected!
Video Standard: NTSC
Media is locked to region(s): 1!

RCE protection not found.
DVD structure appears to be correct.
Structural copy protection not found.
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Bad sector protection not found.
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!

Note that AnyDVD does not suspect structure protection, while DVDDecrypter tagged one suspect region. When DVDShrink is pre-analyzing the disc, it gets to about 35%, pauses, and eventually fails with the following dialogue:

DVD Shrink encountered an error and cannot continue.
Failed to read file "E:\"
Data error (cyclic redundancy check)

3) Windows Explorer copy of an AnyDVD-decoded drive
This works fine for every file except VTS_03_1.VOB. No other disc attempted has any problems. When VTS_03_1.VOB is copied, a percentage of the file copies all right, but then the copy operation freezes. The "time remaining" counter locks at "2 minutes", but the only option is to cancel the transfer. Computer becomes unresponsive (won't open new explorer windows) until the disk is ejected.

4) AsusDVD software player viewing episode 11 (with or without AnyDVD enabled)
Plays fine until about 6 minutes. At this point the DVD player program becomes unresponsive and has to be killed.

5) RCA hardware player viewing episode 11
Plays all the way through Episode 11 without so much as a stutter…

Episode discs are NOTORIOUS for having mastering errors.

Every copy of Firefly I've ever seen has a bad disc 4. Every last one. That includes mine, one that I rented to make sure I wasn't insane, the first one that I got which I had Best Buy replace...

Band of Brothers has mastering errors on DISC 1.

I don't think these are intentional. They aren't copy protection. I think they're just REALLY poorly mastered discs. I think that the mastering companies that specialize in episode discs just don't put much effort into Quality Control.

Bad batches.....