wrecked DVDs

[KarlSutton]

I'm trying to figure out how to copy DVD's & stash the originals in a safe place. Despite my constant explaning to the kids that if they touch the movies they will break them, they still wreck them & I probabaly have 10 movies now that are scratched beyond playing.

Anyone have any suggestions? Unfortunately there's no way to lock the DVD player up.

I have a Mac G5 with a DVD burner & tried a few diff programs with no luck.

Thanks.

[Bollux]

They do have a scratch remover machine. Supposedly it brings back the original finish of the disc. I have personally never used one, but have heard decent things from people who have used em. I should invest in one as when trading dvds some of the ones I get are slightly scratched but still playable.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00080YK9Y/ref=pd_lpo_k2a_2_txt/102-9107311-9176952?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Something like that.

Dvd's are made up of two layers of plastic with a foil in the center. Most likely the plastic is just scratched and those machines just grind off a thin layer of the plastic and make it usable again. If the scratch is deep enough to reach the foil, sadly there is nothing you can do to fix it. I do suggest getting the motorized one as I have heard some ppl complain that doing it by hand you have to use a constant motion to achieve a perfect grind. The motorized ones automatically have the "pace" set for you.

[Jackson's Dad]

Haven't had to worry about that yet (thankfully). I haven't tried this programs, but I did a quick search on MacUpdate (http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=DVD+copy&os=macosx&button.x=0&button.y=0) and found these. Maybe one will do the trick.

[MammaDaddy]

:x I've hated the whole medium to begin with. Starting with CD in the 80's I can't stand that such a delicate area is so easily exposed. We might as well have gone back to the LP records. At the time this medium was invented the disketts for computors were inclosed to protect the content. I expressed my concern to leaders in the industry back before DVD's were created and here we are. Trust me if I could find out who authorized the continued developement of these shiney little discs I would like to bash in his or her face. :shock:
Sorry that this didn't help out with your dilema but I just had to state that you are not alone with this problem. And, now that the industry has improved copy right protection devices it is not easy to keep the problem from occuring in the future.
I haven't used any software personally but there is something called ripping programs that will allow you to bypass the copy protection.

[GoatBeard]

Do not taunt my choice in coasters! :wink:

[Don-Dad]

try http://videohelp.com I have been playing around with burning my dvd's to the hard drive. I have had success and failures. (I am trying to play them back on the tv and having some issues with that)

If you had Windoze, DVD shrink is pretty good for reducing the dvd file size and then backing up to your hard disk. then from there you burn onto dvd. No mac version and they are not developing dvd shrink anymore (from what I have read)

If they mac a network device for the mac that allows for playing files on TV using the mac you could create a library that never needs to be touched (that's my goal) you need some decent hard drive space too :)

I use the Hauppauge mediamvp for playing on the tv but it is not compatible with Mac's but I am sure there must be something similar.

Good luck.

[Bollux]

And, now that the industry has improved copy right protection devices it is not easy to keep the problem from occuring in the future.
I haven't used any software personally but there is something called ripping programs that will allow you to bypass the copy protection.

Well, I can speak from...ahem... first hand experiences... copy protection whats that. lol I'd say a vast majority can be circumvented and bypass the protections.

[Don-Dad]

Forgot to add that all the programs I have been using are freeware and "rip" my personal cd's with copy protection and even tried a few others :wink: and it worked.

Be careful about freeware, some have adware and spyware attached. I think at videohelp they list mostly spyware free software.

[chopperglide]

i too have an imac g5...you want mac the ripper to extract then roxio popcorn to burn......i hafta do it...three kids 6,3 and 1....or we just lose money left and right.....

[keith021773]

You can try this with some of your scratched DVDs. I have done this a couple of times with my kids xbox games that they scratch. Boil water on the stove and place the dvd in the boiling watch for about 20 secs. then remove and wipe dry with a soft cloth with an inside to outside motion. Be careful though so you or the kiddies don't get burned.

[MammaDaddy]

Here's another solution for the future. Sony DVP-CX995V can hold 400 DVD and CDs in a carousel design. Never have to pull it out and risk it getting scratch. As a bonus it is HD ready (when ever they get around making DVDs support the HD format that is). It retails for $399. If you pay retail your not shopping at the right places. Still less then a decade ago we were willing to pay that much for a single player. :shock: I remember paying almost $600 for my first VHS Player.

[Don-Dad]

Those Sony dvd players are all over EBay and most online retailers for about $299. I was researching multi disc players a few months ago and the reviews on the sony was "fair" at best. Actually reading why one guys was selling "I am selling this dvd player because I have copied my dvd collection to my pc" gave me the idea of looking aroind for some dvd ripping software and there is lots out there, some free and others cost about $29-99.

[Remington]

My son crammed food into the VCR one day and it is now broken. So we are down to only DVDs. He got some nice movies from his Uncles on his birthday and I have found them out of the case several times. I have warned him on several accounts that if he doesn't take care of them I will have to get rid of them.

In fact, last week I found a DVD at the bottom of the toy box, scratched beyond all recognition. I have boxed up all the cassettes and DVD's and put them in the attic. The only movies that we watch now are what we rent or get from Netflix which I keep high up so no kids can get them.

Until they can learn not to break things and respect property I am not going to continue to repair disks over and over again. It doesn't solve the problem and is a waste of time.

[KarlSutton]

Until they can learn not to break things and respect property I am not going to continue to repair disks over and over again. It doesn't solve the problem and is a waste of time.

I do agree with this, however reasoning with a 3 year old seems somewhat hopeless sometimes much less a 1 year old.

Thanks for all the input everyone I'm going to try that resurfacing thing on amazon - too chicken to boil them in water. Does that really work?!?! Well now that I think about it what do I have to lose?

I'll let you know what I come up with.

[Jackson's Dad]

My sister-in-law went the DVD route, and lent us a bunch. I was surprised at how much of them was advertising (maybe 25% of the content was ads for more DVDs) -- bleh. That's why I love Tivo. We have 3 or 4 shows we keep recorded for him off of the commerical-free channels. So we always have something he wants to watch.

[sao95]

I built the cd/dvd/vhs cabinet and it has doors, she knows it's off limits and it has put an end to the "jilly playing with dvd's problem", it also looks nicer than the exposed cabinets, so my advice is build or buy a cabinet with doors....
http://www.dadstayshome.com/dadforum/viewtopic.php?t=1362

[Don-Dad]

I have a cabinet with doors and put child locks on it. I had to move the dvd on top of the tv but all it takes is leaving the movie out and then the kiddies grab it.

Stay away from glass doors, I hear a horror story about a kid losing fingers :shock:

I like the idea of having all them on my pc and then routing to the tv using a gedget, it's like DVD's on demand. 8)

[SideShowCecil]

I don’t what the difference is but I just bought a DVD system for the car that flawlessly plays DVDs that are so beaten up my home system spits them out. Maybe it’s the shock buffer thingamajig?

[stizz]

I don't make exact copies of dvd's when I rip them, since I have no intention of playing copied dvd's in my player. I only rip the movie, or if I care to, a particular clip from the extras on the disc. I use a freeware app for OSX named 'OSEx' to do this. It decrypts the disk and lets you extract the VOB movie file. Just type OSEx 0.0110a1 into google for a download link.

The vob file is the movie with audio, and its huge, usually about 4-6 GB for a full length movie. This means you cannot even burn them on standard DVD's without some form of compression since most consumer DVD burners only handle 4.7 GB. Hard disc space is cheap these days ($150 for 250GB), just save them and use a program called VLC (video lan client) to play them.

I compress some of my vob files down to mp4 using 3ivx, and the resulting compressed files will playback on any computer with quicktime. They will also play back on most devices that support MP4. 3ivx can take a 5 GB vob and shrink it down to under a GB. Plus, the quality is still superb. Most PC people use a codec called DIVX, and compress full length films down to the size of a CD, but as a mac user, DIVX support is realtively new and problematic as it uses the .avi file container, whilst 3ivx uses .mov (standard quicktime).

I have an extra hard drive on my wife's pc specifically for movies and I can wirelessly stream these movies to other computers in my house with minimal buffering. If I plug in via ethernet,..they stream flawlessly. It is my intention to buy a mac mini to replace the dvd, cd, and vhs players in my entertainment system. Then any movie I rip, regardless of whether I compress it, will play right to my TV.

I ripped a bunch of muppet show VOB's off the first season DVD and compressed a few of them to the codec my phone supports. Now when my kid melts down in the store, I hand him my phone with manamana playing. Eventually we intend to buy him a video ipod (or Samsung YP-T8Z or similar device) and fill it up with his favorite shows.

[Jackson's Dad]

Great info stizz. Good to see another Mac guy on the forum.

We'll have to try this. We have some Bob the Builder DVDs for the tyke, but 50% of them are ads for other DVDs (including the evil Wiggles). I'd love to decode them, then edit out the commercials, and make a new commercial-free DVD. I'll have to give this a try.

[Don-Dad]

great, get me all excited for a new program to try and it Mac based. Blah! (nothing against macs, just never used one)

[jeffus]

Well, I found a low-tech solution.....

There's this product called d_skin. It's basically a condom for a DVD or CD. Scratch the heck out of it, then peel it off, and put a new one on.

www.d-skin.com

They're a little pricey but cheaper than replacing the original disk.

Personally, I try to buy the videotape version of anything cause I know a DVD is gonna get ruined ASAP. Just have to find a place that sells VCR's anymore! :evil:

[SideShowCecil]

You can buy a VCR at the grocery store now for $59.

I think I paid around $600 for my Super VHS machine more than ten years ago; and the DVD machine I bought six years ago for $400 now sells in the grocery store for $29! Isn’t technology great!

[WriterDad]

I think there was a program they used to sell that was called something like DVD Back-up, designed just for that kind of thing. Sold it in Circuit City. I think it went into the courts to remove it from shelves because it was the perfect bootlegging tool.

If it's been removed from the shelves, bet there are still copies you can find on Ebay or something like.

If anything, and I'm no expert, you probably just need to get the codecs they use so that you can burn them on your computer.

I need to look this up myself because even rentals are an endangered species in this house. :)