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  1. Child of God
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    Ok, so I ordered a used DVD box set containing 36 discs, and upon opening it, some of the DVD appear to have some scratching. I want to know all of them work, but I don't want to have to watch every long disc to do know. So, is there a device or a program I can use to do a relatively quick and affective scan to tell me if the DVD is defective in any area?
    "They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west." - Hosea 11:10
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  2. PSCO2007
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    Originally Posted by Jeikobu View Post
    Ok, so I ordered a used DVD box set containing 36 discs, and upon opening it, some of the DVD appear to have some scratching. I want to know all of them work, but I don't want to have to watch every long disc to do know. So, is there a device or a program I can use to do a relatively quick and affective scan to tell me if the DVD is defective in any area?

    http://www.imgburn.com/
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  3. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Psco2007 View Post
    ...which isn't available for OS X users.

    Technically, yeah, you could probably use it with one of the Wine options available for the Mac, but I think most of those require an Intel Mac, which Jeikobu doesn't have, as I recall. And, IIRC, his system cannot use options like dual-booting (Boot Camp), etc.
    Last edited by Ai Haibara; 3rd Sep 2012 at 20:43.
    If cameras add ten pounds, why would people want to eat them?
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  4. Banned
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    Geez, it's bad enough to have do this kind of thing on a Mac anyway, but to have one of those ancient PPC Macs? Ai yi yi yi ....

    Is there a device or program you can use to scan your discs? Not on your Mac.

    When you buy these kind of sets, you do so with the understanding that you don't ask any questions and the retailer may not necessarily be selling stuff that is legitimate. I want to warn you that if you bought this from a Chinese seller that it's basically going to be impossible to do a return if you have any problems unless you want to invest $100+ in paying for shipping via FedEx, UPS or DHL. I can tell you from personal experience that while Chinese authorities usually allow DVDs out of China, getting DVDs into China can be almost impossible. If you send it via one of those expensive package services I listed, it MIGHT make it to the sender OK, but then you'll have to pray that he doesn't just keep your discs and refuse to send you anything back. Defective DVDs might still be able to be ripped and reburned to new discs, but you're going to need access to Windows to get the best tools for this.
    Last edited by jman98; 3rd Sep 2012 at 21:18. Reason: Clarification
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  5. Child of God
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    Sorry jman, not all of use have the money to upgrade to newer, fancy computers. ^^;
    "They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west." - Hosea 11:10
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  6. Banned
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    Originally Posted by Jeikobu View Post
    Sorry jman, not all of use have the money to upgrade to newer, fancy computers. ^^;
    Dude, we're talking like 5+ years ago on your box. The reality is that Apple has LONG left you behind and you are going to have issues trying to do things on it. I've got an intel iMac and it's STILL supported and I can put the most recent OS X on it. Many Apple programs will no longer run on your computer. Your decision though.
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  7. Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    Geez, it's bad enough to have do this kind of thing on a Mac anyway, but to have one of those ancient PPC Macs? Ai yi yi yi ....

    Is there a device or program you can use to scan your discs? Not on your Mac.[...]Defective DVDs might still be able to be ripped and reburned to new discs, but you're going to need access to Windows to get the best tools for this.
    Originally Posted by Jeikobu View Post
    Sorry jman, not all of use have the money to upgrade to newer, fancy computers. ^^;
    Jeikobu, you're missing the point: jman98 was not necessarily insisting you need a new computer (although you really do: Apple has decreed Macs now go dead obsolete every three years instead of remaining useful for a decade- the viable days of the G4, never mind 10.4 Tiger, are long gone). He is telling you DVD tools for Mac are few to none, and those few have long been Intel-Mac-specific. Apple has "strategically" abandoned support for DVD and CD optical disc tools over the past few years, so all the good and/or free disc tools are Windows-only.

    When jman98 says you'll "need access to Windows" he's probably suggesting at work, school, or by visiting a friend/relative. Unless you're a complete recluse, swing an umbrella and you'll knock over a dozen people you know who have a Windows PC. Ask the nicest one to please download the free IMGburn dvd/cd tool and scan ("verify") the discs while you visit. Scanning for defects can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes per DVD depending on speed of the drive, laptops will be slower than desktop PCs.

    If you don't want to bother your friends with scanning, you'll need to use your DVD player to just eyeball a speed-search thru each disc. While not 100% effective, I have found this almost always finds disc flaws and is very accurate at identifying scratch problems or recording defects. Any scratch or media defect severe enough to cause a problem in normal playback will usually stop a speed-search in its tracks, locking up the playback with a frozen picture onscreen. I've run these tests with both a ten year old player and a recent player: both catch the same defects in the same spots on the same discs. If you're unlucky enough to find defects, you can try making duplicate copies on your Mac with Roxio Toast or similar DVD burning software (although doing it with IMGburn on a Windows PC would improve your odds). If the duplication effort fails, you would need to play your defective discs thru the analog outputs of a DVD player to the line inputs of a DVD recorder, to make a manual analog copy of whatever parts of the disc you can salvage. Pause the DVD recorder when the disc starts having problems, see if you can get the player to skip over the bad part and resume later, then unpause the recorder so you have a clean edit omitting the bad section from the copy.
    Last edited by orsetto; 4th Sep 2012 at 16:21.
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