Using Isobuster to pave over bad spots

[BetaMaster]

Hi. I'm using my new Artec DVD stand alone recorder to transfer my Beta tapes to DVD. As I have had some issues with it sticking on even short stretches of bad tape, I generally burn to DVD+RW rather than risk a +R.

Once I have a DVD+RW burned to my liking, I use Isobuster to copy the file to my hard drive, and then burn it to a DVD+R for posterity.

However, sometimes, the DVD+RW has a small read error on it. As I have been recording in 4 hour mode, I don't really want to burn another disc, only to find a small read error on that one as well. Who has the time? The errors usually cover less than one-tenth of one percent of the disc. Indeed, they may be the result of bad tape (it isn't the DVD media - it happens on Mitsubishi Verbatim stuff as well)

However, I tried something with Isobuster - telling it to add dummy data the same size as the unreadable sectors. I then burn that iso file to DVD+R. I tried it once and the disc seems to be usable (in fact, I can't spot the "error".

Is this likely to work as long as the errors are small (a few blocks at most) or am I asking for trouble? Should I use the "all zeros" instead of the "dummy data" option, or just skip the sectors all together?.

I will point out the VOB files look to be the exact same size in the new .iso file as the old damaged one.

Any opinions or hints will be welcome, but if I get 99.9% of the transfer I feel that this is a job well done - I'm not looking for perfection.

[johns0]

If the errors are tiny as you said then there will be probably no notice of any errors while watching,only when you get larger sectors of errors then the picture will show missing blocks.

Since the errors are too small to see it shouldnt make any difference if you add dummy or zero blocks.