I've used both the older version (with the green wheel) and the newer version (with the orange wheel) and they both have been very helpful with numerous discs. I'm a parent and I have friends who are parents. I've used it to make CDs and DVDs which had become almost unplayable work reasonably well again, avoiding the cost of replacing the disc.
It's important to understand what this thing does. Basically, you start with a CD or DVD with minor surface damage on the bottom side (which is where the laser hits it). The scratches have sharp edges, which cause the laser light to scatter, and you have read errors. This device will lightly sand down the plastic surface, evening it out, taking scratches out, and creating a radial pattern. Then you take the felt pad and buff out the pattern so it is less likely to cause light scattering. The result is a "scuffed up" disc that is covered with tiny scratches, but the original damage is sanded off. The laser can, for the most part, see right through these minor scratches and "hazing" since it focuses _below_ the surface.
So, the idea is to basically scratch out the scratches. How well it turns out is affected, in large part, by how diligent you are with the felt pad. Also, for the first stage, you _must_ use enough of the spray to keep the disc wet; if you let it run dry and keep cranking the abrasive wheel will produce deep radial scratches and it will be hard to buff them out; you may wind up doing more damage then the original damage you are trying to fix, and it will take you forever to try to get them out.
If the scratches or gouges are deep, you may have to run it through a few times. If they are very deep, it just won't work. If there is damage to the label side of a CD then it won't work; the data is destroyed. DVDs work slightly differently, so label-side damage may not be quite so critical.
Anyway, it works. For example, a recent DVD I fixed up had several unplayable sections, where the playback would skip ahead 30 minutes or more. It had some deep "dings" in it. I ran it through the process four or five times, to the point of diminishing returns, and it got a lot better, but it still has some short freezes and stuttering in the video playback. The "dings" are still slightly visible both to the naked eye and the laser. For less-damaged DVDs, the results will probably be better, but there's no guarantee you can make the disc read perfectly again. I recommend it, but it isn't magical. It's not a good substitute for keeping the DVDs away from the kids to begin with. SkipDr DVD & CD Manual Disc Repair System
I bought the battery operated one and the motor blew up after a month! Therefore I switched and bought this one. It is not hard to use and makes DVD's play again! Sometimes if they are pretty scratched up you have to run them twice. Otherwise, I love it and enjoy not having to buy the same DVD's more than once!
I tried this on a few DVDs that skipped a little bit towards the end. I sprayed the spray, turned the wheel, sprayed, turned, dried and buffed, just as instructed. When I was finished it turned my scratched discs into completely unreadable and useless. Before buying this product, check online for toothpaste solutions and Rain-X solutions for your discs -- these actually work, cost next to nothing, and even if they don't work for they won't destroy your DVDs like the SkipDr does!
My only experience with this device is positive. My son severely scratched one of his Xbox disc and it was unusable. We ordered SkipDr and tried it using the enclosed instructions with great success. We now have a usable disc of a game that cost $60. It paid for itself (and then some) with this one repair.
I bought this to fix my 7 year old's DVD collection. She had a lot of DVD's that were scratched. This little machine works well so far. A couple of spins fixes most DVD's and the ones that are really scratched have to be put through another couple of spins before they work again.
TIP: The "cleaning solution" that comes with this machine is just distilled water with a little bit of rubbing alcohol ;) So you don't need to order any more bottles online. Just mix like 95 parts water to 5 parts rubbing alcohol.
After reading all the reviews on several different products that claim to fix scratches, this one had the best reviews. I was quite skeptical, but I didn't have any other options, so I decided to give it a shot. It has already fixed 2 previously completely unreadable heavily (I mean HEAVILY) scratched Wii game discs (wouldn't even start in the Wii menu). I tried to fix a third, however I believe that game is probably gone. It's got deep dog teeth marks in it. I may try giving it a few more spins on this device, but I'm not hopeful.
Overall I'm extremely pleased with how this device has worked, and so far I have saved $80 worth of Wii games, and more to come!
Btw: I was debating if I should get the electronic or hand crank version, I ended up getting this hand crank version to save a few bucks. Really was not as bad as I thought. It was easy to crank, and took less than a minute to complete two cycles.'
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