I have used the hand cranked version of product and its sister product the Skip Doctor to repair a few dozen CDs and DVDs. They have worked well in most cases. I use Exact Audio Copy to make MP3s. I have had disc show up with errors in EAC and then rip perfectly after a run through the Doctor.
The Doctors use a wet sanding technique to remove a layer of plastic over the whole surface of a disk to get remove scratches. It is not a spot polisher. The Doctors will not fix very deep scratches, but they will do a good job on light scratches, even if there are hundreds of them. Some times, even if a run through the Doctor does not completely remove a visible scratch, it will help enough to fix an error. You will notice that the disk will be covered with hundreds of very light radial sanding marks. These will buff out some with the included felt pad, but not completely. I have not had these cause a disk to play any worse than it was before.
Note: These machines WILL NOT repair Nintendo Game Cube games and other small form disks. The only disk I have had totally fail repair was a Game Cube game. Digital Innovations 10185 Skip Dr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System
I bought this to clean up all of my kids DVDs. They have a ton of discs that are dirty, scratched, etc. I have cleaned over 30 discs so far and have fixed all but one (it was *really* scratched up).
I am suprised at the negative reviews on this item since I have considered this one of my smartest buys this year.
I bought this to try to fix some of my child's scratched up DVDs. It works well, but you might have to run a DVD through multiple times. Example: DVD that had a place where it skipped/got stuck towards the end. First run through, the DVD was terrible. YOu couldn't even watch any of it. I came very close to writing a terrible review. I ran it through a second time and the DVD was returned to its original condidtion without the skip being fixed at all. I ran it through a third time and the skip was almost completely fixed. Slight mess up in the audio and a few weird pixels on the screen. So, I ran it through again and I think its completely fixed.
The Skip Dr. is one of those rare devices that does exactly what it is advertised to do (no DVD that has a scratch on the label side of the disk can be repaired, and some very deep scratches on a playing side may not be repairable--if the first repair does not work, repeat the process). Though operation of the device is fairly intuitive, the directions for use are clear and it is worthwhile to read and follow them. It's important to realize that CDs and DVDs aren't read the same way that LPs were, back in the olden days (okay, MY olden days--it's humbling to have to explain to your 14-year-old what a "45" or "LP" or even "an album" is). CD/s and DVDs aren't read starting at the outside and spiraling in, they are read in lines starting from the center of the disk and out toward the edge. This is important to realize so that you know why you should only dry and buff a disk from the center outward, take the cloth off the disk, and do it again (from the center straight out,working your way around the disk. Don't swipe the cloth around and around the face of the disk or you will just create more scratches that will interfere with playback. Don't scrub back and forth, just wipe from the center out. Same with the buffing cloth. The Skip Dr's cleaning wheel cleans the disk in the proper direction, from the center out. It leaves "rays" that are like faint shadow-spokes radiating out from the center of the disk to the edge. These faint lines don't interfere with playback in any way. A drying cloth and buffing cloth are included. The procedure is basically spray on the repair solution, place the disk in Skip Dr. (which will start and stop automatically), remove the disk when ejected, dry it off, buff a little (don't go for a chrome-like shine--it's not important for reading the disk and if "new car shine" is that important to you, forget repair and replace the disk with a new one. This is a repair, not a reincarnation). I have used several manual machines over the years and this does the best of the lot--5 moderately damaged disks, all of which play without errors. Oh, and Disk Dr. comes with a lifetime warranty, but I believe you have to send it in its original box--so hang onto the box.
If you have even a noticeable scratch this will not repair it. It will clean up the light touch scratches a disc normally receives over time. It only comes with one wheel which will need replaced in a short period of time, as well as the solution which is mostly water anyway. Also it runs off of batteries as is and they are not included. However I tend to prefer things that don't plugin because I already have too many things that do.
I had a couple xbox 360 games that were unplayable. This did not help. It did clean up a few lightly roughed up discs though. I ended up buying a memorex circular disc cleaner/repairer though which plugs in. This also was not able to repair my 2 unplayable discs but I think it does a better job of buffing out light scratches normally seen on used games. Each buffs the disc in a different direction and Ive been told that this Skip Dr does it in the proper direction (from the inside of the disc to the outside while the Memorex spins in a circular motion like a record player while two smaller wheels spin (one for wet one for dry).
If you have a disc with a very visible scratch that is unplayable I think you're out of luck. For normal wear and tear I think this product is good. - Skip Dr - Cd Repair - Dvd Repair - Skipdr'
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