I think he was asking about those machines that resurface discs. They grind a layer off, then apply a new layer of plastic. I've not tried it with a DVD yet, but I did try it a few months ago with a Gamecube disc for my boy. It helped but didn't ultimately fix the problem. But the guy at the store said Gamecube games are hard to resurface and resurfacing only works about 50% of the time. I guess CDs & DVDs have a much better success rate.

Anyway, there's a big difference between a professional resurfacing machine and a Skip Dr.

Thank you to the OP. Recently I had PC crash and I had to re-install everything. One of my favorite games would not load past the first (very, very, very scratched) disc (it's also my son's favorite). I almost bought another copy when I remembered this thread. With nothing to lose I boiled a pot of water and (not quite daring to drop it in) using tongs held it just over the surface for a minute or so.

Wow, wouldn't you know it but I could swear the scratches were less prominent. The game loaded perfectly without a hitch. If I were going to re-buy a DVD I would definitely try this first.

No I meant like the Nespa Disc Finalizer that uses some kind of UV light....

Here's a review

Awesome! I tried this last night on my Dead Ringers DVD which froze 5 minutes from the end on 3 different DVD players. It worked great!

So a disc from my Alfred Hitchcock Presents season 1 set that worked fine a year or so ago has a couple of episodes that freeze up now, in multiple DVD players. Is this something that might work on a DVD-18? I don't want to make the rest of it unplayable, but I can't return it anymore since I bought it a long time ago.

Does this method work for cd's as well. I find my cd's skipping all over the place, how do you know if it is you cd player or the cd?

Also is there anyone on here familiar with AnyDVD, making copies. I need to know how to make copies of my dvd's without getting all the previews on it, it makes it too big of file for my dvd to copy. I am only copying them because i have a child that is very hard on her dvd's so want to copy them to keep the original safe.

thanks

Excuses, excuses. If your child is really too young to handle DVDs, play them FOR her. Otherwise, teach her to treat them properly -- if she doesn't learn now, she never will.

test it in another cd player..

You need to read this:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=401647

Just had to thank the OP for this thread

I bought a used copy of Medal Of Honor Warchest and was having trouble with installation. I got the following error message when attempting to install disc 1.

Component transfer error

Component: eReg Files
File Group: eReg Files
File: D:\eReg\Medal of Honor Allied Assault_eReg.exe
Error: Data error (cyclic redundancy check)


The CD has some minor scuffs & scratches - I cleaned the disc with an Alsop CD Cleaner/Restorer but still got the error.

Got a reply about my problem over at the PCMech.com forums with a link to this thread. I was very skeptical but had nothing to lose as the seller I bought the game from would only say that they had never had any problems.


Here's what I did

Put about 1-1/2" of Distilled (Purified) water in a small pan and brought it to a boil. Put disc in data side down and let it cook on a medium boil for 3 minutes.

Used a wooden spoon handle to fish the disc out through the hole in the center and laid it on a clean towel data side up. Took a very soft handkerchief and gently wiped the disc dry, wiping from the center towards the outside edge.

I let the disc cool for a couple of minutes and it installed without a single problem - Shazam, I'm playing MOH!!!

There was absolutely no warping or distortion of the disc or artwork on the label and any fingerprints & other residue were removed by the process. Only playing the game all the way through will tell if it was 100% successful but so far it seems to play fine!

One thing I would recommend is to not put the disc in the pot until there are bubbles from the boiling process rising up. The bubbles keep the disc floating on top of the water - otherwise it will sink to the bottom of the pot where the heat would seem to be more intense and possibly have more chance of being damaged.

I'm glad that it helped you out, and I'm pleased to hear that this is helping people beyond DVDTalk.

Yeah, you should wait to put the disc in until the water is really boiling. That's what I always do.

Thought I'd post my first experience with boiling today.

I rented Gotcha! from Netflix (so far a great 80's spy/teen/action comedy that makes very good use of the old-school PG-13 rating), and the disc kept on stuttering in the same spot on my Panasonic and my laptop. Well, I looked the thread up, boiled some water, dropped the DVD in for two minutes, and it sat there for an hour or so while I mingled with family. I just put the disc back into the player, and I wouldn't have even known it was scratched. Indeed an odd, but wholly useful, solution to skipping and stuttering DVD's.

Thanks for resurrecting this old thread. I had never heard of this method before....not sure if I have a disc to try it out on, but the next time I come across one that skips, I'll be giving it a shot!

I have a question: Disc 1 of my Pearl Harbor Vista Series (the first half of the movie) skips every other 10 seconds or so throughout the last hour of the disc (during the big battle and everything -- it's annoying since that's the best part of the movie by far). There are NO visible scratches or defects on the surface of the disc. Does anyone think the boiling method could do something for this disc?

One of my favorite movies has developed a terrible problem. In several places the audio has disappeared. Will boiling the dvd help ya think?

Thanks

randy

As long as you follow what's been posted about boiling it, it really can't hurt it much more than what it's doing now.

If you try end up trying it Dane, be sure to post your results. I'm fascinated by the suggestion to try this and am curious as to the results.

Well, I had another computer game fail to want to install so I took the disc and boiled it in Distilled water for a couple of minutes just like I did in my previous post above (#160). Dried the disc off and let it cool down, popped it into my DVD drive and the game loaded without a hitch and played all the way through with no problems.

My thanks again to the OP of this thread!

I just tried my Fellowship of the Ring theatrical disc in my PS3 the other day to see if it would play in that and it still hangs, so I'm going break down and give this a try.

Your right, it does sound retarded. Thanks for being THAT guy.

Maybe you should just read the OP and not go off on a tagent about bad ebay sellers. He explained it in plain english that is was scrathced and she still bought it. He was just trying to help her out.

BUYER BEWARE!!

You realize you are responding to posts over 3 years old, right?

Too bad it still applies today. The main reason why I stopped most of my time on DVDTalk - trolls.

This reminds me of the threads I saw last year about baking your dead/dying Nvidia video cards in the oven for five minutes to bring them back to life.

Or freezing a dead hard drive to bring it back to life.