Digital Innovations 10185 Skip Dr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System
by Digital Innovations
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Digital Innovations 10185 Skip Dr. Motorized AutoMax Scratch Repair System
Customer Review: Works great. Have recovered movie discs, audio discs, home "burned" discs.
Summary: 5 Stars
I maintain over 300 computers for one of my clients.
Each had a CDRW or DVD-RW.
Needless to say, I get requests at least monthly, to assist with
data recovery from CD and/or DVD media.
As another reviewer mentioned, you can only recover discs that are scrathed on the play-side (if the label, and the foil below it, get scratched; buffing is NOT going to help)
This device works great for surface scratches to the PLAY-SIDE of the disc.
Small scratches can be fixed with maybe a single buffing.
Deeper scratches may require a few more buffings in this device.
NOTE 1: Buffing should be from the inside (center) toward the outside (edge). Or 90 degrees to the center. That is where a buffing unit works great vs hand buffing.
NEVER buff in parallel to the play tracks!
NOTE 2: Repair can be done manually.
Some people have repaired disc media with just a cream polish and some elbow grease. One recommended polish is BRASSO. Google CD repair and you'll find other polishes also mentioned.
I bought a bottle of Brasso but have not yet used it.
So far my Skip DR has fixed every scratch I threw at it.
NOTE 3: Once you get the data disc repaired and READABLE again;
back up your data.
Or CLONE the disc and set the original disc aside.
(Scratch repair is LESS effective the 2nd, 3rd, etc, times around).
NOTE 4: if it is a data disc and buffing fails,
you can also try data recovery utilities such as:
a. CD roller
b. ISO buster
The only negative I had was the the unit I bought did NOT include the AC adapter.
Luckily I use rechargable AA batteries for most electronic appliances/devices.
Customer Review: Good but....
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a good tool but you must know a few things about disc scratch repair this is for medium light scratches it won't do much for deep scratches and it cannot repair the foil side of the disc, the foil is where the data is cracks and damage to the foil is death to the data and the disc.
This is a 3 part scratch removal tool the Game/Skip/Disc doctors (can't keep up with the name changes/clones) grind the surface down and then you have to dry it and then buff it, drying can be done with paper towels or toilet paper or the supplied blue paper, the buffing can only be done with the buff pad or roto tool buffing equipment.
Buffing is the final and most important step grinding only removes some scratches buffing finishes the job you need to buff it a little longer than you grinded it.
Also no DC adapter is provide with this, I suggest a solid multi 1-12 volt 1-2Amp DC adapter, you can lower the speed of the grinding just a bit so it grinds the surface more evenly, in a pinch you can use a 12volt 1-2amp DC adapter but be warned it could fry the unit so stick with 6-9 V and you will need every bit of amp or more to push the disc threw.
In the end this is only 1/3rd of the equipment needed, it needs a DC adapter with it, speed settings and a buffing wheel, if anything they could design a buffing wheel that could be swapped out after you are done grinding, none of the under 80$ stuff is complete as far as a all in one unit, but if you don't mind taking the time to grind dry and buff and buff...and buff you'll have mostly good results with the Game/Skip/Disc doctors!
Customer Review: May destroy the surface but does work.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read some of the negative reviews of this product, and I'm sort of moved, I don't expect to use the skip dr more than once on my CD's or DVD's. It's safer to go against the RIAA and MPAA and just rip the CD's and DVD's to CD-R's and DVD-R's, even to keep backup copies. That is completely restorative, and I serriously doubt a cop or a FBI agent will come around to your door to verify the authenticity of your CD/DVD's.. If considering fair consumer use of the product, if you own the original, you should be able to make copies for yourself, just remember when you sell them off to sell off the non-working disk with the copy. BTW, I use Ubuntu Linux, I hate Microsoft now because they are catering to the media industry and not to consumers anymore. Vista and the internal documents on Vista and how they made it really to make their DRM stronger in the sight of media producers, has really rubbed me the wrong way with them. And it's made it ever more apparent to me that they aim to close the open PC platform, as what makes Apple so successful with their products is a tight grip on what their consumers can do with their products, considering how DRM coupled with a walled garden can be successful, but in disguise really bad for the consumers.
I'd prefer to have a PC platform where I control what my devices can do, not a third party. It's like mechanized ethics. If you can't trust the consumers, don't sell. And if you want to sell consumers crippled products, don't expect them to buy. You get what you pay for. Or rather you get what you deserve.
Customer Review: Great product
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the Skip Dr. after our X-box put a 2-inch long scratch near the outer edge of our brand new Rock Band 2 disc, rendering it unplayable. I tried buffing it out and other home remedies but had no success. Before buying the Skip Dr., I read many of the reviews and noted two important tips: (1) make sure to get the disc plenty wet with the supplied fluid and (2) make sure to buff the disc radially, or against the grain.
For those of us who grew up with vinyl LPs, tip 2 is somewhat counter intuitive because with analog recordings, you always wipe with the grooves. With digital discs it is important to remember that tangential scratches which run in the direction of the data are very bad while radial scratches that run across the data tend to have have little or no impact.
My first surprise when I received my battery operated Skip Dr. is that the box contained a "bonus" power cube at no extra cost. Operation was easy; I followed the instructions and the above tips. After inspecting the disc I could see that while the 2-inch scratch was less obvious, it was still visible. I wasn't overly concerned because some of the reviews indicated that I might have to repeat the process two or three times to fix deep scratches. But before going for round two, I decided to put the disc into the X-box to see if there was any difference. To my surprise, the disc played perfectly and has been operating flawlessly ever since.
Bottom line: Skip Dr. works as advertised and gave me an immediate return on investment - $30 product cost vs. $60 for a new X-box disc.
Customer Review: A skeptic's joyful enlightenment!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen listings for this item in various catalogs and here on Amazon.com for quite some time now, and I have always looked upon these listings with a bit of skepticism. After all, if it works so well, why wouldn't they use it at video rental stores and at Netflix? I had to hope that it was more than just hype, though, because I own a $35.00 Criterion Collection edition of Kurosawa's masterpiece, Throne Of Blood, and that DVD managed to get itself mangled in an old DVD player, with several rows of horrible scratches that completely prevented it from playing past the 52 minute mark. I swallowed my doubts and ordered one, picked up a stack of AA batteries (it requires six batteries at a time--be prepared!), read the instructions, sprayed the goo, stuck in the disc, watched it spin and whir, and then dried and buffed it in accordance with the instruction sheet. The scratches were GONE. True, the surface was no longer a perfect glossy mirror, but it was shiny and smooth enough for my DVD player and my computer DVD drive to read, and the disc worked FLAWLESSLY.
I don't have a household filled with disc-eating children, and I'm quite good about handling things so that they don't get scuffed up or dirty, but I figure that this doohickey will see use about once per month, between my own discs and those of my friends & neighbors. This is a SUPERIOR product, and if it can't repair your disc, it's only because you REALLY messed it up! No sensible movie/music maven should be without one (especially if you're stupid enough--like me--to lend your discs to anybody else).