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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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: 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).
Customer Review: My SkipDR review
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought my first SkipDR about 10 years ago. That one was the cheaper hand-crank version and basically a cumbersome piece of crap. Since I didn't know of many other disc repair systems or kits at the time and it was pre-computer era for me, I decided to take a chance on the twice as expensive (about $25) motorized version. THAT one performed beautifully and lasted me 10 years even without replacing the "micro-frictional" wheel. The motorized version that I had then was hand held like a gun (yeah, yeah "weapon", I remember..."this is my weapon, this is my gun..."). I would spray the solution that came with it on the disc, put the disc on another detachable wheel which was inserted parallel to the floor, flip the switch on the handle with my thumb and let it go for about a minute, turn it off manually and pull out the disc. The one that I bought a few months ago cost just under $40 and is a lot more user- friendly. That one sits on a table in the living room, (looks nice actually) and all I do is spray the solution and insert the disc which automatically turns on the device and automatically ejects the disc upon completion. The version that I have is very compact and I swear works better than that $2000 space module that they use at the video store. We own around 30 DVD's and I have about 300 CDs and could not imagine not having my SkipDR.Customer Review: Works great if you follow a few tips.
Summary: 5 Stars
All the Skip Dr resurfacers work great, but the directions are crappy.
Rule 1: Always clean the disk thoroughly! I use some dish soap and clean the surface until it's smooth to the touch. (No dirt spots or grime!)
Rule 2: Keep the disk wet while resurfacing! Run the disk under the tap while the machine is running so that any of the poly dust is washed away and doesn't scratch up the disk worse! You can use the spray bottle that comes with it, but it's just isopropyl soap and water. I prefer to keep the disk soaked through the whole process under the tap.
Rule 3: Run a bad disk through it several times. You should see the scratches become less apparent and slowly disappear. The scratches do not need to be completely gone for it to read, instead try it after several resurfacing passes.
Rule 4: If the foil backing is scratched this will not fix it. You can try placing a piece of masking tape on the back (side with print on it.) side of the disk and it might read, otherwise you may be out of luck.
Rule 5: After you get the disk to read back it up!!! Although this will remove scratches it will not prevent new ones.
This can save you some cash, but don't expect it to work miracles. Some disks will be just too far gone especially if they have deep gouges in them.
Customer Review: Fixed a game disc my Xbox 360 destroyed
Summary: 5 Stars
The Xbox 360 suffers from a problem that is fairly well-known, wherein a disc that is spinning in the drive will jolt out of its spin if the console itself is picked up or jostled while running. This can and often does cause massive scratches in a circular pattern on the disc, making it unreadable.
This recently happened to my Guitar Hero World Tour disc, and it was unreadable. After trying several methods to fix it (including the toothpaste method) it was still unreadable. To be fair it seems that with enough time and endurance the toothpaste method may have worked, but I spent over an hour on it and it was still unreadable.
I finally caved and bought this bad boy. I ran my damaged disc through it and after 2 passes it worked like a charm. It may have been ok after 1 pass, but I figured it was so screwed up I'd just go for 2 from the get-go and didn't even try it after the first pass.
Considering this cost me roughly half the money of a new Xbox 360 game I'm pleased, and I'll certainly be using it to clean up any other discs I have that could use it.
Customer Review: Well worth the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
Simply put, this is an amazing piece of machinery. I order a lot of used house/trance CDs from overseas, which can be quite expensive. They don't always arrive in the best shape unfortunately, especially older CDs. The SkipDR has managed to save every single CD I've used it on, no matter what condition it arrived in. It's truly saved me a ton of aggrevation.
I highly reccomend the automated version instead of the manual one, which I ordered first. The automated version is about 20x easier and faster to use, which you'll appreciate if you have a bunch of CDs to clean.
There is only one slight downside to this machine that's been talked about before, and that is how fast the disposable parts run out. The wheel and fluid will only last about 20-25 CDs, far less than the advertised amount. But if you really want to save your CDs/DVDs, it's just a small issue. The price of replacement kits is far cheaper than re-buying a ton of CDs and DVDs.
I definantly reccomend this if you have tons of optical media laying around. Well worth the cost!