I'm looking for a tool (preferably Linux- or MacOS-based) that can autonomously scan a DVD and make an assessment about whether or not there are critical media errors that will make it unwatchable (e.g., where "unwatchable" means "more than N seconds of unrecoverable content").
I've been suffering through repeated thrashings of 1) getting a DVD from Netflix, 2) starting to watch it, 3) finding that it's got unrecoverable damage (usually right in the middle of a critical scene) and then having the rest of the evening shot while I dork around trying to get the disk to play (wash, rub, and repeat) and finally holding it up to the light Just So and seeing crazing in the silver.
I'm now on the third attempt to get a viewable copy of this one particular DVD -- this last time before I sat down to watch it, I decided to do a wc on it just to see how much of it was readable. wc quit after a while with EIO (without telling me anything about how much it had successfully read). cat /dev/myRawDVDdrive | wc indicated that over 4GB of data was read (df on the mounted DVD indicates that there is 8GB of data on the DVD). I'd like to figure out whether or not I should send this back for a fourth try or if I'll actually be able to make it through and watch the complete content.
