Scratches = Skips ?
 

Just a general question.

I tried to back up one of my very first dvds which is in pretty ordinary condition.

Using a Pioneer A05 I burnt a copy. Copied fine without any error messages or hangs. Just watched it and there are little skips all the way through the movie.

Is that a symptom of a bad read because of the scratches or could it be cheap media.

The reason I asked is because I thought scratches had little impact on an original dvd because the material is below the surface. If scratches = skips then there's probably not much point backing up the scratched ones.

Any ideas?

You could try a different brand media, but my money is your problem is with your scratched original. You could try a repair device such as DVD Dr or get ahold of another copy of your original.