if i were to take a dvd with scratches on it, which consequently make the dvd skip or have blocks, and encode it to xvid, the skips/pixels disappear, yet if i make a replica of the dvd, with say, dvdshrink, and burn onto a dvdr the skips stay the same why?
The re-encoding process ignores missing data i.e. the scratches, while the duplication process does not. Just like if you photocopied a piece of paper, any specks and marks on the paper will show in the copy, but if you re-printed a document, then they would not.
Before anything else, try DVD-Decrypter or the similarly-named DVDFAB Decrypter. Although designed for ripping, these tools also are pretty good at data-recovery. See how they work.
i usually use dvdshrink because of its ease and im not a little girl about the quality and the settings because i couldn't care less. should i make an iso using dvddecrypt then use dvdshrink?