u/ConnerWoods

I’ve recently made a habit of scanning my used discs using Nero DiscSpeed to check their condition before playing through them, and I’ve run into an interesting discrepancy with my copy of Def Jam Fight for New York.

The quality scan results were pretty alarming. PIE maximum of 453, PIF maximum of 240, PIF average of 1.21, and 20 glitches removed. For reference I’ve scanned several other PS2 discs recently and none came close to these numbers. A follow up ScanDisc however came back 100% good with zero damaged or bad sectors.
The disc itself looks decent, a few light scratches but nothing significant. Visually, I’d rate it as in good or very good condition.
Things got a bit odd when I loaded it into my PS2 slim. It played completely fine, with reasonable load times. I got through the opening cutscenes and tutorial without any issues, saves worked correctly. No glaring red flags.

My understanding is that the quality scan measures how hard the drive has to work to read the disc rather than whether it can read it at all, and that a PC DVD drive and an aging PS2 laser may handle the same disc differently. I also know the early game content sits on the inner portion of the disc where error rates are generally lower, so the real test will be later game content.
Has anyone else encountered significant discrepancies between disc quality scan results and actual PS2 performance? I still have a couple days to initiate a return, so I was hoping to get some feedback before I need to make a final decision. Been wanting this game for a while and it was a good deal, so I’m hoping for some reassurance.

Thanks in advance.