well, i don't know which distro you use, but on openSUSE, pv is in the Packman repository. A search on rpmfind, finds this utility
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=pv
pv is an alternative to dd and displays a nice progress bar when making an ISO image out of a DVD. As for scratched DVDs, there's little I can do about it, it's beyond my control