Problem with movie only--crashes player

[rayvt]

I did a "movie only" rebuild of War of the Worlds using rejig. When I put in in my Hitachi stand-alone player, the player locks up solid---I have to pull the power cord--can't even power it off with the front panel button! Big surprise--usually the Hitachi will play disks that the other players choke on.
The disk plays fine on the computer and on three other (non-Hitachi) players.

As an experiment I then did the same movie-only rebuild with Nero Recode2 -- and the disk played fine.

Examined both disks with PGCEDIT and there is one difference, the pre/post commands in VTS 1. The DVDRB one doesn't have any:
VTS 1 (VTS_01_0.IFO)
--------------------
VTSM 1: no menu.
VTST 1:
VTST 1 , 1 TTN 1 (1:56:27) Title 1 - Chapters: 26, Programs: 25, Cells: 26
********** pre commands:
********** post commands:
********** cell commands:

But the Recode one has:
VTS 1 (VTS_01_0.IFO)
--------------------
VTSM 1: no menu.
VTST 1:
VTST 1 , 1 TTN 1 (1:56:27) Title 1 - Chapters: 25, Programs: 25, Cells: 26
********** pre commands:
[71 00 00 00 00 00 00 00] 1 Set gprm(0) =(mov) 0
********** post commands:
[30 01 00 00 00 00 00 00] 1 Exit
********** cell commands:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I then used PgcEdit to add the above pre command to the DVDRB version and tried in on the Hitachi. I didn't add a post command. Worked perfect!

Evidently some players need a pre-command. Could it be added to DVDRB?

[dialysis1]

Have you tried the other encoders? I did the same backup with the HC.016 encoder and it came out pretty good.

[rayvt]

It's not the encoder, it's the PGC commands. Movie quality is as good as expected--I was just doing a quick movie-only copy that the kids could watch in the basement.

[apfraats]

Gprm(0) := 0 (that's what happens in fact) isn't needed at all.

Gprm's are user registers in the Virtual Machine of the DVD-player.

Use PGCEDIT and do a step by step DEBUG TRACE on youre discs, you'll see what's executed and the impact it has.

PCGEDIT has a build in comaand debugger that shows all register values and you can 'simulate' a real dvd-player with it. It's start settings are customizeable (such as prefered_language, Prefered_subtitle e.d.).

My movie-only DVD's 'don't have any start command's to alter any registers at all. They work perfectly.......

From GPRM's (user registers) the player shouldn't even pay any attention to, as they can be used by authoring software in any way.

The system registers however can infulence the behaviour of a player.

If a player even crashes it is a sign of buggy firmware, FINAL !
(I do not mean endless loops e.g. as you can create them easily, such as a infinite still)


(I did have one too, a Philips.......)

[jdobbs]

@rayvt

Did you try burning the DVD-RB disc again without the command? It makes a lot more sense that you may have had a bad burn on the first try and the Hitachi is a little more sensitive and caught the error.

If that doesn't work I can add the command... but it sure seems strange that a player would require a pre-command...

[rayvt]

Yes, I tried a bunch of combinations, including re-burning and reading it back in with DVDDecrypter to make sure everything went right with the burn. That's the handy thing about DVD-RW's---you can burn as many as you want to at no cost. ;-)

No, the problem is definitely the fact that there are no pre- or post- commands. Since the disk plays fine on all the other standalone players I've tried it on (which is only 2 different models of Cyberhome players), and it plays fine on my computer, and my Hitachi player will play DVD's that the other players choke on.............I'm convinced that it's a bug in the firmware of the Hitachi player.

I'm a programmer, as are you, and I can easily see how such a bug might occur. Some loop in the code implicitly assumes that there is always at least one command, and goes haywire if the count is zero. This bug is unlikely to be caught in normal testing, since this type of movie (one with only one VTS, one video, no menus, and no navigation) is probably extremely rare.

The command "Set gprm(0) =(mov) 0" obviously has no effect, other than to make sure that there *is* a command in the PGC.

I suspect that the possibility of this type of bug in a player is exactly why DVDShrink & NeroRecode put these null commands in the PGC. (Yes, I know that Recode is a descendent of Shrink.) Alas, everybody who programs eventually runs into a situation where they have to do something wierd in their code in order to evade a bug in somebody else's code.

Thanks.

[jdobbs]

Well, it certainly can't hurt anything -- so in it goes...

[on30trainman]

I am having a similar problem with one player - a Sylvania TV with built-in DVD player. Recently made two Movie only backups - Madagascar and Pirates Of The Caribbean. Madagascar was run thru DVD Shrink with no compression and Pirates thru DVD-RB. Madagascar plays fine in all players, but Pirates shuts down in the Sylvania but works fine in others. None of my Star Wars backups made with RB work in that player either.
I looked at VTS_01_0.IFO with IFOEDIT. In VTS_PGC_1 Madagascar show a PGC Command Table with one pre and one post command. But Pirates states No PGC Table. The pre command in Madagascar has the value that Rayvt noted.

Steve W.

[jdobbs]

Strange, but completely believable.

v1.05 should be coming out shortly. I'll add this before releasing.