What with all dvds lately come up blank in drive?

[madara]

Anyone else getting increase in dvds that come up with:
1) dvd decryptor medium error
2) dont play on powerdvd player as it shows drive is blank
3)locks up on smartripper another other software


Gah I up to 3 titles this week already. I thinking its because these are really low end amateur titles, but then why arent big studio's using whatever this is to stop decrypting as well? Maybe just law of land when deal with hundreds of titles a month.
Maybe my AO4 suddenly got a very selective diet.

[Kedirekin]

Or maybe you're just wearing your drive out. Your symptoms certainly sound like your drive is having problems reading disks.

As for the big studios using a similar approach, that's a recipe for disaster. Producing unplayable discs would cost them a bundle in returns.

[arman68]

Originally posted by madara
[B]Anyone else getting increase in dvds that come up with:
1) dvd decryptor medium error
2) dont play on powerdvd player as it shows drive is blank
3)locks up on smartripper another other software


I came upon 2 of those a few months ago: both of them are pirate copies which I got in Malaysia and I think this is either a mastering error or something deliberate that the pirates stumbled onto to prevent their pirate DVDs from being pirated :sly:

The DVD are dual layer factory pressed and play fine in any standalone DVD player I have tried. However when mounted in a PC DVD drive the directories and filenames are visible but they are all 0 bytes. Furthermore they cannot be ripped nor played with PC software.

I have not really investigated but my theory is that the basic file system used by standalones (ISO?) is fine, but the secondary file system used by the PC (UDF?) is corrupted. If that is the case, it would be nice to have an option in AnyDVD or DVD Region Free to force the use of a particular file system.

[blackeye]

i'm having the same problem:
just bought a "DVD-10" disc, a 2 sided DVD with 'so close' and 'the transporter'
('the transporter' works without any problem, doesn't matter what program i use to rip it or look at it, so i know it are not my DVD-players)

'so close':
*unable to see the files correctly in explorer
*unable to look at it with MP9, MPC, powerdvd, ...
*unable to copy the cd with nero, but can make an iso copy with alcohol 120, but the iso has the same problem (duh maybe :D)
*unable to rip it with vstrip, robot4rip

BUT, i can rip it with dvddecrypter without any problem (again an iso rip doesn't do the trick), so i'm able to make an divx backup, wich is pretty much ok :D

now, the strange thing is gonna come:
i was just trying some other players and found an old copy of windvd4, i installed it and saw i had to set a "software region code" (the first time i see that) and guess what ... 'so close' plays wihout any problem or error message (if you don't count "not being able to display subtitles", wich is pretty bad for a chinese language movie :D)

both my dvd drivers are region free (frimware update), can that be the problem ? maybe a regio needs to be set ?
can i set a region code for other media players also ? or should i change the firmware again ?

[LIGHTNING UK!]

blackeye,

Are you using Windows 98 or Me? Their UDF parsers dont support big (1GB) files. They'll show up as 0 bytes in size.
DVD Decrypter doesnt rely on the OS UDF parser, that's why it works. Most other programs do - hence they dont work :)

[blackeye]

thanks,

indeed, all the files have a size of '0 bytes' (except for the first two which are both 10kb),
but i'm using winXP pro sp1 (and just had a clean install)

i tested more, windvd4 is still the only program able to correctly access 'so close', but now the problem with subtitles (no subtitles) and dolby5.1 sound (i only got stereo) are solved: i just had to turn off 'hardware *coding something' in the video options :D

can it be true about the region code ?
maybe later i will try to downgrade my firmware again, so i can set i region code ...

greetz

[blackeye]

ok, tried to update (downdate ?) my firmware to 'not region free code'
... and it doesn't work :D

windvd4 is still the only program able to play that side of the dvd, it doesn't seem to make any difference if my drive is 'region code free' or 'region code set' ...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Can you just rip it and play it from your hdd?

[blackeye]

yes,
but i don't know how to access the subtitles or audio streams (if possible) and that's rather needed for a chinees movie :D

ok, i could rip the dvd without splitting the vobfiles (making 1 big file) and then ripping the subtitles and play the movie and then load the subtitles, but then i have to syncronise them and that can be a pain ... :D

again, if there is any way to normaly access the subtitles/audio streams, that would be really nice (a 2-win situation because i don't like the buzzing sound of my dvd player if i can be picky)

thx

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Just follow the DVD playback guide on the website.

Its not hard - honest!

Rip all files in File mode and then use the 'play dvd from folder' option to play the disc.
Either that or rip in ISO mode, mount the ISO in DAEMON Tools and then play from the DAEMON Tools virtual drive.

[blackeye]

sorry, i didn't think there would be a guide on "playing dvd's", who's ever gonna need that :o ... i'm looking for it now
(i'm using this site's 'divx backup guide' for more then a year and it rocks, thanks !)

about ripping the dvd:
i can rip 'in iso', and 'in files mode' ... but in iso the dvd is still not working (using nero imagedrive, the iso is working, but this iso still has the same problem as the dvd)
as for 'in files mode':
i found the "HD dvd playback guide", i tried that already i think (powerdvd), and it worked for the movie, but i'm not able to access the audio or subtitel streams ...
can that be done ? (or should i be able to do that already)

thanks for the help !!

[blackeye]

OOPS

Originally posted by LIGHTNING UK!
Rip all files in File mode

sorry, when i said 'rip in files mode', i meant 'in IFO' mode, that's why i coudln't access the streams, right ?
i assumed there were only two ripping modes: 'iso' and 'another' :o

ok., i tested it and it works !! :D
*rip 'in files mode' with dvddecrypter
*play with powerdvd without any problem

thanks alot for the support and the great guides !
:)