Recovering a deleted show on Philips DVDR70

[modeller]

Hi... I recently acquired a Philips DVDR70, and have been pleased with it generally. The other day, my wife recorded a TV program for me on a DVD+R, and watched it the next day, before I got home. When she'd seen it through, she wanted to put a more descriptive "title" on the disc, which she'd seen me do before. She got confused in the menus, and when it asked her if she wanted to "delete the title", she said yes... Of course, it was the recording itself the menu referred to, not just the title of the recording. Now, the deleted "title" simply doesn't show up, on the DVDR or on my PC. Now, I imagine there's been a flag set to show it as deleted, and the recording is still there, somewhere. Can anyone steer me to a method or utility (perhaps on my PC, which has a DVD+R/RW capability) to recover what is on the DVD (either directly, or to copy it to another DVD)?

Thanks, Frank.

[hech54]

I believe the version of ISObuster - the version you PAY for....can find the deleted title. There is also one called CDRoller (?)...same type of thing but different company...it works on DVD's as well.

[modeller]

Hi Hech54,
Thanks for that. I tried ISObuster (just the freeware version) to see how far it would go. Its help files indicate that it should be able to do what I want. There's no support pointer on their website, though.
Results:
1) On the DVD with the deleted program, the DVDR70 sees the deleted file, and a space for a small additional file. It won't let me make any changes to the deleted file, although the documentation that came with it says that the file is still there, just marked as deleted.
2) ISObuster sees nothing on the DVD at all... in fact, it seems to think it is a CD!
3) Explorer does the same... sees what it thinks is a CD, but no files that it can recognise.
3) Right clicking and asking for properties says the disk is a CD with 7.3 GB of space used!!!???
4) Another DVD, correctly recorded and playable on the DVDR70, has the same problem when I put it on the PC... i.e. no files visible, and it assumes it is a CD.
5) A real DVD (purchased), shows some files in a couple of folders, but NONE of them have file extensions matching the list of extensions that ISObuster associates with its "image files".

Does any of this make sense to you, or anyone else? BTW, the CD/DVD+R/RW is the HP 300n, bought about a year ago. Its drivers and firmware are at latest levels.

Again, thanks.

[hech54]

If it is a +R and not an RW.....the segment will still be there. It can't be overwritten. You may want to finalise the disc if it is not already....I'm guessing it is not by the weird behavior it is exhibiting the computer.
Here's what a finalized +R looks like in ISOBuster Pro...it doesn't have and deleted titles on it but hey....just to show it works.. This disc is from my 985 which from what I am told produces discs that slightly are easier to work with...computer wise.


If anything can grab that deleted title it will be ISOBuster.

[hech54]

I did a test with my Philips 985....deleting a title then attempting to recover it with ISOBuster. After making 3 recordings I deleted the last title (it contained a music video by a girl named Jeanette - cute but terrible music). I tried to read the disc first while the disc was NOT finalized.....an hour later ISOBuster was still trying to figure out exactly what types of orphaned files it was looking at.....and me being Mr. Impatient....I aborted that and returned the disc to the Philips and finalized it.
ISOBuster Pro picked up everything on the disc BUT so did DVDDecrypter. I took VTS_01_5.VOB from both DVDDecrypter and ISOBuster Pro and it contained the Jeanette video mentioned above. So it looks like finalizing the disc is the way to go to get that deleted title from that disc.

[modeller]

I'm back again, and getting there, but...

Hech54, you had it right... finalising the DVD on the Philips made all the files available on the PC. I had seen "finalising" in the manual, but really didn't understand what it was, or why it was needed, because the DVDs recorded on the Philips played back on it perfectly, without finalising. Now I see the light! Many, many thanks!!!

So, I now have folders and files, just as you showed in your post. I can also see the deleted file, and when I double-click the .VOBs (there are more than one - I presume they represent arbitrary chapters), they play on the PC.

The only problem that remains now, is doing the undelete itself. I copied the VIDEO_RM and VIDEO_TS folders to a new CD-R, but that has brought the "delete flag" (or whatever it is) along with the good stuff. So I still can't play the deleted program as a normal DVD in the Philips, or the PC, for that matter.

I've checked through Isobuster, and I don't see any "undelete" function. Any ideas? Thanks for your patience!!!!!

[hech54]

I don't think you are going to make another DVD that includes that deleted material with either DVDDecrypter or ISOBuster.
Personally what I would do is download MPEG-VCR (30day trial) and open the .vob with that program. You will most likely end up with more (or maybe less) of the lost footage in that .vob since .vob's are not necessarily titles or chapters.
Anyway....open the .vob with MPEG-VCR and take the missing footage from the .vob (check out the guides....so easy even I can do it) with MPEG-VCR. That will save it as an mpeg file with the AC3 audio still intact and in sync. The playback is a BIT jumpy sometimes in MPEG-VCR but try to ignore it.....it's a great program for doing stuff like this.
From there on you can re-author that file to a new DVD with something like TMPGEnc DVD Author (also a free 30 day trial).

[modeller]

Hm-m-m-m... OK, I'll give it a try... but it seems like a long way around! An action that took 2 seconds, and didn't destroy anything, should be recoverable in about the same (or less) time, IMHO.

To make sure you understand where I am in the process, ISObuster has created a perfectly viewable set of .VBOs on my HDD. I can view all of them by double-clicking on them, one at a time, on the PC, so at least I know that my show is preserved. However, once I copy all the files to a DVD, the show is still deleted. So, now that I have the .VBOs on the HDD, a simple "undelete" is all that should be needed, don't you think so?

Again, IMHO, the secret probably lies in one of those other mysterious files sitting in one of the two folders with the VBOs. It's probably no more than a quick alteration with a competent editor that can read a binary file. Being a cautious man at heart, you can rest assured that I am not going to start "twiddling" bits without knowing what I'm doing. I was a programmer for too many years to do anything completely silly! )

Maybe this is an opportunity for a new killer utility that will make someone rich! Still, it's hard to believe that it doesn't already exist. I remember that it took Peter Norton about a year after the PC came out in the early 80's to come up with the "undelete" that made his fortune.

Again thanks for your help... I'll let you know how I get on!

[hech54]

Well look at it this way. You can't muck up the DVD+R because it is finalized. All you could muck up is the data on the HD that you ripped from the DVD. And if that happens....just take it again..
And remember the only reason I mentioned MPEG-VCR (an editing program) is because what you take from the DVD will most likely contain more footage than you are looking to retrieve.
I wish it would be that simple.....to simply undo the marker on the DVD flagging it as "out to lunch"...

[modeller]

Hello Hech54,

I'm sorry to have taken so long on this reply, because your excellent suggestions have been fruitful, and I've recovered that pesky program on a DVD that the DVDR70 reads very happily indeed. In fact, it all worked well, and then I was called overseas for the last month, so that's why I didn't get back.

Thanks for your much appreciated help! I've learned quite a bit, too!

[hech54]

You're very welcome.