Fixing read errors in a VOB file.

[mattstan]

From time to time I get persistant read errors (even after cleaning) on a DVD movie when copying to hard disk using DVD Decrypter.

When this happens and I try setting DVD Decrypter's software and hardware retry settings to their max values and sometimes that works. More often it doesn't so I set software and hardware retries to 0 and select 'ignore read errors'. Often the resulting VOB file has only a few megabytes (or even less) of read errors in them and after DVD Shrink or DVD Copy has compressed the movie (if necessary) the result of the read errors can be as minimal as a bit of pixelization on the screen for a few seconds, maybe some distorted sound, though sometimes it's worse of course.

Is there any software that can attempt to fix the problem? Perhaps by 'normalizing' the values caused by the read errors, maybe by changing the value of a pixel to that of its nearest (valid) neighbour?

Thanks.

[gguerra3]

sounds like your drive. Laser misalignment or something like that. Have you tried another reader/writer?

[mattstan]

sounds like your drive. Laser misalignment or something like that. Have you tried another reader/writer?

Yes I have 2 dvd drives, it's not the dvd drive just a damaged dvd. It happens from time to time.

[Krispy Kritter]

There was some software mentioned here a few times that was good at reading damaged discs, although I believe it was in reference to music cd's. I don't recall the name at the moment.

As for software to correct files, I don't believe you will find anything. Software used for reading discs is only reading data (1's & 0's), there is no "normal" value for data. Even if there was, you would still get the pixelation or audio stutter because you would be reading the "normal" value and not the actual data for the video/audio.

[Legendsk]

Really, I'm not a Prassi salesperson, but I have had very good luck with ONES ability to copy damaged CD/DVDs and it's pretty cheap.
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=Prassi_ONES

I agree entirely with Krispy Kritter, once you have a damaged file, even artificial intelligence isn't going to be able to restore it to its original form. That is the basis for the humor in the old joke about the lady asking the photographer to remove her husband's hat while touching up the photograph. Q. "Which side does he part his hair on?"
A. "You'll see that when you take off his hat."