I Robot Problem

[chris18]

A family member bought me I Robot a couple of months ago for my birthday.

I haven't played the DVD until this weekend when I found a problem. At about 1hr the playback slows and the freezes momentarily, it then skips a few frames before playback starts again as normal.

I've tried this three times on my player and get the same trouble each time although the number of frames that are skipped does vary i.e the restart point changes each time.

I've also tried the DVD on a neighbours player and get the same trouble.

I think the problem may be related to the layer change, it's a dual layer single sided disc.

In all other respects the DVD plays OK so it's very annoying to have this glitch.

Unfortunately, the person that bought the DVD no longer has the bill of sale so we can't take it back for exchange.

I was wondering if it would be possible to rip the files to my HDD, locate the offending section, repair the files and then write it back to a new DVD.

Any help/advice much appreciated.

[winifreid]

First make sure it is clean and scratch free. Sometinmes scratches can be hard to see. There are threads about how to deal with scratches. Some have found that the DVDFab Decrypter will rip disks with scratches that other rippers will not. Give it a try.

[waheed]

You can try ripping with DVD Decrypter or DVDFab Decrypter.

It sounds more like a scratched/damaged area at where the glitch occurs, though this may be very faint and not visible to the eye.

[chris18]

Thanks for the replies.

I have checked the disc thoroughly and as far as I can see there aren't any scratches, this was the first thing I did.

I'll give DVDFab Decrypter a try and see how I get on.

If DVDFab Decrypter rips the disc OK will I have to do anything with the resultant files or can I just burn them back to another disc?

Any other thoughts if it's not a scratched/damaged disc?

Thanks

[RottenFoxBreath]

hve you tried to play it in the pc drive,at the point where the glitch occurs.
as for dvd players,it may be there age,or firmware that makes layer changes a problem on some discs.
i.e:the first version of armageddon,uk version,the layer change was in the middle of a conversation,and about 3-5 seconds was missing on most of my home players at the time,but in the pc it was fine,now testing it when i got my home theatre system,it changes fine,and other versions of the same movie have the layer change in different places,as in the criterion version of the us one,it changes when the russian astronaut says,"this is russian spacestation".

[chris18]

Thanks for your reply.

Have ripped the DVD with DVDDecrypter (which I had) and written them back to a fresh DVD.

Have played the DVD on my PC at the "problem" point and it seems to play through it OK.

Haven't tried it yet on my standalone player, will probably do so later today.

Just for interest, my player is only about 6 months old and the firmware is the latest. The other player is around the same age but don't know the status of the firmware.

[chris18]

Have run the newly created DVD on my standalone player and it plays through the problem area without a hitch.

Looks as though there was an undetectable glitch on the original DVD as waheed & winifreid suspected. I've taken a really close look again at the disc and I can't see anything wrong, even when using a magnifying glass.

Thanks to all for their contributions.

[Krispy Kritter]

I also had trouble playing I-Robot. I don't remember the actual time of the freeze. Could possibly be a mastering error.