Can not copy a DVD disc

[cobra jet]

My friend is trying to copy a dvd that was given to him by an old band member. The original disc plays fine on one of his DVD players. He has not been able to copy disc to disc using either Windows, Roxio, or Media Now. Every time the program gets almost done with the copy and then crashes. If he copies the content of the DVD to his hard drive and then burns it to disc, the burn works but the disc will not play in any player. He is going to bring it by this weekend & I will try to copy it on my system.
I am trying to figure out what program created the disc and what type of disc it really is. It is not a DVD compliant disc due to the folder structure.

Thanks

[DB83]

Looks like it was created on a dvd-recorder in the VR mode.

Typically they will play fine in the original recorder but only in some software players.

You can try something like ISO buster or mpeg streamclip to extract the original movie and then author a standard dvd from that.

[cobra jet]

Thanks for the reply. What do you think is causing it to fail the disc copy? Do you think he would have better luck with ImgBurn or Nero?

Thanks

[DB83]

Imgburn would be the best option.

But if you cannot play the original then there is no point.

If the original is a RW disk then it's also probable that ANY copy will not even play in the machine that made the original.

[cobra jet]

DB83,
The original plays in one of his home DVD players but not the other. The one it will not play in is an older deck. It may not be able to read discs made in VR mode. I will try ImgBurn first and see if that works, but I am starting to think it would be better if he asks his bass player just to make a copy on the original deck. I am in the middle of doing a highlight DVD for my sons baseball team and don’t have much free time to be trying to mess with extracting or editing it right now.

Thanks

[cobra jet]

I finally got the disks from my friend and had a chance to try to take a look at them. I was not able to play them on my 3 different stand alone players. When I put them in either of my dvd drives on my PC, Windows Explorer will not even display the contents of the disks. I brought them to work and tried to read the disks on both my PC and my Mac and neither would read the content as well. The Mac thinks they are blank disks. I understand why they will not play but I am surprised that three different computers will not display the contents of the disks, especially considering that my friend was able to look at the disks on his PC. If you turn the disks over they definitely have something on them. Any advice?

Thanks
Mark

[minidv2dvd]

isobuster.

[cobra jet]

I downloaded ISOBuster and it was able to see the files on the disk. I tried to extract the files to my hard drive but it said i had to pay for it first. What functions can I test for free? I don't mind buying the software if it works, but would like to try it out, since its called Trialware. What functions can I do under the trailware version that might help me?

[hech54]

I think the Sonata files indicates it is from a Cyberhome DVD Recorder. My dad has one. I did manage to copy a disc from his Cyberhome and I don't have any really fancy tools....have you tried DVDShrink. It's last incarnation was great at opening discs from recorders.

[t0nee1]

Well since, you say the original disc plays fine on one of your friends DVD players, you could maybe hook it up via RCA,S-video, component cable or preferably firewire,to a capture card on the PC and copy it that way.....I mean as a last resort of course!....

[oldfart13]

Sonata means any of a number of recorders. My Daytek 950-S lists itself as Sonata when I try to rip discs. Make sure the disc is finalized. There should be a checkmark in the copy/burn software to finalize disc after copying it. No problems ripping unprotected discs from the Daytek with DVD Decryptor. Doing one right now. It's also interesting to note that these decks will change the bit setting from DVD+VR to DVD-ROM on finalization making them playable in just about any player from the past several years. I like that feature....

[t0nee1]

I also have a CyberHome recorder (seldom used),and come to think of it, I've used DVDDecrypter to rip to HDD...Just slipped my mind....

[TBoneit]

Try the TDA trial version. Per the description from this site.

TMPGEnc DVD Author 3 with DivX Authoring
Builtin DVD editing, import DVD-Video, VOB Files, DVD-VR, DVD-RAM. Add 2 audio tracks and 2 subtitle streams.

Seems like it should work.

[cobra jet]

I paid for ISOBuster since I was not able to figure out how to do what I needed with the Trialware version. Now, I was able to extract the files to my hard drive and it seems to play correctly using Power DVD. I also did a “Find missing files” and it located over 130 files and 15 folders totaling 19GB. Now I want to try to burn a DVD but I am not sure what to do with the missing files. Since I have no idea what this DVD should look like in the first place I do not know if I even need the missing files.
Please advice.

Thanks
Mark

[note-2-tom]

One thing that I didn't see mentioned was the condition of the disk. One step I perform with stubborn disks is inspect them for deep scratches and dirt and fingerprints. A washing with mild disk soap doesn't hurt the disk.