Playback problem on SONY dvd players

[jlz901]

I've been asked to copy a custom-made "home movie" DVD of travel momentos. This DVD will not play back on Sony DVD players or on Windows Media Player XP. Sony DVD player says to "insert disc." HOwever, it's fine on all other players.

There seems to be something quirky or non-standard about how the DVD was authored/encoded. WIthout having the original video source, is there a way to uncompress the video, and re-encode and reauthor it to make it agreeable to the SONY player?

I have tried ripping main movie with DVD Shrink, with VirtualDubMod and reencoding with DVD Flick, but without success. In this case, have sound , but no video.

I suspect the video is the problem -- is there a way to fully uncompress the video to a more raw video format?

Thanks.

[hech54]

This is the folder structure of a DVD video disc:
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#struct

If you see something similar to this on that disc (on your computer)....open the first LARGE .vob file in MediaInfo (text mode) and post the results here.

You may even want to post the file structure of the entire VIDEO_TS folder too.

[jman98]

It could be PAL DVD. The problem you are describing could well be caused by a PAL DVD. Sony players are infamous in the USA and Canada for refusing to play PAL at all. Where exactly did you get this DVD made? If you list the country, we can tell you if it's PAL or not. Your steps may have simply left it in PAL format. Additionally, you can install MediaInfo and post the output here. Open a large VOB file under the VIDEO_TS folder (look for something 1 GB in size) and post back what it says about the file. We can tell from that if it's PAL.

WMP refusing to play it proves and means nothing. WMP is a POS. I have with my own eyes seen fully updated WMP refuse to play non-encrypted WMV that VLC could play fine. If I ever had the chance to talk to Microsoft engineers, I would like to ask them this - "If you had infinite resources of time and money where neither was an object, do you think it would be possible to actually make WMP even worse than it is right now? Or you have made it as bad and useless right now as it can possibly be?".

[DB83]

But if this really is a home-made dvd you should be able to copy/paste the video_ts folder from the disk to your hdd and just use imgburn to burn another disk.

I would also ask that you also post the folder strucure of the disk. There may be an additional folder on the disk such as 'Video_RM'. That would indicate that you do not have a standard dvd-video disk but a VR_disk.

[jlz901]

It was made in Africa, but it seems to be NTSC. As I say, I rip it, re-encode it to dvd image, and burn it, but still no luck.

Directory of E:\DVDl\VIDEO_TS

03/10/2013  10:16 PM    <DIR>          .
03/10/2013  10:16 PM    <DIR>          ..
03/01/2013  06:30 AM            14,336 VIDEO_TS.BUP
03/01/2013  06:30 AM            14,336 VIDEO_TS.IFO
03/01/2013  06:30 AM             8,192 VIDEO_TS.VOB
03/01/2013  06:33 AM            38,912 VTS_01_0.BUP
03/01/2013  06:30 AM            38,912 VTS_01_0.IFO
03/01/2013  06:30 AM        52,924,416 VTS_01_0.VOB
03/01/2013  06:32 AM     1,073,709,056 VTS_01_1.VOB
03/01/2013  06:33 AM     1,069,197,312 VTS_01_2.VOB
               8 File(s)  2,195,945,472 bytes

General
Complete name                            : E:\DVD\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 1 024 MiB
Duration                                 : 17mn 3s
Overall bit rate                         : 8 396 Kbps

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=16
Duration                                 : 17mn 3s
Bit rate                                 : 8 000 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.772
Time code of first frame                 : 00:00:00:00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
Stream size                              : 972 MiB (95%)

Audio
ID                                       : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Muxing mode                              : DVD-Video
Duration                                 : 17mn 2s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 31.2 MiB (3%)

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[theewizard]

you ripped it/copied the folders and files
then you did NOT recode anything

if you converted it to avi or mp4
then re-encoded to dvd format

that would be a two step re-code

and should work

[loster]

you ripped it/copied the folders and files
then you did NOT recode anything

if you converted it to avi or mp4
then re-encoded to dvd format

that would be a two step re-code

and should work

Rencoding could be done to any format. The video could be extracted and reauthored with out re-encoding.
Since you tried using dvd flick I would suggest trying AVS2DVD as an alternative.

[theewizard]

i belive he said he tried that
and since the vobs are dvd compliant, very likely NOTHING was recoded which is why he is having such a problem

i'm not saying recoding is a great idea

i am saying recoding should eliminate any problem that is being carried over from the original files/vobs

[DB83]

The vobs appear too large - greater than 1 gig which is the max under the dvd spec.

Are you certain there are no other folders on the original disk ?

[jlz901]

No other files / folders on disc.

What type of output should I choose for AVS2DVD?

[hech54]

See if VOB2MPEG can give you one, large MPEG2 file from the disc. If it can, and you get video and audio from the result....re-author a new DVD.

[hech54]

you ripped it/copied the folders and files
then you did NOT recode anything

if you converted it to avi or mp4
then re-encoded to dvd format

that would be a two step re-code

and should work

WTF are you talking about?

[DB83]

You could also try dvddecrypter to rip the disk to one large vob - ifo mode/settings >> ifo mode >> no file splitting.

If successful just import that large vob in to avs2dvd

Anyone ever seen vobs greater than .99 gig on a dvd before ? Some quirky copy protection maybe ?

[CobraPilot]

The vobs appear too large - greater than 1 gig which is the max under the dvd spec.

Are you certain there are no other folders on the original disk ?

DB83 may have found the problem here.

ALL my NTSC discs, whether commercial or do-it-myself, have .vob's that max out at either 1,048,574 kb or 1,048,404 kb in size when viewed in Windows.

NONE are as large as shown on the problem disc.

So, the culprit may be as simple as a non-standard vob size?

That's easily fixable with minimal or no re-encoding required, isn't it? What would happen if the OP simply ran this disc's contents through DVD Shrink to create a fully compliant DVD? Altho he said he used DVD Shrink, if the result produced file sizes too large, something wasn't done right.

[loster]

There is a setting in dvd shrink that allows the creation of vobs larger then 1 gb. It could have been set by accident.

[hech54]

I've run across some strange discs too over the years....here's one:

[jlz901]

Interesting theory, I tired DVD shrink with the 1 GB limitation, but it didn't work because the VOB file size given above in bytes is actually within limits:

Divide by 1024 each time and you get:

1,073,709,056 bytes = 1,048,544 Kilobytes = 1,023.9 Megabytes = 0.9999 Gigabytes

Will try the one or two step re-encode as suggested.

[loster]

Did you try vob2mpg and remaking a dvd?