mini dvd cannot rip

[cyflyer]

I know this has been posted many times but I haven't found a solution yet. Have a 20 minute mini dvd recorded from a Sony camcorder. Something went astray in the first 2 1/2 minutes and its corrupted as hell. The dvd will play from about 2 1/2 minutes onwards if you play it in Media player or other player, but if you go into the first unreadable segment of 2 1/2 mins everything grinds to a halt, and you have to eject the disc to unjam the program and the dvd optical drive. I need to just edit/cut away the first 2 1/2 mins to make the rest a workable dvd, trouble is any program needs to read the entire disc before it lets you do anyhing with it. Tried all the usual programs suggested here, and they all choke and hang up, such as Shrink, dvdecrypter, isobuster, isopuzzle, cdroller. Its getting very frustrating. Is there any way to salvage the good bit or am I looking at binning the disc ?

[Nelson37]

First thing I would do is try copying the disk to the hard drive with Explorer or even from the command prompt. Remove the media from the equation. Ripping software should not be required, just a simple copy.

Then, try editing and/or conversion software to either cut off the first part, convert / repair the entire file, or demux the audio and video and see if the problem is limited to one of these, and find out if a re-mux might solve the problem.

Some editors are dramatically more tolerant of significant file errors, some are better with different types of problem.

You may simply have a damaged or defective disk that is partly unreadable. Examine for physical defects and clean off any fingerprints. Yes, a fingerprint can cause a similar problem.

[cyflyer]

Nelson, thanks but i tried the copy/paste and it doesn't work, it chokes up as it tries to read the dodgy part. Its not physically damaged/fingerprints either. I believe the problem eminated from the camera and the recording. I was in a helicopter at the time and I remember the camcorder flashing a 'not recording' or some such message at some stage when we were shaking about, but I wasn't in much of a position to do anything about it, then it seemed to record ok. I can watch it if I stick it in Media player and start after the 2 1/2 mins point until the end, if I try to pull the slider before the 2 1/2 min point, everything goes pear shaped.

[jagabo]

Use a DVD ripper like DVD Fab. Set the hardware and software retry counts to 1. Set it to ignore reading errors so you don't have to sit there an hit retry every time there's an error. Let it run until it's finished ripping. Then you can access the video files.

[cyflyer]

Jagabo, again thanks, tried two different versions of DVD Fab but it chokes on the initial analysing bit, it just keeps going and going and never stops analysing. Besides, I don't think there is a setting for setting the retry counts. Give me the good 'ol days of videotape when you could just cut away the bad bit and carry on. Next idea ?

[Baldrick]

Have you tried on another computer/dvd drive?

[jagabo]

I don't think there is a setting for setting the retry counts.

Yes there is:



Start DVD Fab before inserting the disc in the drive. And hold down a shift key while closing the door, and continue holding it down until the drive stops spinning. That will keep Windows' Auto Insert Notification from doing much with the disc.

[cyflyer]

Baldrick, yes tried another drive. No go.
Jagabo, yes, sorry I didn't look hard enough, found the settings, setted to 'ignore all', '1 retry', 'skip sectors 32 also 64' restart the program, when pressing the shift while closing the door, not sure what you mean about the AIN, but when I do that it still goes through the initial analysis stage and carries on as previously, so I don't think that has worked. Still at square one. I appreciate the efforts, both.

[nic2k4]

Like Nelson37 said you need to get the disc onto your hard drive and jagabo is right with his suggestion, but as you found out DVDfab has this analysing step that complicates things when working with defective recordings. Use DVDdecrypter in file mode instead, it has all the same error handling settings.

I've used NeroVision to recover video from fingerprint covered mini discs (from Nero 6 & 7 package, don't know about the new version).

[cyflyer]

I have tried everything mentioned. No go. Nic2k4, with regards to Nero I have Nero rescue agent on Nero 10 and it wouldn't even leave the gate. It appears there is no way of salvaging the 95% of good video on this disc and may end up binning it, unless anyone can suggest something else.

[Cornucopia]

Why don't you just re-cap it? AKA, set the start point to your safe 2 1/2 minute mark, set the output to go to another PC with capping software, go to full screen, hit record (PC2), hit play (PC1), and save when you're done. Then you know you've got a solid, good segment.
From there, you can edit & re-encode to MPEG2 (for DVD) or whatever final output you need.
Sure, you've lost a generation of quality that way, but at least you have SOMETHING and not NOTHING.

Scott

[cyflyer]

Hi Scott. Please explain 'capping' or 'capping software' , terms I'm not familiar with.

[Cornucopia]

"cap" = capture. To digitize, or transfer the signal from the analog domain into the digital domain and then save it as a file.

Player -> Video card -> Display

is how it usually goes. So change it to:

Player (PC1) -> Video card (PC1) -> Capture card (PC2) -> New video file (PC2)

PC1 = the first/original PC, PC2=the 2nd PC
You will likely want to ALSO have a tap for the display still in that chain so you can see what's going on.

This can be done Digital -> Analog -> Digital (via Component/S-video/Composite or VGA), also known as the "analog hole" in reference to the possible bypassing of copy protection on some titles, but would retain more quality if done Digital -> Digital (DVI/HDMI) which will not bypas CP (though this factor should be moot in your case). Yes there are both video output cards and cap (input) cards with these features.

Scott

[roma_turok]

...they all choke and hang up...

Its normal for software to freeze on unreadable portion of the DVD
just give them time
I have many successful rips with DVD Fab set to ignore, but its take 4-5 hours
Try to give DVD Fab to analyzing 20 min.

[cyflyer]

Well halleluya, I had given up, nothing was working, DvdFab wasn't doing anything (and I didn't have the patience to try for 5 hours), I gave Ripit4me a try and the resultant 1.23GB file ripped to my computer after a couple of tries. It worked where everything else failed. How is it Ripit4me with dvddecrypter works when dvddecrypter on its own does not work, I'll not understand, but I'm sure someone with better understanding will explain it. Anyway, I have the following files (in screenshot), the larger VTS_01_1 plays through ok when opened in Mediaplayer, but its not dvd compliant as powerdvd or dvdshrink will not play. How do I get it back to a dvd compliant form ?

[roma_turok]

You can join VTS_01_1.vob and VTS_01_2.vob to 1 vob file with VOBMerge
then convert VOB file to mpg file with DVDVob2Mpg
From mpg you can make new DVD with DVDStyler

or alternative you can make new DVD with Freemake Video Converter
Freemake Video Converter accept VOB files, just select switch Join files if you add several VOB files
by the way, you replied after week and you don't have patience to wait for 5 hours?

[nic2k4]

... but its not dvd compliant as powerdvd or dvdshrink will not play. How do I get it back to a dvd compliant form ?

Good for you! The reason powerdvd won't play it is that you're missing the IFO files. Just copy the 2 BUP files and change the extension to IFO; BUP is a backup of IFO.


You may have to go to Folder Options in Windows Control Panel and remove the check mark in the "Hide extensions for known file types" box.

[nic2k4]

How is it Ripit4me with dvddecrypter works when dvddecrypter on its own does not work, I'll not understand, but I'm sure someone with better understanding will explain it.

I'm not sure about that, but I would venture a guess that your defective recording could have created an effect similar to one of the copy protection mechanisms; something like an invalid sector being pointed to. Your mishap taught us something new, thanks.

[aedipuss]

... but its not dvd compliant as powerdvd or dvdshrink will not play. How do I get it back to a dvd compliant form ?

Good for you! The reason powerdvd won't play it is that you're missing the IFO files. Just copy the 2 BUP files and change the extension to IFO; BUP is a backup of IFO.


You may have to go to Folder Options in Windows Control Panel and remove the check mark in the "Hide extensions for known file types" box.

that won't work the ifo files are there. you just missed them because the extensions are hidden but listed if you look carefully.

[nic2k4]

Damn, you're right! Then the easiest way to make this disc play normally is to re-generate the IFO's with IFOedit. Just make sure to work with copies of your files.

[cyflyer]

nic2k4, I raise my hat to you and thank you ! You suggestion with IFOedit worked just great, and I have a fully working and compliant dvd. Phew !
So from throw in the bin, wasted nausia inducing (and beleive me it does) staring into camcorder chopper ride, to watchable dvd, Ripit4me- IFOedit worked. Thanks to the other suggestions also, roma_turok, I went with nics' route initially because it seemed like a one step, one program route, whereas yours seemed like another three more downloads, also DVDVob2Mpg was warning of adware downloads attached to it, which I was in no mood to deal with, but still your help was appreciated. Also worth noteing, when I tried burning the dvd files in Nero, it gave an error "relocation of files failed" but I read somewhere that its because some files had different dates on them, so after passing it through Shrink, and burning that file, it cured that.

by the way, you replied after week and you don't have patience to wait for 5 hours

Other things to do, and the thought of my poor dvd writer churning and struggling for 5 hours put me of.