DVDShrink DVD-R Won't Play in Set-Top Player

[blaxx]

I just used DVDShrink 2.3 to shrink the Beatles Anthology DVD Episode 1+2 disk to one DVD-R size (One episodic DVD to One DVD-R). The resulting DVD-R works fine in my Desktop PC and Laptop PC DVD-readers (using PowerDVD), but won't work in my set top player - it won't recognize the disk as a DVD at all.

It's not the media (Memorex DVD-R 4X) nor the burner (Sony DRU500 with 2.0f firmware) - I've used the same media and burner successfully with DVDXCopy, MyDVD, RecordNOW DX and many other utilities to successfully create DVD-R's that are read by both my PCs and my set top player (A JVC from 2000).

In fact, I've successfully used IFOedit and RecordNow DX to make a version of the disk, with the same media and burner, that works fine on my set top. I want to use DVDShrink because that's the only way I can make both episodes fit on one disk.

I can only deduce it's something in the way DVDShrink rewrites the VOB and/or IFO files that is causing my JVC set top to not recognize the disk and spit it out. The settings I used in DVDShrink are:

Keep original menus
main menus shrunk level 4 - 20%
titles shrunk level 3 - 15%
Kept only English subtitles
Kept only Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
Burned with RecordNow DX (yes I created VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directories)

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated!

blaxx

[dcsos]

Its just a guess but try submitting ALL IFO's in the SHRUNK DOWN version
to IFO edit to see if enhancements in the REGION CONTROL have caused the settop to reject the disc..
Open the ifo in Ifo edit and hit REGION FREE..if ifo still dtetect region infor, then you have you answer..
Save the modified ifo back to the video_ts folder and exit ifo.edit

[blaxx]

dcsos:

If I followed your suggestion correctly, I used IFOedit on the two .IFO files generated by DVDShirnk - here's what I did and what happened:

I opened the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. I hit region free, and got the following error message: "NO RCE checking found in this file". When I hit OK, it says "Done, enjoy your region-free DVD!".

For VTS_01_0.IFO, I hit region free, and got the following error message: "NO RCE checking found in this file". When I press OK, nothing happens.

What does all of this tell me?

[AarontheRipper]

I have noticed DVDShrink having problems with making bad ifo files. You may want to scrap the ifo's after running the clip through DVDShrink, and then make new ones with IfoEdit, or you can try just fixing the VTS sectors with IfoEdit.

[Pilot_Xphile]

I did the same thing with the X-Files Episodes DVD's...
Used DVD Shrink to compress the files.

Original Size: 7,779 MB
Kept original menus and extras.
Menus shrunk level 10 (50%)
Main Movies (4 episodes) shrunk level 9 (45%)
Extras shrunk level 9 (45%)
Kept English, Spanish and French Subtitles.
Kept Spanish and English Dolby Surround 2.0
Burned with CopyToDvd 4,367 MB Total.

I burned with a TDK IndiDvd Multi-format (DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW), on a TDK 4X DVD-R disk. My set top DVD Player is a Panasonic SA-HT95.

I was amazed with the quality of the video and sound. Couldn't see any diference with the original DVD's.

Thanks,

Pilot X-Phile

[blaxx]

AaronTheRipper:

Thanks for your reply!

>You may want to scrap the ifo's after running the clip through DVDShrink, and then make new ones with IfoEdit, or you can try just fixing the VTS sectors with IfoEdit.


While I've used IFOEdit extensively to edit existing IFO files to remove content, menus, subtitles, etc. I'm not entirely familiar with how to perform the exact procedures you mention (e.g make new IFO's, fix VTS sectors). Can you clarify, or point me to a guide somewhere?

[dcsos]

When I hit OK, it says "Done, enjoy your region-free DVD!".

Now hit save.. Then it will ask do you want to overwrite the .BUP that corresponds to that IFO as well (bup is the backup of the ifo)..say yess and then you can exit without the ERROR message
"DO you want to quit without saving changes"

or read thishttp://www.doom9.org/
go to the extreme left DROP DOWN SELECTOR on the website and select
IFOEDIT

[txpharoah]

That's why I switched to DVD2one. I had the same problems in earlier versions of DVDshrink (1.0-1.3). Something about the output is non-standard, but I lacked both time and expertise to decompile the VOBs and IFOs to see what was wrong. I tried a IFO Edit suggestion too (at that time), but it didn't help.