Can't copy files to Hard Drive from a DVD-R....

[boodo]

Hiya!

I've got something that's got me stumped and I was wondering if anyone would be able to help.

I've been asked to make a copy of my wedding DVD and send it to some relatives overseas. Unfortunately, they don't have DVD players so I'm having to convert it to VCD so they can watch it (Don't worry. It's not an off-topic. You'll see where I'm heading)

The video itself is on a DVD-R but when I can't seem to copy the files on to my hard disk so I can convert it. When I insert into my DVD-ROM drive, it won't access the disk at all. It won't even playback through PowerDVD for some reason. I've tried accessing it through Windows Explorer and it says "Drive Not Accessible. The Device is not ready" and it says "Device not ready" in DVDDecrypter. This happens both in Windows 98 SE AND Windows XP Home and I can't fathom why because it copies over any of my regular DVD's without a fuss (both with and without DMA enabled on the drive itself)

Has anyone got any 's that can help? I was thinking there might be some sort of DVD-R copy protection in place on the disk but I can't figure out what it is so I'd really appreciate some help.

Thanks!

boodo

[Daznz]

Hi Sounds like bad media to me does it play in a standalone player??
I had one doing the same thing it did play on my standalone player but nothing else tryed a few freinds drives still no go.
so i lightly it with rubbed brasso from centre out to the edge (not in circles) and it worked fine. If u get it to go make a copy of it 8)
hope it helps
DAZA

[boodo]

Hi Daznz,

I forget to mention actually. It works fine in my stand-alone DVD players. It's just my PC that it doesn't like. I gave the Brasso idea a try and it still didn't work (I must say that is an "unusual" solution ) It still works in the standalone players mind.

I'm fairly sure it's not Windows because I recently re-installed my machine and everything works fine (not because of this. It's because it was in DIRE need of a re-install to get rid of the crap that collects on it over the course of a year) And like I said, I tried to extract the files of a normal DVD and the files came over fine. It's just this one that's acting up.

I'd appreciate any other ideas!

Thx!

Boodo

[Roderz]

Have you tried reading the disk using ISObuster?

I take it from your spec's that you can read and write other dvd-r's ok ?

If all else fails buy a capture card!

[Phil Thomas]

It sounds like your DVD-ROM drive doesn't like this media to me.

Assuming you have tried reading/ripping it with your Burner, without success, is it possible to get a friend to try it on another PC ? .... this would prove/disprove the media issue. If you can get somebody to copy it to a Ritek disk, that would be ideal, as these are more compatible than most.

Just wondering also .... could it be dvd+r ?

[Sasarchiver]

maybe your dvd-rom doesnt read dvd-r media, ok it might write to it but the read option might be unsupported. i have the same problem but with DVD+Rs, it wont read in my dvd rom, but it reads dvd-r, its all messed up lmao....SasArchiver

[Vejita-sama]

Yeah but your burner should be ablet to read anything that it writes (unless the wedding video was written with another burner). But it sounds like either a media or -R/+R problem.

Try to find someone else with a DVDR drive, rip/burn there and then take the 2nd copy back to your house

[boodo]

Thanks for the replys guys! I gave all of your suggestions a try.

The disc itself is DEFINATELY a DVD-R and all other DVD-R's play fine in both my DVR-RW and my DVD-ROM drives.

When I tried running it through ISOBuster, it says the disc is blank but the drive keeps accessing. I tried using the disc in my laptop and 2 different friends machines and the same problems that appear on my machine appear on those as well.

The weirdest thing about this whole thing is that it plays FINE on regular DVD players. I've tried on it both of mine and my parents and it works fine. I'm TOTALLY stumpted. I might just have to go for the capture card option unless anyone has any other ideas.

bdx

[Phil Thomas]

I have a dvdr like this, which plays fine on my standalone, but whatever I try, I can't copy it to the hard drive. I assume the standalone has a degree of error correction, which allows it to skip the odd bad sector etc., wheras the PC is reading it as data and has no tolerance.

I concluded that my disk must have been damaged, in some way, even though there were no serious scratches etc.

[Gazorgan]

Rip it with DVDDecryptor,and tell it to ignore errors. It sounds like it has a hard error that the computer is stumbling over. I've had similiar issues with disks the kids have abused nearly to death.

Anotehr option is that whoever did the wedding video made it a composite disk. You computer is trying to load/run a malformed piece of software and never gets to the wedding. A crude form of copy protection.

[northcat_8]

Or you could just wire your stand alone DVD player through your VCR and record it on VHS and send it to them.

Your DVD-R problem is perplexing, but if it plays in your stand alone, your PC should read it. I would check to make sure your regions are set correctly on your PC's DVD drives. There isn't too much to the whole disc recognition process to go wrong.

[mkelley]

Anotehr option is that whoever did the wedding video made it a composite disk. You computer is trying to load/run a malformed piece of software and never gets to the wedding. A crude form of copy protection.

Possibly. If so, turning Autorun off for that DVD device should fix that.

[arcorob]

Hi Guys,

Lets get to the heart of the matter so we can tell him what is ACTUALLY wrong here.

First, model of DVD-Burner drive and bios level. That way we can try to detemine the ability of the drive.

A good example. I have a Sony Burner (off the top I forget model, think 500UXL external) anyway, it burns and reads multi format. My DVD rom only reads -R (or so Infotool says) but not ones burned by the Sony . They work fine in a set top or the DVD rom drive at work. But not in the Acer DVD rom drive.

The ultimate reason is NOT the media supported but the software itself.

Use a tool like NERO infotool to tell you what the drive supports and what the disk is.

By thw way , do you have ASPI installed ?

[CaseyComb]

I agree with arcorob, let's find out how the original DVD-R was produced. DVD-R's recorded from a set top recorder wont read al all on my PC. This may not be the case. but lets narrow the margin a little bit.

[boodo]

Thanks again for the suggestions guys.

Here's the information on my drives (arcorob, I hope this is what you were asking for):

My DVD-ROM = Pioneer DVD-116 running Firmware 1.22 (RPC-1 patched)
Abilities: 16xDVD, 40xCD-ROM

My DVD-R/RW = Pioneer DVR-A04/104 running running Firmware 1.40 (RPC-1)
Abilities: 2xDVD-R, 1xDVD-RW

I wasn't sure what was meant by BIOS level so I put the Firmware (if that's relevant) I have the latest ASPI drivers installed on both Windows 98 SE and Windows XP Home. If it helps, the media the video is burnt on (from what I can see through the silly label the makers stuck on it) is that it's by BulkPAQ Media.

Does any of that help?

bdx

[CaseyComb]

Did you create this Wedding DVD yourself? If so, how?

[boodo]

CaseyComb,

Unfortunately no. It was done by a company we'd hired in to record it for us. The thing is that when I spoke to them asking how much it would cost to reproduce it on VCD (and DVD for that matter) they want to charge £25 and £30 respectively. It works out cheaper for me to do it myself (if I could get the files off of it)

bdx