How to Emulate a DVD home player. No more wasted disks

[bobbysox]

Isn't there anyone around that knows of an emulator that could run a converted movie just as a home DVD player would play it back? But on your pc.

This way you would hopefully spot and have a chance to correct any mistakes.

It would help cure the wasted disks issue...and would be the final stage before burning the disk.

As an example, an AVI download that I converted to MPEG seemed fine on my pc so I burned the disk. When I played it up on my player I got a regional error. Yet another wasted disk.

I ran the movie thru DVD Fab and the movie worked. It looked like crap but that another issue...

I think the idea make sence. Do you? Could it work?

cheers

[grossjamesh]

Why not use DVD-RW. stop wasting disks. Then when you get it working copy to DVD-R.

[lordsmurf]

PowerDVD does.

[bobbysox]

I got PowerDVD bundled with my LG DVD writer. It's a good player, but just one in a multitude of players.

What's so special about it?

[bobbysox]

Grossjamesh, has a good idea there. It would save the disk, dunno if it would react in the same way as a "regular written" DVD. The disks are just not the same are they.

But wouldn't it be great to be able to view an emulated version of your work without the burn factor. But in the absense of such an app prehaps an RW is worth a try.

Looking at my player under the tele it does say CD-RW but not DVD-RW, I rekon I'm stuffed on that one.

[bobbysox]

WoW checked your link HRH Lord Smurf is really into this stuff.

Maybe he can shead some light on my fustrating miseries!


[img]https://www.videohelp.com/forum/images/guides/p783194/Going nuts with my first xvid to DVD conversion HELP HELP[/url]

Thanks

[bottle-necked]

But wouldn't it be great to be able to view an emulated version of your work without the burn factor. But in the absense of such an app prehaps an RW is worth a try.

PowerDVD can 'emulate' a DVD player as suggested above. Create your dvd project and have the program build a DVD Folder of the project files. Run PowerDVD and load the 'VIDEO_TS.IFO' file in that hard drive dvd folder. The dvd folder will play just like an inserted dvd movie with your menus and everything.

It's a good practice to use this program (or another like it) to view your work before taking the time to burn an RW for testing in your settop DVD player. After the emulater test and the DVD_RW settop box test are you ready to burn your finished product, a DVD_R. Burning an R before these tests are completed will often lead to just burning 'R rated coasters'. lol

Good luck.

[bobbysox]

Hi Bottle, thanks for that and you are right, I've done it loads of times with stuff I've ripped with DVD FAB but as a TV is in no way similar to a PC monitor issues like resoloution and other pitfalls will not show up.

So much I have done and tried on my pc that seems fine there but on a disk in my player it takes on a new life form and looks like crap.

Sad but true.

[Donny661]

Maybe it is your dvd player that makes it look like crap or not be able to play. If the emulator were to accurately let you know how a disc would play on your own dvd player you would have to have a separate emulator for almost every model of dvd player. The best thing to do is to burn to a dvd-rw. The only difference that it should show up using a dvd-rw is if your player didn't reconize a dvd-rw and wouldn't play it at all.

[LighthouseJ]

You can perhaps create the disc image in your favorite program. Install Daemon Tools and let it install a virtual drive. Mount your disc and it can autorun if it's enabled and it works just like a normal drive.

[phatslug]

Still... your computer is smarter. It tries more things to get the DVD working before it gives up, so often times I get an image to mount and play on my computer but my DVD player can't.

Im all for the DVD-RW solution.

[Wetmonkey]

it can easily be a combination of your media, and player. Burn the disc slower, try a different burn apt. Asus also re badges powerdvd as their own, also i believe windvd is another player. Ifoedit can play the HD rip as well. It pops more errors then powerdvd. Use both to check your work. Ive never run into a problem on any of my standalones if the work plays in these two. When i source avi's or divx make sure your source its a good quality and your authoring tool works well for you. I changed to encore dvd and fixed my authoring problems, ie. glitchy video and audio sync issues. hope something helps.

[neilpercy]

If it plays on a software dvd player of any sort there is no guarantee that it will play on a standalone.

My situation is this:

Any DVD's I create from material output from my editing package ( Avid DV Xpress 3.5) will not play on my standalone DVD Player (Lecson - so I should know better) but plays fine on my pc using WinDVD or others. Strangely it will play in my friends Sony DVD player ? And autoplays in other computers.

I have tried DVR-R and DVD-RW, but no luck, two different manufacturers disks, both Ritek G04, burn't at x1 speed. (Pioneer A05 DVD burner).

But using the same disks I can easily make back-ups of my DVD Movies, DVD9 to DVD, using various methods - DVDShrink etc. - which playback in my standalone Lecson no problem at all.

Something that the edit package does, the standalone doesn't like. Just says "no disc".

So playback on a PC is no guarantee that it will play on a standalone.

Any thoughts? ( I will probably start a new thread about this issue (or should i leave it here - Mods ? which fourm subtopic?)

[bottle-necked]

@neilpercy

Try this link, scroll down the page and see if your player is listed. Hope this helps.

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=Lecson&Submit=Search&Search=Search&orderby=Name

[neilpercy]

@ bottle-necked

thanks, but I'd been there before I bought the player. It is a Lecson 900.

It plays VCD and SVCD OK - ones I've downloaded (StarWars 1 TPM) and bought in the Far East, and also DVD-R copies of films I have backed up using DVDSHrink3 - Straight copy or Re-author main film only - or DVD2DVR-R. Will try a copy onto DVD-RW and see what happens.

But output from my edit package, either its own create DVD function, or using the MPEG-2 file in TMPEnc Plus and TMPGEnc DVD Author, or even using the Quicktime Reference files as frameserver from my edit package with TMPEnc Plus and the plugin necessary, will not play on my machine on generic Ritek G04 media, burn't at x1 speed with Nero 5.9. The player won't recognise the disc - just says "no disc".

This has just now made me think that I should try a different burning program, maybe Stomp or make an ISO and use DVDdecrypter for these type of DVDs. I'll report back in a few days and let you guys know the resullts.

cheers for the input.


Neil

[petesimon]

I play DVD files as if they on were on their own drive...and you can too with a little tweaking.

In Windows 2000, I create a folder named "VIDEO_TS" anywhere on my hard drive then put all the DVD files (*.vob, *.ifo) in that folder. Let's say I put the VIDEO_TS folder inside the "dvdmovie" folder. Next, I go the command prompt (cmd.exe) and use the subst command to create a virtual drive Z: pointing to the folder containing VIDEO_TS folder.
Example:

subst Z: C:\dvdmovie

I can check this with a dir Z: command and/or see the Z: drive letter in the Windows Explorer.

After that is done I run WinDVD 3.0 (or better) and change its options to read drive Z:, close WinDVD and run it again. I guess WinDVD thinks this drive Z: is real and so the movie plays off my hard disk just as if I put the DVD files onto a DVD-R.

[bobbysox]

For sure there is a quality issue between players. I don't really know if the price makes a difference because the standard commands burnt into the firmware in these machines are so strict. Maybe some have more latitude to play “irregular disks” than others. For sure my Sony Play Station plays DVD’s very well. The Play Station is a good player and it does play my home made DVD’s better than my normal player and will play a back-up more readily than my other DVD player.

But it is true too that a PC will always be able to play a bad DVD better than a regular machine. The software has more recourses to pull on and we can load up the PC with other apps to make our stuff work.

I think most of my personal problems come out of TMPGnc it really does hate me, big time.

I load up a decent AVI and get out a pile of crap. Maybe because the guide here are not written for folks on PAL systems.

Looking at my home player I see that it doesn’t play DVD –RW’s just CD-RW’s so that me back to using disks as frizzbies. Hence the definite need for a emulator.

Someone wrote that there are so many players that an emulator would be difficult to write. Well not really, it would just depend how it was managed. Given that DVD’s do operate on a strict set of instructions it would be possible to emulate that. I don’t know how, I’m not a programmer but I feel sure it could be done.

Just think of the popularity of such an app as most of the folks on this site are so well used to throwing out destroyed DVD’s the saving to them would be worth the purchace, don't you think?

[MrMungus]

I just found out this week that Windows 2000 has a built-in DVD player.

c:\winnt\system32\dvdplay.exe

[bobbysox]

Ha, well I'll be....

[MrMungus]

Ha, well I'll be....

That's what I said. Funny how few people know about this. It's supposed to be listed under "Entertainment" in the Start > Programs > Accessories menu (according to MS) but it's not. It's not perfect, though. You can't drag and drop ISO files but you can open them manually (Optioins > Select Disc).

[bugster]

Someone wrote that there are so many players that an emulator would be difficult to write. Well not really, it would just depend how it was managed. Given that DVD’s do operate on a strict set of instructions it would be possible to emulate that. I don’t know how, I’m not a programmer but I feel sure it could be done.

But even standalone players interpret the specs in slightly different ways, so even a PC simulator that adhered strictly to DVD specs wouldn't be any guarantee that you would get exactly the same bahviour on your standalone.

Earlier versions of things like PowerDvd and WinDvd were much more fussy over what they would play than current ones. It didn't take the developers of these porductcs long however to realise that they could sell to a bigger market by expanding their products from being strictly DVD player software to all encompassing Movie players (and more).

[petesimon]

I just found out this week that Windows 2000 has a built-in DVD player.

I am curious about what DirectShow/DVD decoder filters do you use in Windows so dvdplay.exe will work?

I use Fraunhofer filter files from http://www.doom9.org/software2.htm .

[MrMungus]

I just found out this week that Windows 2000 has a built-in DVD player.

I am curious about what DirectShow/DVD decoder filters do you use in Windows so dvdplay.exe will work?

I use Fraunhofer filter files from http://www.doom9.org/software2.htm .

I'm not sure. I think I'm using the DVD Audio Decoder and DVD Video Decoder (after installing Ulead DVD Movie Factory). Before that I think I was using the InterVideo decoder (which came with the install for my Hauppauge PVR-250 card). Both worked fine.

[mazinz]

be warned though about power dvd. Sometimes it does not follow command sequences or other info you made while authoring the disc (such as menu looping sometimes). I ran into a few snags with it over the years. All of which played fine on homedeck and/or other dvd pc software players.

[neilpercy]

well, not the same as the topic problem, but changing to the latest version of Nero (6.3.0.3) solved my problem (above).

here https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=205459 for your info.

As I understand it, latest Nero uses older UDF 1.02 standard, which is more compatable with older players.


cheers,


Neil