Episodic DVD Won't Play

[xfactor3000]

okay, i've done hundreds of backups before but here's the problem i'm having:

1. Ripped bought commercial dvd (recently released tv show dvd) with DVD Decrypter and shrunk with DVD Shrink

2. Burned with DVDSanta

3. Played in Standalones Samsung DVD-V4600 and Philips DVP-642 and other standalones and none are able to play them (keeps saying Loading and then just stop)

4. Inserted in PC and used PowerDVD and it plays out of order (doesn't start off with the Title Menu or FBI screen etc)

5. When I press Title Menu in PowerDVD it just goes back to the beginning of the episode and not the Main Menu; when I press Root Menu, PowerDVD just stops, and when I go to Subtitle Menu it then goes to the Main Menu.

How can I get it to burn and play on a standalone? is the file structure out of order or something?

Funny thing is that it is a 7 disc set, and out of them only discs 6 and 7 have given me this problem, while the others were perfect.

[thegeeman]

Possibilities: DVD Decrypter-Stream processing with certain options unticked: Does DVD Santa prompt with a tick box for the burn to be 'finalised'?

Try DVD Shrink with a full disc back up and burn with Decrypter. Note:- a full disc back up; any reauthoring will disable menus etc.

[xfactor3000]

thanks for your reply however:

- all options for stream processing in dvd decrypter are ticked

- dvd santa does not prompt with a tick box for the burn to be finalised

- it is already a full disc backup with dvd shrink

- how do i burn a folder (video_ts) with decrypter?

- to be specific the dvd's i bought in question are "the o.c season 2 discs 6 & 7)"

what should i do?

[jtoolman2000]

Load the disc in DVDShrink and Rip and or Shrink to an ISO file. Now fire up DVD Decrypter and click on MODE and chose WRITE.
STGo to the area that says PLEASE SELECT A FILE and click on the folder on the right. Locate the ISO that DVD Shrink created.
You have to of course choose your burner where it says DESTINATION.
Now click on the big DVD Icon directly below where you see the picture of a Drive with a disc icon to its right. If you have a blank dic in that drive it will begin to burn. You only have to set it up once. If you have a ROM and a RW drive then yoou simply place your original in the ROM drive, the blank on the RW drive and if you have told DVD Shrink to create and ISO and burn with DVD Decrypter, it is all AUTOMATIC. I get 100% seccess rate using that procedure. I can't remember when I last had a failed burn backing up all sort of DVDs Movies, TV episodes discs, Concerts - ANYTHING!

Try it. It's a 100% free option and at least for me it works 100%

[xfactor3000]

tried it (and have actually used that method before, but did it again via dvd decrypter) but still a no go

it just won't read in any player, just continues to try to load but nothing happens, no screen, nothing, not even a blank screen

there is definately something amiss here.....

i've never used it, but does anyone think there is something i can do with the ifo file, maybe ifoedit, anything which can get the players to actually "boot" these discs directly to the main menu thus allowing me to actually play it?

[jtoolman2000]

Funny thing is that it is a 7 disc set, and out of them only discs 6 and 7 have given me this problem, while the others were perfect.

Then there is something odd going on with these two DVDs

If you rip them to a VIDEO_TS FOLDER with DVD Shrink, can the files be played on the PC with any DVD playing software? I do not mean playing the VOBs directly I mean playing by double clicking the VIDEO_TS.BUP of the
VIDEO_TS.IFO?

[thegeeman]

First things first-Over time certain things can go off and registry keys may get deleted/corrupted etc etc etc, so I would uninstall and reinstall shrink and decrypter-mini programs; will take 2 mins tops. I would then just rip files to HD with Shrink. Do NOT burn at this stage. Then play them on PC to see if they play OK, i.e all menus still intact. If they do, then that narrows it down to burning stage, media and/or player. Try a different brand media on RW disc-saves a disc if still doesn't work; burn at slow speed also. If still don't work then possible player and disc compatability issue. Check out this site for disc/player compatability issues with media. Failing that i'm stumped as even copying files to the HD and then re-authoring with 'first Play' action etc being menu may still not work if it is a burner and/or player issue.

[xfactor3000]

here's what i did:

- ripped the dvd to hard drive with shrink

- played with PowerDVD and Ulead DVD Player

- noticed that it loads to a blank screen for about 2 seconds and then just suddenly stops

- when i open up the video_ts folder and click on one of the 1gig vob files directly then it is able to play that particular video

so it seems not to be a burn issue, but more on the lines of the "table of contents" or sequence problem where it fails to go directly to the main menu

perhaps there's something wrong with the dvd structure?

how would i go about reauthoring with first play action being the main menu?

[thegeeman]

This is a really simple solution to what you're after. Lets say that Shrink as backed up the main movie/episodes only to your HD. No Menu's, No extras etc. Then, here we go, to do a VERY Simple and VERY Basic reauthor, open up TDA. Trial version available.

I'll try and step by step this for you:

Go to 'Add File' and then select the first VOB file, select OK (NOT 100% definite but it is HIGHLY likely that each episode will be just a SINGLE VOB).
Then go to 'Add new track' on the left and select the next VOB file and so on until all episodes are there.
Click on Menu Tab at top and select an appropriate menu for the no. of episodes from the drop down list on the left.
Note that there is a drop down box 'First Play Action' on the right just below 'Options'. To the left is a box called 'menu display settings'. Click this and go to 'general' tab. Make sure that the 2 drop down boxes show Display Main Menu. Make sure main menu and track menu are ticked. Click Ok and then go to Output.
TDA will then recreate a new VIDEO_TS folder (that in itself may solve some of the problem) with a very basic menu for you to choose each episode.

Please be aware that this is a very simple way of overcoming your problem for now. As you may know, if you wish to reauthor an episodic DVD with new menus etc etc and then you may wish to consider DVD Lab Pro. I can assure you that it is far from straightforward.

This was only an easy method for you. If anyone else out there can help him or think that i'm totally off base please reply.

[xfactor3000]

ok, i think i've narrowed the problem down to the following:

- i used decrypter to rip to hd, and not shrink

HOWEVER...

- when i click on Open Disc on shrink and select the dvd, i get the following message:

"DVD Shrink encountered an error and cannot continue.
Invalid DVD navigation structure"

how do i fix that? i guess we can rule out reathoring for now

[thegeeman]

Hmm! Not sure for now. Will think on that one.
Clearly it sounds as though its down to the structure possibly authoring of the original DVD. If when you copied to HD by Decrypter and it still doesn't play OK then maybe try the trial version of CloneDVD whereby you can select what to and what not to keep. I'm only clutching at straws now. It depends how desperate you are to have the original menu!!!

[xfactor3000]

i just tried backing up my trailer park boys episodic dvd, and noticed that i have the same problem, this is getting very strange.....

something is definately wrong somewhere, just can't seem to figure it out!

why do i keep getting a BLANK SCREEN whe i play it my dvd players, even on my pc using PowerDVD??????????????