The whole movie is blanked out. What am I doing wrong?

[ahdude]

Hey guys, sorry if this problem has already been addressed, but my problem is that I have burned several DVD copies of Something's Gotta Give, and all I can get to playback on my home dvd player is the FBI Warning and the studio intro.

The first copy I burned played fine, but the quality was terrible because I had to compress it down to about 45% with DVD Shrink. So I decided to download Vobblanker and blank out everything but the menu and the movie. Anyway, I keep getting the same result...FBI Warning and studio intro. The weird thing is that the movie when play when I play it in burner.Is there something I am doing wrong? Is it a media issue? I use Imation DVD+R's. If anybody knows what's up, please let me know. Thanks

[laspis59]

Maybe copy protection.
Rip with DVDFab Decrypter or use AnyDVD in the background when using Shrink.

[jimmalenko]

If the movie is present on the disc (since you're able to get to it on your computer), then there's something screwed up with your IFO files, because they should be telling your DVD player what to play when.


I'd suggest that you try the VOBBlanker part again, but this time test the output before burning in a software DVD Player like PowerDVD, WinDVD or even IFOEdit's internal player, as these will play the VIDEO_TS.IFO just like a settop would.

[ahdude]

I tried playing it in Infoedit's internal player, and it played fine. However, my dvd player is still on reading the studio intro

[spectroelectro]

There's definitely something wonky with your IFO file, then. What's happening is that your DVD player isn't seeing the IFO's internal link to the next VOB file after the FBI/intro.

The simplest way to fix this is to rip & re-author. Use Smartripper or DVDDecrypter -- either will automatically identify the primary (movie) VOB file automatically and ignore the intro crap, FBI warning, etc. The VOB with the movie is easy to identify, it's by far the largest VOB file on the disc. If that file's too large for a single-layer disc, use ReJig or DVDShrink to squeeze it down to circa 4000 megs.

Rip that VOB file and re-author and you should get your movie without the FBI/intro/commercials junk. If your disc has "extras" like deleted scenes, they should be moderately long and can be identified by length. They'll usually be placed after the main movie, which itself typically appears after the VOB file with the FBI warning. You can rip the deleted scene VOBS and add menu items for those when you re-author.

Remember to check your SETTINGS menu: you should check-box YES to COMBINE ALL VOBS INTO A SINGLE VOB (VOBs have a 1 gigabyte length limit for archaic computer reasons due to the primitive era when the DVD spec was designed) and make sure toe make the MAXIMUM FILE LENGTH long enough for a dual-layer DVD, at least 8000 megs. You can DVDShrink /ReJig a file that large down into a smaller file if necessary.

Nowadays a straight data copy of a disc often won't work because the studios play games with the internal structure of a DVD to prevent it. Nothing can prevent anyone from ripping the main movie VOB and re-authoring, however.