A newbie's take on how to get rid of the DVD X Copy 321 splash screen

[Just_a_boy]

Pardon me if this has been covered before, or if it seems mundane. I did a search and didn't find it so I decided to report my results.

Like everyone else I've ever heard discuss it, I hate the stupid "321 Studios" splash screen that DVD X Copy puts into a DVD. I don't hate it so much for the annoyance of the message, but mainly for the fact that I couldn't open those disks in Shrink. It always said Invalid DVD Structure or else Overlapped I/O. So I have been experimenting a lot and reading archived posts on the subject, but the solutions I've found were pretty complex and usually involved software that I wasn't familiar with.

Well, I finally stumbled on an extremely fast and simple answer that only requires a few minutes and a couple lightweight little freeware programs. The solution below allows the disk to be opened and manipulated in Shrink like any other disk, including replacing the annoying splash screen with a still image if you want.

All I did was import the disk to my hard drive with Decrypter, then move all of the VIDEO_TS.* and *.BUP and *.IFO files away to a temp directory. This left only the VTS*.VOB files in the working directory. Next I launched FixVTS and went to the working directory and opened VTS_01_1.VOB and checked all three of the tickboxes:

x Remove unref. and blank cells
x Fix wrong PGC LBA pointers
x In place (no backup!)

Then I clicked the "Full DVD" button and gave the OK to the warning that I was not making a backup.

When it was done about three or four minutes later, I moved all of the VIDEO_TS.* and *.BUP and *.IFO files from the temp directory back to the working directory, then went back to FixVTS and opened VIDEO_TS.VOB and again clicked "Full DVD" and let it roll. Three or four minutes later it was done.

Next I opened that working directory in Skrink, and replaced the 321 screen wih a still image, and copied the whole works to a different drive and then burned it and presto, the menus all work the same, the languages, the subtitles, everything is like any other good backup, except now the annoying screen is replaced with 8 seconds of my still frame and Shrink can handle the disk from now on. I have done this process with complete success on three different disks,

And that's all I have to say about that!

[jimmalenko]

Thanks for your efforts, but at least two people "cracked" it well before you:

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=471#471
https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=178#178

[guns1inger]

Somebody still uses this program ?

[Bjs]

Nice ... I'll give you a 10 for the effort .

But then it would also indicate you did not use a well formed "search by word" parameter ... using the correct word's in search , will show up many reference's to blanking / remove pgc's or cell's .

Pgcedit can knock that thing on it's butt ... in a flash .

[ron spencer]

why do people use this program DVD X Copy...insane!!!

[Just_a_boy]

jimmalenko - Yes, I saw those other solutions before I posted. My point is that mine is *very* simple and lightweight. Those VobRator solutions are quite complex for a newbie!

Bjs - Thanks for the ten points! But you see, I did indeed search, and read a whole lot of old posts, and I saw a ton of lengthy and complex solutions... I just hoped that mine, being so simple and lightweight that a third grader could handle it, would be a welcome addition to the archive. Now as to your comment that PGCedit can knock it out in a flash, I'd appreciate a link to that solution.

guns1inger & ron spencer - I agree, X Copy is a turd.

Thank you all for the replies and encouragement!

[manono]

Both PGCEdit and VobBlanker can do the job quite easily. As for the PGCEdit solution, open the DVD in PGCEdit, double-click the video on the left side, and in the new window that opens up, hit Remove Cells, along the bottom. I've never used this DVD X Copy, but I assume it's the first cell that's been added on. You can confirm by checking the video in that first cell by playing the arrow sort of thing to the right. After removing the first cell, OK your way back to the main screen, and File->Save DVD. Then test it out.

[handyguy]

Im surprised the program works, I remember it would connect to t he net & check for something before you could use it.

[edong]

Why work on a backup copy, isn't it better to start from the original dvd?