Need help with playing a DVD/Unable even after AnyDVD

[alegator]

I have this DVD movie (DVD5) which I tried to play in two different standalone Sony DVD players. None of them was able to play it claiming region code. So I copied this DVD to a Verbatim blank DVD+RW with AnyDVD open in the background using NeroExpress (I checked the AnyDVD settings and everything was checked to remove protections, etc). I then tried playing this newly recorder DVD in both Sony's standalone players and still they were unable to play them. I can't figure out why, since AnyDVD is supposed to remove all compatibility issues. Also, DVD+RW media is supposed to be compatible with these players. Any help? Thanks.

[classfour]

what movie?

[alegator]

"Grizzly Man", a commercial movie which I backed up to a generic blank DVD5 (the original is scratched and unplayable). This generic DVD is the one I reported as unplayable in the standalone (however they are playable in my PC), which I then copied to a Verbatim DVD+RW with AnyDVD in the background. The resulting DVD is still unplayable in the standalone, but playable in the PC.

[Neil1970Poole]

Does your standalone player accept PLAYBACK of DVD+RW? (Not all do) Hence I use either DVD-r or DVD+r discs and don't have any problems when playing back on Standalone players. Another point to take into account (although I have only had to do this once and still not 100% certain that I needed to do it) depending on the level of protection on the disc (if its got every protection in the book basically) you may need to run it through a program called FIXVTS first before writing to the disc - Basically some of the VTS headers are incorrect and point dvd players to jump to incorrect parts of the dvd and make them non playable - Another key note is to have the latest version of ANYDVD running when you make the copy.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

[Noahtuck]

Sony players are notorious for displaying a message of this nature when the disc FORMAT is diff. than the system. IE: trying to play a PAL disc on a NTSC system.

By ripping it & burning it back to DVDR you effectively removed any "region coding" which is totally diff. than the format of PAL or NTSC & are two totally diff. issues.

So i would look into which format the disc is in and what format(s) your player is capable of playing.

[alegator]

Sony players are notorious for displaying a message of this nature when the disc FORMAT is diff. than the system. IE: trying to play a PAL disc on a NTSC system.

By ripping it & burning it back to DVDR you effectively removed any "region coding" which is totally diff. than the format of PAL or NTSC & are two totally diff. issues.

So i would look into which format the disc is in and what format(s) your player is capable of playing.

By "ripping" is it enough the procedure I outlined? I mean copying the DVD with Nero Express and AnyDVD running in the background. And also, regarding the norm, I think it is PAL, so how can I override the PAL/NTSC restriction should this be the case? Thanks

[Noahtuck]

Well i don't use nero express to copy disc's but i would assume it would remove the region coding.
I know when i use nero to burn files already on my HDD the resulting dvdr is region free.

Just put the disc in your PC and open it with DVD Decrypter, that should tell you everything you need to know, region coding, format, ect.

You should be able to rip the disc with DVD Decrypter to your HDD if you have Anydvd running as anydvd was designed to strip away any copy protection regardless of what ripping program you use, Anydvd should also have a ripper built in itself to get the files from the original dvd to your HDD.

It should also state on the original disc what format it is, NTSC or PAL.

And also, regarding the norm, I think it is PAL, so how can I override the PAL/NTSC restriction should this be the case?

The norm for your TV standard is PAL ?
I thought SA was but i am not sure. If the disc is a diff. format than what your native format is you might be screwed without doing a full conversion or buying a multiformat region free player.

Do a search for PAL to NTSC conversion, there is a thread on fooling a player into thinking it's a diff format disc with Ifoedit (voodoo) i would imagine it would work for NTSC to PAL also, but then even if you do get the SONY (cough) player to show the disc then your TV would have to be able to display whatever format the disc really is.
Becaue even fooling the player into showing the disc it prob. will still not convert one format to another on the fly.

You can open the VOB's in Avicodec, Gspot to check the resolution to see what format the disc is in, open the entire disc in DVD Decrypter or a sofware player. there are numerous way's to check the format of the disc on your PC.

[alegator]

Well i don't use nero express to copy disc's but i would assume it would remove the region coding.
I know when i use nero to burn files already on my HDD the resulting dvdr is region free.

Just put the disc in your PC and open it with DVD Decrypter, that should tell you everything you need to know, region coding, format, ect.

You should be able to rip the disc with DVD Decrypter to your HDD if you have Anydvd running as anydvd was designed to strip away any copy protection regardless of what ripping program you use, Anydvd should also have a ripper built in itself to get the files from the original dvd to your HDD.

It should also state on the original disc what format it is, NTSC or PAL.

And also, regarding the norm, I think it is PAL, so how can I override the PAL/NTSC restriction should this be the case?

The norm for your TV standard is PAL ?
I thought SA was but i am not sure. If the disc is a diff. format than what your native format is you might be screwed without doing a full conversion or buying a multiformat region free player.

Do a search for PAL to NTSC conversion, there is a thread on fooling a player into thinking it's a diff format disc with Ifoedit (voodoo) i would imagine it would work for NTSC to PAL also, but then even if you do get the SONY (cough) player to show the disc then your TV would have to be able to display whatever format the disc really is.
Becaue even fooling the player into showing the disc it prob. will still not convert one format to another on the fly.

You can open the VOB's in Avicodec, Gspot to check the resolution to see what format the disc is in, open the entire disc in DVD Decrypter or a sofware player. there are numerous way's to check the format of the disc on your PC.

I have a USA TV that is already compatible with both PAL and NTSC. Regarding the standalone Sony DVD player, it was also bought in the USA and it is probably only NTSC compatible. So then from what you explain I would only need to fool the DVD player into thinking that the DVD is NTSC instead of PAL. Do I need to rip the DVD files from the original disc to the HDD and then burn then to the new media or can I copy it directly from one disc to the other? Also, I read in the forum a thread that describes in detail how to reencode a PAL DVD into NTSC, but it's a rather long and time consuming process. You mentioned being able to make the DVD player "think" it's a NTSC DVD when it actually is PAL. What kind of trick will do that?
I opened the DVD disc with DVD Decrypter. I went to Tools/IFO/Region Information, and it idisplays:"IFO is Region 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. RCE Protection: No"
I then opened a large VOB file from the DVD with Mediainfo and it displays:
General #0
Complete name : G:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
Format : MPEG-2 Program
Format/Family : MPEG-2
File size : 1024 MiB
PlayTime : 27mn 56s
Bit rate : 5125 Kbps

Video #0
Codec : MPEG-2 Video
Codec profile : Main@Main
Codec settings/Matri : Custom
PlayTime : 27mn 55s
Bit rate : 9000 Kbps
Bit rate mode : CBR
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.868

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
PlayTime : 27mn 56s
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Bit rate mode : CBR
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Video0 delay : -208ms
ChannelPositions : L R

Audio #1
Codec : AC3
PlayTime : 27mn 56s
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Bit rate mode : CBR
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Video0 delay : -208ms
ChannelPositions : L R

Text #0
Codec : 2-bit RLE
PlayTime : 27mn 52s
Delay : 28mn 9s

[Noahtuck]

I have a USA TV that is already compatible with both PAL and NTSC

If you're sure, it will convert or play a PAL signal ? because the majority of U.S. equipment is pretty much NTSC only based (yeah we suck LOL!!)

Regarding the standalone Sony DVD player, it was also bought in the USA and it is probably only NTSC compatible

Bet on it 8) And between this and this...

Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Frame rate : 25.000 fps

You have a PAL disc trying to play on an NTSC machine.

Here are all the basic spec's of PAL & NTSC dvd video,
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#tech

Is this from the original disc or the DVDR copy of it ? Just wondering if the original disc is encoded for all regions (IE: region free) some commercial disc's are. Or it's the DVDR showing that is was all region encoded.

Also, I read in the forum a thread that describes in detail how to reencode a PAL DVD into NTSC, but it's a rather long and time consuming process.

Actually it can be rather fast or time consuming depending on how many programs you are comfortable with and understand everything you need to do & how to do it.

You mentioned being able to make the DVD player "think" it's a NTSC DVD when it actually is PAL. What kind of trick will do that?

It's called "the patch method", i call it voodoo because it does not actually convert anything or convert PAL to NTSC.

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic221928.html?highlight=pal%20ntsc%20ifoedit

You use Ifoedit to open the files on your HDD, then basically change the info in them from PAL to NTSC so your player reads this info and think's it's an NTSC video disc instead of a PAL video disc.

You then save everyting and burn the new modded dvd files back to a dvdr.
Now if your player plays it but everything is in black and white and off center, this means that neither your TV nor your DVD Player support PAL video.

If it does play it fine then i would assume your TV does support PAL as i'm sure the U.S. bought SONY (cough) dvd player does not.