Windows cannot see VCD, directory blank, but plays okay?

[ianlin]

Hello, I am trying to back up some VCDs purchased from Hong Kong. These discs play fine stand alone players, and can also be played in PC using PowerDVD. But the strange thing is, windows cannot see the discs. Window XP reports there is no disc in drive, or the directory is completely blank. Any ideas?

[Baldrick]

Try isobuster and see if it can find something.

[ianlin]

I used UltraISO to creat an image, but when the image is mouted on a virtual drive, it behaves the same way as the original disc: windows cannot see it, yet somehow it plays.

[hech54]

http://www.uslindia.com/disckeeper_video.html

[tomlee59]

This question recurs from time to time. Here's a link to an earlier thread on this very topic:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/question-why-i-can-t-copy-from-protect-vcd-t311718.html

The short answer is: Disable autorun, then use a bit-for-bit diskcopy program. That won't extract the .dat file, but it will allow you to make an equally playable copy on disc (not disk).

[jman98]

How odd. I have heard no reports of Hong Kong using this kind of copy protection on their VCDs. Maybe the original poster is buying Indian VCDs in Hong Kong as India is the only place I know of that uses this.

[tomlee59]

I'm as surprised as you are. I've never encountered this on any HK VCD, either (and I have a LOT of them). Maybe it's spreading, like a virus...

It does make me very curious about how the method works. To have something that plays on standalone players and PCs -- apparently without problems -- but doesn't show up in a directory listing and won't allow copying is very interesting (but not enough to motivate me to go and try to figure it out).

[jimdagys]

Can someone PLEASE send such a VCD to Baldrick so that the crew at VCDhelp can solve this problem?
Another thought. Is there a software player that will play the VCD and also allow video capture? KM Player allows video capture, but I don't think it will play the disk unless you browse for it (impossible in your case).

[tomlee59]

I'm wondering if VLC can play these. If so, presumably its transcode feature could be used to capture it.