DVD Won't Play on PC

[JEGage]

I recently bought a DVD that is designed only to play in a DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.

Also this is what the rest of it says:


CD-Rs and DVD-Rs (the "R" stands for "recordable") look like the discs you're used to and offer the same audio and image quality. This recordable media is used to manufacture titles on demand, as fully authorized by the content provider.

Through manufacturing on demand, CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com group of companies, enables Amazon.com to offer music and video content that might not otherwise be available. Each disc comes fully packaged, with artwork, in a standard jewel case for audio and an Amaray case for video, although for reissued products the artwork may differ from the original.

CreateSpace works with many of the leading music labels, television networks, film studios, and other distributors to make these titles available to Amazon.com customers. All products are manufactured from original source materials (e.g., for audio products, uncompressed CD-quality audio).

By eliminating inventory, waste, and inefficiencies in the distribution system, on-demand manufacturing provides the added benefit of helping preserve the environment.

When shopping, you'll see CD-R or DVD-R on the product detail page for such products. Amazon.com's standard return policy applies to these purchases.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply

Is there anyway to rip this DVD on MY PC?

[jman98]

We've had discussions on the type of copy protection they use, but it's been a while and I don't remember what it was. Try the free version of DVDFab and see if it can do the ripping. Report back and let us know if it works or not.

Time Warner uses a similar method on their print on demand series of DVDs and I've seen torrent files that I think may be based on these, so there is some hope.

[turk690]

I recently bought one such DVD from Warner archives with amazon. It appears to be on DVD-R but is reported as duly DVD-ROM.
Here is what AnyDVD had to say:


Summary for drive D: (AnyDVD HD 7.0.7.0, BDPHash.bin 12-08-14)
HL-DT-ST BD-REGGW-H20L YL07 000319115B82AJ4751
Drive (Hardware) Region: 0 (not set!)

Current profile: DVD-ROM
Media is a DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 1
Total size: 2174944 sectors (4247 MBytes)

Video DVD (or CD) label: WB_DVD
Media is CSS protected!
Media is region free.
Video Standard: NTSC

Structural copy protection not found.
RCE protection not found.
UDF filesystem patched!
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Removed CSS copy protection!
Bad sector protection not found.
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!

It appears that, in between the media used & the recorder, both profile & book type is DVD-ROM even if it physically appears to be DVD-R (purple dye). Of course I was able to rip the same to the PC.

[Noahtuck]

Actually it would be a DVD+R, not -R

[turk690]

Actually it would be a DVD+R, not -R

Then they wouldn't have been allowed to put the DVD-video logo on it, no? I mean, DVD+R is not an official DVD spec, is it?

[JEGage]

I downloaded and tried DVDFab and I had no success. The DVD appears to be empty and or not recognized by my
PC's DVD Reader burner. However when I place it in a Non recording DVD Player it plays just fine.

[jman98]

Try starting DVDFab first and then put the disc in. However, your burner is an LG and in my experience LG doesn't make some of the better drives so I'm not surprised at all that it can't "see" the disc. But starting DVDFab first may enable it to do so.

Might be interesting to start up ImgBurn and post here what it says about the disc. We could see what brand they are using.

[Cornucopia]

If these things TRULY couldn't play on any PC, Hollywood would probably make ALL their products like that! I'm guessing it's some mismatch between the modified booktype/disctype or type of dye architecture and that particular burner/reader. Try on other PCs...
Try also a combination of AnyDVD + ISOBuster.

And turk690 is correct, using something like this officially on DVD+R/W would negate the DVD-Video license. Plus, the simple fact that they're TELLING you it's DVD-R is a clue, too.

Scott

[turk690]

I downloaded and tried DVDFab and I had no success. The DVD appears to be empty and or not recognized by my
PC's DVD Reader burner. However when I place it in a Non recording DVD Player it plays just fine.

I'm using an LG drive. Not the best; it does show empty on some discs at times, especially after not having been used for weeks. Here's a somewhat effective trick: put the disc on tray. Close & open it several times, letting the tray travel all the way in & out. Do this maybe 10x in succession (maybe more); it seems to "shock" the internal mechanism into functioning again as expected...

[Slipster]

If these things TRULY couldn't play on any PC, Hollywood would probably make ALL their products like that!

I'm not so sure. Remember the audio CD copy protection fiasco where some commercially released CDs marked with the "Compact Disc Digital Audio' logo wouldn't even eject from some PC CD drives? I had to use the emergency eject hole on the front of the drive just to get those suckers back out again. Didn't someone (Sony maybe?) get a royal arse-kicking over that one?

[lacywest]

I recently bought a DVD that is designed only to play in a DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives.

Also this is what the rest of it says:


CD-Rs and DVD-Rs (the "R" stands for "recordable") look like the discs you're used to and offer the same audio and image quality. This recordable media is used to manufacture titles on demand, as fully authorized by the content provider.

Through manufacturing on demand, CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com group of companies, enables Amazon.com to offer music and video content that might not otherwise be available. Each disc comes fully packaged, with artwork, in a standard jewel case for audio and an Amaray case for video, although for reissued products the artwork may differ from the original.

CreateSpace works with many of the leading music labels, television networks, film studios, and other distributors to make these titles available to Amazon.com customers. All products are manufactured from original source materials (e.g., for audio products, uncompressed CD-quality audio).

By eliminating inventory, waste, and inefficiencies in the distribution system, on-demand manufacturing provides the added benefit of helping preserve the environment.

When shopping, you'll see CD-R or DVD-R on the product detail page for such products. Amazon.com's standard return policy applies to these purchases.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply

Is there anyway to rip this DVD on MY PC?

Did you try to use AnyDVD to do the ripping ... with AnyDVD's ripping feature ??

[Cornucopia]

If these things TRULY couldn't play on any PC, Hollywood would probably make ALL their products like that!

I'm not so sure. Remember the audio CD copy protection fiasco where some commercially released CDs marked with the "Compact Disc Digital Audio' logo wouldn't even eject from some PC CD drives? I had to use the emergency eject hole on the front of the drive just to get those suckers back out again. Didn't someone (Sony maybe?) get a royal arse-kicking over that one?

Yeah, but those discs were so buggered that they oftentimes wouldn't even play in hardware players. Philips sued them (that wasn't usually Sony there) and forbad them from using the CDDA logos or names; that stopped things right away (because then it opens the door for consumers to also sue for false trade practices). Of course, the Rootkit fiasco (which WAS Sony) was a problem too, though it WOULD play on hardware devices of the time (nowadays, with "smart" settops that are basically linux boxes under the hood, I'm not so sure it would work).

Scott

[tacoboomer]

I often buy from Amazon and some of the MOD titles. I had a gateway (approx 3 yrs old) and never had an issue with them playing or using them in conjunction with anydvd.. Recently I purchased another PC. Store dvds not an issue still but MOD did cause problems. I found that just using an external dvd player worked for me. I plugged it in to my new PC (using any and all software that i always have used) and the discs showed right up. Might work for others as well......

[nic2k4]

Here's a somewhat effective trick: put the disc on tray. Close & open it several times, letting the tray travel all the way in & out. Do this maybe 10x in succession (maybe more); it seems to "shock" the internal mechanism into functioning again as expected...

I've noticed that one too, I believe it's caused by a combination of the size/shape/finish of the hole and the drive spindle. It's like after loading the disc a few times it finally manages to center itself properly in the drive.

Best proof I got was when I was trying to convert a DVD to AVI. I bought that disc from a video club and it had a store label around the hole, DVDfab wouldn't rip it, I downloaded the latest version and while that was going I tried it on my older PC and it ripped without a hitch. I realized DVDfab wasn't the problem, I took the disc out, stuck my finger in the hole and tried it again and it worked right away.

It seems the label was keeping the disc from centering correctly. I've had other problem discs that didn't have labels, but I remember one that had jagged edges around the hole.