VOB from Japan

[unclejam]

My friend in the US was interviewed for a Japanese TV show. I was able to get someone to record the show off the TV to a DVD in Japan and sent to me.

The structure of the disk is a DVD_RTAV folder with a SysReservedFile and Bitmap.GROW file. In the DVD_RTAV folder is VR_MANAGR.IFO and VR_MOVIE.MPG. The MPG is some sort of VOB file I'm sure.

The DVD won't play in WMP as a normal DVD, so I copied the files to HD.

When I use VLC Player I get sound but no video. I tried using VirtualDub with ffchandler's MPEG-2 latest plugin from his website, I get sound but a green screen with some corruption that dances around as the video plays.

MPEG Stream locks up and closes, I think the file is too big (just over 4GB). Avidemux just says it can't open the file.

I have a bit of experience using codecs and going between formats, but I usually don't use DVD or DVDR. I've heard that DVD recorder in Japan has some sort of copy protection which worries me a little bit, but I could just be doing something wrong.

[jman98]

You have a VR mode DVD recording. Someone with experience with this format will have to help. I'm just telling you this so you understand what you have. I know that Japanese DVD recorders support some kind of copy protection scheme too that's not used in North America so that could be another challenge to have to deal with on top of the whole VR thing.

[hech54]

The last incarnations of DVDShrink had the ability to open VR Mode discs created in DVD recorders. It might be worth a shot. Doubtful that is it copy protected but you never know.

[Selur]

should be possible with mplayer/mencoder, see: http://www.avtechpulse.com/opensource/dvd.html

[jagabo]

I think your video is encrypted. Try relCPRM. I don't know if it works with VR mode.

[unclejam]

The last incarnations of DVDShrink had the ability to open VR Mode discs created in DVD recorders. It might be worth a shot. Doubtful that is it copy protected but you never know.

This looks for a VIDEO_TS.IFO file. I renamed my IFO file to that but it came up with a invalid structure error.

I think your video is encrypted. Try relCPRM.

Yes, I tried using DVD Decrypter which showed CPRM encryption in the log file. It also showed the recorder information, seems to be Sharp VSR200. DVD Decrypter made an ISO file but I can't seem to use it with VLC. I'll try relCPRM next.

[unclejam]

relCPRM seems to have an issue about the file being named .MPG on the disc and not .VRO, but if I rename it on the HD then it can't grab the decryption keys. I ran the ContentsKey from command line and grabbed all the keys in hex, trying to figure out how to apply them with the other command line programs. It might be easier just to rename the file in the ISO and reburn it...

[unclejam]

Success! I have unencrypted VRO playing in VLC now. Thanks for the hot tip jagabo.

relCPRM comes with 3 command line executable and one GUI. If your file is named *.VRO on the disk, the GUI should work fine. But if its named *.MPG this is what you have to do.

1. Copy VR_MOVIE.MPG from disk to HDD
2. Rename VR_MOVIE.MPG to VR_MOVIE.VRO
3. Keep the DVD in the DVD drive!
4. From command line run cprmgetkey d:
- where d: is your dvd drive (colon is important even though man file doesn't have it)
5. This spits out a bunch of stuff. Most important is ContentsKey Base64:
6. run c2dec [ContentsKey Base64] C:\path\to\VR_MOVIE.VRO C:\destination\path\VR_MOVIE.VRO

It took about 3 minutes to run for my 4 GB file. There is no progress bar.

[jagabo]

Success! I have unencrypted VRO playing in VLC now. Thanks for the hot tip jagabo.

relCPRM comes with 3 command line executable and one GUI. If your file is named *.VRO on the disk, the GUI should work fine. But if its named *.MPG this is what you have to do.

1. Copy VR_MOVIE.MPG from disk to HDD
2. Rename VR_MOVIE.MPG to VR_MOVIE.VRO
3. Keep the DVD in the DVD drive!
4. From command line run cprmgetkey d:
- where d: is your dvd drive (colon is important even though man file doesn't have it)
5. This spits out a bunch of stuff. Most important is ContentsKey Base64:
6. run c2dec [ContentsKey Base64] C:\path\to\VR_MOVIE.VRO C:\destination\path\VR_MOVIE.VRO

It took about 3 minutes to run for my 4 GB file. There is no progress bar.

I'm glad it worked out. I've never had to use the command line tools before so I'll add your procedure to my toolbox. Thanks.