VLC will not play files recorded on CDs / DVDs

[clayto]

Due to illness I have not used my computer, camcorder, etc. for a number of years and have largely forgotten much of what I once knew. I am now trying to look through my 'archive' of CDs/DVDs to see what I recorded years ago (and hopefully save much of it to the Cloud).

I have Windows 8.1, an external USB CD / DVD Player / Writer, which handles most formats, and an up-to-date version of VLC. So far I have been unable to get what I believe to be VLC media files to play. Can someone advise me? Among the files I have identified from discs are mainly:

DVD.RTAV
VR_BUP
VR_MANGR
VR._MOVIE

clayto

[Baldrick]

Looks like dvd-vr. Do you see any . vro files?

See https://forum.videohelp.com/showthread.php?t=361216

[clayto]

Thanks for the response. I will look through some of the discs tomorrow to see if I can identify the file you refer to ---- at the moment it does not 'ring any bells.'

clayto

[clayto]

I have examined my discs now. I have found .vro files on a few of them, not many. They play. Most just have the files listed above, although some dont have Movie.vro yet still play. There are a few with .mpeg which also play. None of them really play well ---- I will try to save a few of them to the Cloud but it is not going to be worth spending much time on the exercise now, as I say the quality is poor and there is nothing like as much on them as I expected. A few of the discs appear unplayabe or blank, althoug they have been used in the past. I used Recuva but it did not reveal anything.

'DVD-RW discs will sometimes be readable for a few years, but they can become unreadable much sooner.' That's a quote from one of the links you kindly provided. Most of the discs are -RW ---- I think that could be part of the problem, it is some years since I looked at the CDs.

As an aside, some of the discs are RAM (Panasonic and others). I remember thinking at the time that RAM ought to sweep the board as they are so flexible, you can do whatever you want with them. I will use them as additional temporary computer storage, perhaps for files on the way to the Cloud. I have just experimented with uploading some video clips to the cloud from CD. I was surprised at how easy it was on the one hand but also how long it took and hit and miss as to whether the file was successfully transferred. So I may decide to use USB Flash.

Anyway, thanks for your help, I think I have done the best I am going to do with the discs.

clayto