VOB that works but won't play

[adrian44]

I have a movie DVD that works and plays fine from the DVD menu. When I try to double-click the individual VOB files though, they only have twitchy audio but the video is scrambled.

I copied the entire DVD to my hard drive, no issues. Still, when opened as a DVD disc by VLC and similar players, the movie plays great from the DVD menus. But when I try to open individual VOB files the same problem occurs.

It's not about copy protections, since I copied the DVD to my hard drive and it still plays perfect from the drive when opened through DVD menus. It's also not a codec problem because I tested more than 40 other DVDs that I have, and each time the individual VOB files play well both from the DVD direct or after copying to my hard drive. There is something peculiar about this specific DVD.

I tried to convert the DVD and VOB files using varied encoders, but nothing works. The files just don't open.

Any idea what's the deal with it? Any way I could open the individual VOBs for editing etc just like I can do with any other DVD?

THanks.

[manono]

It's not about copy protections, since I coped the DVD to my hard drive and it still plays perfect from the drive when opened through DVD menus..

You decrypted it to the hard drive? Or only 'coped'?

[adrian44]

Just straight copied it. On the hard drive the film still works perfectly as it does on the DVD when I load it and use the DVD menus. The VOB files though would not work no matter what player or video encoder I use.

[hello_hello]

I'd start by remuxing the vob file video and audio into another container. MakeMKV is a good choice because it's designed to open a DVD structure and include subtitles and chapters (I assume, I've rarely used it). You can also remux them as ts files with TS muxer but it'll probably only handle video and audio. MKVToolNixGUI will remux them as MKV but the same will apply. If there's more than one vob file in a set, use the "add files as additional parts" option to join them as a single MKV for MKVToolNixGUI, not the "append files" option.

You can also try re-authoring the DVD with DVD Shrink. Set the default output to something large in preferences such as 50,000MB so you won't have to worry about it wanting to "shrink" the video. Use it's backup function to resave the DVD as a new set of vob files to see if that makes any difference.

[adrian44]

.

DVD Shrink did the trick! Thank you very much