Is this a copy protection issue?

[Instant Martian]

Hello folks,

since I completely switched to BDs and I don't have a BD drive on my PCs I haven't had the opportunity/need to backup something in the last years.
Very rarely I still purchase DVDs if it's something that will never be released on BD.
I did it recently, I purchased a DVD box of an ancient TV series I have been waiting for years to see again.
One of the discs has an odd spot on the reflective side, I tried it on my (very old) DVD player and it played ok.
That spot/stain made me think that maybe it would be a good idea to backup the discs, just in case they will stop to work (or simply to watch them on my PC).
So I put it into the DVD drive, after a while of "cycling noises" (like it was trying to access something on the disc but failed), I have zero, the disc isn't visible, even the DVD drive isn't listed anymore.
I thought it was a faulty disc so I tried another (spotless) disc and again no disc, no drive.
In short, these discs aren't playable on PC, although they seem to play on a standalone player.

Since I paid premium price I'd really like to preserve them in some way, knowing sometimes optical discs become unplayable over time.
My question is:
Is there some kind of copy protection that could cause this kind of issue?
Btw, I already tried MakeMKV but I get a "No disc" message.

Any advice will be appreciated.
Thanks.

EDIT: I made a mistake before, the DVD drive doesn't disappear, it is still visible but it looks empty (like no disc inserted).
If I try to "explore" its directory the drive opens the disc tray.

[hech54]

I'd try DVDDecrypter.
Open the disc tray.
Set the disc in the tray.
Let DVDDecrypter close the tray and load the disc.
Sometimes helps for "problem" DVDs.

[cholla]

First will your PC's DVD optical drive read any DVD disc ?
For example a DVD+R or DVD-R writable DVD disc.
These would be a backup disc for a commercial DVD for example.

If one of those can not be read by your PC then you probably have a bad optical drive.
With MakeMKV on try some other commercial DVDs you have.
Do any of those work ?

DVDDecrypter is an old software but I have nothing bad to say about it.
Definitely worth a try.

I have the payware decrypters AnyDVD HD & DVDFab Passkey.
There is a free after trial version of Passkey.
Also there is XReveal It requires some work to setup as it needs the keydb.cfg.
It is a new decrypter to me. I have only used it a few times.
It does work on some commercial DVDs.

If you can get Windows Explorer to read the DVD then maybe ISOPuzzle can read the DVD if nothing else will.
I have had some success with it.
It creates an .ISO which can usually be mounted in a virtual drive.
Then ripped from the virtual drive.

Unfortunately my suspicion is "Disc Rot" & if it is nothing may work.

[Instant Martian]

Thanks for replying, I edited my first post because I made a mistake:
the DVD drive doesn't disappear, it is still visible but it looks empty (like no disc inserted).
If I try to "explore" its directory the drive opens the disc tray.

Don't know if it's useful but it seems these DVDs were manufactured/pressed in 2019.

In the first place I would like to know if indeed there are copy protection methods that can cause this kind of behaviour, because it's the first time this happens to me, as far as I remember.

I'd try DVDDecrypter.
Open the disc tray.
Set the disc in the tray.
Let DVDDecrypter close the tray and load the disc.
Sometimes helps for "problem" DVDs.

No luck, DVDDecrypter gave me a "Device not ready (Incompatible Medium Installed)".

First will your PC's DVD optical drive read any DVD disc ?
For example a DVD+R or DVD-R writable DVD disc.
These would be a backup disc for a commercial DVD for example.

If one of those can not be read by your PC then you probably have a bad optical drive.

Yes, it can read/write all those formats (+/-R ; +/-RW ; SL/DL)

With MakeMKV on try some other commercial DVDs you have.
Do any of those work ?

Yes, it works.

DVDDecrypter is an old software but I have nothing bad to say about it.
Definitely worth a try.

As you can read above, no luck with it.

I have the payware decrypters AnyDVD HD & DVDFab Passkey.
There is a free after trial version of Passkey.
Also there is XReveal It requires some work to setup as it needs the keydb.cfg.
It is a new decrypter to me. I have only used it a few times.
It does work on some commercial DVDs.

I need some time to explore those options.

If you can get Windows Explorer to read the DVD...

As you can read above, the drive looks/behaves as it is empty.

Unfortunately my suspicion is "Disc Rot" & if it is nothing may work.

I could go with this if it was just one disc, not all of them.
Besides, in that case they wouldn't work fine on the standalone player.
At least I think.

As Columbo would say, just one more thing: when I say I "tried" the discs on the standalone player I mean I watched the whole episodes from start to end. No issues.

[cholla]

Since the drive reads some commercial DVDs it is not the drive.
Standalone set top players tend to be a lot more forgiving that PC optical drives.

If you have access to another computer you might try one of the DVDs in it.
To see if you get the same results.

Try IsoBuster. I believe it still has a trial version.
If it does not read something on these DVDs I do not know if anything but your settop will.

[teamsatan]

Bought Alfred Hitchcock 16 DVD Movie collection a while ago, 12 discs had "odd" marks on the discs, they were completely unplayable on all my DVD and BluRay players. My 4k and Blu Ray burners also refused to read them, had nothing to do with the software. It turned out it was a manufacturing issue There were discolored spots on discs in random places. Got a new collection send to me from the seller, but they had stains on other discs too that didn't have stains on the first collection I bought. So it's a guaranteed manufacturing defect.

[ProWo]

If the dvd has no copy protection, you can also try Isopuzzle as a last resort.
The DVD is not scanned in the conventional way, but copied sector by sector using an ASPI driver.

[cholla]

@ ProWo,
IsoPuzzle also works on copy protected DVDs when used with a decrypter.
I have ripped DVDs with it using both AnyDVD HD & DVDFab Passkey(I have the payware versions of both).
I need to try the free after trial version od DVDFab Passkey but I will need to install it & wait until the trial expires.
DVDFab Passkey sort of dislikes AnyDVD HD & sometimes has conflicts with it.
This is why I do not have them on the same computer(currently).

I need to test the newer XReveal with IsoPuzzle.
The same for MakeMKV.

The reason I suggested a rip with IsoBuster is it will "extract" an .iso that is encrypted.
The problem is it extracts the encryption also. There is usually a problem burning a DVD from this rip.

The main problem that Instant Martian has is Windows Explorer does not recognize any data on these DVDs.
They look like blank DVDs or maybe not even those.
The only software I have used that sometimes can see data on this type disc even when Window Explorer can not is IsoBuster.

[dellsam34]

Most commercial DVDs have copy protection so you can't just read it in the computer unless you have a paid DVD playback software. For backing them up, If Makemkv doesn't work there is an issues with the discs themselves, I would return them asap.

[cholla]

Most commercial DVDs have copy protection so you can't just read it in the computer unless you have a paid DVD playback software.

I'm not certain what a "paid playback software" is would you give a few examples?
Unless you mean the paid decrypters.
I have found the free decrypters usually allow playing of a copy protected DVD.

Instant Martian posted he had a hard time finding this DVD set.
If the seller has another set & will exchange them the I agree get them replaced.
Except since the set he has plays on a settop. He should keep them until a second set is sent.
Then he can test the replacement set first.
There may not be any good sets.

[Subtitles]

Do you have another DVD drive that you can use to test the whole boxset?
If not an external USB DVD drive is worth buying. They are very cheap these days.
Since the standalone DVD player works well, then I would suspect the DVD drive in your PC is probably faulty, even though it can play other commercial discs.

[Instant Martian]

I'm in a hurry right now, I'll post details asap.
But something is happening with XReveal.

[cholla]

I did some testing. I do not have a DVD with the "odd spots" on the reflective side of the disc.
So I used a good condition commercial DVD with copy protection.
1.I started with MakeMKV & IsoPuzzle.
MakeMKV did not work as a decrypter for IsoPuzzle.
2.XReveal & IsoPuzzle worked.
IsoPuzzle was able to rip this DVD with XReveal enabled.
VLC Media player opened the IsoPuzzle.ISO but stopped playing after a few minutes.
MPC-BE played the IsoPuzzle.ISO correctly.
3. I have the old slysoft payware version of AnyDVD HD (lifetime licensed).
This is no longer available AFAIK.
Videohelp has an AnyDVD HD download but I believe it would be redfox version.
It probably requires a license but there is nowhere to purchase a license.
IsoPuzzle was able to rip this DVD with AnyDVD HD enabled.
The rip with IsoPuzzle.ISO played correctly with VLC & MPC-BE.
4.DVDFab Passkey Lite.
IsoPuzzle was able to rip this DVD with DVDFab Passkey Lite enabled.
The rip with IsoPuzzle.ISO played correctly with VLC & MPC-BE.
Note if you have never installed DVDFab Passkey you get a trial of the full version.
This becomes DVDFab Passkey Lite when the trial expires.

My recommendation is to try DVDFab Passkey since it did a better decryption than XReveal.
That & AnyDVD HD may not be available.

[Instant Martian]

@cholla
Thanks for all the work, I already had something happening with XReveal so I didn't try any other way.
But your post is useful anyway, for me and for others, ty.

So, back to my problem, a couple of days ago I installed and started XReveal, tried with DVDDecrypter, no luck.
I installed the latest version of MakeMKV.
This time I didn't get the "No disc" message, I got "Error 'Scsi error - NOT READY:MEDIUM NOT PRESENT' occurred while reading (DVD drive) at offset '524288'"
I noticed that the drive didn't look empty anymore, I tried to explore the content and instead of having the tray ejected there were the usual folders (VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS) and files (.IFO, .BUP, .VOB).
By simply copy/paste, I apparently managed to copy the whole content of the VIDEO_TS folder on my HDD.
I tried to play it and everything seems to function properly.
This was a disc I already had seen on the standalone player so I didn't rewatch from start to end, but everything seems ok.
I didn't notice at first that XReveal can create .iso files, so I'll try again with a disc I haven't seen yet, create a iso file and watch the whole thing from PC.
If it works with no issues, I think I can say it is some kind of copy protection that caused the trouble.

Btw, only one disc has this little "odd spot", even the ones that haven't it are "invisible" if XReveal is not running.
At this point, I don't think the spot is the problem, although I still have to try XReveal on that specific disc.

I'll keep you posted.

[cholla]

@cholla
Thanks for all the work, I already had something happening with XReveal so I didn't try any other way.
But your post is useful anyway, for me and for others, ty.

So, back to my problem, a couple of days ago I installed and started XReveal, tried with DVDDecrypter, no luck.
I installed the latest version of MakeMKV.
This time I didn't get the "No disc" message, I got "Error 'Scsi error - NOT READY:MEDIUM NOT PRESENT' occurred while reading (DVD drive) at offset '524288'"
I noticed that the drive didn't look empty anymore, I tried to explore the content and instead of having the tray ejected there were the usual folders (VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS) and files (.IFO, .BUP, .VOB).
By simply copy/paste, I apparently managed to copy the whole content of the VIDEO_TS folder on my HDD.
I tried to play it and everything seems to function properly.
This was a disc I already had seen on the standalone player so I didn't rewatch from start to end, but everything seems ok.
I didn't notice at first that XReveal can create .iso files, so I'll try again with a disc I haven't seen yet, create a iso file and watch the whole thing from PC.
If it works with no issues, I think I can say it is some kind of copy protection that caused the trouble.

Btw, only one disc has this little "odd spot", even the ones that haven't it are "invisible" if XReveal is not running.
At this point, I don't think the spot is the problem, although I still have to try XReveal on that specific disc.

I'll keep you posted.

I still suggest DVDFab Passkey Lite for the decrypter.
It can rip to .ISO or in DVD format to your HDD.

XReveal calls ripping to DVD format "Rip to Folder".
I believe XReveal still has some bugs.(At least for me).

Both just right click on the systray icon to select the option you want.
This eliminates the need to use MakeMkv.(unless that is the only way your OS will detect folders & files on these DVDs).