Interesting problem with new Sony titles

[Nilfennasion]

At first I thought it might be a freak occurrence, but now I have encountered two discs that behave very weirdly on my current setup. If mentioning the titles is going to get me in trouble, I apologise in advance, but consumers in Region 4 should be warned and I can always delete them later.

When I have tried to backup the Australian Region 4 editions of Ghost Rider and Reign Over Me using DVD Shrink, a funny thing happens. Instead of getting a list of the titles that are on the disc when opening it, I get the two folders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. I open VIDEO_TS, and... nothing. It is like the folder is empty for DVDShrink. I then tried decrypting the entire disc onto my hard drive. So far, so good, but when I go to open the decrypted subdirectory, everything that was on the disc is listed except the main movie. Now, in the case of Ghost Rider I simply gave up and burned an ISO image onto a DL disc, but I have no intention of making a habit of this given how much trouble I had to go to in order to get DL discs that my present burner can burn at its maximum speed.

Is there some kind of trick or move I can perform in order to get this disc to behave? Is it some new kind of encryption by Sony? Do I have to use DL discs for all Sony titles henceforth? Just what is going on?

[guns1inger]

Surely you have been around long enough now to know that Sony protection has rendered DVD Shrink on it's own pretty much worthless for many newer titles ?

You need to either use the latest AnyDVD with Shrink, or you need to rip with DVDFab HD Decrypter.

We have been fortunate that a lot of the titles affected overseas, especially in the US, have not had the same level of protection applied over here. However that is obviously changing. Time for you to change with it.

[Nilfennasion]

I have used AnyDVD with Shrink. That is why I was asking. AnyDVD seems to have been outpaced by this new scheme. If my post gives others the heads up to the fact, then I have at least accomplished that much.

I will give DVDFab a try, thanks for the suggestion.

[guns1inger]

Both of them are always a few days to a week behind as they need to get the latest discs to work out how to get around it. Usually it is a little as finding the actual points of protection on each disc. I would also expect them to be behind any protection used over here as we aren't a big market comparatively speaking, and we use that funny PAL system that no-one else seems to understand.

[Nilfennasion]

I can live with them being a few days to a week behind. It is not like I have a pressing need to get these discs copied (although getting my Command & Conquer 3 disc to work again is another matter). Indeed, the only reason I do it in the first place is so that I am not forced at the format's equivalent of a gunpoint to read copyright messages in a language or three that I do not understand. When I reviewed several Friday The 13th DVDs, I counted no less than thirteen languages of copyright message.

The irony, though, is that when you put together every country that either uses the PAL system or is supposed to be moving towards adopting it, they outnumber the NTSC countries in terms of population anyway. I wish HD had stuck to its original promise and done away with the whole PAL/NTSC thing, but what the hey.

I am trying the disc with DVDFab HD Decrypter now, but DVDShrink does not seem to recognise the files it creates, showing what is basically a garbled mess. Ah well, I will keep on trying.

[guns1inger]

If you can find a copy (or have a copy), try running the output from DVDFab HD Decrypter through FixVTS. A while back this step was a must in order to get Shrink to open the files, simply because DVDFab is a pretty brutal tool. Things have been better of late, but you never know.

[Nilfennasion]

It's all cool, I understand what I did wrong now.

When I originally ran DVDFab HD Decrypter, I got a warning dialogue, as you do, that I should close AnyDVD and run DVDFab HD Decrypter again. I closed AnyDVD, but I kept DVDFab HD Decrypter running. That appears to be why the files came out garbled. After closing the decrypter and just running it without anything else running at the same time (including PowerDVD), I managed to get something resembling the actual film. Now I am just getting ready to burn it to a disc and play it back to admire my own handiwork (the part of the process I actually enjoy).

Sometimes you have to wonder why they bother with these crass protection schemes.

[Midzuki]

Nilfennasion wrote:

Sometimes you have to wonder why they bother with these crass protection schemes.

Copyright buyers do not have better things to do with
their time and with their money. Quite unfortunate indeed.

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[Nilfennasion]

Well, it seems it took me all of four hours to figure out how to defeat this latest moneky-brained scheme, albeit with a little help from the wonderful folks here. Seriously, there is no barrier to the transfer of 1s and 0s that we cannot defeat.

I would do the Cartman "I love you guys" thing, but something from the darker side of my life is rearing its head again, so I will just leave it at that.