Error Msg: Failed to Read DVD Information

[spskan]

Hi,

I just bought the StudioVideo 10Plus. I'm using a Sony DCR-DVD803E PAL.

I put a mini DVD +RW onto the computer reader and the computer can read it with InterVideo, plays fine. However, when I try to open it with SV10Plus, there's always this error message:

Failed to Read DVD Information Report ID 0x80040901(2305) when I perform the following procedures:

1. First I launch SV10 by clicking the icon on desktop,
2. Then I click VideoStudio Editor (I choose this one cause I don't know when the other 2 should be used??)
3. Then I click "File"
4. Followed by "Input Media File to Library" --->"Insert DVD/DVD-VR..."
5. Then a "Select a DVD Title" dialogue box comes up and I choose F drive as this is the reader drive and then "Import"
6. SV10 showed a bar "Parse DVD content" and runs to 10% and the error message appeared.

What have I done wrong?

I'm complete new to this digital imaging thing and all I want to do is just to capture video from a few mini DVD and then burn them onto a single normal DVD disk. I am not sure what I was doing but I thing the above should be the correct procedures?

Can anyone tell me what have I done wrong, and better still, the best way for me to achieve this simple task of consolidating a few mini DVD into a single normal DVD disk (via hardisk?) in the most layman fashion?

Thanks a billion.

Ben

[dmacgowan]

Basically I am having the same problem with VideoStudio 9 SE. I have recorded some TV shows on my Panasonic tabletop DVD recorder, finalized the disk and then brought them to my computer for editing. When I try to load them into the library or the timeline in VideoStudio 9, I always get a "Videostudio has encountered a problem and needs to close" error message.

The files in the directory I am trying to access have filenames like "VTS_01_1." I've had the same result when I tried to copy the files to the hardrive first and then access them from there. Same problem.

My C drive was getting short on free space so I duplicated the Video9 working directory to my F drive (lots of free space) and changed that to my working directory. No luck.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[DVDDoug]

First, make sure that the DVD is "closed" or "finalized".

But, lots of people are having trouble with the Import feature. From reading the posts here, I get the impression that it just doesn't work with DVDs from some camcorders or some stand-alone recorders.

An alternative is VOB 2 MPG (FREE!!!).

I hate to bring this up again, but some of us have sometimes had weird problems (crashing or "lip-sync" errors) with editing MPEGs. By using a DVD (MPEG-2) as a video source, you are hitting two of Ulead's "weak points".

[Ken Berry]

spskan -- your problem may or may not be the same as dmacgowan's.

When you got to your step 5, and selected F:\, did a tree structure showing files on the disc come up? And did you place a tick in the little boxes to the immediate left of each file you wanted to import before you actually pressed 'Import'? Most people don't realise they have to do this.

You may be getting the error report because in fact you have not given the program anything to read... just as it says!

dmacgowan -- did you follow the steps taken by spskan and also tick the boxes?

The sort of name you describe for the files on your mini DVD (VTS_01_1 etc) are, by the way, completely normal and follow the file naming pattern for video DVDs. Look at a commercial DVD in My Computer/Windows Explorer, for example, and in the Video_TS folder, you will see it is filled with files with similar names and extension like .VOB, .BUP and .IFO. These are all the conventional video DVD file types.

Which brings me to my next point, if you failed to import direct from the DVD AND the files from the disc copied to your computer, you could try simply renaming the latter files having the .VOB extension using .mpg as the extension instead. The VOB files are in reality just mpeg-2 files using a different extension.

This is not an elegant solution because you get much bigger chunks of video from the disc than you may have wanted and been able to select using the other method. But if you want ALL the video from your mini DVD, it achieves what you want anyway...

[dmacgowan]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I would certainly like to get this thing to work but if I can't, then I appreciate the alternative suggestion that Doug offered.

In response to Ken's suggestions, I need additional advice.

1) I never actually get to where I can check the boxes beside the files. I get as far as choosing the directory that contains the DVD files and when I try to open that directory, the program tries to access it for perhaps 30 seconds and then I get the error messsage and the program closes.

2) I tried your 2nd suggestion of renaming the files with the extension .mpg . The problem is, when I tried to import these "video" files, VS9 is still seeing them as VOB files. My renaming attempt simply renamed for example "file.vob" as "file.mpg.vob" . I'm sure there is an easy fix to this but I'm not sure how to do it.

One more quick question. It appears to me that VS10+ will import DVD RAM files (VRO). Does VS9 SE import this type of file as well?

Thanks again for your help.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry -- don't know anything about RAM discs, but I am sure someone will quickly jump in on this one.

Re changing the extension, what program did you use to try it? I just use Windows Explorer/My Computer, and right click on the file and select rename. It always works for me...

[Ron P.]

Did you actually rename them to file.mpg.vob? The extension should be MPEG, so just rename file.vob to file.mpg. With the last 3 letters being VOB, VS9 will continue to ignore it. However with extensions (3 letters to the right of the "dot"), of "mpg" VS9 should see and accept it. However this does not always work..

,
I was reading your last post, and then noticed that you are using VS10+. I got confused with Dmacgowan's posting about VS9. So in light of that, VS10+ does recognize and allow VOB files.

[spskan]

Hi,

Thank you all for your invaluable input. Will try tonight when I go home - am in Singapore, a different timezone.

Strange though, I bought this SV10+ software based on recommendation from the Sony DCR DSD405/803 forum under Camcorderinfo.com:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/f139

When so many same DVD camcorders users reporting success with SV, I won't suppose it's a compatibility.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will keep you posted. If problem persists, maybe I'll post the question over that forum and see if fellow camcorders of Sony DCR-DVD803 encounter same issues.

By the way, my camcorder is PAL one so when I installed SV10+, I opted for PAL - though I don't think that should be what causes the problem.

Thanks very much for all the input!

Ben

[sjj1805]

Please view:
Importing DVD files

[dmacgowan]

The problem of renaming the extension from VOB to mpg has been solved. I wasn't seeing the extension in the filename in Windows Explorer. To display the extension in the file name access the following from the menus in Windows Explorer .

TOOLS/FOLDER OPTIONS/VIEW : About 11 items down, there is an option to "Hide Extensions For Known File Types" which should be unchecked.

So.......now I'm excited. I was able to change my VOB files to mpg files and they loaded into POWER DVD and played perfectly. (as they did as VOB files). They also load into VS9 but there are 2 problems which I hope someone can help me with.

1) there is no audio
2) the total time of the 4 files is reduced from 1h 56m to 1 h 4 m.

Oh........btw, I also tried the VOB2MPG program and although the single file created is the full 1hr 56m, there is no sound when played in VS9.

The sound problem only occurs for files that have been renamed or converted to mpg. Other mpg files play perfectly with sound in VS9.

Please help or I may need to solicit the help of Dr. Phil for the next 20-25 years!

[GeorgeW]

The problem of renaming the extension from VOB to mpg has been solved. I wasn't seeing the extension in the filename in Windows Explorer. To see the extension in the file name in Windows Explorer access the following from the menus.

TOOLS/FOLDER OPTIONS/VIEW : About 11 items down, there is an option to "Hide Extensions For Known File Types" which should be unchecked.

So.......now I'm excited. I was able to change my VOB files to mpg files and they loaded into POWER DVD and played perfectly. (as they did as VOB files). They also load into VS9 but there are 2 problems which I hope someone can help me with.

1) there is no audio
2) the total time of the 4 files is reduced from 1h 58m to 1 h 4 m.

Please help or I may need to solicit the help of Dr. Phil for the next 20-25 years!

VS9SE probably DOES NOT support Dolby Digital audio (and I am guessing your DVD file has DD Audio).

Also, what you explained sometimes happens when simply trying to rename a VOB to MPG -- the timing is reported incorrectly...

Regards,
George

[spskan]

Sorry, not much success after trying out different ways.... out of frustration I tried with other mini DVD recorded also by the same Sony DCR DVD803E camcorder and to my suprise, SV 10+ recognises them and the import function works fine!

Why? It was strange as all these mini DVD discs plays fine on the camcorder, DVD player and computer but then SV10+ only recognise some of them but not all?

I scratched my head long and come to one possibility - for the one (or ones, maybe more to come...) that SV10+ doesn't recognise with the Import function, I realise that I have recorded close to its full 30Minutes playtime before I finalised it. Maybe the finalisation process was not "perfectly" performed due to lack of disc space so SV10+ fails to recognise it?

Out of itchy hand, I tried to unfinalise that problematic mini DVD with the camcorder and then re-finalised it and wholly smoke! There comes this format error displayed on the camcorder and this mini DVD become recognised by no one (not the camcorder, the computer nor a DVD player) and becomes unplayable!

Now my problem is : how to salvage the content of this mini DVD????

Anyone care to share and software that can fix this problem?

Thanks a trillion.

Ben

[lancecarr]

Hi Ben,
Essentially your problem with the discs is due to the recording on the disc itself.
When you PLAY a disc the software has inbuilt facilities to correct and compensate for errors on the disc itself. It can sort of "fudge" the procces so that, to the viewer, missing bits are not noticable.
When you are trying to import the software needs to read exactly what is on the disc and if anything is missing or recorded in error the software will choke. This is most likely what you are getting with the original disc you had trouble with.
Please note that of all the available discs to use in Sony DVD cams the +RW's have proven to be the most problematic. I don't know why but this has been noted on other forums. By far the most succesful format is using -R discs, they are cheap and provide a permanent (???) back up copy.
Now that the -RW is being even more uncooperative here are a couple of ways to try to recover the data.
1. If you have Nero Recode on your computer place the disc in the DVD tray and try to get Recode to...well...recode! Because the source disc is 1.4gig and the traget disc will be 4.7gig Recode gets tricked into recoding at 100% which basically means it just copies the disc. Recode is very forgiving of errorred discs and you may luck out.
2. Failing that search for Isobuster and unfortuantely it will cost as you will need the unlocked version. Start Isobuster then load the disc. When Isobuster has detected the files on the disc run the "Find Missing Files and Folders option under the "File" menu. Let it run.
This will give you and entry on the left hand column of "files and folders found by their signature."
Select that, then go to "File" "Files found via their signature" then "Extract files found via their signature."
Choose a location and let it run.
Now you will have all the files where you selected them to go. The ones with the extension .VOB are the MPEG files from your disc. They can be imported into a video editing program or failing that you can rename the extension to .mpg and they should be recognised as video files.
Let me know how you go.

[Ron P.]

I'll throw my ol' hat into this very frustrating event. I suddenly discovered the same problem. Failed to Read DVD Information Report ID(2305), 2 days ago. I've been troubleshooting this since, and thus far have come up empty.

Background Information

• I've only recently encountered this problem. I have been able to use the Insert DVD/DVD-R successfully.
• Have only installed graphics applications, nothing that would access the DVD.
• This problem exists across all Ulead programs installed EXCEPT VS8. This is why it become so puzzling. DMF5+, DMF4 DC, VS10+, VS9, all have the same issue. With VS8 I can insert/import DVD/DVD-R.
• Copying the Video_TS folder to my HDD, then trying Import Folder, still fails.
• I can rename the VOBs to MPEG, and insert them that way.
• Tried with home made DVD's and one provided by Ulead, same results.
• Have reinstalled each affected program, (yes the complete, full, bare as a baby's behind) reinstall. Made no difference.
• DVDs play fine on stand-alone and PC.

The only thing that I'm thinking now is some M$ update may have caused this. However there has been sometime pass since I was last able to import a DVD, so the list may be long as to which one.

So anyone care to still troubleshoot this nasty little #####

[lancecarr]

Hi Ron,
You are most definitely right about the VS8 import module. It was fast, forgiving and never let me down. So of course Ulead decided to "improve" it! That was when the new (at the time) MF module was added for VS9 and 10 and that was the beginning of the troubles. The real reason they changed it was to give greater control over exactly what you could import and how. What I have noticed is that it has become a little delicate!
The OP in this thread in my opinion has a slightly dodgy disc from his cam hence my suggestions.
For your situation the first thing I would do, now that you have done the old re-install routine, would be to repeat the process for the DVD burner. Uninstall it through the hardware manager then reboot to let Windows re-detect it and see if that brings order back to the universe.