DVD can't be read - any way out?

[mykoalabear]

Soon after I got VS 11 I created a DVD containing a 1 hour home movie plus a 30 minute TV programme to fill up the space before burning two copies in Nero. I tested one (which I sent to Mum in England) but kept the other for my own records. That one will start to play on the TV player, but won't play right through the movie (it throws me back to the menu after the first chapter.)

If I try to play the disk in WinDVD, it crashes the programme after 'hunting' for ages. Obviously, some of the files are corrupt. I can drag 'n drop most of them onto my hard drive, but one VOB file is unreadable. The original DV files and UVS project file are permanently deleted, BTW.

Question is, what can I salvage from this mess? If that one VOB is missing, will the rest of the re-made DVD work, or is it yet another coffee-coaster?

Out of interest, this was the first DVD I've burnt using +R media, I usually use -R. My equipment is supposed to support both, but I'm a little hesitent to use any more of those disks.

Paul

[Ken Berry]

When you say that VOB is unreadable, do you mean you have not been able to copy it from the DVD to your hard disk? Or that you can copy it to the hard disk, but it is unreadable from there? If the latter, have you tried simply renaming the .vob extension as .mpg? If so, what happens?

Is that VOB part of the home movie or of the TV show? If the latter, then it surely doesn't matter, does it?

How are you trying to capture from the DVD, by the way? Using the 'Insert DVD/DVD-VR' command or something else?

[2Dogs]

It sounds to me like a burn quality issue.

The important thing is to find blank media that works well with your particular DVD burner. Most of my burners give better write quality results to +R media in general, incidentally. There is a lot of junk media out there. I wouldn't bother with off-brand blank media, and I avoid all discs using the CMC MAG M01 media code. Unfortunately, that is a significant proportion of discs sold in stores. To identify the media code of your discs, use a program such as CD-DVD Speed, part of the Nero toolkit or available free from the Nero site. If you have a Lite-on, Samsung, BenQ or NEC burner burner, you can use CD-DVD Speed to run a quality scan of your burns which can be very informative and useful in identifying the best blank media choice for your burner.

If you feel obliged to use more of your problem +R discs, you might try burning one or two speed steps lower - e.g. at 12x or 8x for 16x discs.

It's sometimes possible to recover files from a bad disc using a program such as DVD Fab Decrypter, or the freeware DVD Decrypter Even though your problem is not one involving encryption, Decrypter can attempt recovery of bad sectors.

I also find that my Samsung burner is better at reading bad discs than my other burners. If you have another burner or a DVD-ROM drive, try reading it in that.

[mykoalabear]

Sorry to be a bit slow replying to your points, guys - 6 hour power cut in the middle of my Internet time yesterday!

KB> When you say that VOB is unreadable, do you mean you have not been able to copy it from the DVD to your hard disk?

Yes, exactly that. Windows tries hard, but eventually throws up an error after much bumping and grinding from the reader.

KB> Is that VOB part of the home movie or of the TV show? If the latter, then it surely doesn't matter, does it?

Naturally, it was part of the movie - what we call 'the buttered side down syndrome'!

KB> How are you trying to capture from the DVD, by the way? Using the 'Insert DVD/DVD-VR' command or something else?

By ANY means, both through VS11 and Windows. That 1.3 Gb VOB file just won't be read.

2Dogs> It sounds to me like a burn quality issue. The important thing is to find blank media that works well with your particular DVD burner.

I have no doubt about that, it must be the disk - I have now binned the whole spindle (I lost the receipt, so couldn't get a refund.)

2Dogs> To identify the media code of your discs, use a program such as CD-DVD Speed, part of the Nero toolkit or available free from the Nero site.

I didn't know that was in there, so I've been using DVD Identifier from CDfreaks.com, which is another freeware programme that does the same thing.

2Dogs> If you feel obliged to use more of your problem +R discs, you might try burning one or two speed steps lower - e.g. at 12x or 8x for 16x discs.

Actually I always do that, because at full speed my (LG) burner sounds like it's about to blow up and decapitate me!

I have now bought a batch of Sony DVD-R disks, and they seem to work fine, but from now on I'll spot check every burnt disk *before* deleting the source files!

Paul

[2Dogs]

Hi Paul,

pity you didn't have other burners to try your duff blank media on - I can usually salvage most discs, even the cheapest off-brand stuff using one of my burners and reduced burn speeds.

I have an LG H22N amongst my seven burners - which I sometimes rotate into and out of my pc's according to which media I'm burning.

My LG is pretty good with Verbatim and Sony 16x DVD+R discs, but I avoid anything with CMC MAG M01 media code. It won't even successfully burn to anything using Ricoh JPN R03. I got fairly decent burns to some cheap Dynex 16x DVD+R discs, made in China as opposed to the more usual Taiwan, which also use the same MCC 004 media code as Verbatim 16x DVD+R discs. I wish disc manufacturers were obliged to show the media code on the label!

To be honest, I've not used much -R media, although I'm getting excellent results with some Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-R discs with another burner.

The LG's all seem to be really quick writing the lead-in and lead out parts of the disc, and if I write a disc at the full 18x speed, it takes less than 6 minutes - but it does sound like the burner is about to take off.

My LG also had a "rip lock" which limited the read speed to 8x. I was able to remove that using a program called MCSE, making it a faster reader of discs. CD Freaks is a great source for DVD stuff.