DVD Rebuilder Pro and movies

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

I agree this should be split but this is DEFINITELY a topic worthy of discussion. I'm about to watch DrinkLyeAndDie faint. Ok, here's how my experiment went...DVD-RB has an amazing ability to rip things in combination with AnyDVD...even nasty crap like Sony discs should be possible. So, I used DVD-RB to rip the entire disc minus a couple of audio tracks and subtitles using NO compression. So I bring it up in WMP and guess what...it comes up with the white text menu. Sweet. So if I were to compress it I'm sure it'd work fine in my stand alone player. So I'm not entirely sure what happened to your rip, but, it certainly worked fine for me. I'm wondering if the VobBlanker process is what caused you issues.

I tried a bunch of different methods before giving up. Some of my attempts didn't involve VobBlanker at all and others I used VobBlanker with AnyDVD & CloneDVD and the end result was fine for a backup compressed to DVD-5. So why does CloneDVD not have a problem with the compression and not cause the output to have the glitch? Using DVD-RB to compress to DVD-5 is the only time the problem appears for me. So maybe it's a combination of issues between VobBlanker & DVD-RB. I really don't know and I wasted quite a few discs.

 

[SamuriHL]

I tried a bunch of different methods before giving up. Some of my attempts didn't involve VobBlanker at all and others I used VobBlanker with AnyDVD & CloneDVD and the end result was fine for a backup compressed to DVD-5. So why does CloneDVD not have a problem with the compression and not cause the output to have the glitch? Using DVD-RB to compress to DVD-5 is the only time the problem appears for me. So maybe it's a combination of issues between VobBlanker & DVD-RB. I really don't know and I wasted quite a few discs.

That sucks. I don't know what to tell you on that one. You could certainly go over to doom9 and see what jdobbs has to say about it. It's actually a good thing to try and figure out.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

That sucks. I don't know what to tell you on that one. You could certainly go over to doom9 and see what jdobbs has to say about it. It's actually a good thing to try and figure out.

I'll get to it when I can. And yep, it sucks. Check your PMs.

 

[SamuriHL]

I'll get to it when I can. And yep, it sucks. Check your PMs.

Got it. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

 

[Webslinger]

Webslinger or another mod, could you please split this thread off so it is a thread of it's own? My original intent was not to take this totally off-topic from a DVD Shrink discussion. I apologize. Right now it's turned into a thread about DVD-RB and issues with AvP.

Oh, so much work . . .

*sigh*

 

[SamuriHL]

Oh, so much work . . .

*sigh*

Lazy ****! LOL!

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Got it. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Alright. Throw in a new twist. I dug out the bad backups from the trash. I tried playing one disc [which burned and verified] on my APEX AD-1500 that has flashed firmware to make it region free, etc. The movie has the red text menu and has the stutters at the 20th Century Fox intro. On the other hand my JVC XV-NP10 gets the white text menu and then promptly dies when I try to play the movie. I get thrown to the JVC blue screen. Something is definitely getting badly mangled! I always forget how forgiving my APEX DVD player is.

Btw, I also tried two different settings at one point during the compression with DVD-RB. I tried with both Enable Menu Encoding on and off. It made no difference.

 

[SamuriHL]

Alright. Throw in a new twist. I dug out the bad backups from the trash. I tried playing one disc [which burned and verified] on my APEX AD-1500 that has flashed firmware to make it region free, etc. The movie has the red text menu and has the stutters at the 20th Century Fox intro. On the other hand my JVC XV-NP10 gets the white text menu and then promptly dies when I try to play the movie. I get thrown to the JVC blue screen. Something is definitely getting badly mangled! I always forget how forgiving my APEX DVD player is.

Btw, I also tried two different settings at one point during the compression with DVD-RB. I tried with both Enable Menu Encoding on and off. It made no difference.

Fascinating. I had an apex once but it died a horrible death. They are forgiving when they work. That seems odd that both players refuse to play them. The one thing I'd do is run the orignial and the faulty backup through pgcedit and see what commands are being executed to see if you can find a difference. Otherwise, ugh...that's just ODD.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Fascinating. I had an apex once but it died a horrible death.

The APEX AD-1500 was recommended by a friend who had it recommended to them by someone who worked at a Circuit City. Yeah, I know the CC people get commissions but they actually recommended it [when it was the cheapest player] over all the far more expensive players they were selling. I don't remember what I paid anymore since it was back in like 2000. The thing is a tank. Once I flashed the firmware [since I was lucky to get one of the easily flashed ones] it became even better! Region-free, RCE immune, etc. Sadly, it can't do some nice things like play DivX/Xvid files and the fast-forward only goes up to 8x as opposed to the 20x or more that my JVC can do.

Now, the only APEX player I would ever recommend was the one I owned. I purchased a newer model APEX for my mother as a gift. It was a total piece of ****. I didn't discover the problems until about 10 months later since I never used the thing and she didn't watch many DVDs at the time. I did a web search and found the problems I encountered were common. It would freeze up while playing and you'd have to turn it off and then back on. The player was molasses-slow to respond to the input from the remote. It was just junk. I returned it after 10 months and shockingly the store (Sears) gave me my money back w/o any argument or questions which leads me to believe that a lot got returned.

They are forgiving when they work. That seems odd that both players refuse to play them.

Well, the APEX does play it but I have to force it to skip through the mangled 20th Century Fox intro. From there everything appears fine.

The one thing I'd do is run the orignial and the faulty backup through pgcedit and see what commands are being executed to see if you can find a difference.

When I can sit down with both the original, good copy and some bad copies I'll see what I can come up with. I have absolutely no experience with using PgcEdit so I have a feeling I'll definitely be a bit confused.

Otherwise, ugh...that's just ODD.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up the entire situation. For some reason I want to blame this all on that stupid button that is hidden in the red FBI warning screen. When I can experiment more I'll see.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Well, I just took the bad copy and once again tried it in both the JVC and the APEX players. The same problem as always with the APEX but other than the fact that I get the red menu both the theatrical and extended versions play just fine w/o crashing on the JVC. Yes, this is the same disc that crashed the JVC player yesterday. Something definitely is off with the disc and sometimes the JVC can ignore it and sometimes it can't. The APEX, which can handle nearly anything, will play it but will have the glitch every single time in the exact same spot.

I'll probably get the time to look into it more later in the week.

 

[SamuriHL]

The APEX AD-1500 was recommended by a friend who had it recommended to them by someone who worked at a Circuit City. Yeah, I know the CC people get commissions but they actually recommended it [when it was the cheapest player] over all the far more expensive players they were selling. I don't remember what I paid anymore since it was back in like 2000. The thing is a tank. Once I flashed the firmware [since I was lucky to get one of the easily flashed ones] it became even better! Region-free, RCE immune, etc. Sadly, it can't do some nice things like play DivX/Xvid files and the fast-forward only goes up to 8x as opposed to the 20x or more that my JVC can do.

Now, the only APEX player I would ever recommend was the one I owned. I purchased a newer model APEX for my mother as a gift. It was a total piece of ****. I didn't discover the problems until about 10 months later since I never used the thing and she didn't watch many DVDs at the time. I did a web search and found the problems I encountered were common. It would freeze up while playing and you'd have to turn it off and then back on. The player was molasses-slow to respond to the input from the remote. It was just junk. I returned it after 10 months and shockingly the store (Sears) gave me my money back w/o any argument or questions which leads me to believe that a lot got returned.

I personally won't ever buy another stand alone player. The only "stand alone player" I use at all now is my Xbox 360 and then only when using the HD-DVD drive as the DVD player. I much prefer media center pc's. I have one in the living room and one in the bedroom and both work flawlessly.

Well, the APEX does play it but I have to force it to skip through the mangled 20th Century Fox intro. From there everything appears fine.

Screwy....very screwy.

When I can sit down with both the original, good copy and some bad copies I'll see what I can come up with. I have absolutely no experience with using PgcEdit so I have a feeling I'll definitely be a bit confused.

PGCEdit's not so bad. Follow the tutorials on the homepage for stepping through a DVD structure. Takes a little getting used to but you should be able to follow all the commands to see what's going on.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up the entire situation. For some reason I want to blame this all on that stupid button that is hidden in the red FBI warning screen. When I can experiment more I'll see.

I've seen that hidden button on other Fox discs. I don't know what the hell they're doing with it but it's very strange. In fact, I know on one of the star wars discs you can change the menu that comes up by holding down a button during the "attention" screen that follows the FBI warning screen. Freaky.

 

[SamuriHL]

Well, I just took the bad copy and once again tried it in both the JVC and the APEX players. The same problem as always with the APEX but other than the fact that I get the red menu both the theatrical and extended versions play just fine w/o crashing on the JVC. Yes, this is the same disc that crashed the JVC player yesterday. Something definitely is off with the disc and sometimes the JVC can ignore it and sometimes it can't. The APEX, which can handle nearly anything, will play it but will have the glitch every single time in the exact same spot.

I'll probably get the time to look into it more later in the week.

Sounds like it's trying to do some error correction and failing half the time. Neat. Gotta love screwy problems.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Sounds like it's trying to do some error correction and failing half the time. Neat.

Which leads back to the question of why the error and what caused it.

Gotta love screwy problems.

At this point... no, definitely not!

 

[SamuriHL]

Which leads back to the question of why the error and what caused it.

Very good question. That's why I say tracing the original vs the bad copy would give you some indication of what went wrong.

At this point... no, definitely not!

Well, the fix is fairly simple I think. Forget ripping with CloneDVD. If you have to blank out titles, use VobBlanker on the original disc. Do *NOT* try to blank out logos in the middle of vobs. Just blank out whole titlesets that you want to remove. And THEN compress with DVD-RB and I think you'll be good.

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Very good question. That's why I say tracing the original vs the bad copy would give you some indication of what went wrong.

Agreed, of course. Maybe it's a combo of VobBlanker & DVD-RB but why does DVD-RB have an issue with compressing the movie to DVD-5 with an error and not CloneDVD? I mean the CloneDVD output has no problem whatsoever using the same method. That's what stumps me. But, yeah, I'll need to sit down and take the time to trace the entire method and keep notes as I go so I can compare things.

Well, the fix is fairly simple I think. Forget ripping with CloneDVD. If you have to blank out titles, use VobBlanker on the original disc. Do *NOT* try to blank out logos in the middle of vobs.

Well <censored> I don't want any <censored> <censored> logos! *tantrum* <censored> studios!

This is likely a fix in this specific case but we still have an underlying flaw in one of the involved programs and it may/will rear it's ugly head again.

Just blank out whole titlesets that you want to remove. And THEN compress with DVD-RB and I think you'll be good.

Well, of course! But that's too simple! That's too easy! I need something much more convoluted!

For now I have a nice clean backup w/o any logos using CloneDVD. It'll have to suffice.

 

[SamuriHL]

Agreed, of course. Maybe it's a combo of VobBlanker & DVD-RB but why does DVD-RB have an issue with compressing the movie to DVD-5 with an error and not CloneDVD? I mean the CloneDVD output has no problem whatsoever using the same method. That's what stumps me. But, yeah, I'll need to sit down and take the time to trace the entire method and keep notes as I go so I can compare things.

Yea, I'd be curious as to what happened and what's causing it. I'd be willing to bet that removing those logos are what caused it though.

Well <censored> I don't want any <censored> <censored> logos! *tantrum* <censored> studios!

This is likely a fix in this specific case but we still have an underlying flaw in one of the involved programs and it may/will rear it's ugly head again.

I understand. That's why following the disc in PGCEdit is so important. I bet some command got whacked by removing a logo somewhere. Just a guess, but, it's likely.

Well, of course! But that's too simple! That's too easy! I need something much more convoluted!

For now I have a nice clean backup w/o any logos using CloneDVD. It'll have to suffice.

ROFLMAO! That's fine too.

 

[linx05]

Don't do any pre-processing on the DVD and see if it works fine. I strongly urge you to report this to the official DVD Rebuilder forum. But first try no preprocessing.

 

[SamuriHL]

Don't do any pre-processing on the DVD and see if it works fine. I strongly urge you to report this to the official DVD Rebuilder forum. But first try no preprocessing.

I also believe it's a pre-processing error which means reporting it would be a waste of time. They require a clean source to work with...pre-processing is specifically mentioned as being the root cause of a LOT of failures in the FAQ. Also, I had absolutely no issues with backing this up with DVD-RB directly off the disc with AnyDVD running. I cut out some foreign language stuff but other than that I left it unmolested. Worked great. I think by using VobBlanker to nuke some of the logo stuff it caused a problem that DVD-RB couldn't overcome.

 

[linx05]

I also believe it's a pre-processing error which means reporting it would be a waste of time. They require a clean source to work with...pre-processing is specifically mentioned as being the root cause of a LOT of failures in the FAQ. Also, I had absolutely no issues with backing this up with DVD-RB directly off the disc with AnyDVD running. I cut out some foreign language stuff but other than that I left it unmolested. Worked great. I think by using VobBlanker to nuke some of the logo stuff it caused a problem that DVD-RB couldn't overcome.

That's why I said don't do any pre-processing and see if it turns out fine .

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

If we mean pre-processing as in nothing used other than AnyDVD & DVD-RB then I can say there will be no problem but this doesn't resolve the situation. A problem exists. I'll start redoing some tests when I can.