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+--- Thread: DVD won't play problems (/showthread.php?tid=54828)
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DVD won't play problems - Don C - 05-13-2008
We had a VHS from a home video copied to DVD by two professional sources and I have having problems getting them to play. Both DVD's play on the DVD player attached to the TV, so I know that the files copied OK.
But...
Wife's one year old MacBook running Tiger. DVD Player opens but does not see chapters. Hitting the play button causes the DVD to turn in the drive but does not play anything.
My G5 iMac does exactly the same thing, DVD Player recognized the disk but will not play it. Updated Tiger.
G4 Audio/Visual with Tiger gives me a DVD drive error on the Firewire LaCie DVD drive even though this drive works perfectly well when burning DVDs with Toast Lite. "There was an initialization error. A valid DVD drive could not be found. (-70012) The mac version of Windows Media Player does not recognize the file either. Dragging the Video_TS folder to Quicktime gives me "mac OS error -1409."
IBM Windows XP - my machine opens Windows Media Player but gives me a "WMP cannot play the DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer" error. Updateing WMP does not help.
New laptop Windows box plays the DVD with chapters just the way it should.
So, what do I need to do to get the Macs to play this thing?
The DVD Player support documents that I've found on the Apple.support site talk about problems playing a burned DVD on the external player; mine is the opposite problem. A question here from Paul F. not long ago did not cover this issue.
Thanks
Re: DVD won't play problems - blusubaru - 05-13-2008
I'm finding a similar problem with a Mac laptop and a reference disc that I sent to a customer. It plays fine on my MacBook, but not on his. I can fix your problem on the Windows machine with the decoder issue though. I'll PM you with the address.
Re: DVD won't play problems - MacManMaz - 05-13-2008
I have made several DVD packages for family and friends and ran into very much the same problems even with the new home dvd players. After much experimentation and many shredded DVDs, I found the answer. Believe it or not, the burn speed was the determining factor. The superdrive on my iMac can burn at 24X. If I burn at 10X, all the players seem to play/read the dvd fine. I am testing 12X now.
It appears that during dense data streams like transitioning from the menu to submenus or clips, many readers cannot read the data fast enough from disks burned at high speeds. I would guess that the professional sources you got them from are indeed burning at top speeds (Time is money). I would take the problem back to them, there may be other customers with the same problems.
Re: DVD won't play problems - Don C - 05-13-2008
If it is burn speed, maybe I could copy the DVD on my iMac or MacBook and control the burn speed on there.
I'll try that tonight.
Re: DVD won't play problems - MacManMaz - 05-13-2008
try mac the ripper to copy it with.
http://www.mactheripper.org/
Re: DVD won't play problems - blusubaru - 05-13-2008
[quote MacManMaz]The superdrive on my iMac can burn at 24X. If I burn at 10X, all the players seem to play/read the dvd fine. I am testing 12X now.
Not possible. The fastest Superdrives that I've seen burn at 20x. The 24x you're talking about is probably CD-R write speed. Some has to do with the media, some the format of the media (+ or -), some the preferences on the machine, some the write speed... lots of variables. Even using the best media on the market (Mitsui), I run into the same problems at work. Nothing beats a replicated disc.
Re: DVD won't play problems- not yet - Don C - 05-13-2008
Well, so far no luck. I've run the file through MacTheRipper and am getting exactly the same response. The DVD Player opens and gives me one option to play (there should be seven chapters). Pressing play, the screen goes black as though it were going to play the video at full screen, but nothing happens.
I tried copying the folder from the DVD to the movie folder on the MacBook, figuring that THAT would resolve any burn speed issues but it did not. Same problem as with the DVD media and the MTR extract. No go.
I might take the DVD over to the Mac Store and see if it plays on one of the new machines. Don't know if I can get any support there without buying the Genius support though.
Thanks for the suggestions. Just wished that they worked!
Re: DVD won't play problems - Racer X - 05-14-2008
try playing it with Video Lan Client (VLC) Open source player that has a mac and a PC version. This will sometime play DVDs that DVD Player on a Mac can't.
Re: DVD won't play problems - Rolando - 05-14-2008
The .vob files on the DVD are not true "vob" files. Copy them from the DVD. then rename them .mpg. They are mpeg2 files.
Re: DVD won't play problems - Don C - 05-14-2008
I will try the renaming trick and also try VLC tonight.
This is the second DVD movie that the macs will not play and it sure plays havic with the "Macs just work" mantra!