Greetings, all.

Newbie to the forum -- and experiencing a problem I've not be able to resolve by updating software, rebooting the system and starting up in System Config 'Startup-Disabled' mode. After doing several searches of the available forums/threads w/o finding an answer ... I thought I would ask for some input, outright... as someone may have seen this and know what's occurring.

Here is the problem:
After successfully backing up on 1 of 3 movies today (Nacho Libre = success, Monster House = NoGo , An American Haunting = NoGo) --- I took a look at the file structure of the problem disks. The problem is apparent immediately: I cannot even open the Video_TS folders of those two disks. Windows reports: "F:\Video_TS is not accessible. The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable." So I looked at the third disk... and it opened fine. Numerous other disks open correctly (both originals and back-up copies). But I can't open these particular folders on these particular disks.

However, both disks PLAY correctly on set-top DVD players and on the PC.

Monster House autoplays to the movie on my PC -- has extra folders such as FILES, JACKET_P and also has two loose executables (PC_CLICKME.EXE and MAC_CLICKME.EXE). An American Haunting, however... has only the two DVD folders (Audio_TS and Video_TS). ALL folders on both disks open when "explorered" --- except for the oh-so-shy Video_TS folders.

Additional info:

Disks: 1) An American Haunting c.2005 cat.# 20141, Widescreen, Region 1 US and 2) Monster House c. 2006, Region 1 US (can't find catalog number).

System/Software: Windows XP Pro SP2 (all critical updates applied, recently put IE 7 on <shrug>). Liteon DVDRW SOHW_1673S drive. ASUS MBD w/ NVIDIA chipset and AMD cpu. 512mb DDR RAM. I'm currently using AnyDVD 6.0.8.2 and CloneDVD2 2.9.0.1 --- but I don't believe that they are the cause of the issue. Happens whether AnyDVD is running or not.


It may be something simple I'm missing... but... any feeback/suggestions relating to this will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Reigndog_STL aka Randy

Ummm...sorry, People.

I realized belatedly that I had posted my previous question in a forum that maybe should have gone into "software reading/playing". It just seemed that while AnyDVD doesn't APPEAR to be causing the problem --- the content of all the previous discussion(s) led me to believe that YOU were a group that may have encountered such an issue before.

Again, my apologies if my mis-posting irritates/offends anyone.

Reigndog_STL

This is weird. What player software do you use on the PC?
Do these discs play with Windows Media Player, too? This would be impossible if the PC refuses to open the VIDEO_TS folder.
What does AnyDVD "say" about these discs (post the info window, you can cut & paste the information)?

On the PC, I use either Windows Media Player or Nero's Showtime... but American Haunting won't play on WMP. And, I would agree... it would seem impossible for EITHER of them to play via WMP if Windows can't open that folder manually. But Monster House does. Just checked it again. Autoplay checks to see what I want to do... I select WMP and it goes. Use Explorer to navigate to the folder (while its playing) --- same error. Stopped all software and checked again. Same thing. Repeated the whole process for American Haunting --- it autoplays to an Explorer view of the disk. Try to access the Video folder with no success. WMP will not allow the drive to be selected for play. But Nero ShowTime DOES allow the drive to be selected and begins loading movie intros.

Sorry for the LONG postings... not sure what's relevant here. <shrug> Thanks for the response, Tru!



Here's the info from the disks, according to AnyDVD:

Monster House
--------------

Summary for drive F: (AnyDVD 6.0.8.2)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 0 (not set!)

Media is a Data DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (opposite)
Size of first Layer: 2084960 sectors (4072 MBytes)
Total size: 4169920 sectors (8144 MBytes)

Video DVD (or CD) label: Monster_House
Media is CSS protected!
Video Standard: NTSC
Media is locked to region(s): 1!

RCE protection not found.
Found & removed wrong DVD structure!
Found & removed structural copy protection (Arccos, Puppetlock)!
Found & removed bogus title set!
Found & removed invalid VOBUs!
Found & removed Autorun from Video DVD!
Found & removed 5 bad sector protections!
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!


An American Haunting
---------------------

Summary for drive F: (AnyDVD 6.0.8.2)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 0 (not set!)

Media is a Data DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 2 (opposite)
Size of first Layer: 2084960 sectors (4072 MBytes)
Total size: 4169920 sectors (8144 MBytes)

Video DVD (or CD) label: American_Haunting_Unrated
Media is CSS protected!
Video Standard: NTSC
Media is locked to region(s): 1!

RCE protection not found.
DVD structure appears to be correct.
Found & removed structural copy protection (Arccos, Puppetlock)!
Found & removed bogus title set!
Found & removed invalid VOBUs!
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Found & removed 5 bad sector protections!
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!

Not any help but just to let you know, I backed up my Monster House with AnyDVD 6082 & CloneDVD 2901. No problems with the R1 WS release.

> Drive (Hardware) Region: 0 (not set!)

This is an odd problem and I dunno if the above would affect it or not, but doesn't
AnyDVD sometimes get grumpy if the drive region isn't set? Usually you can reset the drive region a few times before it gets set permanently - maybe try setting the drive to region 1 and see what happens?

Reigndog_STL -

From the AnyDVD information provided in your #4 posting it appears that your Computer DVD Hardware Device Region Code has not been set.

BeLooken

Is anyone familiar with how the hardware drive region is set so as to report correctly?

According to the hardware properties page for the device, within the Windows Device Manager, it is currently set to Region 1. I could not find any additional method of changing the region --- other than the software settings and emulation within AnyDVD (where it currently shows that I'm using Default Region 1 US; all other options on that page are 'checked').

Reigndog_STL

Maybe try this page?

http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsX...ns/regions.php

Great link for newbies, alot of people do not know what region they are in much less what region codes are for what countrys.

Thanks Alan, but I don't think I did him much good - that site will tell him about region codes and how to check them, but alas I don't think the software listed will change it for him.

I know my old LiteOn drive came with some tools that would set/change the region code for me. For the life of me I don't recall how I set it on my current BenQ drive. I've had it a couple years and I've just forgotten as once it was set I've had no reason to mess with it further.

I would suggest a Google search for the specific drive and the words "set region code" or something similar and I'll bet you'll find something.

If your drive has not been properly set to a region code and that turns out to be the problem, then read this on why the region code of your drive may not be "really" set correctly.
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_v...404607#2461591

Whisperer

Thanks Whisperer! I really wonder if his problem isn't because AnyDVD is running when he tries to see/change his drive's region! Good tip and link!

Hey, thanks all... great info. AnyDVD was faking the region code w/in the hardware mgmt --- so, disabling AnyDVD allowed me to set the region code. AnyDVD now reports correctly:

Summary for drive F: (AnyDVD 6.0.8.2)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

But this hasn't resolved the issue of how/why the system will not allow access to the Video_TS folder. And further, why only THESE disks? All throughout this process... the disks PLAY... but I can't take a look inside those folders. Other DVD's have no problem allowing me to see w/in the folders.

Continuing to research. Thanks for your insight and the tips. One question down... <grin>

Reigndog_STL

If you disable AnyDVD, can you access the VIDEO_TS folder? (Sorry if you have written this already before...)
Just to rule out a problem caused by AnyDVD.

Yes, had previously disabled AnyDVD (and all other background apps, tsr's, non-basic system services, etc)... which is part of why I believed it wasn't related specifically to AnyDVD... and why I apologized for off-topic post. BUT... it was good to discover that the hardware region code wasn't set. It just didn't solve the problem.

Hmph. Hmph, I say.

Have you tried the disc on a friend's machine?

It appears that 'whatever' is occurring, it is specific to this model (or even series of models) of Liteon drives. I took the disks to work with me where I have an internal CDRW/DVD-Rom and an external DVDRW drive. Both are Liteon brand. The older model 'combo' drive was able to read the disk and create the image with no fuss. The external (newer) dual-layer model was then able to burn that image. But it could not read the original disk properly and could not create the image.

My 'home' DVDRW and 'work' external DVDRW have similar model numbers --- leading me to make my 'model/series specific' comment. The OS and software installations are essentially the same on these two systems (WinXP Pro SP2, AnyDVD, CloneDVD)

OH -- and neither drive at work has the hardware region set. Didn't adversely effect the older combo drive's ability to read/create image however.

I just wanted to update the thread with this info --- even though I don't have model #'s and the error messages I got from AnyDVD and CloneDVD. I'll post that info later.

Again, thanks for your input and suggestions.

That would piss me off and well make me laugh if the movie studios put some sort of hidden encryption on the DVD movie and it just will not operate if it is in a rewritable drive.

Well, new encryption probably isn't the issue as for things to be advertised as DVD they need to be compliant and any new encryption would have to work with the older DVD players.

I doubt there's any kind of program on the disc either - that program would have to be executed by some processor - either in the drive it's self or on the pc. I doubt the drive has a way to execute programming from the disc and if auto-run is turned off the pc shouldn't execute it.

Someday something like this may happen - I saw a blurb about putting rfid chips in the discs, I imagine it could be written into the drive firmware that if it sees a disc with an rfid tag that it wouldn't allow a copy or something.

Nothing I'm going to worry about for a while though . . .

Right. And as long as AnyDVD is running programs from Video-DVDs will not be executed, AutoPlay will kick in as if it is a Video-DVD without autorun.

You're not the only one with the same problem with the Video_TS folder. I Use Windows Media Player and Nero ShowTime to view the movies on my PC, and this new release of AnyDVD is the problem.
I've had no problems up until this update I had installed with AnyDVD, now any movie I try to play on my PC won't play. Disabling AnyDVD will help this problem (sometimes), that way the content that needs to be seen by the players will be seen, and not blocked.
Burning the DVD's don't work; The movies will burn, but there's nothing but errors when my DVD players try to read the Disc's (I have 6 DVD players, and 5 computers, and not one of them can read the disc's after I burn my movies). It's not my PC, either; 5 Computers, and i've tried to use each of them to do this, and all come up with the same problems.
This update to AnyDVD is the fault - That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Not the same problem, if I am not mistaken Reigndog_STL claimed that VIDEO_TS folder cannot be opened with AnyDVD disabled.

The sentence in red seems like it isn't anydvd at all as disabling it only sometimes works?


On this part I think it sounds like bad choice of media to be honest since there were plenty of posts here and link you faild to give us all the info needed. There are too many of these new posters that lash out saying anydvd is and is ONLY problem. 9 times out of 10 it is usually the media or the DVDRW Drive or software conflict. Going HERE and posting the info needed would be helpful for us all to help you.

ed82264 -

As Forum Member Dr. Who states refer to referenced link (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=182650) and provide the necessary information so that Forum Member will be able to have an informed meaningful discussion concerning your unique problem.

In many instances individuals are quick to point an offending finger at a SlySoft software program causing a problem but after through complete review of all the facts reveals that the actual cause of the problem was something quite different. Close review of AnyDVD/ CloneDVD Forum postings validates this fact. Track history supports that fact that SlySoft software program are extremely stable error free programs.

BeLooken

PS - For what its worth my family has AnyDVD v6.0.8.2/Clone v2.9.01 running on 4 different computer configurations and have not encountered any problems.