Unable to play my DVD's and need help.

[Shabakthanai]

There are over 200 episodes in my Stargate SG1 collection. At one time or another, in the past, all of them played. I remember the episodes of ones that no longer play, and I have not had a TV nor watched any of the episodes on a TV so that my Old--Man memory is not in the equasion of my problem.

I do not know when the change took place, the series takes many weeks to watch, and I haven't watched a re-run in a couple of years, so I don't know when things changed.

All disks play fine, up and until Season 9 and 10. None of them plays or can be copied for seasons 9 & 10, so I am unable to make back-ups on USB 3.0 sticks like I want. Up until season 9, I have been able to copy to my USB 3.0 sticks and they work fine. I am using Handbrake and my my copies are made in .mkv file system.

On the disks that will not play or copy, the DVDRW recognizes the disks. It has a slow pulse of green light when it is preparing to read a disk then blinks and rapid blinks when reading the disk files. After the rapid blink takes place, a dropdown on my Desktop tells me that the disks are unreadeable. Usually I am given many options, including calling forth VLC player. Not so in Seasons 9 & 10.

When I attempt to play disks from previous seasons, they again play fine, so something has changed either in the instruction given to the DVDRW or player to cause the last 2 seasons to not be readable.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem; and is there a fix? Thanks!

Shab

[jlittle]

Not a fix, but a couple of suggestions: try another player, even an ordinary non-computer DVD player; if it reads on another player you could then investigate finding someone who could read to USB for you.

The second suggestion is to investigate cleaning your DVD player. Computer DVD players often don't get the use that living room players do, but it sounds like you've used yours a lot.

[Shabakthanai]

Thanks jlittle, I have tried that. Being a fan of Science Fiction, I purchased the Stargate SG-1 collection and Stargate Atlantis collection not realizing how long it would take to view the series'.

Before the first problem appeared, I was long past the warrantee period for the DVDs, and the warantee was kind of iffy anyway.

Over the years that followed, I have periodically watched re-runs of the episodes, but have always wanted to view the missing episodes.

A few days ago, I came to find the application Handbrake. I used it to copy one of my movies to a USB 3.0. The results are so spectacular that I decided to protect my movie collection by copying to USBs.

Handbrake is a reasonably powerful application. If you are willing to take the time, it may still transcode a DVD that will not play on a regular player. When I found that out, I took the time to copy to file an episode of Stargate Atlantis that I have never viewed, even from the new, unplayed DVD. When I played the file, both sound and picture were disrupted throughout the entire episode. What interested me was the log file that accompanied the download.

It was very long and took a long time to read. But, it also revealed a pattern of disruption that looked much like a code was used to break the viewing and audio pattern.

I have heard about DVDs having a region code fixed to their construction. I have heard that it is included to respond to a zone or area code for DVD movies, to hinder use of DVDs made for another region. It also occurred to me that it may have a programmable fix.

There must be a lot more people who want to protect their DVD collections using a backup that is home-made than there are people who are willing to violate copywrite laws. Maybe not, but for people like me, who simply wants to protect my collection, it seems fully appropriate if not lawful. We do not have the political clout to sway the law makers like the studios do.

I have tried everything you suggested. I even downloaded the libdvdcss-2.dll to try to use Windows to solve the problem. Although the dll does aid Handbrake, Windows version, to encode a movie, the result is very poor and unviewable. I did get the idea from the Windows results to look for information regarding area code or zone from that experience, though.

That is what I am doing now. I figure if anyone comes to see if I am pirating videos, they will see my originals and cease their harrassment, so I am not concerned as much as I perhaps should be. But with all the Torrent downloads of movies and games, it looks like too large a segment of society would be arrested if such an attempt were to be sought by the movie industry. And I am not too sure what the Supreme Court might find as reasonable when dealing with people with my interest. In a way, I feel that that is why nothing much has been seen in the news about the problem of pirating.

After my failed attempt to use Windows 7 to overcome the problem, I tried, once again to copy the 9th and 10th Seasons of my Stargate SG1 collection. I was successful this time.

It is almost like my computer is a living organism, doing what it refused to do for years, almost out of exasperation. I have no idea why it started to work or I would include the information to help others, but finally I have backed up my entire SG1 collection.

Thank you for your kind effort. If and when I solve this problem, I will either private message the solution to you, or post it. I am unsure the attitude of Kubuntu Forum on the issue. Most cordially, Shab.

[Snowhog]

I am unsure the attitude of Kubuntu Forum on the issue. Most cordially, Shab.

Backing up movies you purchased isn't an issue with us.

[Shabakthanai]

Dear Snowhog,

How do I post my question? I purchased a couple of series of made for TV movies, Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. One contains 211 episodes. By the time I found out there were problems with certain disks, I had no recourse with the Seller.

Since I don't know when or how the problems happened, I don't know who to consult with. Amazon, which is where I purchased them a few years ago. They were new and released by MGM Studios. I have never even been able to view certain episodes because they will not load. There are no scratches or finger prints on the defective disks.

Finally, I installed "HandBrake". Someone mentioned it on the forum. It works great for the unaffected disks and still works on some that are filled with problems.

When encoding an episode that has problems, it is easy to realize that they are problematic, because the Log file is quite large, sometimes several MBs.

The episodes that play are so exquisite that it is difficult to undersand how the many problems exist in the episodes that are defective.

I am getting very tired of purchasing products where they do not function as sold, but are also not covered by warantee, because a reasonable person cannot check for defects within the warantee period.

I have been a fan of Science Fiction most of my life. At my age it probably seems ridiculous to most, but I cannot change how I feel about the subject. I love the working episodes of my Stargate collections and would like to save and replay them as long as I am able. I also love the Star Wars collection, but have not as yet purchased it. I like most of the Star Trek films too.

What I would like to accomplish, without breaking the law is, perfect as much possible, backups on USB 3.0 sticks. That means editing out the parts where minor damage can be fixed by deleting frames, and copying from rentals where it is not possible. I don't want anything I haven't purchased, and believe it fair to copy rentals where the makers of the films supplied defective videos to end users.

I have never been so open about my desires, not knowing the ramifications of just telling the truth, but I do not have any trouble with my relationship with GOD by conducting my life this way. As far as the copywrite laws are concerned, they have been purchased by rich and powerful people using somewhat corrupt government officials as far as I am concerned.

Additionally, I installed "OpenShot" video editor in the hope that I can remove minor damage from episodes where the editing actually improves the viewing experience. I am not having much luck using it. My copies are in the Matroska file system; that is the only file system available in my Kubuntu version of "HandBrake" and there is only one reference to Matroska in the video editor. As yet I am unable to get any of the video into the editor.

Since I have bared my interests so much, I would appreciate any help or advice from people who know how to accomplish my objective. If the makers of the defective products don't like with what I am doing, I will just have to deal with that, should they confront me. Thanks!

Backing up movies you purchased isn't an issue with us.