DVDA 1 data playback issues in VLC

ShaneJ wrote on 11/12/2013, 11:11 AM
All my DVDs that I authored with DVDA version 1 back in 2004 and 2005 have issues playing back in VLC media player. I know it's not the discs themselves because the playback issues happen in the same spots on all my duplicate DVD copies (on different brands of discs as well). The issue seems to be some sort of glitch in the encoding of the videos themselves. I don't know if it's a DVDA version 1 issue, or maybe it goes back to the rendering in Sony Vegas version 4 that I was using in 2004 and 2005. Whatever the case may be, it's annoying. The video will just freeze in certain spots and will NOT play or advance at all. Doesn't do it in Windows Media Player, however the issue with WMP is that I get no sound. Seems like it's one thing or another. Can't remember if the discs play fine in a regular DVD player. I'll have to test that out tonight. The issue still happens even when the VIDEO_TS folder is copied onto my hard drive and played from there. Same playback issues.

Anyone else having these playback issues with their DVDs that were rendered with Vegas 4 and authored in DVDA version 1? Can these VOB files be debugged from this glitch so that I do not have to go through the trouble of re-editing and re-rendering these videos all over again from the source and raw files (all of which I save). I'd rather not have to re-edit and author all these old discs all over again. Perhaps it's just a VLC issue? This doesn't seem to happen with any discs authored from DVDA version 2 to current and videos edited from Vegas 6 to current.

Anyone have any ideas?

Comments

ShaneJ wrote on 11/13/2013, 8:29 AM
Seems like no one ever has an answer to this problem. I have googled this issue for the last few days only to get forum posts regarding this with either no responses whatsoever or some responses that are of no help (suggestions to try another player etc...). There has GOT to be somebody here who knows what to do here to get this old footage/DVDs (rendered/authored DVDA 1 and Vegas 4) to properly play in the current versions of VLC media player.

Here the other annoying thing these older DVDA 1 and Vegas 4 videos do in VLC. The main menu will go green. You'll see it for a split second when it first loads up the home menu screen, and then goes green.

Menu screen will NOT go green in Windows Media Player and the video will all play fine (no skipping or freezing), but then I get NO SOUND. I will get sound when I play any other video file, but not from these DVDs that I authored a long time ago. I tweaked the audio settings in the options and everything to no avail.

Somebody, please help. There's got to be somebody here who knows what to do. I'm all out of ideas. This is so frustrating.
musicvid10 wrote on 11/13/2013, 8:34 AM
"Try" importing the discs in VideoRedo Plus and run the Quickstream Fix utility.
That will correct stream and index errors and create a new .mpg file. Be aware, however, that unrecoverable frames will be dropped from the stream, not interpolated.

Honestly, I've never seen DVDA 1 (2003!) even mentioned on this forum, so I doubt anyone has much knowledge or memory of what it does / doesn't do. Also, shelf life of discs manufactured during that time is assumed to be about five years, because of poor UV protection. So you are dealing with multiple issues out of the chute, and your expectations for a single solution are probably a bit too optimistic.

VideoRedo has a free trial period.

ShaneJ wrote on 11/20/2013, 8:17 AM
Musicvid10, thank you very much for your helpful response. I downloaded VideoRedo Plus and ran the Quickstream Fix utility on the problematic discs and it did the trick beautifully. No dropped frames at all.

As for what you addressed regarding the age of the DVDs, I know that is not the factor in my case. I have heard that DVDs have a shelf life of five years, however I have DVDs that were burned over TEN years ago with other burning software before I got DVDA 1 and they play fine with no issues. The only issues I have are with most of the discs that were authored with DVDA 1. Anything before and after that are all good with no issues. Also, the problem is consistent. The videos that have the issues are exactly the same on all the multiple copies on discs from multiple brands. The videos freeze in the exact same spots, so I know it's not a disc or media problem. It's definitely the way they were authored in DVDA 1.

Also, I have noticed that those discs I authored with DVDA 1 I used the highest bitrate that was available, 9,600 kbps and I think I actually remember using DVDA 1 to render from the MiniDV AVI files I had edited. Don't know why I did it that way, but maybe having DVDA 1 render MPEG2 format is what's glitchy. Some months after using DVDA 1 I stopped using those methods and returned to rendering MPEG2 in Vegas and using bitrates no higher than 8,000 kbps like we're supposed to for DVDs.

But all that still doesn't explain why the video files would still freeze up in VLC and no other player. At least I found a fix thanks to you, musicvid10, and now the Quickstream Fixed files will play flawlessly in VLC. 1000 thank yous. :D
musicvid10 wrote on 11/20/2013, 10:54 AM
Glad you got it sorted. I don't think anyone here has much working knowledge of DVDA 1 issues, and I'm sure there are some.