Cheesy indeed, however I bought a lifetime membership for updates back when it first came out so...
Anyway, if you saw it in action I think you'd be convinced it is working okay (ie I select data DVD add a folder that's 5.5 GB, it gives me a message that the folder is too big and asks if I would like to split it. I say yes it opens the folder, I uncheck different files to wait for disk 2, when I get down below the 4.7 (or whatever the max truly is) the bar turns green and shows how many GB (in MB) will be going onto disk 1. I burn (takes like 20-30 minutes) I open the DVD and the sizes, icons, etc all look normal.)) Oh and BTW, I just noticed it's only the .AVIs that won't open (or copy to the desktop) the w64s and .VEGs have no problem.
What do you think, does it sound like it's working ?
Thanks Kelly,
Randy

Randy, are any of these files larger than 2GB? I've found that you can't burn an ISO format disc with files larger than 2GB; you have to use UDF format instead. Nero 6 takes care of this more or less automatically. It might be that MusicMatch is blindly ignoring it.

Sounds to me like it is splittng the AVi files somehow so you can break them up onto diffrent discs, but it can't seem to put them back together again.

Sincerely,
Humpty Dumpty

Kelly said: "Randy, are any of these files larger than 2GB?"
No sir, all below 2 GB

Humpty said: "Sounds to me like it is splittng the AVi files somehow so you can break them up onto diffrent discs, but it can't seem to put them back together again."

I'm pretty sure it's not splitting the .AVIs as I can just check or uncheck any of the listed files to be added to the data DVD.

Yikes, this ain't funny no more guys, I think it's my only back-up for one of them. Let me in on the secret now please : )
Your pal,
Randy

It's an extreme longshot, but you might try copying the disc with a program other than musicmatch, maybe download the demo of Nero and do a disc to disc copy and see if you can get the files off then.

Try copying the whole disk to your harddrive, then see if you can open the AVIs.

Do the avis change to READ ONLY when you record to DVD?

Dave T2

>>maybe download the demo of Nero and do a disc to disc copy and see if you can get the files off then.<<
I'm downloading the demo now. MusicMatch is $20 and Nero is $70 - $100...maybe Kelly was right, pure cheese. There is no mention of it being capable of burning data on their website but it sure looks like it does...dammit!

>>Try copying the whole disk to your harddrive, then see if you can open the AVIs<<
I get the corrupted error.

>>Do the avis change to READ ONLY when you record to DVD?<<
I don't know it won't let me right - click and when I go to file/properties I get the annoying windows klunk.wav. Does "R" under attributes mean "read only"? However it seems to recognize it as a video clip (under "type"), and has the familiar WMP icon and it lists the correct size, so apparently the data is there, right?

Well my demo is almost downloaded, I'll be back.

Thanks again guys,
Randy

>>However it seems to recognize it as a video clip (under "type"), and has the familiar WMP icon and it lists the correct size, so apparently the data is there, right?

All you know for sure is that the file table is there. I don't know exactly how it works on your particular DVD format, but I've seen plenty of instances where you can see the File Allocation Table just fine, but the actual data is completely missing or corrupt. So even though the data isn't there, you would still see the list of files, the sizes, the dates, the attributes, even the icons if windows is just assigning them based on the extension (.AVI).

I'm not saying that's what is happening, but don't assume the real data is there just because you can see the meta-data.

If MusicMatch split the discs, did it use a proprietary format to store the data? Was it a backup function... is there a corresponding restore function? It doesn't sound like that's the case, but just checking.

Yes, R means read only.

And it seems like a real long shot that your going to see that data again by copying the disc with Nero. If it's that important I'd try almost anything but it doesn't make any sense that it would work.

Well I'm back but when I try to use the demo it says my trial has expired! I've never tried the demo before so I'm not sure what it's problem is. Anyway, I hear a lot of people here using it, so if I can get 2 people advising me to buy it I'll just do that as opposed to waiting days for tech support to get back with me. So what do y'all think, the serial number is $60...should I get it?
Thanks,
Randy

>>I'm not saying that's what is happening, but don't assume the real data is there just because you can see the meta-data.<<

Can I get just a little encouraged if I see the ink on the disk a darker color out to the edge of the physical disk?

>>What is wrong with the .AVI file? Is it a codec issue? A file access rights issue?<<
I don't know Marquat, if you mean what kind of error does Windows give me, please see my first post.


>>Have you tried using MusicMatch itself to open the .AVI and then copy it back to harddrive or just for playback?<<
MusicMatch does nothing, no errors or anything when I try to open them. It shows that it supports .avi but it might just mean audio and the audio on the DVDs are .w64 (it doesn't even see them).
Thanks Marquat,
Randy

Have you really tried everything? Rebooted the system? Could it be something simple you're overlooking?

It means that that area of the disk is burnt.

>>It means that that area of the disk is burnt.<<
possibly with corrupted data eh?

You're right Marquat, I will e-mail MusicMatch today.
>>Remember, RTFM<<
rolling on the floor mumbling?
Thanks again,
Randy

RTFM means Read The Fine Manual (there are other translations of course)

Dave T2

If it were me I wouldn't buy Nero, I personally hate the program but it can do a lot. I would spend my money on the Record Now Max from Veritas and Stomp. It is a great program, especially for DVD stuff! I just reccomended the Nero because they have a free demo and I don't think Record Now Max has a trial, but I could be wrong.

RTFM...oh yeah, huh. What is that other translation Dave?...just kidding. Oh BTW, I did RTFM before starting this thread.

Well it only took me 30 minutes to fill out the MusicMatch Support questionaire form so hopefully they'll be able to uncover the problem (before too long).
Thanks for everyones efforts! I'll report back with the solution if/when I find out what it is (it will be in the form of this final post being edited with the update so as not to put this OT subject at the top of the forum list again).
Randy

grandy,

Sorry to hear of your backup pains. I too have lost data/projects that I thought for sure were safely backed up (bad CD-Rs that reported they were burned correctky). What a heartbreak.

As you might know, there are a handful of software that claim the ability to retrieve data from bad CDs. Perhaps somebody has created something for retrieving stuff of DVDs as well.

These might be geared more to when the data is OK but the problem is the medium is scratched or something. Just a thought. Good luck.

Oh, one last thing: have you tried reading the disc in another machine or drive?

G

>>have you tried reading the disc in another machine or drive?<<
Yes sir, same error. If MusicMatch support doesn't have the solution I plan to install MM on my other PC (that has a different physical burner) and see if it could have something to do with the burner (unless someone here tells me that it couldn't be the burner since it burns every file other than .AVIs flawlessly)
Thanks G,
Randy

I think Randy got enough help for awhile so I'm not going to jump in this late with more suggestions. <wink>

The topic in general is interesting in that probably all of us have lost data at one time or another that we thought we had good backups for. I still have CD's that I've burned that play perfectly fine in the drive that created them but refuse to play or even be read in some other drives. Which is why I always use multiple formats for backup purposes. I'm sure I'm not alone in that you sometimes spend days, weeks even, maybe months on a project, so to avoid losing it I make multiple versions, each on a different medium, just to be sure.

At best retrieval of data from "damaged" discs is at best risky business. It can work, maybe, sometimes, more likely than not it won't, at least not 100% recovery. That may be OK for something like a bunch of word documents or such stuff, but when you're backuping videos the files are so large just a few bad tracks that can't be read spell disaster.

If you using backup software (I'm just testing out the latest version of Nero's Ultra now) at least use the verify option. That way at least you know up front while you still have the original if the data can at least be read off the DVD or CD. I avoid all compression schemes, don't really save much room anyways for vids and I also avoid spliting over multiple DVD's since doing that, you're frequently at the mercy of the creating application and if it messes up, trying to put the file back together with something else is nearly impossible.