Strange DVD "encryption"

[unfaithfulsfan]

I lost my oldest brother to esophageal & liver cancers just after this past Christmas. The funeral home that handled the service and cremation did a 10 minute video presentation which was posted online for a brief time. They gave my niece one copy on DVD as part of the burial "package" but charge $49 for each additional copy. I tried every tool and utility I know of to make a copy but I've never seen anything like this. Down to the last one I tried I kept getting read error, unrecognized media or failed to initialize messages.

I was using my laptop while I was down there so I opened up the disc in Explorer. There were the two usual TS_Audio/Video folders: nothing in audio and and assortment of VOB, IFO and BUP files in video. The oddball thing was that there were 40+ instances of the one main VOB file that was over 800 MB. I had to leave the next day and my niece's husband didn't want to part with the only copy of the disc they had so I figured I'd just copy the files over and work with them when I got back home.

But when I started copying the files, Windows showed I was copying over 80 GB(!) of data and estimated 3 days for it to complete. So I canceled the copy, cleared everything then selected the files to copy again. My great-nephew and great-great-niece came over to see what I was doing so I got involved in keeping them distracted from my laptop. About 30 minutes later I got back to the task at hand and there was still over 80 GB to be copied. So I canceled everything and checked the properties of the disc. It came up as 0 bytes free of 1.25 GB. I tried opening several different copies of the VOB file on the disc and the presentation played just fine. There seemed to be no difference between any of the VOB files. The presentation played the same way each time.

Totally befuddled, I tried copying just one of the 800 MB VOB files but all the other files over. That copied over just fine but the slideshow would not play. It would open just like it was supposed to but after less than a second, it just stopped.

I figure those multiple copies of the main VOB file have to be essentially pointers for the other IFO and BUP files to enable the presentation to run but I'll be hanged if I can figure out how the disc can fool Windows into believing there are 80 GB of data on a standard DVD.

Have any of you encountered an "encryption" like this? Any ideas how to make a copy of it? I'm open for any suggestions. There are nearly 2 dozen family members who would like a copy of this disc but not at that price.

Thanks!
Jack

[bsomeoneurnot]

Did you try making an image of the DVD? Use something like Daemon Tools Lite (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/products/dtLite) or InfraRecord (http://infrarecorder.org/). Also, you may be able to rip the DVD into h.264 format using HandBrake (http://handbrake.fr/).

Good luck.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Thanks! Tried ImgBurn & Handbrake. This disc gave'em both the finger. I tried the better part of a dozen different apps and they all failed. Never seen anything like this!

[Clouseau]

What aboyt Sly Fox? Also what has worked in the past is my old XP rig that has never been updated past SP2. Would use NERO to burn from disc-to-disc.

[bubba]

Had this happen with an old DVD drive and HD Decryptor with retail DVDs. The same disk in a brand new drive worked just fine with HD Decryptor. Try updating the firmware on the drive, or get a hole new drive.

[Apoptosis]

Have you tried CloneDVD? Try disabling AnyDVD, opening CloneDVD, selecting Write Existing Date, and see if you can rip it to an ISO and you can burn it from there.

You can also try DVD43

[hercules71185]

I remember this issue a long time ago. I went to the first of the .vob files and played it with VLC and it seemed to work with no issue at all. Maybe that'll work for you. It went into a menu just like the start of a DVD. So you could choose what you wanted to play. E.g. Movie, trailers, special features.

[egloeckle]

This sounds like riplock to me.... Try a different drive.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Well, I've officially given up. I cannot accomplish anything over the phone because my niece's husband is not very sporty on the computer and their XP machine has some kind of malware or other that results in waiting up to 10 minutes to get the computer properties. He won't part with the disc because he's afraid something will happen to it. So I'm just going to bide my time till the fall when I hope to go back down and get all our stuff out of storage. Thanks for all the suggestions, tho. Maybe I can talk my niece into sending me the disc....

Oh well, on to my next convulsion....

Thanks again

[smack323]

late to the party here.... but why don't you use www.join.me to get a easy remote session to his PC started? Then you would be able to do the legwork yourself.

[sgkean]

I know this will sound weird and might be difficult to track down, but it sounds like what is used on X-Box DVD's. Maybe find exiso, god2iso or xbox backup creator. I've had a disc like that before and one of those worked, just can't remember which one it was.

You'll probably need something that'll make a 100% exact image of the disc over what is visible. A true sector by sector copy.

[unfaithfulsfan]

Thanks, smack, I'll remember that for future reference but I honestly don't think we could accomplish much with his computer in the shape it's in. Not to mention the fact that, while Randy is one of only a handful of people in the country that does what he does, he knows very little about computers and, again, despite his line of work, is completely lacking in patience where computers are concerned. He overhauls and maintains industrial motors. A "small" motor to him weighs in at 10 tons and has to be lifted with a crane. Sometimes two. When he gets home in the evenings he is not exactly in the mood to sit at the computer and weekends are 100% family time. I'm working on my niece to get my hands on the DVD. Just one of the nearly endless list of reasons I have for not working with family.

sgkean, if I can get the disc I'll give them a try. It isn't as strange as you might think. I recently helped my neighbor update the drive on an XBox (I think) with my PC. For some reason the kid couldn't update the software and I had to format the drive to FAT32. Only then could he run the update via a flash drive in the console. I'm not into gaming anymore because, despite being disabled and unable to work, I just never seem to have the time. I even found a "hacked" copy of "Abe's Oddysee" (my absolute all-time favorite game) that will run on Windows 7 and I've yet to even install it after it has been sitting on my hard drive for nearly two years.

Thanks again, everyone, for your help and suggestions!

[ozstylo]

I found http://www.howtogeek.com/102886/how-to- ... -rip-them/ this link to decryption the dvds

[unfaithfulsfan]

Thanks ozstylo, I'll check that out!

[Aida Archer]

Have you tried MakeMKV, it will extract the data from DVD.
Another option, WinX DVD Ripper, its Safe Mode always works to cope with difficult encryptions.