Problems Ripping DVD's

[Jerry1]

DW is the photographer/videographer. Several years ago, we had a machine that would take a VHS tape in one side and create a DVD on the other. DW converted all of the VHS home movies she made over the years to DVD. The process worked and we can view the DVD by using a DVD player. However, DW would like to edit these home movies and the task I'm trying to accomplish is ripping the DVD so the movie is converted into a digital file that can be worked with on the computer.

I downloaded a copy of Handbrake. It was recommended by many online sources. The problem is that every time I point to the DVD to get the files to be ripped, Handbrake just shuts down. I've tried a bunch of different ways. Reading about this, it appears that this is what Handbrake does when it sees a DVD as Encoded or Copy Protected. Obviously, our home movies are not copy protected pre se, but I believe the process of creating the DVD programmed the disk in a way that it appears as it is either encoded or copy protected to the Handbrake program.

Does anyone know of a program that can get around this? Or, might I be doing something wrong? The original machine that created these disks is long gone and I'm not sure that would even help. When I look at these disks, they appear to have the same base file structure as any DVD. Hoping there's a program (free or otherwise) that I can get these to copy so that DW can work on them. TIA.

 

[RunningBum]

I use MakeMKV to convert my commercial DVDs to an .mkv file that Plex can play back for me, so I don't have to fuss with the slow loading Blue ray player when I want to watch a movie. I don't know if that will work for you. It's a free program but they make you reinstall it every few months for some reason.

 

[Animorph]

I use MakeMKV as well. At least it would give a second opinion on the disk.

I think it is likely that you should be able to see the files on the disk if you loaded it into a computer. You don't want it to autoplay on the computer, just open in the file browser or Mac equivalent. It may be a simple copy operation if that's the case.

 

[Jerry1]

I use MakeMKV as well. At least it would give a second opinion on the disk.

I think it is likely that you should be able to see the files on the disk if you loaded it into a computer. You don't want it to autoplay on the computer, just open in the file browser or Mac equivalent. It may be a simple copy operation if that's the case.

I can’t just open the files off the disk. I can see the files, but I think they are the typical files always found on a dvd:

VIDEO_TS
*.VOB
*.IFO
*.BUP

I did try some other disks and some are working. I’ll try MakeMKV and see if that will work for those that are not.

Question - Can a MKV file be converted to something like an MP4 file? Or, is an MKV file a standard format that can be readily viewed without any conversion or special software (as in click and view in any Windows machine)?

 

[easysurfer]

I can’t just open the files off the disk. I can see the files, but I think they are the typical files always found on a dvd:

VIDEO_TS
*.VOB
*.IFO
*.BUP

I did try some other disks and some are working. I’ll try MakeMKV and see if that will work for those that are not.

Question - Can a MKV file be converted to something like an MP4 file? Or, is an MKV file a standard format that can be readily viewed without any conversion or special software (as in click and view in any Windows machine)?

Here's something that has a comparison between mp4 vs mkv formats (I screen grabbed the chart):

https://www.reneelab.com/mkv-vs-mp4.html

As for converting, yes, can be done.

I ran across a file converter program awhile back called File Converter. Has played with MP4 to MKV and vice versa. Seems to work fine for the files I tried (were smaller files). Haven't tried on big files.

More on that program in case you interested:

https://file-converter.org/?from=about

I'm sure there are other converters out there also.

 

[Jerry1]

Thanks. I'll be looking into these. For now, DW is converting the ones that will convert (for some reason, some work and others do not). Takes about 15 min per disk so she'll be a few days. Then we'll troubleshoot with other programs, options.

 

[easysurfer]

I did some poking around. You may be able to go from DVD top MP4 wtih VLC player.

Here's a page with an example:

https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/convert-dvd/convert-dvd-to-mp4-vlc.html

I got nothing better to so am running a test at the moment converting a 1 hr 30 min video I have on DVD.

 

[Jerry1]

I did some poking around. You may be able to go from DVD top MP4 wtih VLC player.

Here's a page with an example:

https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/convert-dvd/convert-dvd-to-mp4-vlc.html

I got nothing better to so am running a test at the moment converting a 1 hr 30 min video I have on DVD.

Wow! Thanks for your help. DW is cranking out what she can so I can’t get in there right now. Much appreciated.

 

[easysurfer]

Wow! Thanks for your help. DW is cranking out what she can so I can’t get in there right now. Much appreciated.

My test with using VLC didn't go well. Not sure if I did something wrong.

I tried twice. Each time when was time to write the converted file, I got a loop saying file exists, do you want to overwrite. Kind of hung up.

So, I have to chalk VLC as a maybe. I'd suggest if you test, test will a small file first for a faster test.

Good luck.

 

[davebarnes]

I remove the erroneous apostrophe from DVDs and everything works.

 

[jim584672]

MakeMKV, then Handbrake to shrink the .mkv file.

 

[ken830]

People are confusing you and making it difficult for you to research what you're looking for. Here's the background information:

The VOB file is a container file. Inside, it has the video, audio, subtitles, etc. On a standard DVD, the video itself is encoded in MPEG-2 format. If the VOB is unencrypted, you should be able to play it on your PC with something like MPC or VLC.

MKV is another container file that's more modern and popular. MP4 is yet another container file format. Inside each of these containers, you can embed video, audio, subtitles, etc streams.

The actual video itself can be MPEG-2, or h264, or h265 (HEVC), etc...

If you rip your DVD, you can have either the VOB with MPEG-2 video inside or you can convert the video to another container format or you can re-encode the video to a completely new video format and new container format. It all depends on what formats your editing software supports.

MakeMKV is a popular way to rip DVDs. Handbrake is great for re-encoding (re-encoding always loses quality), and MKVtoolnix (use mkvtoolnix-gui) to manage and create containers with custom streams inside them.

If you're going to be editing, you'll need editing software. After you select your editing software, you'll know what video file format it accepts. For a really powerful free one, check out Davinci Resolve.

 

[Jerry1]

So, DW has found that when the disk errors out, it's because there is a problem with one of the .VOB files. She can (and does) take the .VOB files one at a time and that works. It doesn't give her everything on the disk because of the bad .VOB file, but at least she's getting most of the video. She's still using Handbrake to do this, which converts to MP4 which can be viewed on the computer. She'll keep doing that until she gets as much as she can.

Easysurfer,
Thanks so much for trying. Given that I don't have a great handle on what I'm doing, it would have taking me a lot to get that information.

Ken830,
If I understand you correctly, the files may not need any conversion. I just need to find a program that will read the .VOB file and that depends on the video format used for the video incapsulated in the .VOB file. If that's the case, I will look into MPC and VLC and see if I can figure that out.

Interesting thing is (though yet to be tested) is that DW thinks that even the disks with a bad .VOB file can still be played on a stand alone DVD player.

The work continues. Thanks for helping move this along.

 

[mountainsoft]

Several years ago, we had a machine that would take a VHS tape in one side and create a DVD on the other. DW converted all of the VHS home movies she made over the years to DVD.

I assume these were recordable DVD's? If so, be aware the discs can fail over time. Rewriteable DVD's are even worse. Many years ago I used to do backups to DVD-R discs. After just a few years several of those backup discs were no longer readable. I found they tended to degrade from the outside edge inward, so the fuller the disc is, the more likely you are to run into failures.

the task I'm trying to accomplish is ripping the DVD so the movie is converted into a digital file that can be worked with on the computer.

As others have mentioned, MakeMKV works great for ripping DVD's. You can then use a variety of programs to convert the MKV file into whatever format you wish.

Handbrake is a good free application, but it does crash with some files.

Freemake is another good free converter program.

Another (paid) option is VideoRedo TV Suite. I like this one because it does not reencode video unless it's needed. In other words, if you have an h.264 video in an MKV container, you can convert it to h.264 video in an MP4 container without the degradation of reencoding.

 

[statsman]

Interesting thing is (though yet to be tested) is that DW thinks that even the disks with a bad .VOB file can still be played on a stand alone DVD player.

If true, you likely would see some video/audio glitching at some point with playback from the DVD player, with the DVD player trying to find suitable data to continue forward.

Carefully check to see if there are any smudges or gunk on the DVD's playing surface. Also, see if you can find another computer with which to try and copy off any VOBs you are unable to retrieve fully on your computer. It's possible that your computer's DVD/Blu-Ray reader may be too sensitive to less than perfect DVDs.

 

[jim584672]

Sometimes you will see multiple listings of scene ordering with MakeMKV. Go to the forums to find out which one is the right one or your movie will be out of order.