Playing ripped DVD from hard drive

[Muse]

How do you do this? I ripped a dual layer DVD and want to play it from the computer. There's a menu system, and I'd like to have the same control I have with my DVD player. I have PowerDVD 3.0 Full, it's from around 10 years ago, but seems pretty full featured. There's a Disc playing mode and a File playing mode, and I switched to File mode and added the files to a playlist, in the default order. I've played with it some with the rip (done with DVDFab HD Decrypter 4), but I don't seem to have the control I need. The mouse does nothing on the menu items, for instance. The Help says you have to build a playlist, and I did that. The Help also says you have to add files in a specific order and you're stuck with that order:

"Tips: If playing more than one file, be sure to consider the order in which you add to the Playlist, for this order will be final unless you use the shuffle or repeat functions."

I don't understand video file types and what they represent, have no idea about the order thing. There are 123 files in the VIDEO_TS folder! Any help/clues/etc. appreciated.

 

[sivart]

Is there not a "play from folder" option? If so, just point it to your root folder for the DVD rip.

 

[Muse]

Is there not a "play from folder" option? If so, just point it to your root folder for the DVD rip.

I don't see that option. It lets you load files, and you can choose a folder and load files from the file view. I selected all the files (all 123 of them), loaded them and then saved the list as a Saved List. When I reopen PowerDVD the list is empty but I can load the saved list and have done so several times. The list is always loaded in the same order. If I hit Play, the menu comes up but there's nothing I can do with it. Mouse clicks on menu items, Enter do nothing, etc. There's a context menu with a Go To, and I can select any of the 123 files to Go To. If I go to 118 (!) the thing plays from the start (it's a football game), but there's a cool menu item called Shortcuts, that plays the game with just the plays, no huddles, etc. and I can't figure out how to get it to do that. There may be a way but I haven't figured it out yet.

 

[Muse]

Persistence only has helped here. I poked, poked, played and played and finally determined that it is possible to play the Shortcuts feature. It's played by going to VTS_28_1.VOB. I'll make a note of it for next time. Wish the damn menus worked. The program seems kind of buggy to boot, adding to the confusion, frustration. Lots of icons, tooltips that work some of the time. Well, I guess I can play anything I want from the rip if I'm persistent and poke around using Go To off the right click context menu. Kind of nutty. There's 123 files to choose from, no clue in the world what they do and a lot of them do nutty things such as (this is true for many!) a 3 second loop!

I think I have a non-full but later version of PowerDVD that I got with another purchase. Maybe I'll install it and see if it works better...

 

[VinylxScratches]

Use VLC Player instead.

 

[0roo0roo]

no point using such an old player
even old players could easily play folders, generally point to video_ts folder or "open folder" no need to select specific vobs. and yes this gets menus and all.
vlc or mpc will do the same thing these days for free

 

[MrPickins]

Did you try opening VIDEO_TS.IFO?

 

[velillen]

a few things

1.) If you're making a direct copy you might instead rip it as an image instead of as vobs. usually called iso mode or somethign along those lines.

2.) If you want touse vobs go into options and set file splitting to 500mb or 1gb or something. its probably set really low which gives you all the vob files.

3.) vlc player or media player classic would work better

 

[Raduque]

Did you try opening VIDEO_TS.IFO?

Open this file directly in Media Player Classic and it'll play with 100% functionality.

1.) If you're making a direct copy you might instead rip it as an image instead of as vobs. usually called iso mode or somethign along those lines.

This is a really good idea. Then you can use a utility like Daemon Tools to mount the disk and use it like a real disk in any video player capable of playing DVDs.

2.) If you want touse vobs go into options and set file splitting to 500mb or 1gb or something. its probably set really low which gives you all the vob files.

DVDs are divided already, usually into 3-5 VOB files, as they use a file system that's limited to 2gb per file. The IFO file contains information to tell the video player how to continue playing from each successive file. I wouldn't change the splitting (if you even have control over that), because then you'll end up with too many, or too little, VOBs and the IFO file won't know how to control playback.

 

[MStele]

Use a program like VOB2MPG. It will convert the vob files into one large mpg file without recompressing.

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

Virtual CloneDrive

 

[Muse]

Use a program like VOB2MPG. It will convert the vob files into one large mpg file without recompressing.

But would it preserve the menu functionality?

 

[Muse]

Did you try opening VIDEO_TS.IFO?

I just tried it and that doesn't seem to work. Maybe PowerDVD 3.0 Full doesn't support it, maybe I don't know how to use it. :\ Going to try one of the other programs suggested here, probably starting with VLC.

 

[Muse]

a few things

1.) If you're making a direct copy you might instead rip it as an image instead of as vobs. usually called iso mode or somethign along those lines.

2.) If you want touse vobs go into options and set file splitting to 500mb or 1gb or something. its probably set really low which gives you all the vob files.

3.) vlc player or media player classic would work better

Can I rip it as an image with Nero 6? What programs will do this?

I started installing VLC Player and it asks me what file associations I want to change to VLC Player. There's a ton of them. Since I have a lot of software already installed, I figure I might not want to just change everything to VLC Player. For instance, my MyHD HDTV card plays .ts files just fine, and probably a number of others. What file associations do I need just to play my ripped DVD?

 

[Golgatha]

I'd use IMG Burn to rip into a single ISO image, mount the image in a virtual drive (Alcohol 52% Free or Daemon Tools work well), and then just use your playback software normally.

For more advanced versions of PowerDVD (v8 or v9), you'll need to have AnyDVD running in the background to remove the virtual drive blacklist these programs use to prevent you from playing the image back.

 

[Nizology]

Definitely rip it to an iso, not the "hard drive folder" or whatever it's called. I use DVDshrink. And then get to know VLC, it'll play anything you can throw at it...including ISOs. Now if you don't want large ISO files taking up your hdd, convert using Handbrake.

 

[Nizology]

Can I rip it as an image with Nero 6? What programs will do this?

I started installing VLC Player and it asks me what file associations I want to change to VLC Player. There's a ton of them. Since I have a lot of software already installed, I figure I might not want to just change everything to VLC Player. For instance, my MyHD HDTV card plays .ts files just fine, and probably a number of others. What file associations do I need just to play my ripped DVD?

Just set it to associate with ISOs. Done and done.

 

[mc866]

Can I rip it as an image with Nero 6? What programs will do this?

I started installing VLC Player and it asks me what file associations I want to change to VLC Player. There's a ton of them. Since I have a lot of software already installed, I figure I might not want to just change everything to VLC Player. For instance, my MyHD HDTV card plays .ts files just fine, and probably a number of others. What file associations do I need just to play my ripped DVD?

I would select minimal associations just so it doesn't mess things up because if I recall correctly the installer will do all music and movie files by default.

Once it's installed VLC has the ability to open the dvd folder structure so just click on media -> open folder.

 

[Red Squirrel]

VLC being able to play ISOs directly is the best. I discovered this a while back. I used to always use daemontools then use VLC to load it as a regular DVD. All this time I've been wasting until I decided to just try to open an iso for shits and giggles... and it played it! Awesomeness.

What I hate is movie downloads that come in .vob files. It's like 20 minute clips so you have to always go open the next one. I have to find away to chain play multiple vobs.

 

[Muse]

I'd use IMG Burn to rip into a single ISO image, mount the image in a virtual drive (Alcohol 52% Free or Daemon Tools work well), and then just use your playback software normally.

For more advanced versions of PowerDVD (v8 or v9), you'll need to have AnyDVD running in the background to remove the virtual drive blacklist these programs use to prevent you from playing the image back.

I installed imgburn 2.5.0.0 and created an ISO file of about 8 GB. There's also an MDS file, about 8 kb. What do I do with that?

 

[mc866]

Right click on the .iso and select open with and choose VLC player, should start right up.

 

[Rottie]

Did you try opening VIDEO_TS.IFO?

yes it will work but I am using PowerDVD 7...

 

[Muse]

Right click on the .iso and select open with and choose VLC player, should start right up.

Yep, it works. Looked like it wasn't but after the musical accompaniment that goes with the main menu played out, the > finally appeared next to an item in the menu, and I could use the mouse or up/down keys to choose an item and press Enter. Boy, VLC is loaded with menus, etc. etc.

 

[Nizology]

Yep, it works. Looked like it wasn't but after the musical accompaniment that goes with the main menu played out, the > finally appeared next to an item in the menu, and I could use the mouse or up/down keys to choose an item and press Enter. Boy, VLC is loaded with menus, etc. etc.

Completely skinnable too.

Skins

 

[lxskllr]

I like making VLC the default for everything. It opens very quickly, and is light, so it's good for playing single clips. If I want to use playlists, I'll go to my standard apps, foobar2000 in the case of music.