Unknown format

[odods9]

I have been given a movie on 2 VCD discs. These discs play fine in my friends cheapo standalone Pacific DVD player but they will not play in my Philips 622.
Now the wierd part, checking these discs in a couple of different computers ends with the same result an error message of 'Blank disc or Unknown format'

Using CD-R diagnostic tells me that the discs are in standard ISO format and contain 60 mins worth of data but said data is unreadable due to an unknown disc format. WTF

Any ideas would be welcome. I still can't figure why a cheap DVD player can read them but nothing else appears to be able to.

BTW I can copy the disc using Clone CD and the copies behave exactly as the originals. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[Garak]

sounds like either corrupt toc, or your friend's overburnt the vcd discs.

[odods9]

Always possible I suppose but I had discounted those two for the following reasons

Corrupt toc, didn't think so because the discs still play flawlessly on his DVD player.

Overburn, only 60 mins of data on a 80 min cd plus the detection software could find no evidence of overburn.

Still thanks for taking the time to reply

[Q (OHMSS)]

When playing VCD on a computer using Power DVD, you have to select Source Icon (below full screen button) then select the drive. File name will be AVSEQ01.DAT or similar in the MPEGAV folder on a VCD and MPEG2 folder on SVCD (file extension will be .mpg on SVCD). The file should then play.

You need to check that you stand alone DVD player supports these file formats.

(MODS PLEASE EDIT IF THIS IS NOT ALLOWED)
This is a good site for region and feature changes, click on the DVD video button, then select your manufacturer.

<a href="http://www.regionfreedvd.net/news.html" target="_blank">DVD resources</a>

Added: just remembered SVCD can report back a file size that is too big to fit on a standard 80 min CD but they work fine and play on both the computer and my DVD player.

[Garak]

[quote]Originally posted by Grendel (UK):
<strong>Added: just remembered SVCD can report back a file size that is too big to fit on a standard 80 min CD but they work fine and play on both the computer and my DVD player.</strong><hr></blockquote>

so do vcds

[Q (OHMSS)]

D'oh ! ! ! Forgot that too, I need a brain transplant, or a memory upgrade.

[odods9]

Hi people, again thanks for the replies but the problem is that the OS's on the puters just do not read anything on the discs at all. I've tried WinXP, 98ME, 98SE, 98, 95 and DOS it's the same result every time, they report that there is nothing on the discs or it is in an unknown format.

If I could just read the file system on the darn things I would just re-burn the movie file to a standard (S)VCD. All the software I have for recovering un-recoverable or damaged data only work on HD's not CD's.

But I know the data is not damaged or unrecoverable as they play on my friends DVD player.

Once again thanks for the ideas/replies

[Wayward Clam]

Is this copy protection in action?

[odods9]

Possible but according to Detect the copy protection display software their is no protection on the discs

[Gameguru]

You may be able touse ISOBUSTER or another data recovery prog to copy the data back to your HD and then try to recover it fom there.

You can get it <a href="http://www.ping.be/~pin11466/downloads/isobuster/isobuster.zip" target="_blank">here.</a>

[odods9]

Just tried ISOBUSTER and thought at first that it was going to work but then it fell at the last fence.

It read that the disc was in an unknown format with 2 tracks and even specified the size of the data. When I tried to extract anything is when the problem started, no matter what I did I kept getting the error
Data write protected ( this I don't understand as I was trying to read it )
And Disk in use by another application ( No it's not )

So I've failed again but thanks for the suggestion, it nearly worked.

[Q (OHMSS)]

Sure it's the OS and not the reader? I'm using DVD drive to read all VCD and SVCD data (it's doing a better job than any CD readers here). Some SVCD's, I can play the movie and see the data but can't copy to hard drive.

[odods9]

I don't know what it is Grendel, the only thing I'm fairly sure of it's not the readers. Just to recap I've tried these discs on 2 PC's that covers 5 different models of DVD/CD roms plus all MS OS's and 2 stand alone DVD players.

On one stand alone player ( a cheap Pacific ) the VCD's play perfectly yet to everything else the discs are blank not currupt but blank and it's this which is baffling me. If the files wouldn't play I could understand it but the problem is that nothing else even see's the files.

I'm beginning to lean towards what Wayward Clam posted earlier that this might be some sort of protection. If it is then it must have been devised by a private individual as a personal system because it does not fit any generally known protection system I have been able to find.