# Myriad PS3 playback problems - any help deeply appreciated



## dh2005

Hello everyone,

I tried posting in another PS3 thread but got nothing in reply, so I figured I should set up a thread of my own. I'd be really, _really _grateful if anybody could help me out with this.

I've ripped about 1500GB of .VOBs from my DVD collection to two external 1TB HDDs that I've connected to the PS3 via USB. Ripping that mass of data took absolutely *ages*, so forgive me for lacking a sense of humour about the files not working properly...! :hissyfit:

Here are the problems, in descending order of severity:

1). Audio/video synching:

House M.D. is one of my favourite shows, so doesn't it *suck *that these DVDs are the ones giving me the most trouble...

Several episodes from seasons 2, 3 and 4 lose the synching between the video and the audio partway through - they run fine to begin with, but then the video starts running faster than the audio, which remains at normal speed. The problem resolves itself after a few minutes, but it's extremely infuriating.

It's predictable as to which ones are going to give me trouble, because their running times are around ten minutes too short - most House episodes are between 40 and 43 minutes long, but the running times of the episodes that don't work properly have running times of around 30 to 32 minutes.

I'm thinking it's a timecode problem, but I've no idea how to fix that.


2). Anamorphic discs:

Again, this is a problem with House, but also The Office, some sports DVDs and quite a few Woody Allen movies.

When the .VOBs are copied over, they run perfectly fine, except that the anamorphic coding that was present on the disc is gone. This means that I need to zoom the picture, rather than stretching it, which means that the picture loses definition.

This is not the end of the World, but it would be nice to resolve it if anyone can help. I've tried using both DVD Shrink And DVD Decrypter to rip the .VOBs, just in case the ripping program was to blame for missing the anamorphic coding on the disc, but it didn't make any difference.


3). Region 1 movies:

This is the least concerning, because it's currently only affecting three of my region 1 (NTSC) movies - these being South Park, American Grafitti and The 'Burbs.

These movies lock-up during playback - what happens is that the picture freezes, but the audio continues for ten seconds or so, after which the audio stops, the screen goes black and the PS3 crashes out to the dashboard. This happens even when the .VOBs have been copied to the PS3's internal HDD, so it's definitely not a streaming issue.

Again, I noticed that these .VOBs have incorrect running times. So, I figured this might also be a timecode problem... but I don't know what to do about it! 



If anybody can offer any advice on any/all of these problems (particularly the first one, which is breaking my heart...!), I would be eternally grateful. It's such a shame that these problems are dogging my experience, because in all other respects the PS3 is doing a wonderful job for me.

If you made the effort to read this, thanks. And if you can help, please do get in touch.



DH


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## dh2005

Someone suggested I try DVDFab to get around the anamorphic problem - sadly, that didn't work either.


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## Harpmaker

Hi DH,

I can't really be of much help fixing your playback problems, but I do have a question and a suggestion.

Do the problem VOB's play back properly on a PC using a software DVD player like PowerDVD or VLC?

You might try using a free program called AVICodec and see what it says about your VOB files.
http://avicodec.duby.info/


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## dh2005

Thank you, Don. After two weeks of being ignored I was beginning to wonder whether I'd breached some kinda secret code around here...!

The three .VOBs that don't work properly (the NTSC ones); I can't honestly say I've tried running them on my PC from beginning to end. I guess that'd be a good starting point for resolving my third problem - ascertaining whether the .VOBs themselves are to blame, or whether it's something at the PS3 side of the equation.


Regarding my second problem (the anamorphic issue), I can't really test this on my PC because I don't think anamorphic coding responds to widescreen monitors in the same way that it does a widescreen TV. Like I said, that's pretty much a cosmetic issue. I can live with the definition being slightly impaired...

... though I must say that on having another closer look at my rips, I've counted 32 out of 132 movies that have lost their anamorphism - that's almost 25%. Surely, I'm not the only person in the entire history of internet forum'ing to have this problem...?! Yet *nobody *has replied to my questions about this, across three different forums.


Thanks again, Don. Maybe somebody else will recognise my existence sometime soon!


DH


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## wbassett

DH definitely didn't mean to make you feel ignored. Work has been hectic and I didn't see the posts.

I can honestly say I haven't run into any audio sync issues, my son ran into some issues on his but it was because he was using max compression.

I have all seven seasons of The Highlander on one of my My Books and they all playback perfectly. No freezes or audio sync issues. These are full one hour shows (minus the commercial breaks of course). I also have the animated half hour series Drawn Together on a drive and haven't seen any playback or audio issues with that either.

One thing is I have the original PS3 which has different hardware than the new models. Also from what I understand the firmware updates aren't always exactly the same for other countries/Regions. Those two items could be the problem or one of them could be.



dh2005 said:


> Regarding my second problem (the anamorphic issue), I can't really test this on my PC because I don't think anamorphic coding responds to widescreen monitors in the same way that it does a widescreen TV. Like I said, that's pretty much a cosmetic issue. I can live with the definition being slightly impaired...
> 
> The main reason I went this way was so I wouldn't lose any playback quality. Everyone else on the net was doing conversions, and anytime you start converting from one format to another you take a hit in image quality. Sure I've seen the argument that it's minor, but I didn't want to settle for any drop in quality... it defeated the purpose in my opinion and if I was going to lose image quality then why not just walk across the room and put the disc in?
> 
> There has to be some step or common item at play here. I honestly don't think it's Shrink because it doesn't convert anything. For episodic TV series, each episode is well under the 4GB limit so absolutely no compression is needed and playback is identical to the disc. I've even put the DVD in my HD DVD player and queued up the PS3 on different inputs and when I switch back and forth there is no difference.
> 
> Some discs just won't go though. I've had some that I couldn't archive to my PS3 setup while others archive and play flawlessly. Since the same steps are used for both, I chalked it up to the problem being on the disc end and not Shrink or the PS3 side.
> 
> ... though I must say that on having another closer look at my rips, I've counted 32 out of 132 movies that have lost their anamorphism - that's almost 25%. Surely, I'm not the only person in the entire history of internet forum'ing to have this problem...?! Yet nobody has replied to my questions about this, across three different forums.


I notice in another post you said you have 1.5TB archived. Above you mention 132 movies at a 25% failure rate. What settings and compression are you using? 132 movies at 4GB should be around 528GB of drive space. Are the ones giving you problems the Region 1 titles?

There has to be some common point that's the culprit. Once we find that we'll get you running 100%.


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## dh2005

Sorry, Bill. I meant those comments with more humour than apparently came across! I'm not getting mad at anyone for "ignoring" me.

I've replied on your sticky thread. If there's anything more you need to ask, just let me know.


EDIT: I've ripped 132 movies with DVD Shrink. The only setting I recall changing is the one that breaks-up .VOBs into 1GB chunks - I rip my discs as individual .VOBs. Nearly all of my movie .VOBs are lossless, with a few slightly compressed (none are smaller than 95% of their original size - quality is important to me, hence my annoyance with the anamorphic discs).

The other 900+GB are rips from TV shows - 24, House, Scrubs, The X Files, Quantum Leap, The Office, Arrested Development and others. Arrested Development and 24 are examples of anamorphic widescreen rips that work perfectly (very, very pleasing...).


EDIT EDIT: ... oh, and, to answer another question of yours, the majority of the discs that are giving me the anamorphic trouble are in fact Region 2, though a few of them are Region 1. So, it doesn't seem to be a region-specific issue.


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## dh2005

I couldn't edit my last post *again*... it was just getting embarrassing!

Bill - as for your point about not wanting to lose any quality, I agree. The reason that I'm archiving my discs is because I want to "retire" as many of them as possible back to my bookcase at home (I'm a student, and I live away for ten months of the year). I could always keep my discs here, but I have more than 600 of them and they take up *so *much space...

... plus, when it works, running video files from the PS3 is such a graceful, compact and pleasing solution that I'm willing to put some hours into this. And I'm very grateful for your help, and anyone else's.


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## wbassett

DH I am in total agreement and that's what I was trying to say.

Others kept telling to to convert to this or convert to that and would say 'It's *almost* DVD quailty'. Thing is we don't want almost, we want the same quality or what's the sense right? 

I think it is very cool having my drives tucked away and out of sight and by a quick navigation through the menu with the remote I have access to hundreds of shows and movies. That is a coolness factor of 10+


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## dh2005

Couldn't have put it better myself...!

The anamorphic issue is not so much of a problem because the films affected, typically, are not films that trade on their looks - Woody Allen's only genuinely beautiful film is Manhattan and, for some bizarre reason, that one works fine!

So far, I've archived around 300 of my discs (132 movies, and lots of TV). The discs I've not archived required more than 5% compression to get them under the 4GB FAT32 limit (curse you, PS3...!), so those discs need to stay here because, as I've mentioned, I'm not willing to compromise on quality.

If only I could get this working perfectly, it'd be absolutely gorgeous...


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## dh2005

I don't want to call it too soon, but...

... I *think *that I've found a solution to my timecode problems. I downloaded a freeware program called TS MuxeR, and when I run .VOBs with incorrect running times through it, they come out the otherside with correct ones.

Once the timecode breaks in a .VOB are repaired, it's possible to fast-forward and rewind at all the available speeds (x1.5, x10, x30, x120) and restart it immediately, on the fly. And where my .VOBs lacked thumbnails on the PS3 dashboard, after their timecodes have been repaired, sure enough, they have fully functioning animated thumbnails.

Maybe this will be the solution to my more serious playback troubles... still no word on an anamorphic fix, though.


EDIT: well, TS MuxeR is great, but it's not perfect. The .VOBs that used to break down are now .MPGs that work...! Sadly, there's very, very occasional picture breakup during the playback (like, once or twice in a whole movie), which is irritating, but not as irritating as not being able to watch the movie, so... I'll handle it.

But if anyone can give me some guidance on how better to use TS MuxeR, let me know.


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## dh2005

Hello folks,

Thought I'd check back to update you on my progress, which has been reasonably good.

1). Audio/video synching:

This is no longer an issue - TS MuxeR can repair .VOBs with broken timecodes and convert them into .M2TS files with perfect timecodes, which the PS3 reads as straight .MPGs. So, thanks to the person who recommended this program to me...

... however, I remain slightly peeved about the fact that these repaired, "remuxed" files show occasional video disruption - smearing and artefacting, like you'd see if you were watching a damaged DVD. It doesn't happen often, but it always happens at least once in every file that I've repaired with TS MuxeR, which is irritating and takes the shine off an otherwise excellent job - if anyone can help with this, you'll become my favourite person overnight.


2). Anamorphic discs:

Still no word on this - and it stinks. I have upwards of 100 files with messed-up anamorphism.

An update, however - *it's definitely not the PS3's fault*. When I run back the .VOBs (or .M2TSs, for the files I've remuxed) on VLC player on my laptop, the same problem occurs.

And, strictly speaking, it's not the _anamorphism _that's gone - it's the vertical height of the image. The playback is still the full width of the screen, but the height is something like two thirds of what it should be. Which is even more weird!!! I mean, *WHY *would that happen with *SO MANY *discs...?!

I tried to use DVD Patcher to resolve this. I patched the height of the image from 576 lines to 720 lines (making the PAL image 720x720) to see whether I could force it to stretch the image vertically, but it didn't work - it just shifted the image up, and put 144 lines of green underneath it (weird...). It also completely messed up that particular .VOB, and I had to re-rip it.

So, I still have a significant problem with certain anamorphic discs. Please, if anyone can help, let me know...


3). Region 1 movies:

Identically to my first problem, TS MuxeR has solved this - though not without some annoying video break-up that I'd love to sort out if anyone can advise me.


Thanks again for reading.


DH.


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## ludwignew

Well, I have the almost the same problem with House M.D. I play it in english and the spanish subtitles appear faster thant the sound. I'm using right now a sony DVD player.


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## dh2005

Hey there,

yeah, I think the authoring on the House DVDs is a bit dubious... but I'm amazed to hear that a standalone DVD player from such an esteemed manufacturer is having a problem like that.


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## Harpmaker

DH,

On the anamorphic issue, when you use VLC you can play around with the aspect ratio a bit; does that help or cause weird artifacts too?


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## dh2005

Hey there,

Thanks for taking an interest. It's much appreciated.

You may be onto something...

... when I use VLC with anamorphic .VOBs that work correctly, they look perfect immediately - that is to say, the "default" aspect ratio option produces a correctly-proportioned anamorphic picture.

When I play back one of my many (many, *many*...) .VOBs with this anamorphic problem, the "default" setting produces an image as I've described - the full width of the screen, but squashed vertically. *However*, when I force the aspect ratio setting in VLC to "16:9", they look perfect.

This suggests that there's something about the errant .VOB files that's giving incorrect information to the player, does it not? Otherwise it would know that the file is 16:9 anamorphic, and default to "16:9" mode.

Sadly, I don't know of any similar way to force the PS3 to treat a .VOB file as 16:9. The only "Screen mode" options during playback of these files are "Normal" (which produces a full width, vertically squashed picture), "Zoom" (which zooms the "Normal" image so that the there are no black bars, but leaves the picture distorted), and "Original" (which places the image in the middle of the screen with black bars all around it, again, distorted).

Another thing I've noticed - when watching anamorphic .VOBs that work properly on my PS3, the only "Screen mode" options available are "Normal" and "Original", whereas all non-anamorphic .VOBs (like 4:3 ratio TV shows) have "Normal", "Original" and "Zoom". Clearly, the PS3 cannot tell that these .VOBs I'm having trouble with are anamorphic. There must be a piece of information in the _working _anamorphic .VOBs that's lacking in the ones that _don't_ work...

... but where *is *this information?! *AND HOW CAN I CORRECT IT?!?!*


EDIT: ... and PS - this very firmly refutes that DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, DVD Fab, Smart Ripper etc. create perfect copies when they rip .VOBs. As far as I'm concerned, there's no two ways about it - these programs *definitely *lose something when they rip, at least they do from certain discs.


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## dh2005

Something else I've found out from another forum...

... apparently some discs store aspect ratio information in their .IFO files, which I don't think get carried over when you rip a standalone .VOB. Maybe _this _is the problem...?


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> Hey there,
> 
> Thanks for taking an interest. It's much appreciated.


You're welcome! I'm very interested. I have a similar problem, but I don't use a PS3 for playback; don't even have one. My problem is some DVD's play back with black bars on the top, bottom *and both sides*! I'm fairly sure that what is happening is that my playback programs (PowerDVD and VLC) see the movie as being in 4:3 format when it is really in 16:9 or other theatrical ratio. The problem is with the DVD's themselves and not just the rips (which just mimic the DVD's encoding). BTW, I rip to .ISO files (the whole DVD disc image) and not just the main movie to a single .VOB file.



> You may be onto something...
> 
> ... when I use VLC with anamorphic .VOBs that work correctly, they look perfect immediately - that is to say, the "default" aspect ratio option produces a correctly-proportioned anamorphic picture.
> 
> When I play back one of my many (many, *many*...) .VOBs with this anamorphic problem, the "default" setting produces an image as I've described - the full width of the screen, but squashed vertically. *However*, when I force the aspect ratio setting in VLC to "16:9", they look perfect.
> 
> This suggests that there's something about the errant .VOB files that's giving incorrect information to the player, does it not? Otherwise it would know that the file is 16:9 anamorphic, and default to "16:9" mode.


I'm suspecting that your ripping program is misreading, or ignoring, the correct aspect ratio info in the DVD when it rips it. Is there any way to force the program to rip to 16:9? I just checked and I don't see any way of doing this with DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, ImgBurn or DVD Fab Platinum; bummer!



> Sadly, I don't know of any similar way to force the PS3 to treat a .VOB file as 16:9.


And there's the rub... unless you can find a ripping program that will let you specify the aspect ratio when it rips the DVD, you would have to use a program such as MediaCoder to re-encode the ripped files in the proper AR. :gah: I don't think MC will rip from DVD itself yet, but I'm not sure.
http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/



> Clearly, the PS3 cannot tell that these .VOBs I'm having trouble with are anamorphic. There must be a piece of information in the _working _anamorphic .VOBs that's lacking in the ones that _don't_ work...
> 
> ... but where the Hell *is *this information?! *AND HOW CAN I CORRECT IT?!?!*


I don't think it's being copied to the VOB file, so there can be no correction per say. You might search the 'net for programs that will correct for errant AR's.



> EDIT: ... and PS - this very firmly refutes that DVD Shrink, DVD Decrypter, DVD Fab, Smart Ripper etc. create perfect copies when they rip .VOBs. As far as I'm concerned, there's no two ways about it - these programs *definitely *lose something when they rip, at least they do from certain discs.


I agree; they are missing something somewhere. Just for grins, why don't you try ripping one of the problem discs to an ISO file and see if VLC will play it properly in it's default mode; that should at least tell you if the ISO contains the AR data that is missing from the VOB.



> ... apparently some discs store aspect ratio information in their .IFO files, which I don't think get carried over when you rip a standalone .VOB. Maybe this is the problem...?


That could very well be the case.

-----------

OK, did some research and there may be a chance that MC will allow you to re-encode your existing VOB files with only an AR change. Don't know if it will work, but it might be worth a shot.:dontknow: I think you can choose to copy the video without re-encoding it so it shouldn't change the image quality, just fix the AR (which you set manually).


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## dh2005

Maybe I can offer some advice to *you*...?

... a few of my DVDs came out with a totally crocked aspect ratio. As in, not only were the .VOBs not anamorphic, they were squashed both horizontally *and *vertically, giving black bars on both sides and distorting the image. Does this sound like the problem you're having? Or is it simply an anamorphic image that the player fails to recognise?


EDIT: I'll tell you what I did anyway!

I used DVD Patcher to correct the aspect ratio. When I opened these .VOBs I found that their aspect ratios ("ARs", are we calling them...?) were set to 4:3. So, I copied all the other information from the existing file (bit rate, frame rate, size) into the grids below and changed the AR from 4:3 to 16:9, and checked the "Patch: Entire file" option. Then I clicked the "Patch now!" button, then "Start". Less than two minutes later, the errant file was fine.

Sadly, this doesn't work for *my * AR problem - as far as DVD Patcher is concerned, these .VOBs of mine are set to 16:9 already, so it can't do anything to fix it... bummer, indeed.


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## dh2005

... man... this is getting *ridiculous*!

Okay, so, I installed MediaCoder on your recommendation, and set about configuring the necessary settings to repair the AR. But just for the sake of my own amusement, I decided to play one of the .VOBs I was about to transcode. And guess what...? *IT WAS ANAMORPHIC!!!*

Seriously, dude. How is this possible? All I did was open up a single .VOB, with no associated .IFO files, that VLC and my PS3 cannot recognise as being anamorphic... yet MediaCoder can.

Madness...


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> ... man... this is getting *ridiculous*!
> 
> Okay, so, I installed MediaCoder on your recommendation, and set about configuring the necessary settings to repair the AR. But just for the sake of my own amusement, I decided to play one of the .VOBs I was about to transcode. And guess what...? *IT WAS ANAMORPHIC!!!*
> 
> Seriously, dude. How is this possible? All I did was open up a single .VOB, with no associated .IFO files, that VLC and my PS3 cannot recognise as being anamorphic... yet MediaCoder can.
> 
> Madness...


Yep, that's a good term for it.:wits-end::gah:

Perhaps if you run the movie through MC, the resulting file will be seen properly by the other programs. One can hope!


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## Harpmaker

Thanks for the tip on DVD Patcher, DH. I'll give it a try.

The movies that play back with black bars all around have the proper AR, they just don't fill the screen correctly horizontally. When I try to change the AR using VLC the AR is then messed up and things start looking weird.


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## dh2005

I see... that sounds to me like the player just hasn't picked-up the anamorphism, which is different to the problem that Patcher was able to help me out with. All the same, give it a shot. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you...!

As for other players being able to see the anamorphism, my PS3 still can't - and that's the one I'm most concerned about.

I'm making a right name for myself over on one of the doom9 boards - a couple of the guys over there keep telling me to include the .IFO files, and all my dreams will come true... sadly, the PS3 can't see them, so it looks like I've drawn another blank.

Man...!


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## dh2005

Oh, and, to the owners of this board... I'll mind my "grammar" in future. Sorry...


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## dh2005

*WHAT *a day I've had...!

When this is all over, I've a mind to open a new information thread for people intending to use their PS3 for DVD-archiving. It *can *be done, yes, but not without sacrifice...

... so far, this is what I've worked out:

The PS3 is extremely fussy as a video player. *EXTREMELY*. Even if a .VOB appears for all the World to be anamorphic, sometimes, the PS3 just won't listen. And there doesn't seem to be a reason why.

Furthermore, when you rip a .VOB with a broken timecode, repairing that timecode with tsMuxeR produces a file that plays flawlessly on a PC... but the PS3, again, is more fussy - occasional video break-up is the price that you, apparently, have no choice but to pay.

So speaks the bitter voice of experience - I must've poured over 100 hours into making this work over the last four weeks, and no matter how hard I've tried, I've come up short. I've downloaded *dozens *of freeware video programs (DVDShrink, DVDFab, DVDDecrypter, Smart Ripper, meGUI, tsMuxeR, IFOEdit, PGCDemux, Muxman, VOB2MPG, VOBMerge, VIDChanger, MediaCoder, DVDPatcher, AVS... and others that I'm currently too depressed to remember), and it really, truly, hasn't got me anywhere. Here are the only success stories that I have to show for all this effort:

1). Remuxing with tsMuxeR and/or PGCDemux and Muxman will make .VOBs with broken timecodes playable - but this process will, without fail, mess-up the video a little. Not much, but enough to be irritating.

2). DVDPatcher _can _allow you to repair 16:9 anamorphic .VOBs that have been incorrectly labelled as 4:3 - sadly, of the 400 discs I've ripped, I found only three such discs, whereas I found more than 100 discs with anamorphic problems that were labelled as 16:9; only the PS3 didn't know it.

I feel like I'm alone out here. I've scoured the internet for people as distraught as me, but there really doesn't seem to be anyone who's tried and/or failed to undertake the task that I set out to do a month ago. And if I'd known how long it was going to take, and how frustrating it was going to prove to be, I honestly wouldn't have bothered with it.

On that miserable note, I'm going to bed.

Goodnight, cruel World.



...


(see y'all tomorrow!)


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## wbassett

I truly am sorry to hear about all the troubles you've been having. What's worse is I honestly don't know what to tell you.

I have over 800GB of DVDs archived and they all play just fine. I know that's not what you want to hear, but mine do work. I have both movies and TV series archived.

It sounds like you're having problems with more than just House. I saw it mentioned that House has some questionable DVD coding. I don't have House so I can't make a comment one way or another. This isn't meant to be snotty, but I also don't plan on buying it just to see if I have the same problem.

I did run into issues with one TV series though, that being Monty Python. I have the complete TV series, I think it's over 20 DVDs. They are definitely formatted in a nonstandard way and I couldn't archive those at all, but everything else works fine.

Highlander is seven seasons, and there are at least seven DVDs per season (some have even more) and it is in anamorphic wide screen and they all play perfectly. 

Again I'm sorry about your fustrations. I can try to use some of the programs you have used and see what happens. I only use Shrink myself. What version of Shrink do you have? Maybe we have different versions.


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## Harpmaker

Sorry you haven't found a solution yet, DH. It sure isn't for lack of trying.

If you might be interested in looking into another media player check out this thread: http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...digital-wd-tv-hd-media-player.html#post129196. I'm thinking about it myself.


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## dh2005

Hey both,

Thanks for your kind words! What a rotten day yesterday was...

... I was ill, so I took the day off from classes and sat at home, coughing and spluttering and trying to crack this thing - but everything I tried didn't work.

The last straw was realising that the video problems I'd encountered with tsMuxeR also occurred when using another demuxing program... except when played back on a PC, where they never happened at all! Meaning that the shortcomings I was encountering were down to the PS3, and nothing that I could do anything about. I'd literally wasted the entire day trying to fix something that couldn't be fixed.

:thud:

As for buying another media player, I really don't know where I'd put it. The whole purpose of this DVD 
-archiving exercise was to save space - so far, I've bought a PS3 and two external hard drives to realise this dream, and it *still hasn't happened*!


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> I'd literally wasted the entire day trying to fix something that couldn't be fixed.


Yeah... some days you're the windshield (windscreen for those across the pond ), and some days you're the bug.



> As for buying another media player, I really don't know where I'd put it. The whole purpose of this DVD-archiving exercise was to save space - so far, I've bought a PS3 and two external hard drives to realise this dream, and it *still hasn't happened*!


You might want to check of that WD media player. It's about the size of a paperback book.








http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

Even though the docs don't specify it, at least one review of the unit said it will read DVD .ISO files; I would think it would see .VOB's then too.


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## dh2005

Okay, so it's definitely a workable size...

... but what will happen if I buy it, only to discover that it only plays straight .VOBs, can't see the anamorphism, and gives me the same trouble with remuxed .VOBs...?! I'll *TELL *you what...!

:spend: ... :rubeyes: ...  ... :crying: ... :surrender:

And let's be honest - *nobody *wants to see that.


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## wbassett

The thing that confuses me is this- I've used shrink to backup kids DVDs (after having several special edition DVD destroyed by the little ones) and I can assure everyone they playback just like the original and work on my computer, HD DVD player, PS3, and Samsung DVD player. If it's anamorphic, it plays back anamorphic on all of those players. I also can select any alternate sound track or Dolby track that's available... It truly is just like the original.

The only time there is any slightly noticble PQ hit is for something like a Superbit disc where it's a dual layer disc and pretty much just the movie and no special features... meaning the movie is using max disc space. A lot of titles aren't like that though and because of the special features the movie itself is usually around 5GB, sometimes less. In those instances the slight amount of compression isn't noticeable at all.

Unless there is something wrong with your PS3 (which I doubt and am not pointing the finger) playback should look identical to the DVD... unless as stated it's a Superbit, but even those require a close keen eye to see any degraded PQ. That's been my experience.

I am not a big fan of converting, remixing, or multiple programs. Anytime I have tried that route I ended up with problems like audio sync issues, PQ issues as well as losing aspect ratio for some. With Shrink I don't run into those issues.

So what we need to do is find out if there are any differences in setups.

What PS3 do you have? I have the original 60GB PS3 which has different hardware inside including the entire PS2 chipset (that's why mine is 100% PS2 compatable). There is a 20GB version that is essentially the same as mine but it has a smaller hard drive and only two USB ports, but it still had the PS2 chipset as far as I know. Then Sony discontinued those two and came out with the 40GB and 80GB version. The 80GB PS3 has some PS2 backwards compatability but it does it through software emulation not hardware like mine. The 40GB version is not PS2 compatable at all.

I'll check my FW version, but I believe it is the latest because I just had to update it to play Star Wars The Force Unleashed (which was very disappointing). Shrink is version 3.2.0.15 I connect to a Sony 55" SXRD and a Panasonic AX200u front projector through an HDMI switch that auto senses the input and has two HDMI outputs. Quick sidebar... this is a sweet switcher. It has four inputs and two outputs and I can put my source on both the SXRD or the AX200 at the same time or I can send one input like say the HD DVD player to the SXRD and the PS3 to the projector independantly.

Netflix and Sony are supposed to be adding Watch Instantly streaming movies, but no word on when that will happen.

The Western Digital WD TV HD Media player looks very interesting.
Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)

That means it should work with the same method used for the PS3 where you rename the file extention from .vob to .mpeg. Note that this is *not* a file conversion because VOB files are actually mpeg encoded. Changing the extention just makes it playable in media players and devices that do not know what .vob is. Chances are based on what you've described, I'd say off hand you may have the same issues as with the PS3 but I can't say for sure. 

Being able to format the drive in NTFS is a great plus because it means no more 4GB file size limitation. The reason most external drives are done in FAT32 is so they are compatable with the widest variety of devices and computers such as Mac's and PC's. 

Other than that, my suggestion would be to build an HTPC. PS3's haven't dropped in price much at all so you should be able to sell yours and get almost what you paid for it. If it has a transferable extended warranty, then I'd say you probably can get what you paid. That way you can put that money in an HTPC. Beware though that they aren't as easy to build as it may seem. You'll need an HDCP compliant video card as well as a Bluray player. I would suggest the LG Superdrive that plays SDVDs, HD DVDs, as well as Blurays. You will also need to buy a High Def software player though so keep that in mind.

Audio on an HTPC can also be tricky. Not all HDMI video cards pass the audio through, so you could be stuck with using a sound card with digital audio out.

That above is if you want to have HD playback, which the PS3 does provide via Bluray and upconverting or playing HD files from your drive. For SDVD playback you can get away with more plain jane cards.

Let me ask this... have you tried streaming from your PC to your PS3 or try connecting your PC directly to your TV? It could be the TV. If the files work just fine on your PC there really is no reason they shouldn't play the same from the PS3. It's worth checking out because if that's the issue then any solution you try could give you the same problem.

I've had my PS3 for two years now and as mentioned I have 800GB of content on external drives and this method does work, so what we need to do is figure out why it's not working for you.

As I see it, it is one of the following reasons:

There is something up with your PS3. I'd see if anyone else has the exact same model you have and see if they have the same problems. If so it's something up with that model. If not, then it's something else...
Verify what FW version you have. Mine has worked from FW 1.8 to the most recent, so I doubt that's the problem but it's worth checking.
What version of Shrink do you have? I have also used different version, but let's not rule anything out.

Aside from that, if it's not happening to every disc, then it could be the disc itself, but I doubt that too since you already said it plays back on your PC just fine.



dh2005 said:


> The PS3 is extremely fussy as a video player. *EXTREMELY*.


Again I am sorry to hear about your problems and disappointment but I'm not ready to categorically make that statement. Maybe it's a problem between models, I don't know. My son has the 40GB version and hasn't had any playback issues with anything from his external drive but his PS3 did go belly up on him and he had to have it sent back to Sony for repair. In two years I haven't had one glitch, hiccup or burp with mine, and that includes the time we went on vacation for two weeks and the cat hit the power button and turned the PS3 on. It might have only been on a few minutes before we got home, or could have been on the entire two weeks... I can say I've watched movie after movie on it and then rolled into playing a game for a couple of hours and it never over heated.

Trust me on this, I am not a Sony fan by any means. CEDIA though uses a PS3 in their media room, and as a player it consistantly is ranked up there with players like the Pioneer Elite BD player. It isn't perfect, but is far more updateable than any dedicated BD player I know of and the ability to connect external drives and play archived movies is a 10+ on the coolness scale.

Try some of the things I suggested, such as streaming to the PS3... maybe that will be an option you like better than anything since you can connect your drives to your PC and stream to the PS3. Next try connecting your PC to your TV and see what happens. If none of those work... we'll figure out what's going on but I know this works and everyone that's seen it in action is amazed and wants one.


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> Okay, so it's definitely a workable size...
> 
> ... but what will happen if I buy it, only to discover that it only plays straight .VOBs, can't see the anamorphism, and gives me the same trouble with remuxed .VOBs...?! I'll *TELL *you what...!
> 
> :spend: ... :rubeyes: ...  ... :crying: ... :surrender:
> 
> And let's be honest - *nobody *wants to see that.


If you buy it from a local store it should be easy to return it if it doesn't work for you. At least that's my plan if one goes on sale after Christmas. :bigsmile:

I want to point out that I'm not pimping the WD media player; it just happens to be the one that looks the best for the money to me right now. A down-side of the unit is that it can't play DVD's directly or games; but I really don't need those abilities.


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## wbassett

But the pluses are many... mainly that without the 4GB limitation than anything is a potential go... even HD files which as we know 4GB would only be around 20 minutes of high def playback if that.

It really is an interesting device and is the same size as the My Books so it wouldn't look out of place on a shelf with other My Books. 

I think we are going to start seeing a lot of options like these because I strongly believe the future of video will be digital media much in the same way mp3 players are starting to replace CD players. Even Sony has formally said that Bluray only has a five year shelf life so they know it will never replace DVD, instead it and DVDs will ultimately be replaced with a different method be it streaming content or media cards the size of a postage stamp.

Too bad we can't get one of these puppies for a review.


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## dh2005

Thanks for the ongoing interest, guys.

Bill - I have a "new" PS3. An 80GB one. I'm quite open to the suggestion that this hardware's less robust. I have the most recent firmare (2.52, or something...), and the most recent version of Shrink (3.2.0.15...).

Honestly, buddy. I've tried everything.


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## dh2005

... in fact, I have an explanation as to why the PS3's at fault.

While over on Doom9, I made a nuisance of myself. I identified a couple of guys who knew what they were talking about and pandered to their egos for a whole day - they gave me all sorts of information that explained why the PS3 was giving me problems. And I didn't just accept their theories outright - I tested them out for myself.

Fact is that some .VOBs don't run properly without the .IFO files from within their VIDEO_TS directories. They just *don't*. Doesn't seem to matter whether or not the .VOBs are labelled as 16:9 or not - sometimes the PS3 just can't identify the aspect ratio. I know this is true because when running the offending .VOBs on my PC without the .IFOs, they don't work properly there either... the key difference is that you can tell a PC media player to use the .IFOs, which results in perfect video playback. But you can't force the PS3 to do that.

Some ananorphic DVDs clearly *do *hold all the necessary information in the .VOB, which is why the aspect ratio and anamorphism on your Highlander DVDs are intact (my 24 and Arrested Development .VOBs work perfectly, too...). But some don't. And the PS3 doesn't have a workaround for that.

Another problem concerns the necessity to merge .VOBs together when playing them back on the PS3. As you probably know, on a DVD the main movie will be broken-up into 1GB .VOBs that play in sequence - there's no break in playback between these 1GB chunks because the DVD player can buffer the next .VOB so that they run together seamlessly... but the PS3 can't. Which is why we merge our .VOBs into a single 4GB file - sometimes this works fine, but sometimes it chews the timecode.

Like I said - _sometimes_. Sometimes it's fine. But sometimes it comes out knackered, and the files breaks down when you try to play it back.

Seems to me like you've been lucky, in that everything you've ripped has come good... sadly, I've got the other end of the stick!


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## Harpmaker

To tell you the truth, all this just reinforces my opinion of why a HTPC is the best all-purpose media player. It's not the cheapest, smallest, quietest or easiest solution, but, with a little planning, it can be made to do just about anything that might be called for and is almost infinitely expandable and upgradeable. My main media server will be a HTPC. I'm thinking about getting the WD Media Player as a secondary playback device so that less 'techy' family members can manage to use it.


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## wbassett

dh2005 said:


> While over on Doom9, I made a nuisance of myself. I identified a couple of guys who knew what they were talking about


And I don't?  Just teasing 



dh2005 said:


> Fact is that some .VOBs don't run properly without the .IFO files from within their VIDEO_TS directories.


While this is true it is the exception and not the rule. An overwhelming majority of DVDs don't do it this way unless this is something that very recent DVDs are starting to do.

I have over 1500 DVDs and yes some don't want to archive, but like I said that's the rare exception and not the rule. The unfortunate part is if it happens to be something a person really wants to archive.

In that respect I wouldn't blame the PS3 and say it's at fault, it's doing what it was programmed to do. The beauty of it is though is that they could add the ability to play sequential files from a play list as well as read the IFO information... but don't hold your breath that Sony will ever provide that functionality. I will go out on a limb and say right now that the WD Media player will have this same problem. It sounds like your option is an HTPC then.

When you mention the 1GB chunks... are you doing it that way and then recombining them afterwards? If so I had nothing but trouble doing it that way and just opt to have one vob file instead of the individual chunks. I will also add that over 90% of my files have the .mpeg extention and not the .vob file extention. 

If I am lucky then I am greatful about that, but I can same many others have been just as lucky too. I spent weeks, maybe a couple of months scouring the web to see if anyone has done this and I couldn't find anything other than converting to Divx or other conversion programs that quite frankly were less successful than this method and took hours and hours only to end up with VHS quality. I tried to make this as easy as possible but will say that rarely is anything the end all beat all one and only solution. They all have draw backs of one kind or another.

It does sound like you've exhausted all options. Time is money, even if it's personal time spent doing something. As I see it your options are to stream to the PS3, look at something like Popcorn Hour, or think about an HTPC.


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## dh2005

Don - I assume that stands for "Home Theatre PC"...?

I can't really be bothered with the hassle and expense of getting a new PC and spec'ing it up. I think, as Bill has commented, the Popcorn Hour machines are my next port of call...

... assuming that _this _isn't still a problem: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=1446&page=4

Can anyone comment...?


Bill - I agree that HDD media playback is very much a secondary function of the PS3. I'm not trying to give the PS3 a hard time... but, when push comes to shove, it can't do what I need it to. And that's frustrating!

As for your 'exception to the rule' comments, that's definitely true of the broken timecode issue - less than 30 of almost 400 discs that I've archived have this problem. But the anamorphic issue's much more intrusive - more than 100 discs don't work properly in this regard, and that's an unacceptably high failure rate.

All the same, the PS3's a great machine, and I'm still pleased to've bought it. I was in the market for a Blu-ray player, and it was the only sensible choice given its price *and *my interest in gaming. I like the PS3 a lot but, for me at least, it has its limits.


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> Don - I assume that stands for "Home Theatre PC"...?
> 
> I can't really be bothered with the hassle and expense of getting a new PC and spec'ing it up. I think, as Bill has commented, the Popcorn Hour machines are my next port of call...
> 
> ... assuming that _this _isn't still a problem: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=1446&page=4
> 
> Can anyone comment...?


Yes, HTPC stands for *H*ome *T*heater *P*ersonal *C*omputer. Sorry about not stating that.

The Popcorn machines seem to be a very good choice; for those wanting or needing networking I think they are the top choice; in fact, having almost all of the home theater aspects of a HTPC, but a smaller footprint and less noise - and less cost. What you give up over a real HTPC is the ability to fine tune the device to your personal needs and desires, and the ability to update to the latest codecs whenever you want. 

I think if the Powers-That-Be play their cards right and don't get greedy, the 'next big thing' in video will be networking music and video. Lo-res versions for free (or very cheap) and then bring up the price for higher-def material. DVD's could well go the way of the dinosaur.


Just as a follow-up: DVD Patcher didn't solve my aspect ratio problem with "Enemy of the State". It turns out that the DVD is really made in 4:3 AR, but is letter-boxed! The only way to get it to look like it should is to use MediaCoder to change the resolution to compensate for the crummy job they did on the DVD and then crop the image. I don't think I want to mess with that right now - maybe later.


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## dh2005

Sorry that it didn't work out, dude.


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## dh2005

I've just ordered a Popcorn Hour A-110, and a 1.5TB internal drive for it. Should be with me this time next week... I'll report back when I've got it working.


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## Harpmaker

dh2005 said:


> I've just ordered a Popcorn Hour A-110, and a 1.5TB internal drive for it. Should be with me this time next week... I'll report back when I've got it working.


Sweet!

Looking forward to your report. :T


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## dh2005

I look forward to giving it...!


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## dh2005

Looks like my review's going to be a little longer in coming. My A-110 hasn't shipped, yet. All rather irritating.

Maybe Monday... which means I should have it on Thursday or Friday.


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## dh2005

I'm now told that it won't be in stock before Wednesday... if it's delayed any further, I may not get it before Christmas. And that would *really *suck.

Ya know what _else _sucks? Ripping your *entire *DVD collection all over again for a different media centre, because your previous plan didn't work...! I'm not _that _mad, though; provided the PCH A-110 can meet my playback requirements in ways that the PS3 couldn't - if the A-110 can't do it either, I may have a stroke.


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## dh2005

Update - the stock's arrived! Should be with me before Friday...


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## dh2005

Okay, guys. Here's my preliminary report:

The A-110's great, but it's not as user-friendly as you might think. Unless you've some experience with computers, both hardware and software, you're gonna need something more 'public domain'.

When I fitted my co-newly-purchased 1.5TB drive to my A-110, I realised I was going to have to format it before playing any media. What I didn't realise was that the drive was going to refuse to co-operate for two hours, and then only co-operate in a Linux fashion, thereby requiring me to install some Linux drive-mounting software so that my Windows PC could talk to it... this annoyed me a little.

Next up, the two external USB drives I bought in October to use with my PS3 didn't work either. And they still don't. Looks like they're incompatible - there are lots of drives with this problem... this annoyed me *a lot*.

But the good news is that it runs fully-ripped DVD images very, very nicely. They're upscaled well enough to look dandy on a 32" HDTV _(EDIT: I make no promises to those of you with 100" projector screens...)_, and all the menus, features, subtitles, audio tracks etc. work perfectly. *AND THERE'S NO ANAMORPHIC PROBLEM!!!*

For me, the reasons to be cheerful outweigh the reasons to be cross. But be warned - if you buy one of these things expecting to just plug it in and watch it go, you may run into some frustration.


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## Harpmaker

Thanks for the report DH!

That drive recognition problem is a deal-breaker for me. Do you think it's a hardware problem with the drives themselves, or does the A-110 just not like Windows formatted drives? I'm assuming all these drives worked on a Windows box with no problem.


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## dh2005

It's a hardware issue. There are a number of internal *and *external drives that don't work with the A-110. Here are the known lists, so far:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=7735&page=1

http://networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=8153

As a rule of thumb, Hitatchi drives don't work.

You should give one of these things a look, if you can. They're not absolutely flawless, but they're very pleasing.


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## bobgpsr

I have yet to put a drive in my Popcorn Hour A-110. Just have it access, via the local 100 Mbps wired network, the important shares on my two home PC's. Plus I've installed myiHome as a http:\\ server on my more powerful machine. Play's 1080i captured HDTV shows just fine. Without a drive the PCH is dead quiet, has no fan, and runs very cool.


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## dh2005

Yeah, it runs silently without a drive. But, in my experience, it's quiet *with *a drive. I used to use an Xbox 360 for DVD playback, and they are _hilariously _loud. You wouldn't believe the noise. It's a like a jet engine...


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## dh2005

... hey folks. I thought this might be a better place for my A-110 lectures...! (Sorry again, Bill)

The A-110's working out beautifully. It's not without bugs, but there's nothing that gets in the way of video_ts playback.

I've resolved the external hard drive compatability mystery... *myself*! Then I disseminated this information to the wider community, which was appreciated.

There was a firmware update last month that's a little buggy, but shows the machine moving in the right direction. I wish I could get my mits on a WD TV HD, so that I could compare the two... don't suppose there's anybody out there who owns both who can fill me in?!


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