How can I watch my video?

December 18, 2007 7:59 PM

I had a DVD made of my first skydive. It will not play on any DVD player.

The cameraman had a digital video camera attached to his helmet (I don't know the specifics on the camera) and the video was burned to a DVD when we were on the ground. I don't know anything about the equipment used, which was destroyed by fire a few months back.

The disc only plays on a friend's DVD recorder, and will not play on any DVD player I put it in or even any computer I put it in. When I try playing it on my computer, my computer only sees an audio file which will not play.

I apologize I'm not very technical in my description, for I am kinda technologically stupid. Based on the information given is there anything I can do to fix this problem? If there's anything you need that I left out I will try my best to answer. Thanks.

posted by C17H19NO3 to technology (33 comments total)

Possibly the disc is not finalized? The tip-off is that it will play in a DVD recorder and not a standalone player. Put the disc in your friend's recorder again, and go through the menu options. Look for an option to "Finalize Disc" or "Close Disc." If the disc is pretty standard, doing this should write the disc in such a way that any standalone DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive should see it as a normal DVD video disc.

My other thought is that the video that was recorded by the camera was burned straight onto the disc in a data-only format, not as video. If your friend's player has the capability of playing back video files on a data DVD, this would also explain it. You mention your computer shows this file as an "audio file." Could you be more specific? Is it a certain format? Can you tell the file extension (the characters after the dot in a filename, such as .mp3 or .doc)?
posted by joshrholloway at 8:13 PM on December 18, 2007

We tried finalizing it, but every time we try, we get a "Finalization failed" message.

The "audio file" format is a .cda file. Like I said, I don't know jack about this stuff, but I am guessing that this is the song that they also "threw in" when they burned it.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 8:22 PM on December 18, 2007

Hmm. Does the disc have any sort of label on it to indicate what type of disc it is? DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW are common formats. In my experience, DVD+R is typically the more widely compatible of those, and though it sounds like you've tried this disc on many players, it could just be an incompatibility issue. Unlikely, but it could be.
posted by joshrholloway at 8:30 PM on December 18, 2007

The disc is a Sony DVD-R 120 min/4.7 GB AccuCORE.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 8:34 PM on December 18, 2007

Your best bet would be to capture the video from the friend's computer by using software such as convertxtodvd (which can read from a DVD) and encode it on the computer as an mpeg file. Then, turn around and burn the file to DVD using the same program I just mentioned (and there are others). You will then have a DVD that plays in all players. If there are still problems burning to DVD, at least get the encoded file from the hard drive, so you can watch it on a computer. But, the roundabout way, as described above, should work.

Good luck!
posted by Gerard Sorme at 8:41 PM on December 18, 2007

Gerard Sorme, I don't know if you misunderstood my post or not, but...

The video isn't on my friend's computer. Would convertxtodvd read the disc I have (even though my computer is just seeing a .cda file)?
posted by C17H19NO3 at 8:51 PM on December 18, 2007

joshrholloway has the likeliest explanation.

Perhaps everything except your friends' DVD recorder can't deal with DVD-R discs (which is weird, since DVD-Rs tend to be more widely supported by set-top DVD players than +Rs).

Ok, so, sure - the DVDs won't play but if you open up MyComputer (or finder in Mac) and go to the DVD drive, can it recognize the disc? There should be two folders:

audio_ts
video_ts

Otherwise, there may be a single (or a few files) ending in avi or wmv after a period (although you might not see the extension if you have some settings on default).

This makes more sense: the set-top DVD recorder may be able to burn (and thus read) video files that aren't strictly in authored DVD format.

If you don't have audio_ts and video_ts but do see a bunch of other files, then that means the video was burnt on the DVD but not in "DVD" format.

If that's the case, try double-clicking one of those files, it may automatically open up a program on the computer that can play those files.

In order to convert those potential files into a DVD-readable format, you'll have to search/ask on how to author a AVI or MPEG or MPG or WMV or whatever into a DVD.
posted by porpoise at 9:22 PM on December 18, 2007

I am so sorry. I just realized it was a set-top DVD recorder, I was thinking a DVD-R recorder on the computer. Then you could just rip it, re-encode and burn. But, my mistake. This is really odd though, especially it playing on the DVD recorder. That means there are definitely video files on that disk. Have you tried using VLC or Classic Media Player with K-Lite codec pack installed on your computer? It may have been burned on your DVD with a codec that is recognized by your friends DVD recorder but not on others. In fact, if it's a Philips, that's almost surely the case - they read about everything. I'd try to grab the K-Lite codec pack, Media Player Classic and see if you can't get that ripped off your disk and put back on to a DVD properly.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 9:22 PM on December 18, 2007

Here is a screenshot of what I am looking at when I load the disc on my computer.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 9:37 PM on December 18, 2007

*Boggle* It thinks it's an audio CD. CDA tracks aren't really computer files, they're more of references to audio tracks so Windows can play them. Audio CDs are a very strange format, at least from a computer perspective. A DVD, however, has a real filesystem on it and is pretty computer friendly. A DVD should have a TS_VIDEO (I think) folder full of .VOB files.

I would suggest putting the disc in the drive and look at it in Nero or some other good quality burning tool. It might be they added a second session and your data is on the first session.

I still don't know why it would think it's an audio CD. That's just weird.
posted by chairface at 9:49 PM on December 18, 2007

Second follow up: You might want to try putting it in a Macintosh. I seem to recall my Mac mounting all the burned sessions on a multi-session disc.
posted by chairface at 9:54 PM on December 18, 2007

chairface: I have absolutely no access to a mac.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 9:55 PM on December 18, 2007

I couldn't get the screenshot to load (even by copy-pasting the actual url to the jpg instead of the tinypic url) but cda?

Was the skydiving outfit run by asians? It's possible that it's in VCD or SVCD format (playable by computers with the right codec and many set-top DVD recorders).

Can't tell without actually seeing the directory structure/files.
posted by porpoise at 9:55 PM on December 18, 2007

Porpoise; no, the outfit is not run by asians, but I think their knowledge of technology is on a level slightly above mine.

I'll pop you an email...
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:01 PM on December 18, 2007

I've have just finishing reading a couple of threads from video forums about this issue. Apparently, many people have run into this. Apparently, it's some sort of VCD recording, but appears as an audio file on the PC. Several people swear they finally got it working by ripping it using - of all things - Windows Media Player. To see if that would work, try this: Go to Windows Media Player and go to manually open a file. browse through to your DVD player and try to open the file using WMP. Again, several people says it worked and they were then able to rip it into a different format from WMP. Whatever happens - let us know!Very bizarre.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 10:10 PM on December 18, 2007

When trying to open the file in WMP I get a message saying:

"Windows Media Player encountered an error when reading the CD in digital mode. Click OK to switch to analog mode. Click Cancel to retry playing in digital mode."

When I click OK, I get the same message, only saying to click OK to switch to digital mode.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:18 PM on December 18, 2007

Some people also claim that getting the right codec also allowed them to play on the computer. Most were recommending K-Lite Codec Pack as I did in an earlier post. It can be downloaded free here. You might do this and then try opening it with WMP.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 10:20 PM on December 18, 2007

BTW, K-Lite is very reputable and is safe. It's nice to have all those codecs anyway - just in case something ever comes along that you can't play. Like THIS! I hope this works for you!
posted by Gerard Sorme at 10:22 PM on December 18, 2007

I downloaded and installed K-Lite, but it is still not working with WMP.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:29 PM on December 18, 2007

I second the suggestion of trying VLC player. I had success with it recently when trying to play back some old VCD discs.
posted by aerotive at 10:30 PM on December 18, 2007

And opening it in media player classic has this obnoxious high-pitched tone.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 10:30 PM on December 18, 2007

If all else fails and this cannot be solved here, is there somebody I could go to that would be able to figure this out (i.e. a business of some sort)?
posted by C17H19NO3 at 11:19 PM on December 18, 2007

Like chairface, I'd bet it's a multisession disc - 'orribly, 'orribly non standard on a DVD (except in VR mode on a DVD recorder), and even more 'orribly non-standard if it's got an audio session on there as well!

You might like to see what some of the multisession / recovery tools make of it. ISObuster would be a start - the free download version will at least show you what sessions are there; once you know what you're dealing with you may be able to find a free tool to deal with it.

chairface: "I still don't know why it would think it's an audio CD. That's just weird."

I do. It's complicated, but the extremely dumbed-down version is that on a mixed mode audio/data CD the audio session must be first, while for multisession data the last session is the one read ('cos it contains all the references back to previous sessions). On a PC, if the drive / OS can't find any later sessions it understands, it'll fall back to the first session.

The disc type doesn't matter; it's the session info and block type that determine whether it's an audio or data session. Of course, a CD player won't read a DVD disc for purely physical reasons.

What the hell all this is doing on a DVD is best left as a question to the fevered minds of the insane...
posted by Pinback at 12:20 AM on December 19, 2007

Try opening the file in XVI32 and see if there is anything useful in the header of the file, at the very top. Sometime it'll say what program created it, etc. I haven't tried it on this type of file though.
posted by jwells at 5:43 AM on December 19, 2007

Could you potentially buy another DVD recorder or (do a buy/return from like Costco or something), play the video of your friend's DVD recorder, and use another DVD recorder to record what's happening on the screen?
posted by unexpected at 6:07 AM on December 19, 2007

Oh, you're on Vista...

I haven't used it so I'm not up to speed on what wierdness it might have with non-super-standard formats.

As for businesses, I'm not sure. Do you live near an University? Most have a "media group" type office that sells projector bulbs (?!) and does computer audio-visual stuff - that'd be my outlet if I was in your shoes.

If you can, pop the DVD into an XP box and do the screen cap thing and we might be able to figure it out.

Also, seconding downloading VLC. It seems like there's some wierdness with VLC and Vista, so this might help.

Good luck.
posted by porpoise at 7:29 AM on December 19, 2007

I second having a look at the disc with ISOBuster.
posted by kalessin at 11:08 AM on December 19, 2007

Hmmm. It plays on your friend's DVD recorder. Why don't you get that recorder to burn you a copy of your DVD? Will be interesting to see if the copy plays better on DVD players.
posted by exphysicist345 at 6:15 PM on December 19, 2007

ISObuster is showing two tracks on the disc. Track 01 shows LBA as 0 and is 31 MB. Track 02 shows LBA as 15888 and is 123.72 MB. Not sure what to do from here.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 7:29 PM on December 19, 2007

Ok...I extracted Track 02 with IsoBuster and I can play it with VLC Media Player...however it is just playing the audio from the camera and there is no video.
posted by C17H19NO3 at 7:42 PM on December 19, 2007

That's *really wierd* - either try it on an XP box or contact the people who made ther DVD for you...
posted by porpoise at 9:56 PM on December 19, 2007

I extracted Track 02 with IsoBuster and the video plays just fine with Windows Media Player (it has a .tao extension on my desktop now). Huh, I guess problem solved...thank you everybody!
posted by C17H19NO3 at 11:53 PM on December 19, 2007

That's great! Now, I would try to get that encoded into a more standard format and then burn to DVD. It sounds like an exciting thing to do - and you deserve to have that memory preserved properly.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 11:07 AM on December 20, 2007