DVDs with irrgular menus won't play, mostly disney films (1 Viewer)

[ThePooBurner]

MediaPortal Version: MediaPortal v1.1.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Win7
CPU Type: Phenom II x6 1090
HDD: WD 1TB black
Memory: OCZ Dominator DDR2
Motherboard: ASUS M3A78-T
Video Card: Radeon 4850
Video Card Driver: Catylist 10.12
Sound Card: RealTEK ALC1200
Sound Card Driver: RealTEK HD R2.54
MPEG2 Video Codec: tried Win7 built-in and ffdshow
MPEG2 Audio Codec: same
h.264 Video Codec: same
TV: Mitzubishi 60" 4:3 projector big screen
TV - HTPC Connection: S-Video

So some of the movies i have refuse to play. Mostly disney movies, but also Highlander 2: Renegade Version, and some others. These movies play fine with VLC, but when i tell them to play in MovingPictures the screen gets dark for a second as though the DVD is going to start, and then it lightens again as though i had just navigated back to the movie info screen. Doesn't matter how many times i hit enter the movie never plays. Here is a copy of the section of MediaPortal.log from the last attempt to play the movie Toy Story 3.

All movies backed up to HDD with DVDFab8/DVD-HD decrypter with "remove protections" option. And like i said, all play back fine in VLC.

2011-01-15 15:33:35.345762 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: g_Player.Play(F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO Video)
2011-01-15 15:33:35.345762 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9:Turn off DXVA value = False
2011-01-15 15:33:35.345762 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9:Enabling DX9 exclusive mode
2011-01-15 15:33:35.348762 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: VMR9: added EVR Renderer to graph
2011-01-15 15:33:35.362763 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9:Add DVD Navigator
2011-01-15 15:33:35.365763 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Added filter: DVD Navigator to graph
2011-01-15 15:33:35.384764 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Added filter: Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder to graph
2011-01-15 15:33:35.386764 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Added filter: Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder to graph
2011-01-15 15:33:35.386764 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DirectShowUtils: First try to insert new audio renderer Default DirectSound Device 
2011-01-15 15:33:35.386764 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DirectShowUtils: Found audio renderer
2011-01-15 15:33:35.632779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Dvdplayer9:Disabling Line21 Decoder (Closed Captions)
2011-01-15 15:33:35.632779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9:Closed Captions disabled
2011-01-15 15:33:35.632779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: Dvdplayer9:Graph created
2011-01-15 15:33:35.632779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: SetDefaultLanguages
2011-01-15 15:33:35.634779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:Set default language:English 1033 Success.
2011-01-15 15:33:35.635779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:Set default menu language:English 1033 Success.
2011-01-15 15:33:35.637779 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:Set default subtitle language:English 1033 Success.
2011-01-15 15:33:35.738786 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:Started playing()
2011-01-15 15:33:35.738786 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: g_Player.OnStarted() F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO media:Video
2011-01-15 15:33:35.739786 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: g_Player: ShowFullScreenWindow switching to fullscreen video
2011-01-15 15:33:35.805790 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:Stop()
2011-01-15 15:33:35.808790 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9: cleanup DShow graph
2011-01-15 15:33:35.826791 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer9: Disabling DX9 exclusive mode
2011-01-15 15:33:35.826791 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: DVDPlayer:OnDvdEvent() Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Core    at MediaPortal.Player.DVDPlayer.OnDvdEvent()
2011-01-15 15:33:35.827791 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: g_Player.Process() player stopped...

This is what it looks like from the MovingPictures.log

15-Jan-2011 15:30:31  Info [UpdateArtworkProcess]: Background artwork updater process complete. 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:17  Info [   MovingPicturesGUI]: Disabling native autoplay. 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:23  Info [GUIListItemMovieComp]: Sort Field: Runtime Sort Direction: Ascending 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:28  Info [         MoviePlayer]: Playing: Movie='Toy Story 3' FullPath='F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO', VideoPath='F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO', Mounted=False) 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:29  Info [         MoviePlayer]: Playback Started: Internal, File=F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:30  Info [   MovingPicturesGUI]: Disabling native autoplay. 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:34  Info [         MoviePlayer]: Playing: Movie='Toy Story 3' FullPath='F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO', VideoPath='F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO', Mounted=False) 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:35  Info [         MoviePlayer]: Playback Started: Internal, File=F:\Movies\Toy Story 3 (2010)\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO 
15-Jan-2011 15:33:36  Info [   MovingPicturesGUI]: Disabling native autoplay.

Any ideas how to fix this and get them to play? I think it's because of the odd preview/menu structure associated with the "Disney Instant Play" menu that shows up when put in a normal DVD player to skip straight to the movie or to watch the previews before going to the menu, but the highlander DVD doesn't have this. It just has a crappy menu.

 

[eRJe]

Hi ThePooBurner,

Have you found a solution for your problem yet?

I too have this problem, or similar, where some movies (actually, quite a lot) don't go to the DVD menu. Sometimes I get exact the same behaviour as you describe. The screen goes dark or black but then returns to the movie list. Other times it remains black and I hear the background music playing. Sometimes by pressing a navigation button on my remote (forward, ok, left, etc) it suddenly displays the menu of starts playing the movie.

I had this before with older MP versions. Currently I'm using 1.2.0 beta. I also remember some option being available for when you have issues with the DVD navigation. But I can't seem to find this option anymore.

 

[fiendmish]

Hi eRJe I think the option you are looking for is in the codecs and renderers section of the configuration screen, DvD disks and image codecs there is an option to turn off DXVA (I think that's what it's called) to help navigation.

 

[eRJe]

Hi eRJe I think the option you are looking for is in the codecs and renderers section of the configuration screen, DvD disks and image codecs there is an option to turn off DXVA (I think that's what it's called) to help navigation.

Hi fiendmish,

Thanks for letting me know but I already tried that option. Unfortunately it didn't change anything. THough, the option I vaguely remember was in the genral option list, at least I think... Perhaps it is the same. I noticed more options have been moved.

 

[Tesla]

I'm pretty sure the problem with Disney movies is the way they are mastered (I think they call it FasyPlay in the front menu).

Anyway, lately, I have DVDFab8 PathPlayer set to "Use only when needed". I rip it and play it in PowerDVD9. If it works, it should play in MePo. If it doesn't play, I try again with PathPlayer forced on. The problem is that this does some tricky things with the root menu and modifies PO, etc.

If all else fails, I rip "Movie Only" at DVD9 (full quality) and all sound and subs.

 

[MrPaulo]

Hi,

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? I've got the same thing happening for Disney DVDs I have. They work find in Windows Media Player, but not in Media Portal (v1.2.3). Other DVDs play fine in MP though?

 

[Tesla]

Hi,

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? I've got the same thing happening for Disney DVDs I have. They work find in Windows Media Player, but not in Media Portal (v1.2.3). Other DVDs play fine in MP though?

IIRC, this thread was about VIDEO_TS folders ripped to the HDD. These "whole DVDs" (full AV content with DVD menus in-tact) are un-encrypted at this point.

You mention Windows Media Player. As far as I know, WMP can't play VIDEO_TS folders directly from the HDD ... so I assume you are talking about real, physical, optical disc that you insert into the DVD drive in the PC (and play while inside MePo)?

 

[MrPaulo]

Thanks Tesla, yes I was referring to physical optical disks (I guess I misunderstood the thread!). I searched in the forum to see if anyone had the same issue... and it is a Disney DVD that isn't playing... so I assumed it was related... I tried DVD Navigator of the default (MPC I think) and nVidia, and neither worked. I tried switching off DXVA, but also noticed that it seemd to switch itself off at times as well. But nothing seemed to make it work... very odd.

I think the next step for me is to generate some decent logs and see what they say.

 

[Tesla]

yes I was referring to physical optical disks

... I tried DVD Navigator of the default (MPC I think) and nVidia, and neither worked.

So, if the physical disc plays on real living room DVD player, and in a stand-alone DVD program like PowerDVD ... but not inside MePo ... well, that obviously points to a MePo problem.

Ya, I'm not sure if we ever figured out if it was the way the discs were mastered, or the special way they might need to be ripped.

I like to rip my DVDs to exact VIDEO_TS, so they work just like playing the real disc (amp and projector need full quality tech). I'm always interested in ways to get "perfectly cloned rips".

I did also run into this problem. I never knew DVD Navigator wasn't developed my the MePo team.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ut-only-from-wd-3tb.100272/page-3#post-789462

... and just so you know, I switched all my machines to Win7-XBMC (for me, much easier to setup, config, and support).