Something new

[Intrapman]

I have backed up many of my DVDs - and I have a lot of them - using a combination of DVD Decrypter/DVD Shrink/Nero Ultra, and DVD X-Copy. I generally prefer to shrink my back-up copies to save money. I've made my fair share of coasters, and have come across a variety of challenges but this one is new for me.

The solution is probably extremely obvious but I can't seem to be able to figure it out. I used DVD Decrypter to get a back-up copy on my hard drive. I then used DVD Shrink to prepare the back-up for copy onto a DVD. Both steps were carried out without issue. In fact I've played both the full version, and compressed version off my hard drive without incident. The compressed file size is less than 4.5 gb so size is not the problem (no pun intended).

When I use Nero to burn my back-up copy, all files are burned to the DVD without incident. In fact, when I look at the contents on the DVD, they match identically to the files on the hard drive.

The only problem is that when I play the movie, I get the message "The movie will not play due to the parental settings of the player." This is where things get interesting. PowerDVD, will show the message, skip past the menu, and start playing the movie. However, the movie will not play on my home DVD player.

Compatibility of media etc. is not the issue. I've backed up at least 40 of my movies and have never encountered this problem.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

[SKD_Tech]

Can you acess the controls to your hardware DVD player?

Do you know any access codes that you may have set up in the past??

[WildmanJoe]

Seems like your DVD player is non-region-free. Try setting the DVD Region to 0 (I think). Most players have this feature, but you would have to enter some string of numbers using your remote control first.

[Intrapman]

No "parental" features are activated on my home DVD player.

I'm not aware of any options available on my PC DVD player that would cause this issue. Most of the options in Device Manager (hardware properties) don't really have an impact on playback.

Anything specific that I should try?

Peter

[SKD_Tech]

Try unpluging your DVD player for 24 hours to maybe erase the memory..

[Intrapman]

Thanks WildmanJoe, I'll give it a shot.

The problem hawever, goes beyond just my home DVD player. The disc won't even play properly on my PC DVD player (see first post).

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

[WildmanJoe]

Oops looks I left out something... Your DVD-Rom needs to be region-free as well. You'll have to flash your DVD-Rom's bios in order to set the RPC to '1', the standard is '2'. (Or did I get them mixed up) Anyway, this is a risky procedure that may result in a damaged DVD-Rom if not executed properly.

Alternatively you could try some software based (region-free) options such as DVD Region Free (hope I got the name right).

[setarip]

To Intrapman

I would suggest to you that, for the sake of only one burned DVD, I don't think it's worth the risk to attempt to make speculative firmware or software changes to your drives/players/burners.

I'd sooner do the following:

1) Use DVD Shrink to rip and compress directly from the original DVD

2) Use NERO in "DVD-Video" mode to burn to a REWRITABLE DVD (+ or -) that your standalone player is capable of playing

[setarip]

To Intrapman

This may or may not be identical to your situation:

Just for kicks and giggles, I made yet another copy of my "Anger Management" DVD. This time, however, I burned it to a DVD+RW rather than (my usual) DVD-R (The DVD-R plays perfectly on all standalone players I use).

1) It played perfectly on three standalone DVDs

2) On a GE1101P, guess what happened - After going through all of the opening screens and selecting "Play Movie" from the menu, a hardware "parental control" notification popped up, asking for a password ;>}