Unable to play DVDs in VLC

[philipgr]

Good morning

I have a rather odd problem playing most of my DVDs in VLC player. When I insert a DVD movie or TV disc into either of my DVD rewriters in my PC the disc runs at diffiernt speeds for a while then stops. It sounds as though the read/write head is hunting. The DVD's name and title does not show in My Computer next to the drive letter of respective drive. If I insert an audio CD into either drive the disc spins up and the CD's name/title shows in My Computer next to the respective drive and immediately plays. I buy a lot of movie and tv series DVDs to watch. Most are region 2. I do not watch movies and tv shows online as I have a limited monthly cap. Up until around March of this year I never had an issue watching DVD movies or tv shows. Since the problem started it has been getting progressively worse. After a number of reboots and insert and ejects some of the discs are finally read and play. this last week I have been trying to watch Hawaii Five-) Season 6. Disc one refuses to play at all. Discs 2 to 6 ran after a fair amount of inserts and ejects. The six discs from Hawaii Five-O Season 7, The Librarians Season 4 four discs refuse to play. The Ghostwhisperer Season 1 discs that played a few years ago now refuse to play.

I have done a search on the internet for solutions. I have added the VideoLan folder in 'ProgramFiles' to the allowed folders in the Windows Firewall settings. I, as a test, disabled by anti-virus and tried to run the discs without any success. I have read and followed a number of posts on this forum, also without success.

I am receiving this error:
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///J:/'. Check the log for details.

I have the loggedr set to 'Error'. My log file shows the following:
-- logger module started --
skins2: skin: SplashVLC1 author: Majid_KSA
skins2 warning: unknown action:
skins2 warning: unknown action:
skins2 error: pls, check resize policy for id: openi
skins2 error: pls, check resize policy for id: skini
skins2 error: pls, check resize policy for id: peri
skins2 error: pls, check resize policy for id: play_pause
skins2 warning: unknown action:
skins2 warning: unknown action:
skins2 error: pls, check resize policy for id: f_playpause
main: playlist is empty
dvdnav warning: ifoOpenVMGI(): Invalid main menu IFO (VIDEO_TS.IFO).
dvdnav warning: ifoOpenVMGI(): Invalid main menu IFO (VIDEO_TS.BUP).
dvdnav error: vm: vm: failed to read VIDEO_TS.IFO
dvdnav warning: cannot open DVD (J:)
dvdread warning: Invalid IFO for title 0 (VIDEO_TS.IFO).
dvdread warning: Invalid IFO for title 0 (VIDEO_TS.BUP).
dvdread warning: Can't seek to block 4247290812
dvdread error: DVDISOVolumeInfo, failed to read ISO9660 Primary Volume Descriptor
dvdread warning: cannot open VMG info
-- logger module stopped --

I have this issue on my laptop and in my two Linux installations.

My PC details are:
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate Version
32GB memory
2 x Samsung SpeedPlus+ DVD rewriters
NVidia GT630 2GB Video Card

I will appreciate any help to solve this problem. I have installed the 64 bit version of VLC player.

Regards
Philip

[Hitchhiker]

As an initial troubleshooting step go to Tools ---> Preferences and click the Reset Preferences button at the bottom. Click Save, exit and then restart vlc.

If the problem persists in spite of the above please post again.

[philipgr]

Did not make any difference. I am still receiving the same error message.

[Hitchhiker]

I think we need a full log file. So set Messages / Verbosity to 2 and then attempt to play a dvd. The output will probably be too big to post on the forum so upload it to pastebin and then post the link to that here please.

[philipgr]

Under the logger the verbosity dropdown menu only has these settings:
Default
Info
Error
Warning
Debug

[Hitchhiker]

#2 is debug

[philipgr]

I did a search on the net to find out where the Messages item is. I found it is not under Preferences where the logger is . Here is the link to the file on pasetbin:- https://pastebin.com/dl/znKw9JDn

[Hitchhiker]

I did a search on the net to find out where the Messages item is. I found it is not under Preferences where the logger is . Here is the link to the file on pasetbin:- https://pastebin.com/dl/znKw9JDn

Tools ---> Messages, but since you already posted a log file I assumed you knew where to find it.

Anyway, your problem may be DRM whereby the dvd is encrypted. While vlc can read open source dvds it can't decrypt CSS code. To do that the devs would have to apply for a license which costs money. No open source developer is going to go that route.

However, all is not lost.

Go to this site and download Handbrake. It's a small application to transcode encrypted DVDs to a format which vlc supports. Handbrake needs minimum Microsoft NET Framework 4.7.1 to work. You can check if it's installed already on your system by going to Windows Programs and Features and then clicking the link to "Turn Windows features on and off" on the left. If it's not installed you can download it from here

For Handbrake to do its job you need to download libdvdcss-2.dll from here The file needs to be moved to the Handbrake installation directory which is located at C:\Program Files\HandBrake (assuming you download it to the default Downloads directory in Windows)

Should work, but if it doesn't please post again. Also, if you see any error messages please post the full syntax without paraphasing.

[philipgr]

I do have Handbrake installed on my PC. I noticed something rather odd. I regualarily update my .net via Windows Update. I had a look under the list of installed programs and I have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.8 installed which I installed on 05 Sep 2019. Yet 'Turn Windows Features on of off' shows that version 3.5.1 is installed. I am wondering why the difference. I also ran Handbrake it does not see the DVD in the drive. My Computer does not show a disc in the drive. As a test I inserted the 'Avengers Endgame' movie from last year and it ran immediately.

[Hitchhiker]

I do have Handbrake installed on my PC. I noticed something rather odd. I regualarily update my .net via Windows Update. I had a look under the list of installed programs and I have Microsoft .Net Framework 4.8 installed which I installed on 05 Sep 2019. Yet 'Turn Windows Features on of off' shows that version 3.5.1 is installed. I am wondering why the difference. I also ran Handbrake it does not see the DVD in the drive. My Computer does not show a disc in the drive. As a test I inserted the 'Avengers Endgame' movie from last year and it ran immediately.

Earlier versions of NET i.e. up to 4.5.2 are integrated into the operating system. I thought about this last night, but was too tired to edit my post and went to bed instead. But as you rightly remarked NET 4.7.1 won't be included in the menu where Windows options can be turned on and off because it's a plugin, extension, addon or whatever you like to call it.

You can try ripping a raw copy of the dvd using vlc, but if the OS can't read the disc it sounds like it's either damaged or corrupted. Is it an original disc or a burned copy?

[philipgr]

All the discs are originals. It is really strange that both the drives will not read any of the discs. I had an issue with one disc in Supergirl season 4 so I bought another copy and all were fine. I did wonder if it was the head in both drives but I ruled that out because CDs are recognized and play almost immediately. I was thinking that if it was a DRM issue the drives would recognize the discs but would not play them. Last month I watched True Blood seasons 6 and 7 without any issues. In April I watched the first season of Orville without incident. I also watched season 5,6 and 7 of Star Trek Voyager. The only issue I had is that with those is that for some odd reason VLC would only play some of the episodes in German. So I watched those discs in Windows media Player without any problems. I am wondering whether there is something in Windows 7 that is causing the issue. My laptop has Windows 8.1 installed and I have found that some discs will also not play there. I will try the Hawaii Five-O discs in it and see what happens.

Thank you for trying to help me with this. I really appreciate it.

[Hitchhiker]

This Microsoft Hotfix might help although I'm a bit confused that you said you have 8.1 installed. Do you have a dual boot with Windows 7 or are we talking about two different machines?

[philipgr]

Sorry for the confusion. I am talking about two different machines. Windows 7 is on my PC and Windows 8.1 is on my laptop.

[philipgr]

I have just checked the hotfix site. Sadly it is no longer available.

[Hitchhiker]

I have just checked the hotfix site. Sadly it is no longer available.

Pity. I knew Windows 7 isn't supported anymore, but I would have thought that past hotfixes would still be available.

Anyway regarding the PC W7 is running on is it a custom built machine, or did you build it yourself? The reason I'm asking is because the log file you uploaded to Pastebin identifies your dvd drive as "J". A normal installation of Windows 7 would assign the letter "D" to a dvd drive.

Maybe you changed the drive letter yourself for some reason or other, but if drive letter "D" isn't assigned to a partition or another drive you could try reassigning "D" to the dvd drive to see if that changes anything.

To assign a (different) letter to a drive in Windows 7 hit Windows key + R to open the Run command and then copy / paste diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter. This will open the Disk Management dialog menu. Press and hold the right mouse button on the description "CD ROM drive" until the menu appears where you'll see "Change drive letter". It's self-explanatory from there I think.

[philipgr]

Hi sorry for only responding now. I have had some personal and work issues to deal with. I have two 2TB harddrives and one 1TB hard drive installed in my PC. The one 2TB is for Linux (Zorin, Ubuntu 18.02LTS and Linux Mint). The other 2TB drive is partitioned into five partitions C to F and K. The 1TB is partitioned into two partitions G and H. I have five external USB harddrives (L, P onwards - the letters vary from time to time.) plus two USB thumb drives (M and O) and a USB 4G modem (N drive). I also have a USB stiffy drive which is usually A or B.All the drive letters have been selected by Windows. I have not set any of them or changed any of them.

[InTheWings]

dvdnav warning: ifoOpenVMGI(): Invalid main menu IFO (VIDEO_TS.IFO).
dvdnav warning: ifoOpenVMGI(): Invalid main menu IFO (VIDEO_TS.BUP).

try simpledvd:// or disable menu in dialog

[InTheWings]

Provide:
- VLC Version
- DISC IDS and/or EAN13

[philipgr]

Hi InTheWings the VLC version I am using is: 3.0.11 Vetinari 64 bit. Where will I find the DISC IDS and/or EAN13?

[philipgr]

Hi InTheWings I checked all the discs and these are thonly numbers that I can find. All of these discs do not display in either of my two DVD drives.
TV
Hawaii Five-O Season 6
Disc 1
VFE10343
EU 141673


Hawaii Five-O Season 7
Disc 1
EU146303 DVDP/1

Disc 2
EU146303 DVDP/2

Disc 3
EU146303 DVDP/3

Disc 4
EU146303 DVDP/4

Disc 5
EU146303 DVDP/5

Disc 6
EU146303 DVDP/6


The Librarians Season 4
Discs 1 to 4
VFE29657
4FF121

Movie
.45
03073 DVDI

S.W.A.T.
34947 DVDS

[Hitchhiker]

Hi InTheWings the VLC version I am using is: 3.0.11 Vetinari 64 bit. Where will I find the DISC IDS and/or EAN13?

For DVD IDS see: DVDInfoPro

The EAN 13 is the barcode.

[philipgr]

I have installed the DVDInfoPro program but it does not give and disc information as the drive does not see the disc.

[Hitchhiker]

I have installed the DVDInfoPro program but it does not give and disc information as the drive does not see the disc.

Just post the EAN 13 then. As mentioned already the EAN is the barcode. Wikipedia has an article on the subject which you might find helpful: