[unsolved] trouble playing DVD extras

[chrizoo]

Hi folks.

There is something curious I have been noticing for a long time now. DVD extras sometimes don't play correctly with VLC.

I copy my DVDs to HDD and they all play fine.
ALL the main films from the DVDs play fine (starting from the 1st 1GB vob file).
But DVD extras on SOME DVDs play very jerkily, only 1-2 images per second. That's all the more curious as the main film on the SAME DVDs play fine!

Older VLC versions produce same behaviour for me.

Thank you so much for your help.

Example:

MediaInfo

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General Complete name : F:\+movies\213\VIDEO_TS\VTS_05_1.VOB Format : MPEG-PS File size : 72.9 MiB Video ID : 224 (0xE0) Format : MPEG Video Format version : Version 2 Format profile : Main@Main Format settings, Matrix : Default Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 9 800 Kbps Width : 720 pixels Height : 576 pixels Display aspect ratio : 4:3 Frame rate : 25.000 fps Standard : PAL Colorimetry : 4:2:0 Scan type : Interlaced Scan order : Top Field First Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.945 Audio ID : 128 (0x80) Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 224 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Menu

[chrizoo]

no idea? I just don't find any solution for that.
I can't be the only one suffering from this problem ... ??

thank you for any help.

[chrizoo]

new VLC version out (1.1.10) and still the same problem

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Bugs don't get fixed by talking about them. They get fixed by developers writing patches. And no developers has written a patch for this one.

[chrizoo]

You are stating the obvious.

At least I am not just talking, but I filed a formal bug report:
http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/4835

That's all I can do, I am coding illiterate unfortunately.

Do you have any idea what causes the problem?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

I wouldn't be stating the obvious, if said obvious was not being asked for.

We are not gods so we cannot spawn skilled, obedient and available developers to fix incoming bugs.

[chrizoo]

at the outset, I wasn't even sure it would be a bug. After all, a DVD extra is just mpeg video encapsulated in a vob file. This applies to the main movie just as well. I don't see any difference between them, so VLC should react the same.

My thread was principally intended to get a confirmation

• if I'm doing something wrong
• if others have the same issue
• if it is likely a bug
• or if it is more likely a corrupted video file.

As said above, it's unlikely that it's a bug, because the main DVD film always plays fine in VLC.
But it's just as unlikely that files got corrupted, because I have several (retail) DVDs where the issue occurs. It's unlikely they are ALL bad.

So basically it's something unexplainable to me.

I was hoping for some enlightment.
Not for grumpy, cynical and snippy provocations.

There is a DIFFERENCE between a bug for which devs don't have tim and a bug which they are unaware of.

For the former there is at least hope ...

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

DVD are not plain MPEG2 videos. The menu structure uses a proprietary format that open-source developers will never have access to, and was reverse engineered by the dvdnav developers. And besides, there is a strong possibility that some DVD editing software is buggy and creates invalid DVDs, that may break in different ways depending on the tool used for playback.

[chrizoo]

I wouldn't be stating the obvious, if said obvious was not being asked for.

You asked me to ask. Or at least the developper team you are a member of:

Runtime Error!
Program: [...]VLC\vlc.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

That's exactly what I did. And I wasn't exactly hospitably received.

[chrizoo]

DVD are not plain MPEG2 videos. The menu structure uses a proprietary format that ...

you like to argue it seems ...
I didn't say DVD is JUST mpeg2,
I said the DVD video is in mpeg2 format. At least that's what can be easily gathered from my posting I think.
Not everyone is an expert can be ultra-precise ... plus in a foreign language.

But again, your comment is besides the point entirely.
VLC has no problems with the menu itself. I can navigate there wherever I want.
I can select all DVD extras or the main film.
But after playback of the video starts (the video of the DVD extra), I receive abovementioned error message after 5-10 seconds. On some discs. But on these discs always.

I don't think they are malformed, because they are retail DVDs.

The one I just tested is "The Edukators (2004)".

The DVD extra which leads VLC player to crash is a section which includes trailers for other films.
The trailers seem to have only 2 fps, I guess in order to save file size for the feature film.
Thus the stuttering isn't VLC's fault. My hardware DVD player (WD TV live) also only displays ~ 2fps.
But VLC crashes after a couple of seconds. Other players don't.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Please contact the application's support team for more information.

...is a canned message from the abnormal termination handler in Microsoft Windows. There is not much to do about it.

You have to understand and accept that VLC is developed by time-constrained hobbyists. Moreover, most of the code and many of the bugs are actually not in VLC but in third party libraries which VLC developers lack time and expertise to debug. Crashes in MPEG2 decoding are more than likely caused by bugs in libavcodec, not in VLC. An easy way to validate this is to extract (but not decode) the MPEG2 track with VLC to check if it crashes still.

So next time, please spare us the

new VLC version out (...) and still the same problem

with all the condescendence and bickering that this kind of remark can be interpreted to convey.

[chrizoo]

Crashes in MPEG2 decoding are more than likely caused by bugs in libavcodec, not in VLC.

fair enough. Media Player Classic - HC can play the .vob file without problems. Does MPC not use libavcodec?

I will try your suggestion (extract).

[chrizoo]

By "extract" I guess you mean I should use "convert/save" (CTRL+R).
What settings should I use? (encapsulation, etc.) ?

[chrizoo]

I would test this out for you, but I need your input for this.
What settings, please?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

vlc --sout '#std{mux=ps,access=file,dst=dvd-dump.mpg}'

[chrizoo]

thank you. when I enter your command, VLC opens up and does nothing (or at least nothing I am aware of)

I also tried

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D:\apps\VLC>vlc --sout '#std{mux=ps,access=file,dst=dvd-dump.mpg}' D:\apps\VLC>vlc -? D:\apps\VLC>vlc -help D:\apps\VLC>vlc --sout '#std{mux=ps,access=file,dst=dvd-dump.mpg}' 1.vob D:\apps\VLC>vlc 1.vob --sout '#std{mux=ps,access=file,dst=dvd-dump.mpg}' D:\apps\VLC>vlc --sout '#std{mux=ps,access=1.vob,dst=dvd-dump.mpg}'

... nothing worked. Please specify usage.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

You have proven to be an obnoxious troll, so I won't help you ever again.

[chrizoo]

I was just expressing my honest opinion. I didn't know that was forbidden here and only opinions compatible with your own personal mindset may be posted.

As for the matter at hand, you are not helping ME. In post #16 I was trying to help YOU fix a bug in YOUR program.

Personally I am not incredibly affected by the bug. It just concerns a few DVDs I own, and only the extras on them. I can use MediaPlayerClassic, or MediaPlayerClassic-HomeCinema, they both play the content fine. In the end I was not posting to solve this issue for me - I had already found a workaround for me personally - I was helping you to solve this issue for you and your team. But if you are offended, there is nothing I can do about that ... although I honestly have no clue why you would be.