VLC cannot play DVD, works with other players

[Thabo]

We have two DVD's made about 20 years ago that we have used successfully in Windows XP and Windows Vista for the last 16 years. Lately with windows 10 (1909 latest updates from its inception) both DVD's (or DVD copied to hard drive) sometimes freeze when played from a laptop attached to a digital video projector (DVP). In addition, the one movie only plays one language in spite of there being a choice of several languages. This occurs with both the DVD and the hard drive version.
The movies work just fine with Media Player from microsoft.
We are using the latest version (3.08) of VLC
I have this problem with most DVD's and sometimes have to reboot and start the movie from the beginning. Most times the mouse becomes inactive on the computer and sometimes the movie plays with the computer screen frozen and the DVP playing normally.

The two movies we use below on a regular basis as we do pro bono work in about 14 schools.
Movies: 1. The Story of Jesus for Children ( The Americas - Atlantic edition - 8 languages) distributed by Inspirational Films. This version on the internet does not have the option of languages or subtitles that we use : https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/language-resources/english.html
2. In Your Face produced by Orison Pictures.
Two computers are in use both latest windows 10 Pro and latest Updates (13-03-2020). Both computers have been checked for viruses with Malwarebytes and the Proline has ESET Nod 32
1. Lenovo i3 G680 (7 yrs old): Samsung ssd . All drivers are up to date
2. Proline W150HN (9 yrs old):MICRON SSD Intel i7-2630QM@2Ghz : 4GB RAM :64bit OS all drivers up to date Graphics: Intel graphics 3000 Nvidia Geforce GT540M
I trust this information is sufficient . kind regards,

[Thabo]

I have just established that after downgrading the Windows 10 computer from VLC 3.08 to VLC 2.2.1 (2015) that the movies that were giving trouble now work just fine.

[Hitchhiker]

I have just established that after downgrading the Windows 10 computer from VLC 3.08 to VLC 2.2.1 (2015) that the movies that were giving trouble now work just fine.

If you're going to use an older version of vlc to play DVDs it's advisable to disconnect the machine from the Internet otherwise you'll be exposing your system to the vulnerability described here: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2018/11/08/attack-uses-malicious-inpage-document-and-outdated-vlc-media-player-to-give-attackers-backdoor-access-to-targets/

[Thabo]

If old VLC programs are virally unsafe then there is a problem with VLC3.08 . I have confirmed it gives the same problem with older DVD's on numerous computers as well as playing MOV files. Fortunatelywe are not attached to the internet whilst teaching.

[Thabo]

I have established that the latest VLC does not work on XP SP3 and that the last version of VLC , VLC 2.2.8 (Weathermax) which "weathers" all the issues I can find with older DVD's etc. All the versions from 3 upwards do not work properly with VIDEO_TS.IFO files.

[Hitchhiker]

Do you have the desktop version of vlc installed or the one available from the Windows Store? The reason I'm asking is because the latter doesn't support DVD or Blu-ray playback.

[Thabo]

The only versions I download are the original ones from the following website : http://download.videolan.org/pub/ I try not to download programs from the Microsoft Store because they seem to be watered down versions.

[Hitchhiker]

It's odd that you can play the discs in an older version of vlc. I was thinking along the lines of the problem being one of DRM by which vlc can't play encrypted files simply because it's open source. They'll play in WMP because Windows 10 trusts its own player. See: https://wiki.videolan.org/Digital_Restrictions_Management/

Can you browse the discs with Windows Explorer? If so are both the IFO and BUP files present on both?

[Thabo]

Yes, both as well as .IFO files.

[Thabo]

Good Morning ! Here are a list of the files on one of the DVD's in question. This one has options of a subtitle and various languages:
VIDEO_TS.BUP; VIDEO_TS.IFO; VIDEO_TS.VOB;VTS_01_0.BUP; VTS_01_0.IFO; VTS_01_0.VOB; VTS_01_1.VOB; VTS_01_2.VOB; VTS_01_3.VOB; VTS_02_0.BUP; VTS_02_0.IFO; VTS_02_0.VOB; VTS_02_1.VOB; VTS_03_0.BUP; VTS_03_0.IFO; VTS_03_0.VOB; VTS_03_1.VOB; VTS_04_0.BUP; VTS_04_0.IFO; VTS_04_0.VOB; VTS_04_1.VOB; VTS_05_0.BUP; VTS_05_0.IFO; VTS_05_0.VOB; VTS_05_1.VOB.
This movie does not have an AUDIO_TS directory. It only has the VIDEO_TS directory which has all the above files.
I see the later movies this Company made that we use as well are structured in the same way, but they do not have language options or subtitle options. So they are not a problem with VLC3 and later.
I am not any expert in software, I have only learnt from what or not works, but both computers we use are older models upgraded from Windows7, but obviously using the older versions of VLC as we did not upgrade everything till last year. so, it is only this year we are having the problems.Regards.

[Hitchhiker]

I suspect part of the problem is the hardware. The Proline machine at 9 years old was fine for running Windows 7, but Windows 10 demands much higher resources. Also it's an Optimus machine which means it has two graphics solutions. The Intel 3000 is simply a video chip intergrated on the CPU with which it shares its resources. The nVidia card which is the GT540 only has 1GB memory which isn't a lot these days but it least it doesn't have to share it with the CPU.

You could try forcing the PC to run DVDs with the nVidia card by browsing to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC. Then right click vlc.exe and click "Run with graphics processor" ---> "High performance NVIDIA processor". At least then it will use the dedicated 1GB RAM on the GPU rather than defaulting to the Intel chip. Worth a try anyway.

[Thabo]

Thanks very much . But one of the computers is a one year old Lenovo giving the same problem. ??

[moviesfan20]

The problem seems to be related to hardware acceleration in combination with deinterlacing, turning off either fixed DVD playback for me (it also fixed the playback of any other interlaced MPEG2 which was broken the same way). It probably doesn't happen with older GPUs because they either are too old for hardware acceleration or don't have some new feature that makes trouble as I had the problem on my new Ryzen 2200G machine (using the integrated GPU) but not my old one with a Radeon HD 5750, both with Windows 10.

I wonder if the problem is only with MPEG2 or anything interlaced.

EDIT: Although this wouldn't concern language selection so maybe I had a different problem?

[Hitchhiker]

Thanks very much . But one of the computers is a one year old Lenovo giving the same problem. ??

Two computers are in use both latest windows 10 Pro and latest Updates (13-03-2020). Both computers have been checked for viruses with Malwarebytes and the Proline has ESET Nod 32
1. Lenovo i3 G680 (7 yrs old): Samsung ssd . All drivers are up to date
2. Proline W150HN (9 yrs old):MICRON SSD Intel i7-2630QM@2Ghz : 4GB RAM :64bit OS all drivers up to date Graphics: Intel graphics 3000 Nvidia Geforce GT540M

You mentioned in your OP that the Lenovo machine is 7 yrs old. Is that a typo or do you have more than one Lenovo machine?

[Thabo]

My wife has a Lenovo V510 i5 7th Generation that I tried the video in question on and it does the same kind of tricks. I certainly thought age was a problem at first. I did mention I had tried numerous other computers on the 18th March . The other computers belong to my daughter's household are i3 Dells about two years old. I do not know the details of those machines.
The Lenovo V510 : i5 7200CPU 2.7GHZ 4GB ram windows 10 1909 with March 2020 update Intel Graphics HD 620.
Thanks for your trouble with this problem. It is a pity I cannot send you an original copy of the DVD as we are now in lock down for three weeks. I dont know what the impications are data wise if i upload to the cloud for you as it is about 3.13GB big.

[Hitchhiker]

At least as far as the Lenovo machines are concerned this post on Reddit might have a bearing: https://www.reddit.com/r/VLC/comments/d2x6kp/getting_vlcdvd_player_to_play_dvds/

I'll have to dig a little deeper to find out what the problem is with the Proline.

[Hitchhiker]

Could you please try installing vlc 4.0 which is currently still in BETA, but might fix the problem you have playing DVDs.
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3033-vlc-media-player-beta.html

Background info on vlc 4.0: https://www.ghacks.net/2019/02/06/vlc-media-player-4-0/