DVD software vs. Woman in Black

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

I'm after recommendations for DVD software, probably to buy.

 

We have several copies of Woman in Black in our English department, and apparently it used to work fine with VLC. This is no longer the case with the latest version, as the DVD just gets stuck in the trailers and repeats over and over.

 

I've tried GOM player, which won't even open the DVD, and one highly rated free Windows Store app which just crashes when it opens (!).

 

Any suggestions for tried and trusted DVD apps? If paid, something with a trial would be ideal/vital so we can test.

 

Thanks

[LeMarchand]

https://potplayer.daum.net/

 

Or whichever version of VLC last worked: Index of /pub/videolan/vlc/ - possibly try the portable one?

 

P.S. Can VLC play the DVD if you open the file directly rather than "Play Disk"? If so, you may be able to use its command line feature to write a short script to "Play the 'Woman in Black'". (Never done this; I'm just guessing/throwing the idea out there).

Edited December 21, 2018 by LeMarchand

[TIOAOA]

Have you tried opening it via the open disc option, with the no menus option ticked?

This method works for our troublesome Disney discs

[Gongalong]

P.S. Can VLC play the DVD if you open the file directly rather than "Play Disk"?

It has a LOT of VOB files, and I've tried tinkering and opening anything thats logical. No dice so far.

 

At this point I'm fed up enough to rip the thing, as staff have bought the DVDs.

Have you tried opening it via the open disc option, with the no menus option ticked?

This method works for our troublesome Disney discs

I think so but will double check.

[Koldov]

I had a DVD that wouldn't open correctly just yesterday, but I've been asleep since then so can't remember the actual thing I did to get it to work.

 

Using VLC player and randomly clicking .IFO and .VOB files didn't work and the double-clicking wanted to install InterActual Player or something (autoplay is turned off here)...

 

But I right clicked the disc in explorer and the context menu had something like 'run enhanced content'/'open auto play'/'play with VLC media player'/'open' etc.

 

I just clicked 'play with VLC media' and it statred playing, not sure if your problem is the same.

 

 

Edit: I've just tried and clicking 'Open Autoplay' gives the option to 'Play DVD Movie with VLC' too. YMMV...

 

 

VLC

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Koldov

[Gongalong]

I'll double check that also - not 100% sure I've tried it.

 

Thanks all!

[Koldov]

Or maybe through the VLC menu...?

 

Once it’s installed, open the program, insert a DVD, and click on Media > Open Disc to watch your DVDs

 

I didn't know this:

 

Is there a free DVD player for Windows 10?

VideoLAN VLC for the win. ... If not, a better alternative to Microsoft's Windows 10 DVD Player is to turn to the free and always reliable VLC video player. Make sure you download the desktop app and not the Windows Store version, which doesn't support DVDs or Blu-ray.

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2953724/windows/how-to-play-dvds-in-windows-10-for-free.html

 

 

 

Anyway, Woman in Black... Isn't that some sort of horror film?

 

What sort of school does English lessons like that?!

 

And why didn't I go to school there..?

 

Next week children we will be looking at the punctuation in Amanda's letter from... Saw 3...

[Gongalong]

Definitely tried "open disc" through the menu, which doesn't work. It seems to be the combination of trailers and crap at the beginning that break VLC, or there's some copyright protection on the disc that's breaking VLC.

 

(Definitely using the desktop version)

 

Women in Black, originally a famous book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_Black

[LeMarchand]

Anyway, Woman in Black... Isn't that some sort of horror film?

 

Based on a novel by Susan Hill. I'd imagine Frankenstein, Dracula, The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Hill House, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Lottery, and probably more that I haven't thought of are on the syllabus at various places/times.

 

Edit: Was distracted by a free sausage sarnie and beaten to the punch.

Edited December 21, 2018 by LeMarchand

[Koldov]

Well, I guess my time in an English lesson at school was quite a few years ago now.

 

I do seem to remember an awful lot of Shakespeare however and very little horror, apart from my poor spelling, punctuation, grammar etc...

[Gongalong]

Looks like it's actually GCSE English List https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/topics/zyxg9qt

[LeMarchand]

I do seem to remember an awful lot of Shakespeare however and very little horror, apart from my poor spelling, punctuation, grammar etc...

 

Shakespeare can be pretty horrific.

 

[DrBeaker]

This is ($$$'s and £££'s aside) why I don't understand the logic of having an OS that once played DVDs with no issues. But under the "latest, current release" doesn't support playing DVDs without some faffing around! How is that progress? It's a step backwards IMHO. Especially in schools where techs are already under the gun with equipment and workloads, stuff just "needs to work".

[Koldov]

I guess the other thing is... We didn't have any video/TV/projector/youTube....

 

We had to actually read the books!

 

Showing my age much?

 

[Gongalong]

It is annoying, Microsoft saving money. Have the savings been passed on to the consumer?... https://www.zdnet.com/article/if-vlc-can-ship-a-free-dvd-player-why-cant-microsoft/

[Theldron]

Media Player Classic find it very reliable.

[Koldov]

This is ($$$'s and £££'s aside) why I don't understand the logic of having an OS that once played DVDs with no issues. But under the "latest, current release" doesn't support playing DVDs without some faffing around! How is that progress? It's a step backwards IMHO. Especially in schools where techs are already under the gun with equipment and workloads, stuff just "needs to work".

 

Like most of the things the 'tech giants' implement. Looking forward and deciding what we want/need...

 

I do remember reading something about licensing the DVD codecs...?

 

But it's like most modern systems not having DVD players (everything is streamed now y'know) or VGA sockets, or iPhones without headphone jacks, or iPads not being able to upgrade to the latest iOS... etc, etc, etc.

 

Sometimes I understand that you cannot support 'old tech' forever, but I agree it's sure annoying for the rest of us!

 

Also, we keep telling ourselves that 'schools' should be an important part of their selling demographic, but as Windows 10 Education taught us... we are not!

Edited December 21, 2018 by Koldov

[Koldov]

It is annoying, Microsoft saving money. Have the savings been passed on to the consumer?... https://www.zdnet.com/article/if-vlc-can-ship-a-free-dvd-player-why-cant-microsoft/

 

Interesting article, especially this part for your particular problem:

 

The two software libraries that enable DVD and Blu-ray playback in VLC are libdvdcss and libaacs::

 

libdvdcss is a library that can find and guess keys from a DVD in order to decrypt it.

 

This method is authorized by a French law decision CE 10e et 9e soussect., 16 juillet 2008, n° 301843 on interoperability.

 

NB: In the USA, you should check out the US Copyright Office decision that allows circumvention in some cases.

 

VideoLAN is NOT a US-based organization and is therefore outside US juridiction. [sic]

 

[...]

 

libaacs is a research project and has an interoperability purpose (see above point).

 

Moreover, libaacs DOES NOT provide any decryption key. It is based on the official public AACS specification only.

 

Maybe the reason VLC is not able to play your DVD, is that they have found a way to stop it guessing the keys (as you mentioned the possibility of some sort of protection) anything on the cover to say it is protected?

 

No actual idea what I'm talking about...

[Gongalong]

I'm sure it's some form of copy protection, so that makes sense.

[Gongalong]

POT player wouldn't play it at all. Just displayed a black screen and nothing else.

 

I got VLC to work, basically I could not skip any trailers or other chapters. I had to just wait and let it play properly, then eventually the menu opened.

 

Kudos to @sadams1980 as Media Player Classic both plays it *and* allows me to skip trailers - I discovered though that the DVD drive in my PC was set on Region 1, which Media Player Classic cared about, but VLC doesn't.

[LeMarchand]

POT player wouldn't play it at all. Just displayed a black screen and nothing else.

 

I got VLC to work, basically I could not skip any trailers or other chapters. I had to just wait and let it play properly, then eventually the menu opened.

 

Kudos to @sadams1980 as Media Player Classic both plays it *and* allows me to skip trailers - I discovered though that the DVD drive in my PC was set on Region 1, which Media Player Classic cared about, but VLC doesn't.

 

IIRC you can change region on the drive a very limited number of times (without using 3rd party software). UK is R2. Might be worth changing it.

[Gongalong]

Yes, only 3 times left on this particular drive. I remember it being around 5 times typically. I've changed to UK, as it's so rare to use DVDs now.

[DrBeaker]

Like most of the things the 'tech giants' implement. Looking forward and deciding what we want/need...

 

I do remember reading something about licensing the DVD codecs...?

 

But it's like most modern systems not having DVD players (everything is streamed now y'know) or VGA sockets, or iPhones without headphone jacks, or iPads not being able to upgrade to the latest iOS... etc, etc, etc.

 

Sometimes I understand that you cannot support 'old tech' forever, but I agree it's sure annoying for the rest of us!

 

Also, we keep telling ourselves that 'schools' should be an important part of their selling demographic, but as Windows 10 Education taught us... we are not!

 

Depending on a case-by-case basis it's sometimes easier and cheaper to buy a half-a-dozen/dozen of the same DVD and play that instead of faffing around with streaming, bandwidth, logins, maximum account playback restrictions etc. This way at least the experience is consistent from a teaching/student viewpoint then.

 

I have enough headaches as it is so anything to just make things work is great in my book IMHO. After all - K.I.S.S. remember!

[Gongalong]

I did a bit more testing:

 

VLC does open the DVD, but you can't skip the 4 minutes of trailers. If you skip anything it just drops you back at the start, so you have to wait for it all to finish.

Thanks @sadams1980 as Media Player Classic is better than VLC, as it allows skipping of the trailers. Still takes 30 seconds to skip all the trailers, but a better option than VLC.

 

I looked at ripping the DVD - legal grey area, we own several copies, just to get past all the trailer faff. VLC nor Handbrake will rip it properly, presumably due to all the copy protection. DVDFab will do it, but US$55.

[Arthur]

VLC nor Handbrake will rip it properly, presumably due to all the copy protection. DVDFab will do it, but US$55.

FWIW, MakeMKV will almost certainly do it and it's currently free.