I am trying to transfer video from my Panasonic EH75V and EH55, to my Vista computer, using DVD-R discs. The discs play ok in Media Player, and I can see the chapters. When I copy the disc, I get a VIDEO_TS folder, and it won't play at all. Why? There are 25 titles on this DVD. I hope that I don't have to convert each title to an mpg file.

Thanks

You must go into the Video TS folder, and initiate playback (using your desired player) from usually the first VTS that's displayed in the listed files...

I'm guessing you didn't get the problems with the external hdd playing RAM discs worked out? :(

I'm using a Toshiba RD-XS54 to record YouTube videos from my laptop via a video scan converter. I burn the video files to DVD-R and copy the VIDEO-TS folder to the HDD of my Asus N10J netbook. I get into the folder and simply double-click the .mp? file (it's associated with two other files; I forget the file extension) and it automatically plays in my DVD software player.

I rename the .mp? file manually to give me a hint on what content is on the video. The whole idea behind this is the N10J netbook has a little Atom processor so has a 4-5 hr battery life during plane trips. I therefore have access to YouTube videos without internet access (I can't afford business class - not sure they have internet access anyway). I have about five hours of YouTube videos stored on my netbook.

The 10" netbooks have no DVD (hardware) drive, so playing music DVDs are not possible unless you go through the hassle of hooking up a USB burner (which is 2/3rd the size of the netbook!).

Now the 3-8 minute YouTube videos are pretty large, around 16 MB, but I have a 320 GB HDD on the netbook so it can hold plenty of files.

The Asus N10J netbook comes with two video cards, including an Nvidia 9300 GM gaming card so I can play games to while away the time too - heh heh ;). While I also own a powerful 17" gaming laptop, it weighs a ton and the battery life is a pitiful 1'15". Not very useful for long 7-11 hr plane rides.

Another advantage of recording YouTube videos is sometimes content by my favorite performer is pulled off the site for posting or copyright violations. I check for new uploads 2x/week and when I see something I like, I record it immediately before it goes bye-bye.

And oh, I guess I forgot to mention the video files are originally recorded to the HDD of my Toshiba RD-XS54, so if I'm watching TV and have a yearning to see one of my favorite YouTube live performances, it's right there on the HDD for playback. No need to turn on the computer, wait for bootup, and hook to the internet.

Thanks for the replies. I did get the ram disc to be recognized by the computer, but the folder and files are so different from the DVD-R. What do you do with them?

Thanks for the replies. I did get the ram disc to be recognized by the computer, but the folder and files are so different from the DVD-R. What do you do with them?


It's been a while since I worked with this, but IIRC the movie is the VRO file & is an mpeg file. I copy it to my PC's hard drive & use VideoReDo to edit out the commercials, etc. Then author & burn a DVD-R disc which will have the VIDEO_TS folder. The authoring process converts the mpeg file to the usual ones found in a VIDEO_TS folder.

What I like about using the RAM discs in my Panny is the simplicity of working with a single video file. There is only one VRO file on a RAM disc even if you recorded multiple programs. So if you record two episodes of a program you don't have to worry about which VOB file(s) to work with. I guess this could work against you if you only want a certain episode. But in that case just delete it after you load it into your editing program.

Back to the DVD-R folder(VIDEO_TS) on my computer. When I open it, and click on the BUP and IFO files, I get "windows cannot open this file". When I click on the VOB files, Media Player says "wrong geographic region". Why does Windows Media Player play the DVD-R, but not a copy of its folder(VIDEO_TS)?

Thanks

Back to the DVD-R folder(VIDEO_TS) on my computer. When I open it, and click on the BUP and IFO files, I get "windows cannot open this file". When I click on the VOB files, Media Player says "wrong geographic region". Why does Windows Media Player play the DVD-R, but not a copy of its folder(VIDEO_TS)?

ThanksWith respect to DVD-Video files on a PC. I have a large number of ripped DVD's on my PC disk farm which I stream to my plasma through my TiVo HD. I run Win-XP SP-3. If I want to view a movie on my PC, all I have to do is right-click on the file VIDEO_TS.IFO and select play for it to launch Windows Media Player 11 and start to play the movie. Alternatively, from within WMP I can use the File Open dialog box to navigate to a folder and select the VIDEO_TS.IFO file. Upon selecting it, this also starts the playback of the movie. So, in principal it does work. But in order for it to work in practice you have to have all the necessary CODECs that are required and do not come with Windows. I suggest you download the free open-source K-Lite codec pack (http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm) and install it. This will give you every A/V CODEC you could ever possibly need to play back just about anything on WMP.

:confused:Kelson, which version do I download? Basic, Standard, Full:confused:
It looks like it supports Vista which is on my newer computer. I also have another question, my wife's newer LG phone uses some proprietary newfangled format for videos, (3g2) which none of my PCs can play, will these codecs allow 3g2's to be played? (I didn't see it listed). I don't know why it just doesn't use something standard like my cameras(AVI I think), always something new with PC's:mad:

:confused:Kelson, which version do I download? Basic, Standard, Full:confused:
It looks like it supports Vista which is on my newer computer. I also have another question, my wife's newer LG phone uses some proprietary newfangled format for videos, (3g2) which none of my PCs can play, will these codecs allow 3g2's to be played? (I didn't see it listed). I don't know why it just doesn't use something standard like my cameras(AVI I think), always something new with PC's:mad:You need at least standard to play DVD video. I have full installed, so that is what I would recommend.

I don't know anything about 3g2.

You can use the freeware program DVDShrink to make a Video_TS file that is compatible for playback. I prefer VLC media player over Windows Media Player.

Thanks Kelson. I tried the K-Lite codec pack, but nothing changed. WMP-11 keeps saying that the DVD will not play in my geographic region. I don't understand.
The actual DVD will play, but not the folder, or the files inside.

Thanks Kelson. I tried the K-Lite codec pack, but nothing changed. WMP-11 keeps saying that the DVD will not play in my geographic region. I don't understand.
The actual DVD will play, but not the folder, or the files inside.
Maybe find a free file compare software and compare the files on the disc and on the HDD. That might tell you why the HDD files don't play. A comparison program that can compare all of the files in a folder would be ideal.

Sky

Enclosed is a screencap of how my dvd folders look. WinDVD icons are assigned to numbered VTS files. Clicking on them, initiates playback via that player (RAM discs content imported to the pc also has the WinDVD icon inside the DVD_RTAV-2nd photo). I can right click them and select WMP if I wanted to use it. The other VOBs with that file icon cannot be played though.

Try another media player, VLC if you can. It's free.

Back to the DVD-R folder(VIDEO_TS) on my computer. When I open it, and click on the BUP and IFO files, I get "windows cannot open this file". When I click on the VOB files, Media Player says "wrong geographic region". Why does Windows Media Player play the DVD-R, but not a copy of its folder(VIDEO_TS)?

Thanks

I have a backup copy of my YouTube videos on DVD-RAM, so I tried what you said and inserted the disc in my laptop. I get the same issue that I can see two folders and they appear to be blank and I get an error message when I open them (I'm running Vista Business). But I haven't bothered to fully update the Asus DVD player that came with my netbook.

However it's a moot point as the files on DVD-R transfer and play fine. I just double-click on the largest MPEG file for each video and it opens up in my software DVD player.

If the DVD-R disc ever goes bad, I just copy the files back to HDD from the DVD-RAM disc and redub them over to DVD-R and finalize. So I really don't need the DVD-RAM disc to copy over the files to my netbook.

The problem might be that I "copied" the Video_TS folder from the DVD-R, instead of "ripping" the DVD-R. Is there a difference? I have never ripped a DVD, so I don't know. How is this done?

Thanks

The problem might be that I "copied" the Video_TS folder from the DVD-R, instead of "ripping" the DVD-R. Is there a difference? I have never ripped a DVD, so I don't know. How is this done?

Thanks

How did you prepare the DVD-R? I did it the usual way by copying video recordings to the DVD-R on my HDD recorder, than finalizing the disk. I insert the disk into the burner attached to my netbook via USB port, then copy the Video_TS folder to the HDD on my netbook. Each video is associated with an .MPEG, .BUP, and I think another >MPE? file. I double-click on the largest file (.MPEG) and the video plays.

I don't even bother converting YouTube videos to MP3 files; hey, I can capture the video too, and it's as simple as pressing the REC and STOP buttons on my RD-XS54.

One very easy way to save youTube videos directly to your computer, if you don't want to go through the process of recording them on DVD on a standalone recorder first, then copying that DVD over to your computer, is to use Firefox with the DownloadHelper plugin (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006).

The problem might be that I "copied" the Video_TS folder from the DVD-R, instead of "ripping" the DVD-R. Is there a difference? I have never ripped a DVD, so I don't know.No, it's the same. The term ripping was coined for CD's because they do not have a PC recognizable file system to get the audio off by simple file copying. A program was required to "rip" the audio information off the CD and create a .WAV file. DVD's do have a PC recognizable file structure but the content is encrypted so you can't do a simple copy. Thus the name ripper stuck for DVD copying programs that crack the CSS protection. Once you have a DVD-video disk with no content protection, you can do a simple drag-n-drop of the VIDEO_TS folder from the disk to your HDD.

Thanks for the replies. Whenever I open one of the files in the Video_TS folder, WMP 11 opens the entire folder, and I can see the chapters on the right side, but then it says "wrong geographic region for this DVD". Is there any way to make this folder "region free"?

I tried VLC player. It will play the titles, but not the chapters. It is hard to find things on a 2 hour title, with no chapters. Will VLC play the titles and the chapters?

Yes, one way is under the Media menu in VLC, choose Open Disc... and then browse under the Disc tab to your VIDEO_TS folder. Click OK, then Play.

Assuming you have chapter marks in your menu, Bob's your uncle.