Playing copied files in Windows Media

[gillville]

I purchased a new TV for the first time over in a decade. The new TV says you can play movies etc. via windows media player from your hard drive. It would be so cool to store my large DVD collection elsewhere, but have quick acces to them. So much better than getting up constantly to change DVD disks in the player!

I have copied many of my box sets of disks onto my hard drive. But when I try to open them windows media player instantly closes and Power DVD opens then says the files are the wrong region and refuses to open them. I believe I need a codec for the VOB files. Where can I get a free codec that's safe to install? And will the codec allow me to play all my VOB files that DVDFab has created? I can't even get windows media player to open my home movies which also appear to be VOB files.
Please help! Thankx, J

[FABFANATIC]

Hi, if you would answer the following questions, I should be able to advise you how to play VOB files and the VIDEO_TS folder in Windows Media Player,

1, Does WMPlayer actually play a normal DVD when it is loaded in the PC Disk drive ?
2, Are your home movies on a disc, or is it one file per home movie (What type of file) ?
3, Regarding your movie collection on the hard-drive;- is it one VOB file per movie title or are several files contained in a VIDEO_TS folder per movie ?

These details will help me to help you.

[Mona]

Hi gillville,

You need to make sure that you have specified the right region code (the original disc's region code) when you ripped the movie, or you will still have a region protected output file on your hard drive.

You might want to install FFDSHOW for wmp codec, you can find FFDSHOW at

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_video/codecs/ffdshow.cfm

Regards,

mona

[gillville]

I copied it in region 1 which is USA and correct for me.

WMPlayer will not play the original disks for many movies. I never even tried to play a movie in WMPlayer before now, but it will not play other box set original disks either. Example The Closer season 5 disks and NCIS seasons 3 to 7 none of them will play. I tried "open with" and scroll to WMPlayer. WMPlayer opens, then immediately closes, then Power video opens and then I get a wrong region code message. When I try to open my home movie files located on my hard drive. I open the video folder then right click on a single file in the folder and highlight "open with", I scroll to WMPlayer, it says it can't open the files and asks if I want to search the internet for the program that created it. The home movie files as well as the original disk file copies created by DVDFAb are VOB files. All the copies (home as well as movie) are in VIDEO-TS folders which have multiple files in them.

XP operating system
Dell Inspiron 530 2 duo processor Q6600 @240GHz
1.58 GHz 3.24Gb of RAM
Copying files to my C drive initially, then copy to a portable TB hard drive for storage
no changes to OP or system hardware
I have a paid DVDFab subscription
DVDFAb updated to 8.0.7.3

[FABFANATIC]

Hi, gillville,
Thanks for the info, the first thing to check is if the region code is set for the disc player for your region (ie, 1). To check this-with the disc drive empty, open DVDFab,right click on the green circle (at the top), it should open the info page, because I'm in the UK, mine says Drive region 2. yours should say region 1.

If (after resetting it to the correct region if necessary) the WMPlayer does not play your DVD's, then the "codecs" required have not been installed.

The correct method of playing the contents of a VIDEO_TS folder is as follows;-open the folder and open (double click) the VIDEO_TS (.ifo) file, this usually plays in WMPlayer just like the DVD does.

On the subject of codecs;- my personal preference is to install the K-Lite mega Codec Pack (current version 690), (just google it).
Please let me know how you get on.