Version 8.0.0.2 Still early days, but same menu problem

[reeman50]

I have just downloaded the new version 8.0.0.2 of DVDFab, and although I know that it is early days, the same problem with menus not working that was happening with version 7 continues.

I am mainly talking about the jump to a scene or chapter menus on the animated Mr Bean Series (Region 4 Australia), but there seem to be increasingly more discs lately that suffer a similar fate.

Clicking on the forward arrow should take you to the next episode, but instead it dumps you back to the main menu.

Now I know that I am not allowed to mention competing software on this forum, but it is an entirely freeware program that has not been updated in years that I now use instead of DVDFab on these series of 6 DVDs, and this fortunately does make the chapter or episode menus work.

As I only purchased these animated Mr Bean DVDs earlier this year I cannot be sure that any previous version of DVDFab made the episode menus work, but as this is increasingly happening with more movies it could be that something got broken somewhere along the line without me knowing it at the time.

Things have not changed with reference to this admittedly minor inconvenience in version 8.x, but I really do appreciate the nifty feature which allows it as well as version 7.x to happily co-exist under each of the three different OSs I currently use on my triple boot setup.

This definitely makes comparing the versions more convenient, and also makes reverting back to the last working version that much easier and faster than it would have otherwise been.

Has anyone else noticed a similar increase in the unreliability of menus working as they were designed to on full disc backups to a folder to their computer's hard disk, or am I just unlucky in buying these particular DVD titles which are not really anything recent or exotic (as I tend to like more of the older titles in preference to those released later than 1990)?

reeman50

[AGJ]

Have you tried with Pathplayer Disabled for those older DVDs? That usually works for me as Pathplayer sometimes removes playable content on menus for older movies if used

[reeman50]

I have chosen the option to "Enable Path Player when necessary", so should I disable it completely instead since I do not know whether it felt that it was necessary and therefore the program enabled it without my knowledge when copying that particular series of discs?

What makes this problem especially difficult to diagnose and treat is that there are no errors being reported, and according to the dialog the copying process has completed successfully.

It is only once you test the jump to scene function that you normally find out that anything is actually wrong.

How will I know ahead of time which discs will need Path Player when necessary re-enabled?

reeman50

[StormJumper]

I have chosen the option to "Enable Path Player when necessary", so should I disable it completely instead since I do not know whether it felt that it was necessary and therefore the program enabled it without my knowledge when copying that particular series of discs?

What makes this problem especially difficult to diagnose and treat is that there are no errors being reported, and according to the dialog the copying process has completed successfully.

It is only once you test the jump to scene function that you normally find out that anything is actually wrong.

How will I know ahead of time which discs will need Path Player when necessary re-enabled?

reeman50

There are issues with the setting
"Enable Path Player when necessary" it is best to have it set as "Always enabled" unless you have problems...mostly with older movie titles then disable it for those backups and then re-set it back to "Always enabled" afterwords

[maineman]

Agree with SJ. Do not select "if necessary"

Most users select Always enable PP and disable it when necessary...which is fairly infrequent, btw.
If you prefer, you can do the reverse and enable PP when you wish.
Should you choose the disabled setting, expect more trouble with recent releases.
This doesn't make it wrong, it just is what it is.

A few additional thoughts.
Nothing wrong with mentioning freeware here on the forum, particularly when related to troubleshooting a disc that Fab stumbles on.
It has to be shrink or dvd decrypter that you're talking about.
I use 'em on a rare occasion myself when I get that disc that just won't rip...usually an old one or an unusual authoring.
I believe most of us still keep these apps around.
They're like old friends.

I love the advanced navigation features in PathPlayer, but...depending on the disc, the change playback order doesn't work consistently.
I've found that series discs and discs with alternate endings/alternate scenes are especially problematic.

[reeman50]

My sincere thanks must be expressed to AGJ,

This message is to let you know that as most of my DVD collection are titles produced before the year 2000, I have decided to leave the path player disabled, and at least with the region 4 DVD "Catch That Kid" it now gives me a working copy with version 8.0.0.5 of DVDFab, which would not even load before I changed this option from path player if needed.

I have not had the opportunity yet to see whether it also helps with animated Mr Bean, but will report back here once I have tested this out with the new setting.

And thanking everyone else as well for their added helpful input, as this is always much appreciated by yours truly.

Cheers 2 all,

reeman50

[AGJ]

Your welcome and I have a lot of older movies as well and always disable Pathplayer for them as if not disabled some content get removed that should not be. The way to tell is by going into common settings info to see what Pathplayer reports as being removed. If it reports stuff then disable it if old DVD that not been re-released. I usually check for DVDs released in 2005 and older.

[reeman50]

AGJ,

I have only just tried copying Season 5 of animated Mr Bean with path player disabled, and the menus finally work properly as they were originally designed to.

You have really made my day as this has increasingly become a problem for me since the path player option was introduced way back when.

I am now going to try recopying some of the other titles which may have also been affected by this setting being inappropriate for the age of the discs.

I had always assumed up until you made me aware of this that the program was intelligent enough to only use path player with titles that have that form of copy protection.

As I have just discovered the long and hard way, but have been greatly assisted by you bringing it to my attention, evidently it is not so smart after all.

Thanks everyone,

reeman50