Thread: About Moser Baer DVDs

I just got a movie (Saajan) which is sold by Moser Baer. The DVD cost just rs. 39, but when I opened it, I found to my surprise that it was a DVD-9. There are seven 1 GB files in it. I didn't think it would be so cheap... But this is where the problem starts - after the 7th 1 GB file, there is a small 8th file (about 40 MB I think), and that is the last file in the movie, but the movie is still running, it has not completed. It stops all of a sudden, with no other file after it. :48: Has anyone else had any similar experience?

Now Moser Baer has this quality assurance thing, and they take back damaged stuff, so would this qualify as damaged?

Edited later: I've tried inserting the DVD again to see if maybe it would work, but the problem of the eighth file being the last file is still there. However, I opened the movie with VLC player and it is able to play the full movie :happy: not sure exactly how it does it. It shows the entire timeline of about two hours and something minutes. After the part where the eighth file ends, there is more than half an hour of movie left! So in a way the problem is solved. But I still can't understand why there's problems with displaying the files; anyone know anything about this?

nobody seems to have an answer for this ...

Strange of course

Please explain how you are playing the movie?

Are you playing a .VOB file (your post seems to indicate so)? Or are you playing the full movie (DVD) in WMP or PowerDVD or WinDVD?

Note that if you play a .VOB file independently, it will play the file and then hang because the player does not know what file to play next.

DVD video content is broken into titles (movies or albums) and parts of titles (chapters or songs). Titles are made up of cells linked together by one or more Program Chains (PGCs). A cell is the smallest video unit on a DVD. Often a cell is equal to a chapter but not always. Cells are sometimes grouped together using VOB IDs.

The links to VOB Ids are mainted in .IFO files. IFO Files give the player important navigational information, like where a chapter starts, where a certain audio or subtitle stream is located, etc.

Hence if you play a .VOB file, after the file completes, it does not know where to go to next.

Note: Moser Baer DVDs are not encrypted via Macrovision or CSS. And hence you will be able to play the .VOB file directly. In case of DVDs protected by Macrovision or CSS (such as those purchased abroad), you cannot play a .VOB file directly.

If I open the VOB files separately with VLC player, the problem occurs with the eighth file ending up all of a sudden, but if I use the play DVD option in VLC, then it shows one timeline of the full movie, and the movie also plays fully. If the files were all intact on the DVD, they should open any way I want them to - the eighth file should also open directly and run its full length, but that doesn't happen.

And there are one or two of the 1 GB VOBs where Media Player Classic gives an error of not finding the stream, so then it cannot seek, but if I open the same file with VLC, it can seek anywhere in the file.

These problems will occur if you play individual VOB files with any player. J4k's explanation is correct. Use WMP/Power DVD/Win DVD to play DVD movies. Nero Showtime is also a good option.

Bottomline - VOB files should never be played directly.

Let me tell you one thing. If there are eight .VOB files with suffix as '1', '2', '3', etc., it does not necessarily mean that file 1 is the first part that contains the first sequence of the movie, file 2 is the second part that contains the second sequence of the movie, etc.

The VOB cells could be placed anywhere. The first 10 VOB Ids may be in file 1 but 11 to 15 may be in file 6, etc.