One DVD title is failing for no obvious reason

[Dunebasher]

I have the latest version of MakeMKV (1.14.4) and it keeps refusing to save title 02 from I'm Alan Partridge series 1, disc 1. The other five titles saved normally with no issues.

The rip appears to proceed normally, with no strange noises or retries from the drive, but as soon as the progress bar hits 100% it gives me the message "Copy complete, 0 titles saved, 1 failed". There are no other error messages. That title plays normally from the DVD using DVD Player or VLC.

Any suggestions? It's ripping from a USB DVD drive that's connected directly, not via a hub.

[Woodstock]

Do you have debug logging turned on? Not all errors will be displayed if you do not. The link in my signature explains how to enable it.

[Dunebasher]

Hi Woodstock,

I thought I'd try it in Isobuster in a different DVD drive on my Windows box, and while it will rip, the resultant file is unplayable. Isobuster reports the sectors as 35% unreadable, even though the playing surface looks perfect and all the other titles on the disc ripped without problems.

The weird thing is that the title plays perfectly when you play it as a normal DVD. The errors only seem to cause problems when you try and rip it.

[ted209]

I'm having the same problem with this DVD. I've attached the log file in case it helps.

Thanks!

[Woodstock]

I suggest you send the log and .IFO files (as listed in the FAQ in my signature) to support@makemkv.com for Mike to look at. He holds the magic decoder ring that will explain the debug codes, and he may ask for additional information.

[ted209]

Done!

Thank you and apologies for not reading the FAQ beforehand.

[AlexR688]

I am also having the exact same issue with this disc - did you ever manage to solve this or hear anything back from Mike?

Thanks

[ted209]

I haven't heard anything back, although I only submitted this a couple of weeks ago.

I tested the latest version (1.14.5) and it's not fixed in that.

Strange that this is a very common DVD from 2002 and that this issue has existed for so long.

PS this is probably in the wrong forum, as I'm using windows. It looks like a cross-platform issue.

[AlexR688]

Finally had some time to look at this and have managed to find a way to get a playable MKV file (albeit with a fairly cumbersome process and without using MakeMKV).

The tools you'll need are:
A. AnyDVD HD, or another program that can rip the DVD folders to your HDD
B. DVD Shrink
C. PGCDemux
D. BDSup2Sub
E. MKVToolNix

Step 1: AnyDVD HD
a. Backup the disc using AnyDVD HD

Step 2: DVD Shrink
a. Click "Open Files" in DVD Shrink and select the folder backup made with AnyDVD HD
b. Click "Re-author" mode
c. Drag the title (for me it was Title 3) that MakeMKV won't extract over from the right panel to the left panel (so the right panel shows DVD, Title 3)
d. Click "Backup!" and choose Hard Disk folder for your output, then click ok

Step 3: PGCDemux
a. Select your input IFO from the Hard Disk folder you created in DVD Shrink
b. Select the output folder where you want to store the various components of our episode (video, audio, subtitles)
c. Make sure "Demux video stream", "Demux all audio streams", and "Demux all subpic streams" are selected, then click Process

Step 4: Convert your subtitles with BDSup2Sub
a. First, you need make sure BDSup2Sub understands the Sup file you just created. You can do this by copying the VTS_01_0.IFO file from the VIDEO_TS folder we created with DVD Shrink earlier into the same folder as the demuxed files from step 3, and then renaming it to have the same file name as the Sup file (e.g. rename it to Subpictures_20.IFO
b. Open the Sup file with BDSup2Sub, and then export it as idx/sub

Step 5: Create the MKV file
a. Open MKVToolNix GUI and add the video file, the audio streams you want, and the newly created idx file into the MKV file and then multiplex

This gave me a playable MKV file for that episode that has all the audio and subtitles, and is playable on Plex. Hope this helps.

[ted209]

Update: MakeMKV still can't rip the disc as at v1.14.7

But DVDFab 11.0.6.5 can rip it (losslessly to mkv by using passthrough mode). It chugged away from around 75% of ripping title 2 (the same point at which MakeMKV fails) but it successfully completes the rip.

I just wanted to flag this up to show that:
a) there is a simpler workaround for anyone who needs it
b) there's nothing technically un-rippable about this DVD, so this might help the developers improve MakeMKV