Does MakeMKV support CSS-MR discs?

[pneumatic]

I was going to buy this DVD but it says in the description the discs are burned using Warner Bros "Media On Demand" (MOD) system which as far as I can tell is where the official distributor burns you a copy onto DVD-R.

However I've just read this...

these kind of "burn on demand" disks use CSS-MR (Content Scramble System - Managed Recording), which is a completely different specification than the one for CSS. Consequently, special burners, special dvd-r disks, and special burning software are required.

Only "DVD Download" certified drives can read them, due to the differences between the two standards. If you have a certified drive, it should work. If your drive isn't certified for CSS-MR, you're likely to have problems.

So I'm curious to know if anyone has successfully ripped such discs and if MakeMKV is even compatible with them (assuming my drives are - some users in the thread saying their drives will read them).

Thanks

[Ezatoka]

I don't know anything about this copy protection.

But I somehow doubt, that they would have to sell DVD players which are able to play these things.

Besides, on Amazon.com and eBay the discs are cheaper than $30.

[pneumatic]

But I somehow doubt, that they would have to sell DVD players which are able to play these things.

If you read the videohelp thread it says Warner Bros hacked the DVD-R spec to make it only play on "play only" devices, and here is the back of the case

[Ezatoka]

But I somehow doubt, that they would have to sell DVD players which are able to play these things.

If you read the videohelp thread it says Warner Bros hacked the DVD-R spec to make it only play on "play only" devices, and here is the back of the case

I be damned... now I'm curious how the file system looks like.

[pneumatic]

Well I ordered it just now, we'll see what happens when it arrives.

I can see someone has successfully ripped it elsewhere so I'm betting it's possible.

[Sunoo]

I’ve had no issues ripping Warner Archive “DVD Download” discs.

[dmitche3]

I just opened a question regarding the same issue. The Man From UNCLE 8-Moives Collection notes the same thing. Only two of the four discs I've been able to rip so far.

And Yes, I believe that they are a DVD-R. and not a DVD. They are purple.

It appears to rip a title and at the end of it it states: "Error 'OS error - This device does not exist' occurred while reading '/VIDEO_TS/VTS_04_1.VOB' at offset '0'

[Billycar11]

I just opened a question regarding the same issue. The Man From UNCLE 8-Moives Collection notes the same thing. Only two of the four discs I've been able to rip so far.

And Yes, I believe that they are a DVD-R. and not a DVD. They are purple.

It appears to rip a title and at the end of it it states: "Error 'OS error - This device does not exist' occurred while reading '/VIDEO_TS/VTS_04_1.VOB' at offset '0'

thats a power error

[dmitche3]

Strange. I tried two different DVD readers and they both come up with the same message. The first is my external which ripped four others after this one and it hasn't given me any problems before. The other is an internal. I can't imagine a half dozen power fluctuations when tried to rip these two DVDs. And it always reads to the same spot before it errors out, nearly 2/3rds of the title.
I'm curious as to what it is that they have done to the DVD so as to cause the reader to perform an act that a player would not perform? Or at least I am guessing that it what they are doing here.

[pneumatic]

Well I got the discs and they are purple DVD-R's single layer too. Given how bad the print quality is on the cover art you'd be easily mistaken thinking these were indeed bootleg copies, but apparently Warner Bros really did do this silly "burn on demand" scheme back in 2012.

Anyway all the discs ripped fine with MakeMKV, but the image quality is shit compared to the other DVD rip that's floating around online. Basically it looks like really low bit rate with a lot of macroblocking. Bitrate is 3mbps according to videoinfo, which I suppose is to be expected for single layer discs.

The Wikipedia article only mentions Warner Bros doing a single DVD release of this show in 2012 for their "burn on demand" service so I don't know why my copy is so shit compared to the other DVD rip. I can only speculate that maybe Warner Bros originally burned dual layer discs at higher bitrate and later on switched to single layers at half bitrate to save money?

Anyway I'm pissed cause this is a rare show and I was looking forward to even better quality than some random person's transcode. Guess I"ll be selling it then. They don't want us to pirate stuff, but when we do the morally right thing and buy, they give us shittier quality than what the pirates have. You try and do the right thing and they just shit in your face. Mill Creek and Viavision doing similar shenanigans with low bitrate single layer discs and using rubbish quality masters too.

[pneumatic]

I'm now just noticing the seller's listing page says "region all" but everywhere else it mentions it's only region 1. So I must have gotten a different version. Maybe someone exploited the fact it's hard to tell apart from a bootleg and just made a bootleg? Found another article where it says Amazon was going to release it on their "media on demand" service later on, maybe it's Amazon's resold version of Warner Bros media on demand?

[dcoke22]

You could try renting it. Scarecrow Video has the first season at least for rent by mail.

https://scarecrowvideo.org/library/rentalItem/Z9bGeA0f7q4dUp3vsXDjdUlllXJ30Rp

If you're in Australia, I have no idea if they'd rent it to you. Scarecrow Video is based in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Looking it up on Warner Archive, you can find it, but there are a no buy links, despite text that says the show is available on DVD. On other titles with buy links, they all point to Best Buy or War-Mart or Amazon.

Is it possible the files online are someone's up-rez of the low quality version on DVD?

[Sunoo]

Bootlegs of the DVD-R Warner Archive discs are rampant, because it’s much harder to prove when you were expecting a DVD-R to begin with.

[pneumatic]

Is it possible the files online are someone's up-rez of the low quality version on DVD?

Definitely not. I did some A-B screenshot comparisons on the same frames and there is a ton of macroblocking on my copy and none in the channel BT version. The BT version has been transcoded to h264 so even after generation loss it still looks a lot better with much better texture details.

The link you provided also mentions "region free" so that is probably the same version as what I've got. Whereas other listings on eBay say "region 1" and I'm guessing that's the version that ended up on channel BT.

The annoying thing about the BT version is it's been inverse telecined to 24p which is usually good but this show uses a lot of mixed framerates like the special effects will be at 30fps and sometimes even 60fps which don't go nicely into 24p and so there is a lot of stutter on those sections which I was looking forward to avoiding with a physical copy as I use an Avisynth script to inverse telecine to 60p instead of 24p.

[pneumatic]

Bootlegs of the DVD-R Warner Archive discs are rampant, because it’s much harder to prove when you were expecting a DVD-R to begin with.

Damn, is this something you have witnessed or are you just speculating? Sincere question.