Software/hardware - Windows 7 not reading mpeg2 from dvd drive

Not sure if this is a hardware or software problem.
I recorded HI8 tapes onto DVDs using an LG dr275 recorder, which records to mpeg2 according to the manual. (I finalized the recordings so that's not the issue). The DVDs play on the DVD player fine, but when I try to play them on the pc (I want to be able to save to hard drive and also edit) using Windows 7 the DVDs read as empty. I then installed a trial version of Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 thinking it was a codec issue, but the DVDs still get read as empty. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978206
it appears that Power DVD is the problem. Uninstall it and try VLC.

 

Thanks for your reply

If you read my post you will see that the problem occurred before I installed Power DVD - I installled it in the hope it would resolve the problem.

I uninstalled Power DVD and installed VLC - still will not read.

I have tried on XP pc, but DVD reads as empty as well.

Any other help?

 

Hi

Are you able to browse the files within the DVDs using Windows Explorer?

One media player I use (free) is called The KMPlayer. You could always give that a shot to see if it will play them.

 

No, the DVD is read as empty on both Windows 7 and XP, but plays on the DVD player - i.e. non-pc DVD player

 

Greetings, killian.

So, the disks are obviously not empty. If you haven't already done so, try showing hidden files and unhiding system files in Windows Explorer, see if that makes a difference.

Also, just for curiosity's sake, try reading them in Safe Mode and/or with a Linux disk.

 

My guess is a driver issue with your ROM drive in your computer. Have you tried uninstalling the drivers, rebooting, and letting Windows find the drivers again? Corrupt drivers can cause this, and it wouldn't be the first time I've seen it happen (it's happened to me before).

 

The problem is on a Windows 7 machine, and also on a recently reinstalled XP machine

 

In that case... it could simply be a recorder issue (the recorder didn't put certain file properties within the files for Windows to be able to see them), in which case reading the disks with a Linux live distro could present the option of finding the files on the disks.

Do you still happen to have the HI-8 tapes? If so, you might be better off re-creating the DVDs using a hardware encoder that is able to connect to the camcorder or a HI-8 player.

 

I was trying to do this without having to buy anything...

 

Just a suggestion- have you got quicktime installed- might just read the dvd's in mpeg2 format