Testing compilations. flash, programs, question, driving

andy

Hi, this is a pretty simple question, but it's driving me nuts.  Are there any free programs that let you watch a DVD from your hard drive after youve made a test compilation?  I read on a DVD Lab Pro Guide that PowerDVD does it, but I can only get it to play the .VOBs.  I can play one and see all my menus flash by, but I can't get it to play the DVD from my Hard drive and it's driving me nuts.  If there is some way to get PowerDVD to play from a Video_TS folder, or a free program that can do it will someone tell me?

Hi!

Try using the freeware quot;VLCquot; player.

(If the compilation is a properly structured DVD quot;packagequot; of .IFOs, .BUPs, and .VOBs, a little bit of researching the PowerDVD quot;Helpquot; files should result in you being able to quotlay as DVDquot; under PowerDVD)

Getting PowerDVD to play a ripped DVD is not very difficult. Start PowerDVD, click ctrl-O, click on quot;Open DVD file on hard disk drivequot;, navigate to the folder (not one of the files) and click quot;OKquot;.

IMHO PowerDVD is not a good choice to test DVD because it doesn't support full dvd commands. For example sometimes it doesn't show up the subtitles (with the SetSTN precommand in a PGC for example) that other players (hardware amp; software) correctly show.
The best method IMHO is to use Sonic CinePlayer (for what i've seen is the best sw DVD player for test the authoring on a PC platform) to test the DVD on PC and an hardware DVD player for security.

Well, I upgraded to a newer version of PowerDVD and it was no problem right after I asked the question.  I know i'd used it in the past to play Video_TS folders, but I thought that was with an older version than I had when I was having problems... maybe not, I don't know.  Either way thanks for your input and suggestions.