I just received a DVD-R (actual DVD-Video format, not just a data disc) of some video to upload.

Stupid disc would not rip for crap! “DVD Player” would play the disc, but it appeared to be playing nothing. The Finder window for the disc said “0 items”! Using the Terminal to read the disc got me this:

BRAT:SONY_DVD_RECORDER_VOLUME brat_mac$ ls -al
ls: .: Permission denied

WTF!

How about the permissions of the disc? Hmmm:

d–x–x—

WTF! Why would a DVD-R standalone burner burn a disc like this!!?!?

Fine. Brute force:

BRAT:SONY_DVD_RECORDER_VOLUME brat_mac $ cd VIDEO_TS
BRAT:VIDEO_TS brat_mac $ ls -al
total 5921600
dr-xr-xr-x 2 brat_mac brat_mac 456 Jan 2 2004 .
d–x–x— 3 brat_mac brat_mac 88 Jan 2 2004 ..
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 12288 Jan 2 2004 VIDEO_TS.BUP
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 12288 Jan 2 2004 VIDEO_TS.IFO
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 98304 Jan 2 2004 VIDEO_TS.VOB
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 36864 Jan 2 2004 VTS_01_0.BUP
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 36864 Jan 2 2004 VTS_01_0.IFO
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 1073709056 Jan 2 2004 VTS_01_1.VOB
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 1073709056 Jan 2 2004 VTS_01_2.VOB
-r-xr-xr-x 1 brat_mac brat_mac 884240384 Jan 2 2004 VTS_01_3.VOB
BRAT:VIDEO_TS brat_mac $ cp VTS* /Volumes/*Mode

Logic on this: All DVDs have a “VIDEO_TS” directory, so I changed directories to where
the disc said there was nothing, and - viola! - there WAS something! A simple copy command (cp), and now I have the DVD.

A huge F U to Sony for making a machine so user UNfriendly!

I want my 20 minutes back!

So, to all of you hitting this blog from a Google search for “SONY_DVD_RECORDER_VOLUME” won’t rip, try this (on a Mac):

* put the disc in
* open “Terminal”
* Change directories to the disc (most likely “cd /Volumes/SONY_DVD_RECORDER_VOLUME”, without the quotes)
* Change directories to the VIDEO_TS folder (”cd VIDEO_TS”, without the quotes)
* Copy the VOB files to another drive (”cp VTS* ~”, without the quotes - that would copy the VOB files to your home directory)

Hope I saved you some headaches!