Badmovies.org Forum

Okay, I'm at the end of my rope with this DVD of Attack of the Crab Monsters I got. I tried to watch it with my computer's DVD drive (an Iomega Super DVD), and that apparently comes free with Sonic CinePlayer. CinePlayer refuses to play the disc, which it calls "Logical label." It makes it past the FBI warning and the Allied Artists logo before stopping and giving me a popup that says "The DVD volume is invalid!"

I installed InterActual Player (as my Star Wars DVDs had constantly bugged me to anyway), but InterActual says it's a disc with "new features" and made me "switch drives" (WTF?) before allowing me to play the disc with it - whereupon all it would play was the FBI warning and the AI logo, as if that was all that was on the disc. However, later, out of desperation, I was finally able to access the movie's chapters using Windows Media Player of all things, but this is very bothersome, and if I try to skip ahead there's a 50-50 chance WMP will freeze up due to the tax of such a huge file (or so it would appear).

The only thing I can think of is this DVD, bought off eBay, is a forgery despite arriving shrinkwrapped. The back of the disc (the 'shiny side') is a dark purple instead of a light gold, the way most homemade discs I've seen are, and there's a general cheapness to the look of the front cover insert, as thought it's a photocopy of the official DVD's insert. In which case, I was gypped into buying a pirated DVD sold as the real deal. However this shouldn't make a difference. I'm able to watch homemade DVDs using Iomega all the time!

And here's the kicker, the final thing that confuses the hell out of me and has me begging for people's help (not necessarily to be able to watch the film, but rather just to solve the mystery): the DVD plays fine on the DVD player in the living room. What gives? Why will the disc play fine on that player and not my Iomega drive?????

If the underside of the disc is purple then it is certainly a bootleg.  Sounds like it's a bad copy or a "coaster" as bootleggers like to call them.  Contact the Ebay seller and ask for either a proper, working replacement or a refund.

Duane has a thread on the BMC & BMG forum that might be helpful:

http://www.bmoviecentral.com/bmoviecentral/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17

Never seen a legitimate "Attack of the Crab Monsters" DVD myself.

Thanks, you guys. Dang it! This really grinds my gears. :hatred:

Oh well, at least I now know I'm apparently not the only one with this problem.