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[Rizlaw]

Although I haven't tried it, I have read in this forum that MC9/10 is supposed to be able to play DVD movies when a dvd movie is inserted in a dvd drive provided you have dvd player software installed. What I don't understand is why MC10 has no ability to store and identify the dvd movie files (IFO, VOB, BUP) ripped and stored on a HDD in a VIDEO_TS folder so they can be played back without the original DVD disc.

It would be nice if MC10 could catalog movies ripped and stored on a HDD; display them as thumbnails in Hairstyle and allow playback, through Hairstyle, by clicking on a Thumbnail image of the movie's DVD cover.

Media Center Registered 10.0.38 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 3069 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 702 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.57 (1008) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.57 (1008)

Ripping /   Drive I:   Copy mode:ModeSecure   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Drive J:   Copy mode:ModeSecure   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive I: PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-105    Addr: 0:1:0  Speed:16  MaxSpeed:16  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[msnell]

I second this suggestion. Playing DVDs ripped to the hard drive would be great. Other solutions on the market are not nearly as elegant as a MC integrated option would be.

A DVD decoder plug-in for MC (for a fee) would be great too. I have spent too much time trying to get other encoders to work with no luck. I'd pay money for one which works.

[dragyn]

This probably won't help you that much but rename it to .mpeg and MC will read it. I have a few vobs that work this way.

[Buckaroo]

This probably won't help you that much but rename it to .mpeg and MC will read it. I have a few vobs that work this way.

Yes, but I'd really want MC to treat a ripped DVD just like a normal one (automatic menu access and such).

[jleerigby]

Maybe I'm missing something here but I used DVD decrypter to rip a DVD to my HDD and could play it back fine.  I used My computer view in MC to navigate to the Video_TS folder and there was a file called something like DVD...Blah file.  This played fine and I could import this file into the library, tag it, add cover art, view in Hairstyle etc.

I've since renamed all the .vobs to separate mpegs so I can catalogue and tag each music track manually.

Maybe you should check out the settings you are using in your ripper and if you're not using DVD Decrypter then try that.

I'm using the codec from PowerDVD BTW.

[Rizlaw]

JLee,

IMHO, I think what you are missing is simply that MC does not recognize the container file format "VOB" for mpeg video, or the dvd "IFO" navigation files. As a result, if you use DVD DeCrypter 3.1.9.0 and backup all of the files from a DVD movie to a HDD folder like "D:\THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD\VIDEO_TS", MC10 is unable to playback the movie because it simply doesn't understand the file formats involved. Even using "My Computer" from the Tree, as you suggest, does not work (for me) and crashes MC10.0.38.  Renaming VOB file(s) extension(s) to mpeg is not really an answer; let alone an elegant answer.

What MC needs, at a minimum, is the ability to understand the file formats (VOB and IFO) and then, when it sees them in a VIDEO_TS folder, to call the user's software DVD player (PowerDVD, WinDVD, TheaterTEK, etc) to play the movie.

[jleerigby]

I did not say that renaming to mpeg is the answer.  I merely said that I'd done that since successfully playing the movie as a DVD.  Before I ripped the DVD in IFO mode split by chapter I ripped it in x mode (File mode I think) whereupon it played back like a normal DVD.  I could access the DVD menu, select chapters etc.

I did it - I saw it - and it worked!  Honest!

I used the default settings in DVDD 'cos I didn't know what I was doing at that point.  Now I now what I'm doing, within reason, I rip differently so I can have music videos in mpegs instead of having to play the whole DVD.

[Rizlaw]

I did it - I saw it - and it worked!  Honest!

JLee,

I am not doubting your personal success, however, I can't duplicate it and I do know what I am doing when it comes to backing up my personal DVD movie collection to HDD.

Just in case, JimH or Matt or JohnT or anyone else interested reads these posts, I will explain the problem one last time.

Step 1: Use a good ripping program like DVD Decrypter to perform a COMPLETE (meaning all files on the dvd) file mode (not an IFO mode) backup of your "owned" movie(s) to HDD and correctly store all the ripped video files (VOB, IFO, BUP) for each movie in a "VIDEO_TS" folder like (D:\THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD\VIDEO_TS).

Note:  DVD DeCrypter will do all of this automatically for you, ie, create the correct folder names and structure and place all the correct video files in the correct folders, provided you select MODE: File and set TOOLS: Settings: File Mode: Select Files = ALL.

Step2: (optional) use DVDShrink to further compress the movie to save HDD space or to reauthor the movie omitting menus and extras to save even more HDD space.

At this point you have a fully playable movie on your HDD using any commercially available DVD Software player by loading all the files in the VIDEO_TS folder into the software player using "file mode". The movie will play back flawlessly on a properly setup computer.

Step 3: Open MC and navigate MC's internal directory tree to "My Computer". Select the drive where your movie's VIDEO_TS is located. Click on the VIDEO_TS folder and MC 10.0.38 will pop up a window stating "Gathering Information and Updating View". After a few seconds the database window in MC will show a listing of files (i.e. VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VTS 01 0.BUP, VTS 01 0.IFO, DVD Title 1 (32 chapters). dvd).

Step 4: Select all the files and add them to "Playing Now". At this point try to play the movie. Press "Play" and a window pops up stating "Gathering Information and Updating View" and you "hear", for a brief second, the beginning sounds (no picture) of the movie and then nothing. In the "Playing Now" dual pane windows in MC you have a blank upper window and a lower window with the single filename: "DVD Title 1 (32 chapters).dvd".  I have no idea what this file "DVD Title 1 (32 chapters).dvd" is since it is not created by DVD DeCrypter. I assume that this file must be referring to the actual movie VOB's (VTS 01.1.VOB, VTS 01.2.VOB, VTS 01.3.VOB and VTS 01.4.VOB).

Anyway, all I am trying to point out, is that: (1) MC's "Options/File Associations" does not have settings for "VOB", "IFO" and "BUP" files; and (2) that you simply can not get MC to play intact (read this to mean DVD DeCrypter FILE Mode ripped) movies using the method I have described above.

I am not saying that you can't do it by renaming VOB's to mpeg. However, this is not the way good software dvd players play movies on a HDD, so I don't think it should be the way to do it in MC as a workaround.

Finally, I realize that MC10 is not presently designed to playback movies on HDD; only from the actual DVD itself using a third party software player.

My only request is that MC10 should eventually have the capability to either play movies on HDD natively (which would increase MC's cost) or with the help of a third party dvd software player. IMO the latter would be preferrable, since we all seem to have our preferences as to which dvd software player is best and this would keep the cost of MC down.

[jleerigby]

I thought I'd say which bits reflected what I did:

Step 1 - Same as.

Step 2 - I didn't do this

Step 3 - Yep, same for me

Step 4 - I didn't select all files.  I just did right click> play on the DVD Title 1 (nn chapters) file.  I even added this file to teh library and tagged it with cover art.

So maybe it's just step 4 that's going wrong for you, on the other hand it could be steps 2 & 4.  Good luck and thanks for your advice in the other thread.

[Rizlaw]

I thought I'd say which bits reflected what I did:

Step 1 - Same as.

Step 2 - I didn't do this

Step 3 - Yep, same for me

Step 4 - I didn't select all files.  I just did right click> play on the DVD Title 1 (nn chapters) file.  I even added this file to teh library and tagged it with cover art.

So maybe it's just step 4 that's going wrong for you, on the other hand it could be steps 2 & 4.  Good luck and thanks for your advice in the other thread.

JLee,

Just to put this puppy to bed for now, I followed the steps I previously outlined. I omitted step 2 (DVD Shrinking) and then, at step 4, only selected the single "DVD Tile XX" file as you did.  The bottom line is MC10.0.38 still crashes. Also, I have not renamed any VOB files; which, I assumed you also did not do as well.

So I guess your system hardware/software/OS setup works and mine doesn't. Without having knowledge to compare each version of software/hardware and OS on our respective systems, it would be impossible to determine why you are having success and I am not.

I would be interested to see if JimH or Matt can shed some light on the subject. Either MC10 is designed to do this for everyone, or it isn't.

[JimH]

Have you installed the software that came with your DVD player?  It's important to do.

[Rizlaw]

Have you installed the software that came with your DVD player?  It's important to do.

Yes. PowerDVD5, TheaterTEK and WinDVD4 Platinum.

[jleerigby]

Power DVD 3 here without aspi or patches or anything   .  Consequently I can't actually use Power DVD!  But MC works fine.

Can't post system info right now but I do have 2 entirely different systems (both XP Pro) and they both play fine.

[jgourd]

What would be most elegent is that if you use the ISO mode of DVD Decrypter, that MC10 be able to read the ISO directly and treat it as a physical DVD.

I am using a similar workflow right now. I use Alcohol 120% to mount the DVD ISO files on a virtual DVD drive. MC sees it as a physical drive with the mounted in it.

[Rizlaw]

What would be most elegent is that if you use the ISO mode of DVD Decrypter, that MC10 be able to read the ISO directly and treat it as a physical DVD.

Notwithstanding the significant loss of not being able to shrink the movie on HDD, I agree that ISO would be a solution provided MC had a built in DVD software player of the quality of PowerDVD, WinDVD or TheaterTEK. There would be little point in implementing this costly feature in MC if it produced less than the current state of the art in dvd playback when compaired to the other players. Such a solution would surely raise the price of MC considerably. It would probably have to be a separate software package to boot, not everyone would want or need it.

 

[kiwi]

I've gotten it to work with the regular files.  I just import files from the ripped DVD folder, it imports 10+ files usually... and then just delete all but one.  Now I can click on that files and it plays just like it was a DVD.  This worked in both 9.1 and 10.  

My only issue with it is that it shows a little red X by the video icon.  I don't know how to get rid of it.  It's a green play symbol when playing, but as soon as I switch to a new song or movie, it turns into a red X again.

kiwi

[Rizlaw]

My only issue with it is that it shows a little red X by the video icon.  I don't know how to get rid of it.  It's a green play symbol when playing, but as soon as I switch to a new song or movie, it turns into a red X again.

kiwi

Kiwi,

That sounds like a filename path problem. Check the filename path(s) on the files you imported. In the past when I have seen the red X it was after I used MC10's internal "my computer" to drag and drop files from one location to another. MC10 did not update the old filename path to the new filename path. For example: draging D:\artist\album\track filename.xxx to F:\artist\album\track filename.xxx. MC10 did not change the "D:" to an "F:" and so it continued to think that the files were in the old locations and put the red X next to each filename.

[kiwi]

I have imported freshly in each case.  Same results.  I do believe that it's a pathing problem, but I don't know exactly how to fix it.

For example, the movie's path is:

G:\Movies\New\Dirty Deeds\DIRTYDEEDS  (all the files reside in here, and are standard .vob & .inf files)



The filename in MC reads as follows:
G:\Movies\New\Dirty Deeds\DIRTYDEEDS\\DVD Title 1 (42 chapters).dvd;1

there is a second "\" before the file name, and the file name itself is a bit strange .dvd???  And what's the extranious ";"

kiwi

[Rizlaw]

I have imported freshly in each case.  Same results.  I do believe that it's a pathing problem, but I don't know exactly how to fix it.

For example, the movie's path is:

G:\Movies\New\Dirty Deeds\DIRTYDEEDS  (all the files reside in here, and are standard .vob & .inf files)

The filename in MC reads as follows:
G:\Movies\New\Dirty Deeds\DIRTYDEEDS\\DVD Title 1 (42 chapters).dvd;1

there is a second "\" before the file name, and the file name itself is a bit strange .dvd???  And what's the extranious ";"

kiwi

Kiwi,

I think you need to address your problem to Matt at J River.

I know that the "DVD Title 1 (42 chapters).dvd" is MC's way of referring to all the VOB files (it could be 1 or more VOBs depending on how many you ripped and copied to your HDD) that make up your movie. I'm not sure why MC does it this way.

The double "\\" is curious since it looks like a UNC path which would normally be at the beginning of a UNC path to a file or folder, not the end.

I don't have a clue about the meaning or purpose of the ";1".

[jgourd]

The ";1" is part of an ISO9660 file system. It is usually hidden by the use of Joliet file system.

[JustinChase]

Trying to head back on track a little.

I agree that MC should have the ability to properly catalog your DVD collection on HDD.  I have been able to get it to play my movies (WinDVD 5.0 codec), but it is a pain to navigate to the movie file 5-7 folders deep.

There really should be an option to associate .VOB files with MC, allowing us to catalog, store covert art, rate, and keep stats like last played, etc.  this would go a long way towards consolidation in my opinion.

Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do.  They play just like any other media file, file, open media file..., navigate, play, easy enough.  Just let me associate them and store them in the database, and worry about making it elegant, better later.

[kiwi]

Trying to head back on track a little.

I agree that MC should have the ability to properly catalog your DVD collection on HDD.  I have been able to get it to play my movies (WinDVD 5.0 codec), but it is a pain to navigate to the movie file 5-7 folders deep.

There really should be an option to associate .VOB files with MC, allowing us to catalog, store covert art, rate, and keep stats like last played, etc.  this would go a long way towards consolidation in my opinion.

Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do.  They play just like any other media file, file, open media file..., navigate, play, easy enough.  Just let me associate them and store them in the database, and worry about making it elegant, better later.

It does this for me.  I have the DVD's listed in my system.  I've added cover art to them and put in tags and plot summary information.

Eventually, it would be great to have the ability to have this information be visible from hairstyle.

Have you tried importing the VOBs?  I don't know exactly what file it is that it finds.

I did all my ripping with DVD DeCrypter.

Here is and example of all of the files:
 Directory of G:\Movies\New\First Knight\VIDEO_TS

01/12/2003  01:18 a.m.    <DIR>          .
01/12/2003  01:18 a.m.    <DIR>          ..
18/10/2003  11:47 p.m.            16,384 VIDEO_TS.BUP
18/10/2003  11:47 p.m.            16,384 VIDEO_TS.IFO
18/10/2003  11:39 p.m.        94,361,600 VIDEO_TS.VOB
18/10/2003  11:47 p.m.            96,256 VTS_01_0.BUP
18/10/2003  11:47 p.m.            96,256 VTS_01_0.IFO
18/10/2003  11:39 p.m.        10,278,912 VTS_01_0.VOB
18/10/2003  11:41 p.m.     1,073,739,776 VTS_01_1.VOB
18/10/2003  11:43 p.m.     1,073,739,776 VTS_01_2.VOB
18/10/2003  11:45 p.m.     1,073,739,776 VTS_01_3.VOB
18/10/2003  11:47 p.m.       642,795,520 VTS_01_4.VOB
              10 File(s)  3,968,880,640 bytes

Maybe it's the IFO or BUP files that do the trick.

kiwi

[jleerigby]

..and if you read back in this thread you'll see that I've managed to import, play and tag a DVD file in MC too.  So maybe this thread should stop asking 'why does MC not support .vob files' and start asking 'why doesn't it work on my machine'.

[Rizlaw]

..and if you read back in this thread you'll see that I've managed to import, play and tag a DVD file in MC too.  So maybe this thread should stop asking 'why does MC not support .vob files' and start asking 'why doesn't it work on my machine'.

As the one who started this thread, I don't think the title is inappropriate for the following reason:

MC's "Import Media" function does not list, as a media file type, "VOB", "IFO", "BUP" files. Hence,  you can not import these file types to the database using this direct and primary method of importing all forms of multimedia data.

As those of us who have posted in this thread know (or should know) ripping your original dvd movie with DVD DeCrypter using the "file" mode and selecting ALL the files will automatically generate a decrypted movie folder on your HDD in the format "[Drive letter]:\[Movie Title]\VIDEO_TS".  Within the VIDEO_TS folder are the "IFO" navigation files (how the movie is played); the "VOB" container files containing the mpeg2 video and audio streams (the actual movie); and the "BUP" backup naviagation files.

You would expect a program like Media Center, which can play the dvd movie if the dvd is inserted into a dvd-rom drive, to be able to directly import via the "Import Media" function, the contents of the entire VIDEO_TS folder on the HDD and play it back using either it's own software dvd decoder (which it apparently doesn't have, yet) or a 3rd party decoder like WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. It can't!

Yes, you can rename the VOBs to mpeg (because "mpeg" is a known and recognized file type in MC's lexicon of file types) and get them to play in MC, but this, IMO, is neither an acceptable workaround, nor obvious one to the novice user.

And yes, again, as JLEE has indirectly noted, you can navigate MC's internal file tree to "Drives & Device" then to "My Computer" drill down to the HDD you have your "X:\moviename\VIDEO_TS" saved and click on the VIDEO_TS folder, wait for MC to "gather information and data" and then see files added to the main window of MC with (and I assume in JLEE's case without), big red X's accompanying each filename; and then by selecting all or some files, right clicking on the selection and chosing "Import into Library". Problem is this doesn't work either, at least for me. That is to say, the files won't play; no doubt because of all the big red X's indicating a problem with the filename path. Just how that can occur, I haven't a clue, since MC found the files and imported them in the first place!

So where does that leave the MC community? As an Advanced computer user, I think that leaves many of us wondering why MC can not simply and directly import all the file types located in a decrypted VIDEO_TS folder and then play the video? Obviously, it does this with great aplomb for audio CD's.

Other than JimH asking whether I had dvd software installed ( which I do - actually 3 different players) I have seen no one from J River directly address this thread in a meaningful way.

[kiwi]

Just to note.  The red X's seem to have no effect on whether or not the file plays back properly.

I imported my files by selecting the directory that has them in it and selecting "import" from the contextual menu.

kiwi