Topic: RatDVD (Read 8302 times)

jgourd · « **on:** June 22, 2005, 04:37:08 pm »

Have you guys seen RatDVD. It allows you to backup your DVD collections to small files that still contain everything the original DVD does.

It is a wonderful way for me to put my 1000+ DVD collection all online all the time.

Now, MC has to support it. The guy who wrote it is making it very easy for player makers to support RatDVD. Just write the guy (splinter@ratdvd.dk) and he'll show you the DLLs to use. Currently there are 8 players that already run RatDVD files.

Here is a link to the RatDVD SDK.

http://www.ratdvd.dk/code.htm

Please support this soon

danrien · « **Reply #1 on:** June 22, 2005, 08:25:29 pm »

i concur

jgourd · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2005, 05:27:02 am »

Those of you using it, There is a new build available.

JONCAT · « **Reply #3 on:** June 26, 2005, 09:51:59 am »

Thanks, this sounds great. Nice to see MC support this and SAM2/3 in the future!

JC

jgourd · « **Reply #4 on:** July 01, 2005, 07:11:03 am »

There is another update to RatDVD.

Now the videos are tagged with DVD covers and production info. These guys are moving fast. Hardware support is coming soon.

http://www.ratdvd.dk/download.htm

dcpoppy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 29, 2005, 09:25:51 am »

Anything in the works for MC support of RatDVD? You can add me to the list of those interested. Very interested...

brainsoup · « **Reply #6 on:** October 29, 2005, 02:20:03 pm »

Wow... I have never seen this before, but I am very interested. Am going to encode a DVD tonight and play with it tommorrow. these ratDVD files apparantly play in WMP so couldn't you manually import them, tell MC they are video files and set MC to use WMP to play video files.... this is what I will try later. I like the idea of keeping all the extras/menus from a DVD though... perfect for my MC PC!

datdude · « **Reply #7 on:** October 29, 2005, 07:40:10 pm »

Does RatDVD actually compress it and make it a smaller file?

If not then just use DVD Decrypter and then run a daemon image drive tool which works perfectly in MC and is EXACTLY the same as whats on the DVD.

What would the benefit of RatDVD be over this method of copying?

brainsoup · « **Reply #8 on:** October 30, 2005, 01:58:43 am »

RatDVD does compress the file... I've just turned Rock Profile (something which would be horrid to convert to seperate files) from 7Gb to 1.3Gb.... Tried playing this file in MC using the WMP playback enging but with no sucess.

Oh well... i tried. Any chance that 11.1 will be able to play these files?

Chris

JimH · « **Reply #9 on:** October 30, 2005, 07:08:02 am »

Try renaming one .mpg or .mpeg. I think they're MPEG 2.

brainsoup · « **Reply #10 on:** October 30, 2005, 02:41:33 pm »

They aren't actually a video file... they are a modified zip file that contains video files in a custom format inside a Vido_TS folder and has .ifo files just like a DVD (except that the video isnt in mpeg its in XEBDSP or something!)

I tried renaming the files to have a .mpg, .mpeg and .avi just in case but only the audio plays from the menu.

brainsoup · « **Reply #11 on:** November 06, 2005, 06:20:26 am »

OK... .Ive been playing around with the ratDVD files and thought I should post what I have tried. I renamed the .ratDVD file to a .zip file so I could see the contents. There is a AV_TS folder and an info folder which contains an xml file with tag info for the ratDVD file. In the AV_TS folder there are .ifo (which are the data files??) files and .xvo files (which I'm guessing are the video files). I tried opening an XVO file in MC and WMP player with absolutely no success. I tried renaming the XVO file to an AVI file and it will play the audio only in both MC and WMP. Has anybody got any suggestions as to how to get this working in MC. I have a feeling it will require un-zipping the ratDVD file and then finding a way to launch the DVD from the files (as you would when playing a DVD from the harddisk). I have a sneaking suspicion that some file-renaming will have to happen too.... hmmmmm

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** November 06, 2005, 07:35:54 am »

Did you try renaming the xvo to mpg?

Thanks for reporting what you're finding.

runemail · « **Reply #13 on:** November 06, 2005, 11:48:12 am »

From the RatDVD homepage:

Quote

RatDVD uses a video codec called XEB. This codec is the result from an experimental project I did with some fellows and that does not use any XviD, x.264, etc. code although by the very nature of it contains routines which is similar in function and even to a small extend in output to what you’ll find out there – obviously I didn’t reinvent video-encoding.

Quote

If you are familiar with DirectShow programming and want to integrate .ratDVD playback into your player, you can download the package below, consisting of three DirectShow navigation and decoding filters.

Basically these three filters build the graph that is needed for ratDVD playback. The xebnavigation.ax serves as the source filter for the .ratDVD file. The video filter has to be connected to the video and subtitle output pins of the navigation filter, while the audio decoder connects to the audio output pin. Both the video and audio renderers then connect to the corresponding output pin of the decoder.

The xebnavigation.ax is a "replacement" for the microsoft DVD Navigator filter. Replacement means, playback of ratDVD files is identical to playback of DVDs using the MS Navigator filter. So if you have built an application that allows DVD playback you can replace the GUID of the MS DVD Navigator with the xebnavigation.ax GUID to enable .ratDVD playback in your application.

Just renaming files wont help.
It would be nice if MC 11.1 would support playback of RatDVD, It's a nice and easy format to backup your DVDs if you dont compress them too much, and the tagging tool is a great idea.

http://www.ratdvd.dk/code.htm

Mr ChriZ · « **Reply #14 on:** November 06, 2005, 01:43:25 pm »

I'm interested in this.
I've looked through it briefly... Does it mean that you can
just play a RatDVD file without it needing to be on DVD Medium?
If so I'm all for Media Center Playing and Ripping

However I also think I'm in need of a new puter and a few more hard disks :-)

zxsix · « **Reply #15 on:** December 28, 2005, 03:24:38 pm »

bump. I'm also interested in this, but not willing to switch until I know that playback will be supported in MC.

raym · « **Reply #16 on:** December 28, 2005, 04:36:02 pm »

Quote from: zxsix on December 28, 2005, 03:24:38 pm

bump. I'm also interested in this, but not willing to switch until I know that playback will be supported in MC.

Same here!! I'm hanging to see RatDVD support in MC soon

brainsoup · « **Reply #17 on:** March 20, 2006, 02:00:07 pm »

It looks like it is quite easy for MC to implement this... they just need to tell MC to use Directshow for the ratDVD file (I think) and then the ratDVD prog deals with the rest. Its all detailed here

http://www.ratdvd.dk/code.htm#FilterPack

please please please support this... really want to back up my DVD collection but don't have the space for 8Gb for each DVD!

darichman · « **Reply #18 on:** March 21, 2006, 02:08:22 am »

If it's that simple to implement support for it, I'm all for it... have already backed up a few movies to ratDVD and would love to manage these with MC

stan@showard.net · « **Reply #19 on:** March 21, 2006, 12:20:28 pm »

You can play ratDVD files from MC. YOu can import them by adding the ratdvd definition to the upper part of fileassociations.xml file. You will have to modify this file every time you get a new build since the installer overwrites. Within windows, associate ratdvd with any player tha you like that supports ratdvd. Within MC make sure -that the data type is data not video or audio.

When you hit play within MC, it will bring up the external player which will play the ratdvd file. ALthough this is a kludgey workaround, it lets you use the database features of MC until MC gets around to supporting ratdvd. If you try to force MC to play the ratdvd directly it will work until it hits a menu. At that point, it is waiting for something that will never happen. There doesn't appear to be any way that I have found to make MC think that it is a DVD.

brainsoup · « **Reply #20 on:** March 21, 2006, 03:59:07 pm »

ok... i managed to get that workaround working but there must be a way for mc to play the files natively! it's really bugging me!! $:-\$

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Author Topic: RatDVD (Read 8302 times)

JONCAT