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[cgroth]

Hi,

During the last 10 days I have worked to set up JRiver MC18 for use on my wife's PC, as a HTPC for all media. I have struggled a bit, as can be seen in my posts elsewhere on this forum

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81715.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81867.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=81848.0
and others...

Our set-up is based on content from ripped discs (CD and DVD/BR), not downloaded content. This means that for TV Series, which is the main content she will be accessing, she needs to play virtual discs, rather than episodes.

Now, I think I have a pretty clear picture of what I need, and what issues remain

1. The user interface has to be simple and intuitive, viewable from a  distance on a large TV screen and controlable with a single remote. MC18 in Theater Mode is pretty good in that sense, but there are two problems:
   a. It is not easy to show discs and seasons with meaningful names like "Season Y" and "Disc X", rather than just X and Y. I have managed to get around this, but at the cost of having to manually do a lot of work on Season Art.
   b. There are additional levels of info/buttons on the TV Show screen, which has no real purpose when used alone (Series), but which seems difficult to remove. Having this button on screen makes control with a remote less intuitive than it needs to be, as extra button presses which serves no purpose are required to navigate. I have gotten used to it, but it still annoys my wife who gets frustrated when button pressing doesn't achieve the desired/expected/sensible result. Does anyone have any tips of how to get rid of this?

2. Audio and Movies are easily and directly accessible with discrete keys on the remote. However, TV Shows is more difficult. I have not been able to find a key which launches the TV Show meny directly, nor a key, or a series of key presses,  which will bring me to the same place on the main menu (in Theatre Mode) regardless of where I am when I press it. Pressing lots of Back or Exit brings me to the main menu, but sometimes the Audio button will be active, sometimes the Video. And since the buttons "cycle" (going constantly left I circle the "globe" and end up on the right, rather than stop on the left), it doesn't seem possible to ensure that I always end up the the same place, from where a remote control macro could otherwise bring up the TV Show menu. Does anyone have a solution to this issue?

3. BluRay play is not well supported. I know why. However, since I have an ArcSoft license for my main HTPC (the one I use), I might also install ArcSoft on my wife's PC. I might have to buy an extra license...? Hope not. Regardless, the cost will be worth paying if this means my wife can watch all episodes of our 10 season Friends BluRay collection without having to try to access the episode she wants from MC18. So my question is this:
a) How difficult is it to set up ArcSoft as an external player? I guess I would use it for both DVD and BR material.
b) Are there any stability issues, crashing problems, when using ArcSoft as an external player?

I feel I am getting very close now, just need to have these final issues in place before I start paying for licenses... :-)

[6233638]

1. The user interface has to be simple and intuitive, viewable from a  distance on a large TV screen and controlable with a single remote. MC18 in Theater Mode is pretty good in that sense, but there are two problems:
   a. It is not easy to show discs and seasons with meaningful names like "Season Y" and "Disc X", rather than just X and Y. I have managed to get around this, but at the cost of having to manually do a lot of work on Season Art.
   b. There are additional levels of info/buttons on the TV Show screen, which has no real purpose when used alone (Series), but which seems difficult to remove. Having this button on screen makes control with a remote less intuitive than it needs to be, as extra button presses which serves no purpose are required to navigate. I have gotten used to it, but it still annoys my wife who gets frustrated when button pressing doesn't achieve the desired/expected/sensible result. Does anyone have any tips of how to get rid of this?

I think ripping to MKV (using MakeMKV) rather than ripping whole disc images greatly simplifies the look and operation of Media Center. That way you have direct access to each episode via Media Center and never have to deal with DVD menus.

3. BluRay play is not well supported.

I disagree. I think Media Center has the best Blu-ray playback around. I don't want to see Blu-ray menus, and all the forced trailers etc that entails. With Media Center the film starts playing directly, using the best quality audio track automatically.

[cgroth]

Thakns for your reply!

I think ripping to MKV (using MakeMKV) rather than ripping whole disc images greatly simplifies the look and operation of Media Center. That way you have direct access to each episode via Media Center and never have to deal with DVD menus.

That may be so, but I have about 1000 DVDs/BR ripped already, using AnyDVD, and I am not going to rip them all again, so what I have is the filestructure and formats described in my posts. I need to try to make the best of them.

I disagree. I think Media Center has the best Blu-ray playback around. I don't want to see Blu-ray menus, and all the forced trailers etc that entails. With Media Center the film starts playing directly, using the best quality audio track automatically.

Well, lets agree to disagree? Besides, your opinion, and mine, is irrelevant to this topic, since the purpose of my post, and of using MC18, is to create something my wife can use. My wife is never wrong. NEVER 
And she wants to play the virtual disc as it it were the physical disc. in fact, she wants to play the physical disc, but there isn't room for out 3.500 + disc collection on our sheleves, so I am using DVD and BR changers, plus media servers to store our collection, but this has made the content less accessible to her. So I am trying to make it easy, by having a single MC doing both Movies, TV Shows and Music. And presenting her with a Disc 1 of the BluRay collection of Friends, with 27 titles, there is no way she'll find what she wants, and no way she'll bother to try again. Period. ArcSoft, however, plays our ripped DVDs and BluRays on the main HTPC, perfectly. So this is what I want to do if possible.

So my questions:

1. Can it be done?
2. is it stable?
3. How is it done?

 

[Simon Chick]

Resurrecting this thread, as I am on a similar mission. Blu-ray iso playback is straight to the main feature, which is frustrating if you want to choose one of the extras, or set options before the playback starts.

So is there a switch somewhere to start with the menu of a blu-ray, if that is your preference?

[Simon Chick]

OK I found the answer - no Blu-ray menus in MC