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[SamuriHL]

P.S.  Another EAC3To UI is also making great strides on a very simple freeware version of making MKV's.  That does require you to get and install eac3to and mkvtoolnix, but, it automates everything for you with an interface as simple as MakeMKV's.  But you will need to provide your own decryption for that method.  Basically MKV creation from HD media is becoming easier and easier.  FINALLY.

[fitbrit]

That does sound amazing! Now we just need "PlayMKV" functionality that's as easily configured!
I guess i'm going to have to get this... I want to back up my HD-DVDs before NOTHING can play them any more. Can it handle HD-DVD or is it Blu-Ray only?

-Install MakeMKV
-Install beta key if you need it (it's free while in beta, but, I bought a license for it already since I use it weekly to backup my new purchases)
-Insert disc
-Load MakeMKV
-Scan disc
-Select title you want, expand, select streams you want
-Click make
-On my machine, wait 20-30 minutes
-Profit!  

Seriously, it couldn't be easier now.  MakeMKV includes its own decryption routines, too, so, you ONLY need that.  I, of course, use AnyDVD for that.    This allows you to downmix to AC3/DTS, keep the HD audio as is, select PGS subs, create a separate forced only PGS sub, etc.  All with a tree view and checkboxes.  It's awesome.

[fitbrit]

Are you doing any recompression with x264 for further disc space savings? If so, what do you use for that?

[SamuriHL]

That does sound amazing! Now we just need "PlayMKV" functionality that's as easily configured!
I guess i'm going to have to get this... I want to back up my HD-DVDs before NOTHING can play them any more. Can it handle HD-DVD or is it Blu-Ray only?

Its HD DVD support isn't good.  I've yet to get it to work.  Supposedly it's going to get improved but I haven't seen any action on it in months.  Your best bet, and you won't like this, is to use BDHDStreamExtractor to extract your streams from your HD DVD's and then use MKVMerge to slap em into an MKV container.  I understand that's not nearly as friendly.  It's possible Another EAC3To GUI works with HD DVD's.  I haven't tried.  I can look into that for you.

As for your other question, god no, I don't touch the streams.  I leave them as is and just put them into an MKV container. For me it's the equivalent of having a movie only ISO without having to mount the ISO.    In theory, if you did want to compress, I'd use RipBot 264.

[jmone]

I've 100+ HD-DVD's...& I'm also sitting on the fence about what to do as well and have used both of these two approachs (works fine):
1) Convert to Blu-ray ISO/Disc:  Most will fit on a 25GB Disc (I purchased a heap of these cheaply) and ClownBD does a good job for this.  The Question is what to convert the DD+ tracks to as they are no that well supported in the Blu world.  The Choise is either (either 1.5mbps std DTS or decode to PCM if it fits on the disc).  The benefit of this is you can then use the disc on multiple players like (eg the kids PS3)
2) Convert to MKV:  For Bitstreamers you are all good to go, use Another EAC3toGUI, keep it all as is and repack into MKV.  For use Decoders, we are still stuck with what to do with the DTS-HD Audio as there is no way to play these in DirectShow players like MC15 at this stage.  Once a bit more work is done of streaming in MC15 these should also be playable over DLNA with some reasonable quality.

Thanks
Nathan

PS - I went so far to ensure that I have two LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drives in case one packs it in - and such an event will really push to me do my conversion project.

[mojave]

I use Another EAC3toGUI Plus/AnyDVD HD and love its ease for ripping Blu-ray. I had to reinstall everything on one of my computers a couple of weeks ago and it only took about 1/2 hour to get everything set back up to use Another EAC3toGUI Plus. I like that it can convert the HD audio to FLAC since I don't have or need a receiver.

[mojave]

Nathan, Another EAC3toGUI Plus will not work for HD-DVD.

Current limitation: No support for 1080i 60 Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

[fitbrit]

Great discussion, guys. Thanks for all the info. I'm not averse to using the Another EAC3to GUI etc.; I'm just averse to getting started in using those packages! All info I've seen suggests that once you do get started, they're quite straightforward to use.

I too have two LG combo drives, plus a standalone HD-DVD player. Once I build my new desktop machine, I guess I'll start ripping. Also another fan of Slysoft and AnyDVD HD.

[Matt]

Maybe someone here could help me solve my Bluray problem (which would help JRiver pick a direction on Bluray).

I want to rent Bluray movies, and watch them in Media Center.  Someday digital streaming may replace this, but for now, the quality isn't even close.

I am only willing to use the Media Center native playback engine because my home theater depends on the Room Correction and other audio processing it provides.

I'm aware of three options:

1) Rip using MakeMKV, watch, then delete
2) Keep AnyDVD HD installed and watch video files directly off the Bluray (but this means no menu navigation, and possible difficulty if the video is split into multiples or it isn't obvious which file is the main title)
3) Rent, download from Bittorrent, watch, delete

Is there any other good way to accomplish this?  

[rant] It's silly to me that this is difficult.  I'm really happy to spend money to watch content, and a computer is the highest quality A/V source possible.  Why is this easier with a $100 Bluray player? [/rant]

[jmone]

Nathan, Another EAC3toGUI Plus will not work for HD-DVD.

   Nope - It works fine.  Navigate to the HVDVD_TS Folder then "Analyse" and away you go (you get some error about chapters but ignore that).  I've not done it for a while some I'm testing with one right now - I'll let you know if anything fails!

[JustinChase]

-Install MakeMKV
-Install beta key if you need it (it's free while in beta, but, I bought a license for it already since I use it weekly to backup my new purchases)
-Insert disc
-Load MakeMKV
-Scan disc
-Select title you want, expand, select streams you want
-Click make
-On my machine, wait 20-30 minutes
-Profit! 

Seriously, it couldn't be easier now.  MakeMKV includes its own decryption routines, too, so, you ONLY need that.  I, of course, use AnyDVD for that.    This allows you to downmix to AC3/DTS, keep the HD audio as is, select PGS subs, create a separate forced only PGS sub, etc.  All with a tree view and checkboxes.  It's awesome.

I completely agree. it takes a couple of minutes tops to open and select the streams, and under 30 minutes usually to finish the rip.

Plays fine in MC, subtitles included, but I don't have any way to bitstream audio at the moment, so I can't speak to that, but MakeMKV works a treat, as does playback with MC (after some configuration).

[jmone]

Maybe someone here could help me solve my Bluray problem (which would help JRiver pick a direction on Bluray).

I want to rent Bluray movies, and watch them in Media Center.  Someday digital streaming may replace this, but for now, the quality isn't even close.

I am only willing to use the Media Center native playback engine because my home theater depends on the Room Correction and other audio processing it provides.

I'm aware of three options:

1) Rip using MakeMKV, watch, then delete
2) Keep AnyDVD HD installed and watch video files directly off the Bluray (but this means no menu navigation, and possible difficulty if the video is split into multiples or it isn't obvious which file is the main title)
3) Rent, download from Bittorrent, watch, delete

Is there any other good way to accomplish this?  

[rant] It's silly to me that this is difficult.  I'm really happy to spend money to watch content, and a computer is the highest quality A/V source possible.  Why is this easier with a $100 Bluray player? [/rant]

Your options are still:
1) Remux to MKV (or TS):  Need a decrypter (AnyDVD HD) + tools for the muxing (as above) + filters to decode both Video and Audio (note: in Matt's case he is a audio decoder) so no DTS-HD for you so secondary option is to convert any DTS-HD tracks during muxing to another format (FLAC / PCM)
2) Support Playlist Files:  Need a decrypter + MC needs to read and support Playlist Files (MPLS).  This would be like a blu-ray light player that several other players now support.  This was you get seemless playback of all the TS files without having to worry about what goes in what order.  Downside is there is no fancy menu, options, and you are still stuck with DTS-HD decoding problems.
3) Playback individual TS files:  I don't think this is a very viable option at all.  Way to many discs use seemless branching etc
4) Work with Arcsoft (etc) to get their 10ft Plug-In to work with MC:  I've given the contact details for this before but did not hear how the result of the conversation.  Downside it is will cost the user $ if they don't already have a Arcsoft Licence
5) Do some pseudo Integration with Arcsoft (etc):  Poor mans workaround IMHO but here it is again: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55171.0

[JustinChase]

I'm aware of three options:

1) Rip using MakeMKV, watch, then delete
2) Keep AnyDVD HD installed and watch video files directly off the Bluray (but this means no menu navigation, and possible difficulty if the video is split into multiples or it isn't obvious which file is the main title)
3) Rent, download from Bittorrent, watch, delete

Is there any other good way to accomplish this?  

[rant] It's silly to me that this is difficult.  I'm really happy to spend money to watch content, and a computer is the highest quality A/V source possible.  Why is this easier with a $100 Bluray player? [/rant]

I believe MakeMKV has a streaming option, but I only tried it once, months ago, it didn't "just work" and I gave up; but I think it is supposed to be able to decrypt on the fly and allow streaming.  i just know know how it works.

I'll try to take some time tonight to try it again; but with a beer in hand first, and I'll let you know if I figure out how to make it work with MC.

Personally, i use option 1, rip, watch, delete, as I haven't found a "better" way yet.

RE: your rant - I couldn't agree more; imagine the poor people that don't have your intimate knowledge of Media Center?!?!

[craigmcg]

In response to Matt's rant, I agree completely. What I find the most ridiculous is the fact that even the HD audio over analog is copy protected/downsampled without a "protected audio path". What BS- I can understand trying to prevent digital copying but why would you block analog audio playback? What am I going to do- make 7.1 channel analog recordings and play them on the radio?
The only way I could get full Blu-ray playback capacity is to take potentially illegal steps requiring much time and energy.

[jmone]

  Nope - It works fine.  Navigate to the HVDVD_TS Folder then "Analyse" and away you go (you get some error about chapters but ignore that).  I've not done it for a while some I'm testing with one right now - I'll let you know if anything fails!

Still works fine.

[SamuriHL]

Awesome discussion.    I'm glad this is a lively topic and that people are finding some useful info.  MakeMKV really is super easy to use.  The reason I bought a license at this point is to make sure Mike Chen knows that his interface is appreciated.  Yes, I can do it all with other programs, but, simplicity has value.  This is a concept I bring over to playback, as well.  If it's complicated to set up, most people aren't going to bother.  For example, it really takes a guide to get basic bitstreaming working for DShow apps using ffdshow.  And even more work to set up subtitles and dxva decoding.  Then once that's set up, you have to set your DShow app to use it.  And don't get me started on the matroska splitters.  They're wonderful and I sincerely appreciate the work that has been put into them, but, no one is going to accuse them of being easy to set up and use.    Haali is probably the easiest to set up, but, if you use MKVMerge to author your MKV, DTS-HD MA bitstreaming breaks.  MPC stand alone splitter works great, but, has issues with following the default and forced flags.  SMM is showing the most promise in the splitter arena.  Codec packs make things easier, but, IMO they're overkill for most of us.  I'm a minimalist by nature, hence the simplify comment.  What I want is for my media application to autoconfigure all this stuff for me based on what it finds on the machine.  "Oh, hey, you got ffdshow, let me pop up a message asking if you want me to configure it and use that."  PERFECT.  "Oh, you need a splitter, we recommend this one, should I download it and install it for you?"  YES PLEASE.  This seems like such a silly thing to complain about, but, ask the average user how to set all this up and you'll get a blank stare and "what??" for a response.  If it's confusing for power users....well, that says a lot.  The app that provides out of the box functionality for playing MKV's with PGS subs, DXVA decoding, and bitstreaming without a lot of messing around with settings and whatnot....that's the one people are going to flock to.

/silly ranting soapbox discussion

[JimH]

Not silly.  Thanks for sharing.

[SamuriHL]

Thanks, Jim.  Please don't take my rant as criticism of MC15 in any way.  It's just a general observation of the state of most all players/media managers at this point in time.  And yes, I absolutely realize the incredible difficulty of what I'm asking for.  There are SO many problems that can arise from what I outlined.  But in general, IF it could be done, users really would flock to the app that does it because of the simplicity of getting their media up and running with full functionality quickly.  A user will probably bother if you give them explicit instructions like "ok, download ffdshow here and install it."  "Next install Haali from here." "Once those are installed, reload MC15 and go to this configuration screen and press 'configure ffdshow options' and then 'configure haali options'"  Etc.  I think you get the point.  If you do the legwork for them, they're much more willing to invest a little set up time.  The idea of a media manager that can bitstream MKV's with full PGS subs and DXVA decoding is truly hot.  One that I think a lot of users are after.  No one's made it easy yet.  That's where I think the real key is.  Thanks for listening!

[Matt]

I gave MakeMKV a spin.

It took 40 minutes to make an MKV.  I have the original LG HD-DVD / Bluray combo drive, with a machine that benchmarks around ~2600 with Media Center.

The resulting MKV played without much drama.  CPU usage was 1% with MPC video decoder and 8% with ffdshow video decoder.  Both decoders looked good and provided correct lip-sync.

I do analog audio output to a power amp, so I'm not trying to bitstream.  But ASIO, Room Correction, and other JRiver audio goodness worked fine.  Since this was a DTS Blu-ray, I don't think I'm getting the full quality analog decode.

My system always wants to use Haali as the source filter.  I couldn't get MPC to stick.  But since Haali worked fine, I don't think this is an issue.

The ease of this approach makes we wonder if JRiver should focus solely on playback of Bluray in MKV format, and just work to make it as easy and feature rich as possible.  We would leave it up to users to get the MKV files.  We would worry about playing, tagging, getting metadata, and providing access from the couch.

[fitbrit]

I'd never heard of SMM until you mentioned it in an earlier post. I'll have to check it out. Agree 100% that it's the splitters that break things (for me, at least) most of the time. Now I see why Haali works fine for TrueHD, but not DTS-HD.

[SamuriHL]

@Matt LOVE the idea!  You see now why we're so jazzed about that configuration right?  It's SO easy to back up your media and (when configured right) play back.  It's an efficient container, easy to create, etc.  So a simple configuration would absolutely ROCK!  As for DTS-HD MA, you are correct.  There's no open source decoder for that.  However, if you can use PDVD10's decoder instead of ffdshow's you might get better quality audio while decoding.  I haven't tried.  If I get some time tomorrow I'll see if that's possible.

@fitbrit Solveig splitter is AWESOME.  He's working really hard on it and has 32 and 64 bit.  He's got a lot on his todo list, but, it detects defaults now and he's working on making forced subs follow the matroska spec.  (It'll be awesome, iow).  He wants to add stream selection similar to what Haalie does, as well.  Check it out on doom9.  He's a really great guy.

[jmone]

The ease of this approach makes we wonder if JRiver should focus solely on playback of Bluray in MKV format, and just work to make it as easy and feature rich as possible.  We would leave it up to users to get the MKV files.  We would worry about playing, tagging, getting metadata, and providing access from the couch.

MC is allready pretty polished at "playing, tagging, getting metadata, and providing access from the couch" for files (including MKV) though I agree with the comments that a way of installing and configuring all the required filters would be a fantastic and would take file playback from a "dark art" to being "user friendly".

Lets not pretend however that MKV playback (with HD Video, Audio, Subs, Chapters) = Bluray support, thats like saying MPG playback = DVD Support, or WAV playback = CD Support.  If we want to claim Blu-ray support in MC I really think the only options are those that will let a user put a Blu-Ray disc in the drive and have it play:
1) Blu-ray "lite": MPLS playback support (need Any-DVD HD running in background) - MC reads the Playlist and plays back the TS files in the correct order using the STD directshow filters
2) Integration with a Commercial Player:  Like with MS MC - work with the other vendors to use their 10ft Plug In - (note: I now there was some work done by Matt a couple of years ago with calling PDVD)
3) Get MC accredited as a Blu-ray Player:  See thread on being a billionaire!

As for DTS-HD MA, you are correct.  There's no open source decoder for that.  However, if you can use PDVD10's decoder instead of ffdshow's you might get better quality audio while decoding.  I haven't tried.  If I get some time tomorrow I'll see if that's possible.

One can only hope for us "decoders"!  FYI - I also posted on the Arcsoft TMT forum to see if anyone has got their filter working....

Thanks
Nathan

[fitbrit]

Any chance of working with WinDVD for BD playback? They're doing some 'special' things when it comes to PAP. Maybe someone on this thread knows more?

[SamuriHL]

Any chance of working with WinDVD for BD playback? They're doing some 'special' things when it comes to PAP. Maybe someone on this thread knows more?

I don't know what you're talking about.    WinDVD uses Media Foundation classes, so, it's not easy to "work with".

[fitbrit]

@fitbrit Solveig splitter is AWESOME.  He's working really hard on it and has 32 and 64 bit.  He's got a lot on his todo list, but, it detects defaults now and he's working on making forced subs follow the matroska spec.  (It'll be awesome, iow).  He wants to add stream selection similar to what Haalie does, as well.  Check it out on doom9.  He's a really great guy.

I just went through the whole thread on Doom and got the latest version. It's certainly being actively developed! I assume it's a 32 bit filter by default; I'm beginning to wish I'd either stuck with 32 bit OS, or that MC15 was a native 64bit app, so no need for two sets of filters. I managed to get it (and muxer) registered, but it's not showing up in MC15 for some reason. Maybe I have to restart, but that's not normal.

I also need to activate my Windows 7, so maybe it's blocking me from full functionality today. I got the HTPC assembled for $50 due to lack of time these days.... and the company put the COA sticker on the side of the computer, which is now in my media stand... ugh!

[jmone]

FYI - http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55171.0 is the summary thread on "Everything about Blu-ray / HD-DVD playback in MC" so any advances / edits etc please update this one.

[rpalmer68]

I use ISO, MKV or the physical disc for my Bluray playback at the moment, but it I wanted to rent a disc and play it the last think I want to do is spend 40 minutes converting it first before I can play it.

I just want to drop it in the drive and watch it I'm afraid, and so would 99% of the "normal" population in my opinion.

Now if I was planning on pirating/stealing the disc then sure I'd invest some time converting it to an MKV or ISO but well we don't do that now do we  

So I have purchased Arcsoft TMT3 so I can play my ISO and Bluray discs directly, and have girder automatically unload TMT3 when I press stop and then jump back to MC15's thtare view.  Pretty much exactly what Jmone does (since he helped me set it up!)

Now if MC15 could use the Arcsoft 10foot plugin like Jmone has suggested several times in the past then I could stay inside MC and never leave..... my ideal solution.

Just my AU$.02c worth.

Richard

EDIT:  Oh and if the Arcsoft plugin cost a few extra $ to cover licensing, then I think that would be an OK thing too.  (Not sure if it does as one already needs to own TMT3.)

[swinster]

Maybe someone here could help me solve my Bluray problem (which would help JRiver pick a direction on Bluray).

I want to rent Bluray movies, and watch them in Media Center.  Someday digital streaming may replace this, but for now, the quality isn't even close.

I am only willing to use the Media Center native playback engine because my home theater depends on the Room Correction and other audio processing it provides.

I'm aware of three options:

1) Rip using MakeMKV, watch, then delete
2) Keep AnyDVD HD installed and watch video files directly off the Bluray (but this means no menu navigation, and possible difficulty if the video is split into multiples or it isn't obvious which file is the main title)
3) Rent, download from Bittorrent, watch, delete

Is there any other good way to accomplish this? 

[rant] It's silly to me that this is difficult.  I'm really happy to spend money to watch content, and a computer is the highest quality A/V source possible.  Why is this easier with a $100 Bluray player? [/rant]

Simply put from a 'user' perspective i would like to see the following:

• MC15 to support playback of BluRay discs with no issues and no additional software (unless this is somehow incorporated into a MC 'HD Video' version). This would need to include the playback of full HD audio either digitally bitstreamed or via analogue
• MC15 to support playback of MKV container for HD video including playback of any audio track in all their glory

I need for my wife to be able to buy a BluRay disc in the supermarket, bring it home, switch on the equipment (which is about as technical as she gets), put the disc in the HTPC and for MC to play the disc, including ALL menus and features.

In addition, she should be able to look up media in the MC library and play with no issue whatsoever.

I do not expect her to rip the BluRay to MKV, nor do I expect MC to be able to offer tools to do this (although as it does allow for CD ripping and tagging, this might be nice in the future). I want MC as my Media Centre, so I'm glad it has an apt name, but its' no good if it can't play my media - especially original media - with no hassle, FULL STOP.

As said, I don't think any additional software should be required in order for MC to be able to do this, however, I don't see that there couldn't be a separate MC version, say MC HD, that would incorporate any such software into its install, whether this be a white label version of something which JR strike a deal with.

[SamuriHL]

I can tell you right now, MC15 is never going to NATIVELY play a blu-ray with full menus and whatnot without some other software.  To do that, it would have to become a licensed player, and that is not a fun thing for anyone.  The plugin idea is a good one....passing a disc off to the 10' TMT3 UI seamlessly.  That should be pretty simple in reality because all you're doing is calling uMCEDVDPlayer.exe with the drive letter.  From there the 10' UI takes over for disc playback.  That's all 7MC is doing under the covers anyway.  There's no reason MC15 couldn't do the same thing with PDVD, TMT, or even WinDVD.

Now, if you want to throw something like AnyDVD into the mix to get around the AACS LA requirements, MC15 could integrate libbluray that's being developed as open source for BD-J and menus.  With ffdshow for dxva/subs/bitstreaming, that'd be a pretty decent solution, but, again, the disc would have to be unprotected.  And for those that want to decode rather than bitstream, you're going to run head first into the missing DTS-HD MA decoder problem.  You can decode DTS core, but, there is no decoder available for DTS-HD MA.  Nonetheless, this is certainly doable with a great deal of effort.  I also do not have any idea where libbluray is in their development process.  (Meaning how far along they are).  Given how long SlyPlayer has been in development, I know how much of a challenge it is to create a player that can do all that.

Anyway, food for thought.  I don't disagree that it would be nice, but, I think option 1 is the most viable for now and should be extremely easy to integrate.

[JimH]

In response to Matt's rant, I agree completely. ... The only way I could get full Blu-ray playback capacity is to take potentially illegal steps requiring much time and energy.

I started a new thread on adding Blu-ray to MC at an extra charge here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=59016.0

[HiFiTubes]

I'd never heard of SMM until you mentioned it in an earlier post. I'll have to check it out. Agree 100% that it's the splitters that break things (for me, at least) most of the time. Now I see why Haali works fine for TrueHD, but not DTS-HD.

What build of FFDShow are you using? Are you using the current Haali splitter from the site?

http://haali.su/mkv/

[SamuriHL]

What build of FFDShow are you using? Are you using the current Haali splitter from the site?

http://haali.su/mkv/

Any version of ffdshow, and yes, the latest haali.  (Yes, I'm answering for him )  If the DTS-HD MA track was touched by MKVMerge, Haali won't play it.  Believe me, I've looked for a solution.  There isn't one.  Haali needs to fix it. 

[fitbrit]

Any version of ffdshow, and yes, the latest haali.  (Yes, I'm answering for him )  If the DTS-HD MA track was touched by MKVMerge, Haali won't play it.  Believe me, I've looked for a solution.  There isn't one.  Haali needs to fix it. 

Ahh Thanks for the answer on my behalf for the following reasons:

1) I was pretty sure I had that latest version, but was thinking about reinstalling just to be sure. Now I won't, plus I've verified that I have that version.

2) I didn't know about the mkvmerge thing.
Cheers!

[jmone]

Any version of ffdshow, and yes, the latest haali.  (Yes, I'm answering for him )  If the DTS-HD MA track was touched by MKVMerge, Haali won't play it.  Believe me, I've looked for a solution.  There isn't one.  Haali needs to fix it. 

So how do you bitstream your DTS-HD tracks?

[fitbrit]

So how do you bitstream your DTS-HD tracks?

My turn to answer for him - Matroska Source splitter (MPC-HC's native splitter), or SMM.

[jmone]

So which Matroska splitter is the less buggy of the three at present?

[fitbrit]

So which Matroska splitter is the less buggy of the three at present?

MPC's 64-bit version works perfectly .... in MPC. I get stuttering and random freezes in MC15 using the 32 bit version. I've not successfully installed SMM to the point that it's recognised in MC15 yet, but there have been lots of bug fixes since it first came out. I'm not touching Haali at the moment.

[YannisA]

Great thread.
I've been bitstreaming until a month before (DTS-HD and DTS-MA) but not anymore, without changing something.
My setup:
Hardware: Windows 7 Ulimate, ATI 5450 connected through HDMI to a Denon AVR3808.
Software (when it was successful): CoreAVC Pro v2.00, Haaili, and Ffdshow_rev3562_20100907.
I don't know what has been changed to prevent my system from bitstreaming and not even playing mkvs now.
I have tried the guide above. Uninstalled everything and then installed again Ffdshow and standalone MPC filters.
MC15's behaviour is strange. I mean, it can play the 1st DVD i selct from library but, not the 2nd. It displays a message like "Your system might not be configured for DVD playback".
I receive almost the same message, on every 2nd mkv I attempt to play. It looks like, MC15 has been messed up with filters and/or file types.
The most important: What has been changed during the last month? I didn't touch anything in my setup. But now, nothing plays. My video files are mkv, m2ts, mp4, avi and DVDs (Video Ts folders).
And, being in Greece, I need subtitles to work...

[glynor]

Just so you know, DVDFab BluRay Ripper works fine with converting to MKV and preserving the HD audio as well.  I used it recently to rip a big set of BluRay discs.  I did actually recompress them, but I kept the bitrate quite high (2-pass at 13mbps) and they look beautiful, and the Dolby TrueHD works perfectly (of course, we do need Haali to fix the splitter for DTS-HD, but I can wait, I don't actually have any of those discs right now).

The only think DVDFab doesn't do that annoys me is to mux the subtitles into the resulting MKV (they show up as a separate IDX/SRT set).  I just use MKVMerge to quickly mux these in at the end when I'm done with the rip.

I'll have to check out MakeMKV, but DVDFab works great.

[cncb]

Can someone help me with digital audio passthrough with ffdshow/CCCP?  I have DTS checked and "Same as input" for the ffdshow audio options using HDMI (1.3) output to an AVR.  I have a MKV made from a Blu-ray with both DTS-HD and standard DTS audio tracks.  All I get is a stereo signal to my AVR when selecting either track.  I tried a different DVD with DTS sound and still only get stereo output (but do get DTS output when I remove ffdshow as a filter).  Any tips to get this working?  Should I just buy PowerDVD instead of relying on "freeware"?  Thanks.