Playing back ripped DVD's with the MVP, how do YOU do it?

[PGPfan]

Hi Guys,

I'm getting my server re-organized and I have all my DVD's ripped complete (no compression) to my server. If I understand correctly, Sage will transcode the audio just fine but it won't navigate the DVD menu structure. It 'will' however playback .vob files just fine.
So my question is: How is everyone playing back the rips? If creating a 'playlist' for the .vobs, how is that done? (As I understand, a playlist can be used to playback a full DVD, is that correct?) Can I still have cover art somehow?

Any thoughts guys?

-PGPfan

[tmiranda]

I use PowerDVD

[PGPfan]

I guess I wasn't clear enough. I just thought since I posted in the 'media extender' thread everyone would understand I mean't playback via MVP.

Anyhow, on my primary playback system (a true PC client) I use TheaterTek. What I'm trying to accomplish is to allow playback via MVP since for some reason the other members of my family seem to have a unique way that they scratch almost EVERY burned disc I make and I certainly won't allow them to touch the originals.

I know that the MVP won't handle the .ifo file structures, but it allegedly will playback an entire series of .vobs IF they are in a 'playlist'. Has anyone done this yet? If so, how did it work? And how did you do it?

Thanks for any info.

-PGPfan

[tmiranda]

PGPfan,

I knew what you were talking about, I was insinuating that since the MediaMVP DVD/VOBs playback is really poor I do not use it.

What I do is rip the VOBs to disk then combine the VOBs into one .MPEG using VideoReDo and then let the MVP play the MPEG.

[garyellis]

But, the problem with that solution is that the VOB files typically have AC3 audio, if they were ripped from DVD. And MVP does not handle files with AC3 audio. Thus, you have to convert the audio to with in the MPG's if you want to watch them via MVP.

[PGPfan]

Hi garyellis,

The Sage built-in transcoder will on-the-fly convert the audio so that it will play correctly with the MVP. The trouble is with the inability of it to understand the normal DVD file structure. I want to avoid having to re-encode all my movies into a singe file, which is why I was hoping some users had tried it by creating a 'playlist' of the .vob files.

-PGPfan

[garyellis]

I have created a single VOB file out of the many VOb files for a movie...It does not play across MVP...I was told that was because it has audio of AC3. I also converted the vob file to a Mpeg file..(which was easy, since it really already is an Mpeg file)....But, it still would not play across MVP, and again I was told because the audio is AC3. Both VOB and MPEG play fine on the "server system" with SageTV.

So, having said that, is there something I am missing to make Sage convert the AC3 on the fly? Thus eliminating the need to manually convert these movies?


Thanks,

Gary

[Mahoney]

Yes - you need to add a property to the Sage.properties file as so:

media_server/transcode_quality/DVDVOB=-f dvd -vcodec copy -acodec mp2 -ab 128

Then another to the appropriate properties file in the "clients" folder:

miniclient/transcode_mode_vob=DVDVOB

That should do it.

[garyellis]

I am going to try that right away...I have changed many of the VOB files to MPEG (still with AC3 audio)....what do the instructions look like if I want to transcode on the fly with MPG's with AC3...?


Thanks a million.....make that 2 million....


Gary

[Mahoney]

You can't, in my experience. If the file ends in MPG Sage assumes it can play it and doesn't check for any transcoding settings; I've been wanting to as the MVP cuts the sides of 16:9 aspect video unless you transcode it, but I had to rename the files to VOB to be able to transcode them.

[garyellis]

ok..here is what my sage properties file says currently...

media_server/transcode_quality/DVD=-f dvd -b 4000 -s 720x480 -acodec mp2 -ab 128

media_server/transcode_quality/DVDAudioOnly=-f dvd -vcodec copy -acodec mp2 -ab 384


and in my client folder it says this

miniclient/transcode_mode=DVD
miniclient/transcode_mode_vob=DVD


so, i should add the line that you gave me....that has DVDVOB in it?

and then add VOB to DVD in the clients folder, right?

Thanks...

Gary

[garyellis]

ok..Make that $3 million...



It worked....I've been working on this problem for 2 months and it was that simple...

Thanks...

next problem, my movies all play larger than my screen when I use MVP....The live TV is fine, just the movies seem to enlarge...

Any way to fix that?

Gary

[Mahoney]

Sounds like the 16:9 issue - the MVP tries to be "clever" and cuts off either side to put out a 4:3 image.

Assuming it is, and you have a 4:3 TV and are in the US, change the server side property to:

media_server/transcode_quality/DVDVOB=-f dvd -b 4000 -aspect 4\:3 -padtop 60 -padbottom 60 -s 640x360 -acodec mp2 -ab 128

If you have a widescreen TV, change the server side property to:

media_server/transcode_quality/DVDVOB=-f dvd -b 4000 -aspect 4\:3 -acodec mp2 -ab 128

[Mahoney]

In case that doesn't work, here's my understanding of the issue:

The Sage extender is, at the moment, only meant to work with 4:3 TVs. If passed an MPEG file with metadata saying it should be played at 16:9 aspect ratio, the extender cuts off either side to produce a 4:3 image with no black bars.

Any file recorded by the Hauppauge analogue capture cards will have metadata saying it should be played at 4:3 aspect ratio. Of course, if it captured a widescreen broadcast then the whole image will be played by the MVP - if you have a 4:3 TV it will look out of shape, with everything too tall. If you have a 16:9 TV the TV can stretch it out and you get the correct widescreen image.

DVDs generally have 16:9 metadata, so the MVP cuts off the sides. OK for 4:3 TVs if you don't like black bars and don't mind losing some of the picture, but a pain on a widescreen TV.

The work-a-round is to get the Sage server to transcode the file and send the MVP a stream with 4:3 metadata. If you have a widescreen TV you want it just to send the whole image compressed up to 4:3 so that the TV can expand it out again. Hence you use:

-aspect 4\:3 to change the metadata aspect ratio of the stream
-b 4000 to set the video bitrate - leave this out and it uses a very low bitrate

However, if you have a 4:3 TV and want the whole 16:9 image displayed at the right aspect ratio, with black bars top and bottom, you use these extra settings:

-s 640x360 the size the video image itself should be put out at
-padtop 60 the number of black lines to add at the top
-padbottom 60 the number of black lines to add at the bottom

All told that produces an NTSC 640x480 4:3 stream composed of 60 black lines, the image and then 60 more black lines. As far as the extender is concerned the metadata says it's a 4:3 image so it plays the whole thing, so on your 4:3 TV you get a letter boxed correct aspect ratio image with no lost image.

Hope that makes sense, and if I got any of the numbers wrong for NTSC you can now correct them with a decent understanding of the principles involved!

[Mahoney]

There are also two extra settings:

-vcodec copy
-acodec copy

If you use either of these it will not bother transcoding either the video (vcopy) or the audio (acopy). These settings over-ride all other settings, so if you use

-aspect 4\:3 -vcodec copy

on a 16:9 stream it will still be sent 16:9.

[garyellis]

thanks...

I'm going to take a NAP and then try it when my head is clear.. : )

Gary

[Para]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Hi Guys,

I'm getting my server re-organized and I have all my DVD's ripped complete (no compression) to my server. If I understand correctly, Sage will transcode the audio just fine but it won't navigate the DVD menu structure. It 'will' however playback .vob files just fine.
So my question is: How is everyone playing back the rips? If creating a 'playlist' for the .vobs, how is that done? (As I understand, a playlist can be used to playback a full DVD, is that correct?) Can I still have cover art somehow?

Any thoughts guys?

-PGPfan

PGPfan,

A while back, I used studio to edit my stv to allow me to create playlists from any recognized media file types (including VOBs) but it was by no means "ready for prime time". Then, I got pretty busy at work (the one that pays $$) and couldn't keep hacking at studio, so the editing has been at a standstill for over a month.

Anyway, the present state is very rough. I'll be glad to let you know when I get it more complete.

In the standard stv (I believe) you can only create one video playlist from the imported videos menu screen. And that screen (imported videos) will not show VOBs unless you eliminate the VIDEO_TS file structure in your import directory. I didn't like that, so I created (hacked together) a new playlist manager that allows creation of multiple, named, video playlists.

I have not even thought about cover art.

-Para

[PGPfan]

Hi Para,

Thanks for the info. Yes, I'd DEFINATELY be interested in any updates you make on this! Is there anything I might be able to do to help with developement? For me, cover art isn't a priority now but a managable way to create the required playlist is.

Thanks again!

-PGPfan

[ChePazzo]

what is the CPU impact of the transcoding options for the 4:3 fix?

One reason that I bother keeping all of my vids as mpeg (mp2 audio) and not DIVX is to lower CPU on playback.

[garyellis]

I just got an email response from SAGE and they told me that the "enlarging video" problem through MVP will be fixed in the next SAGE release...

Here's hoping that's true.,

Gary