STV: Add DVD playlists to watch DVDs on extenders

[amg]

This is an early alpha of an STV that will allow you to create a playlist from your ripped DVD, so it can be played back on an extender.

I have not put in any logic to determine the main title, of the DVD. I only rip the main title.

I havn't yet tested it with an MVP, but I did test it with Placeshifter.

It is not yet an STVi. If anyone is willing to help out in this area please let me know.

This STV is based upon the 5.0.4 stock STV.

Required: nielm_sageutls.jar (not included)

Install instructions:
1) Close/ exit sage.
2) Unzip the attached zip file in your SageTv directory.
3) Run Sage.
4) Set your STV to SageTV3+DVDplaylist. (on your extender too!)

A new menu option is in the Media Center - DVD Collection.

In the advanced options window there is a button to create/remove a DVD playlist.

On an extender the dvd collection menu will show only the playlists that have been created.

The screenshots attached come from the server. Currently thumbnails are not shown on the extender.

I hope this helps people.

Let me know what you think, any suggestions. This is my first cut at studio and I don't know much Java either.

[PGPfan]

amg, you sly devil! I just now saw this post. It looks VERY promising! I'll try it out on my MVP tomorrow night and post my results. I've been wanting this for a while now, and thanks to you it looks possilbe.

Do you have any plans to make this into an .stvi?

-PGPfan

[PGPfan]

Amg,

There seems to be a problem for me when I select this .xml stv. It seems like I lose the background blue colors, and the menu's text just displays one on top of the other as though it isn't actually switching from one page to the next.

What version of Java are you using? I'm on the one that ships with the current Sage (v1.4 I think). Any ideas?

Thanks,

-PGPfan

[marneb17]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Amg,

There seems to be a problem for me when I select this .xml stv. It seems like I lose the background blue colors, and the menu's text just displays one on top of the other as though it isn't actually switching from one page to the next.

What version of Java are you using? I'm on the one that ships with the current Sage (v1.4 I think). Any ideas?

Thanks,

-PGPfan

Put the xml file in the STVs\SageTV3 directory. Then it will work... At least your problems will disappear.

Good job amg!!
It works quite well on the mvp. Only a small break between the files. It didn't work at first, because I forgot to restart Sage...

Marneb

Marneb

[jryan15]

Originally Posted by marneb17

Put the xml file in the STVs\SageTV3 directory. Then it will work... At least your problems will disappear.

Good job amg!!
It works quite well on the mvp. Only a small break between the files. It didn't work at first, because I forgot to restart Sage...

Marneb

Marneb

Did you run this using the server in your signature? Did it have enough power to transcode the audio? I only ask because I have a similar processor and was afraid it wasn't enough to transcode.

[marneb17]

Originally Posted by jryan15

Did you run this using the server in your signature? Did it have enough power to transcode the audio? I only ask because I have a similar processor and was afraid it wasn't enough to transcode.

Good point. No I upgraded my server recently. My old 1.2 GHz Athlon wasn't quite enough.
Marneb

[amg]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

What version of Java are you using? I'm on the one that ships with the current Sage (v1.4 I think). Any ideas?

I am using 1.5.0_06 on the machine I developed and tested on.

This STV is not going to go much further. I don't expect to spend much time updating it or transforming it to an STVi.

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by marneb17

Put the xml file in the STVs\SageTV3 directory. Then it will work... At least your problems will disappear.

Good job amg!!
It works quite well on the mvp. Only a small break between the files. It didn't work at first, because I forgot to restart Sage...

Marneb

Marneb

Thanks Marneb, that did the trick. However, it still doesn't seem to work for me correctly. Now, it looks like it is working (I can select "DVD Collection" from the server, and create the DVD playlist) but I can't find that playlist anywhere on the MVP. If I understand correctly, ONLY the DVD playlists that are generated on the server should appear in the "DVD Colllection" menu on the MVP right?
Does it matter that my DVD files are on my media server and not locally on the Sage server?

Anyone have any ideas?

-PGPfan

[marneb17]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Thanks Marneb, that did the trick. However, it still doesn't seem to work for me correctly. Now, it looks like it is working (I can select "DVD Collection" from the server, and create the DVD playlist) but I can't find that playlist anywhere on the MVP. If I understand correctly, ONLY the DVD playlists that are generated on the server should appear in the "DVD Colllection" menu on the MVP right?
Does it matter that my DVD files are on my media server and not locally on the Sage server?

Anyone have any ideas?

-PGPfan

First I did it from a Client and thought it worked, but didn't because nielm_sageutls.jar (included with nielm's webserver) wasn't installed on the client. So i tried it on the server and the button "Create DVD Playlist" changed to "delete DVD Playlist" after I pressed it. After that the DVD showed up on the mvp box.

Marneb

[amg]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

If I understand correctly, ONLY the DVD playlists that are generated on the server should appear in the "DVD Colllection" menu on the MVP right?

Yes. Once the playlist is created on the server, the DVD should show up in the DVD collection menu on the MVP.

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Does it matter that my DVD files are on my media server and not locally on the Sage server?

I don't think it should matter. I didn't explicitly test for that condition though.

What shows up in your DVD collection menu on the MVP? Is it just an empty screen? You did select this STV on the MVP too, right? ( I really should have mentioned that!!, edited first post to say that the STV must be used on the extender also)

- amg

[PGPfan]

Hi amg,

Thanks for your reply. To answer your questions: Yes, I did select this .stv in the client as well. Every time I try and create a DVD playlist from the server it seems like it is created OK (is there anyplace to look so that I can verify that it did in fact create one?) but when I open my "DVD Collection" on the MVP, I get an empty screen with only the 'options' and 'back' menu items in it. Nothing else.

I can play the individual .vob files just fine via the MVP so I know that Sage can see the media server but even after rebooting either the MVP, server, or both I get nothing in the "DVD Collection" menu.

Thanks for any help!

-PGPfan

[amg]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Every time I try and create a DVD playlist from the server it seems like it is created OK (is there anyplace to look so that I can verify that it did in fact create one?)

I had modified the playlist screen in studio to not display the dvd playlists. If you switch back to the default STV you will be able to see the DVD playlists in the playlist manager (Main->Media Center->Music->Playlists).

If you know how to use studio you can remove the filter in the playlist manager that removes the DVD playlists.

Look at the attachments. One is with the filter. The other is with the filter removed.

[JohnPete]

Hi amg,

I am at the same point PGPfan is. I have verified that the playlist is created, but when I go to the MVP and look under DVD Collection, nothing is there. What else would you suggest?

[insomniac]

same boat here.

Originally Posted by JohnPete

Hi amg,

I am at the same point PGPfan is. I have verified that the playlist is created, but when I go to the MVP and look under DVD Collection, nothing is there. What else would you suggest?

[amg]

You have verified that the playlist is there and that it contains the VOB files for the movie and still nothing is showing up? Hmmm... I'll have to look into that more if I get a chance.

[PGPfan]

Hi amg,

To update you, I did confirm that my playlists are there and do have the vobs in them. (they show the title, and something like '5 segments'). No matter how I configure it, I just can't see the darn playlists on my MVP.

Please let me know if you need any more information to troubleshoot.

-PGPfan

[hemicuda]

dang-it... wish I'd known about that unRAID system before I built my first SCSI server array.

[PGPfan]

Yeah, I researched long and hard before deciding on what I wanted to do. For me, it was either unRaid or Irfant ReadyNAS. UnRaid was less expensive, more configurable, more reliable, and I could 'roll my own' so I took the plunge and have never regretted it.

Now, if I could only get amg's .stv to work correctly with my system then I could stream my DVD collection from unRaid to the MVP's. Works fine from my client, but it's the kid's movies that I need to stream since they can't seem to keep a DVD unscratched for longer than a couple of days.

-PGPfan

[PGPfan]

amg, any thoughts since my last post confirming that the playlists ARE being created properly?

Anyone?

-PGPfan

[amg]

PGP,

Sorry I havn't gotten back to you... I looked at the STV code and didn't see anything strange (although this is my first attempt at studio). Are you using Sage 5.0.4? I checked the API functions I was using within Studio, but I don't remember if I checked those in the Java library. I really don't know why it would not show up if the playlist was there.

Like I said in a previous post, I havn't tried it on the MVP, but it worked fine in placeshifter. I assume they should be the same.

I wish I knew how to debug STVs better.

- amg