Was I Stoopid?

[AzJazz]

I bought an internal Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Player for my PC, with the intention of using it in conjunction with SageTV / STX-HD100 for playing Blu-Ray discs on my HD TV.

It doesn't seem to be working very well (OK, not at all). SageTV doesn't seem to recognize the BR-DVD player.

Is this configuration (Internal BR player / SageTV / STX-HD100) workable? Or will I need to find some way to rip discs to a hard drive before SageTV can play them?

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by AzJazz

Or will I need to find some way to rip discs to a hard drive before SageTV can play them?

Yes.

[AzJazz]

Well, that was a total waste of money. I have absolutely no use for the player on my desktop PC.

I better not let my wife find out.

[popechild]

Sage can't recognize the BD disc structure, and there's a decent chance because of DRM issues it'll never be able to. Do a search and you'll find plenty of threads on this, but short version is you have to rip the disc into a single playable file type using AnyDVD HD in order to play it back through Sage (or the Sage extender).

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by popechild

Sage can't recognize the BD disc structure, and there's a decent chance because of DRM issues it'll never be able to. Do a search and you'll find plenty of threads on this, but short version is you have to rip the disc into a single playable file type using AnyDVD HD in order to play it back through Sage (or the Sage extender).

There maybe hope after all....

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...23&postcount=6

[AzJazz]

Thanks, guys - I was afraid of that. I figured it would operate just like a regular DVD player.

Darn near broke my PC installing the stoopid thing, too.

I was wondering if AnyDVD would help me solve this problem, but I guess it won't (at least, not in any way I would find useful). I can't see blowing an hour or two + many GBs of HD space to just watch a DVD. That is a heck of a lot more work than I used to spend cleaning an old vinyl record before playing it on a turntable.

Originally Posted by Lucas

There maybe hope after all....

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...23&postcount=6

Lucas - I just checked your link, and I wasn't sure: Will I need to rip an ISO image to do that? If so, it still may not meet my desires.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by AzJazz

Will I need to rip an ISO image to do that? If so, it still may not meet my desires.

It sounds like it would support BD folder structures. So in that case, AnyDVD HD would likely present the BD disk in a way that could be used to play the main movie (no menus, etc.) from the disk without needing to rip it.

Good news if/when it materializes.

[autoboy]

Go get a separate BD player. You can find some for as little as $150 (the no name BD players need a TV capable of 1080p/24p input to look their best). Then get a universal remote like the Harmony.

[AzJazz]

Originally Posted by autoboy

Go get a separate BD player. You can find some for as little as $150 (the no name BD players need a TV capable of 1080p/24p input to look their best). Then get a universal remote like the Harmony.

I haven't seen BR players that cheap yet (haven't looked too hard, tho), but the real key is that we will want a 5-tray multi-disc player that can random-play multiple CDs (we like background music when cooking). I haven't found any BR multi-disc players yet. I figured the best way to get BR onto my home entertainment system was to play through my Sage setup - but I was wrong.

As far as the remote is concerned, I got that TOTALLY covered - I have a Philips Pronto TSU7500. An awesome remote that truly replaces all my other remotes. The only "problem" (OK ... Fun!) is the month or so of configuration that it took to get the remote running just the way I like. It really sux that Philips is not making their fully configurable Pronto line for consumers anymore - just professionals (and, now costs about $800 or more for those remotes!).

[Taddeusz]

Another possibility is launching PowerDVD or whichever player you chose from SageTV and then go back to SageTV when you're done playing it. I don't personally have any experience doing this as I've never needed it. But others here have done this. This is possible assuming you're running a full client and the BD-ROM drive is installed in it.

[nlancaster]

I use the dynamic menues STVi to launch windvd9+ to playback bluray with no issues as all. As far as you can tell you are using sagetv to play the move. Works great.

Now I just need to figure out why the damn unit locks up for no apparent reason sometimes.