AnyDVD rips not playing in sagetv

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Almost nothing can play ISOs. Only VLC and XBMC (and only on the xbox?)

I am sorry, stanger, but this is so not true!

MPlayer plays ISO perfectly. No need of any mounting. And MPlayer=SageTVPlayer. (Just see what I wrote above, and you can replicate it yourself). A whole bunch of players that are based on MPlayer don't even blink when faced with ISO (MPUI, SMPlayer, etc..). And I am talking full support for chapters, subtitles, audio tracks, everything.

XBMC, that you mention it, also plays ISOs natively, and not only on the xbox, but on the PC too. And no need of any mounting either. I can make you a list of all the players thet play ISO without the need of special "mounting", but that's beyond the point.

Just make a guess: Why is SageTV able to see correctly what's inside that ISO file as I described in #2 above?

Patilan

[davephan]

I rip with AnyDVD to the hard drive. Then use VideoReDo "quickfix" on each VOB file, creating a set of mpeg2 files. I then use VideoReDo to join the mpeg2 files into one large mpeg2 file.

Dave

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by davephan

use VideoReDo "quickfix" on each VOB file, creating a set of mpeg2 files. I then use VideoReDo to join the mpeg2 files into one large mpeg2 file.

Why on Earth would you want to do that? I mean, what advantage does it give you over ending with "I rip with AnyDVD to the hard drive"?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Patilan

I am sorry, stanger, but this is so not true!

MPlayer plays ISO perfectly. No need of any mounting. And MPlayer=SageTVPlayer. (Just see what I wrote above, and you can replicate it yourself). A whole bunch of players that are based on MPlayer don't even blink when faced with ISO (MPUI, SMPlayer, etc..). And I am talking full support for chapters, subtitles, audio tracks, everything.

OK, so MPlayer, XMBC, VLC...

Just make a guess: Why is SageTV able to see correctly what's inside that ISO file as I described in #2 above?

Because it uses SageTVPlayer for format "detection" but uses DirectShow for almost all playback. There are no ISO dshow source filters that I'm aware of. It doesn't use SageTVPlayer for playback hardly at all.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by Patilan

Why on Earth would you want to do that? I mean, what advantage does it give you over ending with "I rip with AnyDVD to the hard drive"?

VideoReDo' s "quickfix" sometimes finds problems with the video files and fixes the problems. The commercials on the DVD are then edited out of the large mpeg2 file using VideoReDo.

Dave

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Because it uses SageTVPlayer for format "detection"

And that's exactly what I'm driving at! SageTVPlayer knows how to deal with that ISO, sage might as well let SageTVPlayer play it!

Originally Posted by stanger89

It doesn't use SageTVPlayer for playback hardly at all.

I use SageTVPlayer for all my MPEG4 content. And I am very happy with it. I am yet to see one video file that SageTVPlayer can't play it!

Patilan

[stanger89]

Submit a feature request then I suppose.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by davephan

VideoReDo' s "quickfix" sometimes finds problems with the video files and fixes the problems. The commercials on the DVD are then edited out of the large mpeg2 file using VideoReDo.

Do yourself a big favor, and get "DVD Shrink 3.2". It's a one-step solution. It can open the DVD folder that AnyDVD made for you, and pick just the main movie, if this is what you want.

DVD Shrink can also output one big VOB file if you want. (but that can bring some different kinds of troubles, if you read around these forums).

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Submit a feature request then I suppose.

Huh??

I kind of thought that posting in these forums accomplishes just that. If the Sage people are not reading the forums then why are we wasting our keyboards?

Seriously, Is there really some formal way for making a feature request?

Patilan

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Patilan

Huh??

I kind of thought that posting in these forums accomplishes just that. If the Sage people are not reading the forums then why are we wasting our keyboards?

It's a user forum, not an official support forum. See the support page on the SageTV site.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

See the support page on the SageTV site.

Done. There's nothing about making a feature request there.
There's only some support form for troubleshooting problems.

I thought you knew of some formal way for making feature requests.

There isn't any?

Actually, never mind! If they don't care about readig these forums then let them fall behind the competition. I don't have the time to care.

Bye-bye

[stanger89]

Just send an email to support, the address is on that page. They don't totally ignore the forums, but they also can't afford to spend time scouring them to make sure they catch everything. Contacting them directly is the only surefire way to make sure your issue/request gets logged in the system.

You realize Narflex, who posts here occasionally is the CTO, and _Demo_ is one of the devs.

But no there's not a "feature request" form.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Just send an email to support

Done. Let's see what happens now.

[APillowOfClouds]

I have about 20 AnyDVD rips that never did play right through MediaPortal via an s-video connection to my TV - would get weird menu behavior, black screen with sound etc.

So far Sage plays them all flawlessly.

[chidofu]

I am creating a library of DVDs and Blu Ray disks on a NAS storage device that I want to be able to view on a variety of televisions and computers around the house using SageTV. So far my ripping experience is as follows:

1. Ripped a DVD to a folder using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Hard Drive". This created folder called VIDEO_TS with a bunch of files in it. Most of the files within the folder are named VTS_01_X where X is a series of numbers. Most of these files are about the same size, making me think that all of them contain movie content. Some of the other folders are called VIDEO_TS.BUP and VTS_01_0.BUP and just VIDEO_TS. I have no idea what these files are or what they are for. If anyone can shed any light on whether I need to do anything further with these files or what they are, I would appreciate it.

2. Ripped a DVD to an ISO file using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Image". This created a single file with the movie name an an iso extension. My impression was that some people prefer to rip the DVD in a way that reveals all of the files and some prefer to rip to a single ISO file. I have since read on the forums that this is not a good idea for SD DVDs and that SD DVDs should always be ripped in a way that reveals all of the files. Please confirm what the best way to handle a DVD is using AnyDvd and, if the best way is to rip in a way that reveals all of the files, what to do with them after this is done. So far I do not have any other software other than AnyDvd.

3. Ripped a Blu-Ray disk to an ISO file. This created a single file with the movie name and an ISO extension. I had originally thought I would do this with all of my BR disks because it seemed like the safest bet right now to get all of the content which I could then manipulate later as I wished if the HD200 I have coming couldn't play ISOs. However, I ripped Underworld and it created a huge 45 GB ISO file. Even my 5 TB NAS is going to get filled quickly with 45 GB files so ripping ISOs is not going to be a viable option for me.

4. Ripped a Blu-Ray disk to a folder using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Hard Drive". This created a folder with two folders BDMV and CERTIFICATE. CERTIFICATE is empty but BDMV has multiple folders. The main one appears to be STREAM which contains a number of m2ts files. The biggest of these m2ts files contains the movie and the others appear to be previews, trailers and extra content. Cyberlink PowerDVD has no problems playing these m2ts files. I only want to keep the main movie file. Can I simply keep the main m2ts file on my server and delete everything else? I have seen posts about people remuxing and putting things in containers and downgrading audio. What is the purpose of all of this? Is it to shrink the file? Or do you need to do this because SageTV and the HD200 can't play back an m2ts file?

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide. Oh, and by the way, in none of this have I seen any VOB file that people keep referring to. Where are people finding these VOB files?

[logsvp]

Originally Posted by chidofu

Oh, and by the way, in none of this have I seen any VOB file that people keep referring to. Where are people finding these VOB files?

The VTS_01_X files you refer to are VOB files. I suspect you have known filetypes hidden in windows explorer which is why you aren't seeing the .VOB filetype.

[HelenWeathers]

Many of the posts in this thread are referring to AnyDVD as opposed to AnyDVD HD. The VOB files are from standard DVD copies to folder. For BD files you should check out BDInfo, a utility to open the BD movie folder created by the backup/copy software and examine it's content. BDInfo will disclose the playlists and help you in choosing content to extract (movie only etc). BDInfo used in conjunction with a program called TSMuxer will allow you to extract the playlist of choice with the audio tracks of choice to .ts, .m2ts etc files.

You could just save the m2ts file from the stream folder, but some movies use multiple m2ts files to assemble the movie (especially movies that use seamless branching for different versions of the movie on one disc ie theatrical release vs special edition vs director's cut).

BDInfo and TSMuxer can be found with a trusty google search and both are self explanitory.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by chidofu

I am creating a library of DVDs and Blu Ray disks on a NAS storage device that I want to be able to view on a variety of televisions and computers around the house using SageTV. So far my ripping experience is as follows:

1. Ripped a DVD to a folder using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Hard Drive". This created folder called VIDEO_TS with a bunch of files in it. Most of the files within the folder are named VTS_01_X where X is a series of numbers. Most of these files are about the same size, making me think that all of them contain movie content. Some of the other folders are called VIDEO_TS.BUP and VTS_01_0.BUP and just VIDEO_TS. I have no idea what these files are or what they are for. If anyone can shed any light on whether I need to do anything further with these files or what they are, I would appreciate it.

The VOBs are the files that contain all the audio/video/subs. VTS means Video Title Set, which is a "set" of related video, usually the biggest VTS_xx_y set is the main movie, and the rest are extras/trailers. They're all the same size because the DVD specification sets a maximum file size of 1GB (which is why ripping to one huge VOB can cause problems in some players).

The IFO files are the ones that contain the logic or what to play when, in what order, and how the menus work.

The BUP files are, IIRC, "backup" versions of the IFOs, but I really don't know what they're for.

2. Ripped a DVD to an ISO file using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Image". This created a single file with the movie name an an iso extension. My impression was that some people prefer to rip the DVD in a way that reveals all of the files and some prefer to rip to a single ISO file. I have since read on the forums that this is not a good idea for SD DVDs and that SD DVDs should always be ripped in a way that reveals all of the files. Please confirm what the best way to handle a DVD is using AnyDvd and, if the best way is to rip in a way that reveals all of the files, what to do with them after this is done. So far I do not have any other software other than AnyDvd.

It's really a compatibility issue. "Folder" rips are supported almost universally by pretty much every player that can play DVDs, ISOs are supported by only a small fraction of those. And I can't think of any apps that support ISOs but not Folders (maybe a few hardware players).

ISOs are really a remnant of the early days of DVD (much like Blu-ray today) where players would only play "discs" so you'd rip to ISO so you could mount them to a virtual drive. Advances in software have removed that limitation.

The only two real differences between an ISO and a Folder is the operating system doesn't provide access to contents of the ISO without mounting it, and an ISO retains all the filesystem info, in addition to the files/data.

3. Ripped a Blu-Ray disk to an ISO file. This created a single file with the movie name and an ISO extension. I had originally thought I would do this with all of my BR disks because it seemed like the safest bet right now to get all of the content which I could then manipulate later as I wished if the HD200 I have coming couldn't play ISOs. However, I ripped Underworld and it created a huge 45 GB ISO file. Even my 5 TB NAS is going to get filled quickly with 45 GB files so ripping ISOs is not going to be a viable option for me.

This highlights one big downside of ripping to ISO, it's a 1:1 copy, so it contains everything whether you want it or not. What I do is use DVD Shrink for DVDs, it has the ability to strip out unwanted extras and rebuild the output leaving you with a compliant "DVD" with only the main movie and desired audio tracks. I find this saves about 40% or so on most DVDs. And contrary to it's namesake, I disable the compression, so there's no "Shrink" beyond the elimination of excess files.

For Blu-ray I'm still investigating, but it looks like TSMuxeR and TSRemux are the closest things to a "BDShrink". They can build a Blu-ray structure from just the main movie/playlist on a BD.

4. Ripped a Blu-Ray disk to a folder using AnyDvd left click "Rip to Hard Drive". This created a folder with two folders BDMV and CERTIFICATE. CERTIFICATE is empty but BDMV has multiple folders. The main one appears to be STREAM which contains a number of m2ts files. The biggest of these m2ts files contains the movie and the others appear to be previews, trailers and extra content. Cyberlink PowerDVD has no problems playing these m2ts files. I only want to keep the main movie file. Can I simply keep the main m2ts file on my server and delete everything else? I have seen posts about people remuxing and putting things in containers and downgrading audio. What is the purpose of all of this? Is it to shrink the file? Or do you need to do this because SageTV and the HD200 can't play back an m2ts file?

It's the same as DVDs, you get all the files on the disc. If you run the main playlist through one of of the above apps, you should end up with a functional Blu-ray (chapters, maybe popup menu, etc) but with just the main movie.

As far as other containers, some convert to things like MKV for better format support, and as for audio, the TrueHD and DTS-HD tracks on most BDs aren't well supported in many apps, so some like to convert from those to more compatible audio like DD/DTS or FLAC.

[chidofu]

Thanks for the responses.

You were correct about file extensions being hidden. I have enabled file extensions.

I will check out BDInfo and TSRemuxer.

As for whether to go with ripping or ISOs, I think the size issue on ISOs will make that impossible for me. Is anyone else sticking with ISOs? If so, how do you solve the size issue.

As for ripped files, for SD DVDs it appears that I have to do something to recompile the VOB and IFO files back into a coherent, playable file using some third party product. Is that correct, or could I just leave all of those random files sitting in a folder?

For BR, unless there is some way to stick with ISOs, I will try the BDInfo and TSRemuxing process. I assume these only work with ripped files and not an ISO. Oh, and is there any reason folks are not using the CopyDVD product that I got with AnyDVD? I understand from one of the SlySoft forums that CopyDVD can also be used to do content extract. Is that not true?

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by chidofu

As for ripped files, for SD DVDs it appears that I have to do something to recompile the VOB and IFO files back into a coherent, playable file using some third party product. Is that correct, or could I just leave all of those random files sitting in a folder?

You are not paying attention. You don't need to "recompile" any VOBs, or IFOs or anything. What you call "random files sitting in a folder" is exactly the "coherent, playable" thing, and you should leave it as it is. AnyDVD is the best software for ripping DVDs, and you already have it. You don't need anything else.

Of course, if you don't much care about useles stuff like menus or extras, and you want to just keep the main movie, along with the audio tracks and subtitles of your choice, then get yourself DVD Shrink 3.2! With DVDShrink you open those "random files sitting in a folder" and pick only what you want to keep from that DVD. (Reauthor button, then set the choices, then Backup button. Done.)

Remember: Run DVDShrink only AFTER AnyDVD has ripped the thing to FOLDER (not .iso)

If for some reason you want to keep the movies in ISO format (I can think of some reasons), then you can always tell DVDShrink to output to ISO. Don't use the ISO option from AnyDVD!

Patilan