Blu ray playability and Sage issue solved

[toony]

I bought a Blu Ray player.

[PiX64]

Dare I ask what issues you were having? :-D

[bits]

Originally Posted by toony

I bought a Blu Ray player.

Not sure what you mean by your post.....I smoothly(stutter free) play full BDs all the time using SageTV server in extender mode + HD200. Just before switching from BTV to STV and getting the HD200 I bought a BD player, which since getting the HD200 I have not played even once.

[PiX64]

Agreed. I have no problems at all with smooth, no stutter flawless playback on all 3 of my HD200 Extenders...

Is there anything we can possibly help with Toony?

[toony]

Ah it was a tongue in cheek post... but just the ability to throw a disc in and play it without the need to rip it first. I know there are some solutions with power dvd or something but it seems to be a headache but I am looking into it again... and my system will not just play a bluray from the bluray burner on my server... I thought I had done it in the past but it doesn't work now.

What happened is I got my wife an LCD hdtv, she has been on an old crt one up till now and really knew little about HDTV, even when watching on my 60" 1080p. So I basically created a monster, in that, she has been watching HD on her new tv on sage, after I converted the DTS audio to AC3 which she wasn't thrilled about, needing to wait until the conversion was done.
So today she wanted to rent some movies, Blu ray of course. She was all happy until I told her I need to rip them to the server for her to watch....

It was at this point I realized the downfall of Sage. She told me that all she wants to do is go home throw a disc in the God Damn player and watch like every normal person does! Oh did I mention she is very pregnant? So it was off to Best Buy and $150 later I have a happy, pregnant, quiet wife upstairs enjoying her rented disc.

[toony]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Agreed. I have no problems at all with smooth, no stutter flawless playback on all 3 of my HD200 Extenders...

Is there anything we can possibly help with Toony?

Oh my hd200 is great!, smooth playback wonderful, except for lack of menus of course. Even tried with the HD100 and that works pretty good as well.

[bits]

I am and have been where you are. I have been somewhat of an outspoken critic regarding the ripping of BD to HDD especially when re-encoding the BD to something else to save HDD diskspace. There is something to be said about just grabbing the BD or the DVD and popping it in the player but there is also something to be said for having it on the HDD all nice and handy. I have been ripping DVD to HDD for so long that my wife in most cases sits back and waits until I say it is ready. I suspect that when 2012 and or Avatar enter the house we will probably pop it into the BD player and watch them but soon thereafter they will be put on the HDD. When my wife finds a movie she likes she will watch it many times and really enjoys having them at her finger tips.

[toony]

I know! I love having things on the HDD, I would love to not have any discs at all, but even with 9tb and growing it's not a reality yet.
I guess I have been getting frustrated with the DTS -> AC3 converting and Windows home server is pissing me off and I'm thinking of switching to Linux, but that's another story.

[bits]

Originally Posted by toony

I know! I love having things on the HDD, I would love to not have any discs at all, but even with 9tb and growing it's not a reality yet.
I guess I have been getting frustrated with the DTS -> AC3 converting and Windows home server is pissing me off and I'm thinking of switching to Linux, but that's another story.

I have about 7TB of HDD space on two PCs that I could increase by replacing some of the smaller drives with larger ones but for now I have decided to be a little more selective about what I archive and I may just stop ripping BDs.

IMHO I do not see the benefit of WHS given its limitations and difficulty to work with. I did have a linux server for a few years but eventually bagged that because I never really learned linux (installing software drove me nuts) and the ext3/ext4 drive formatting made moving drives around difficult. I have an older P4 2.53 XP Pro with 6 drives in the case that I mostly use as a server (I shut it down each night) but also occasionally use it for every day family stuff. My other PC is also an everyday family PC but with 6 HDDs in it as well. It is also my STV pvr and server. I do not backup any of my video with the exception of personal family video and digital pictures, which is probably the main reason that WHS servers do not interest me.

[sleonard]

If you're ripping the BD's to hard drive then you must have AnyDVD-HD. If you do then you don't really need to rip them at all. I just pop them into the servers BD drive and watch them from any HD200 in the house. No headache at all.

S

[sleonard]

OK, the caveats are no menu's, and no DTS so if the BD has only DTS you're out of luck and same if Sage chooses the wrong playlist but I haven't experienced either issue so far.

OK, I've only tried two movies so far, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Lord of War. I just got everything installed and borrowed those two from the teen for testing. The only issue I've had is that neither of the two BD's look as good as the DVD versions or even recordings from my Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR's.

S

[bits]

Originally Posted by sleonard

If you're ripping the BD's to hard drive then you must have AnyDVD-HD. If you do then you don't really need to rip them at all. I just pop them into the servers BD drive and watch them from any HD200 in the house. No headache at all.

S

Actually I use DVDFab and rip BD to BDMV. Most of the BDs I have ripped to HDD either have both types of audio or have AC3 5.1. The ones that do not I use Clown BD to convert the audio. Since I only have one HD200 and have a stand alone BD player....no need to pop it into my PC.

[toony]

Yeah I vaguely remember watching the Shining with Anydvd-HD running.... but it's not a huge deal to rip first then watch, I can understand my wife's frustration since there is nothing she can do to help me out with the server.

I don't know what way I'm going to go, I may just stick it out with WHS for now... The more I read up on Linux the more headache I get.

Thing is I'm not doing that much to the system that I would think would tax it to the point the hd100 get stuck all the time or freezes while the hd200 is always fine. At most I am downloading from newsgroups, ripping br discs, unraring the odd file transfer in to the drive pool. It's quite frustrating to say the least.And now cause WHS is only mirroring I'm looking at having to double my drive capacity using external hdd sata 5 in one boxes.

Ah well guess I can only blame myself for being a media hog.

[ChaOConnor]

Originally Posted by toony

Yeah I vaguely remember watching the Shining with Anydvd-HD running.... but it's not a huge deal to rip first then watch, I can understand my wife's frustration since there is nothing she can do to help me out with the server.

I don't know what way I'm going to go, I may just stick it out with WHS for now... The more I read up on Linux the more headache I get.

Thing is I'm not doing that much to the system that I would think would tax it to the point the hd100 get stuck all the time or freezes while the hd200 is always fine. At most I am downloading from newsgroups, ripping br discs, unraring the odd file transfer in to the drive pool. It's quite frustrating to say the least.And now cause WHS is only mirroring I'm looking at having to double my drive capacity using external hdd sata 5 in one boxes.

Ah well guess I can only blame myself for being a media hog.

Toony, I just tried something on my WHS box, it may help you, may not. I removed one drive from the pool, formatted it to 64K (drives in the pool were this as well) and set that up as my Recording Directory. Reason was, when Sage was recording something, I noticed stutter if I tried streaming something else. Since doing this, my stuttering has gone away. Like I said, may help, may not. Good luck!

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by toony

Oh did I mention she is very pregnant?

There's your problem.... How insensitive of you!

When my wife was pregnant, I ripped all possible latest DVDs on the server. She never rented a DVD and just watched the already ripped material. Problem solved.