DVD Playback on extenders

[GovtMule]

Hi... I am brand new to SageTV. I have been a long time Windows MCE user (since 2004) and am seriously considering selling my extenders and switching to SageTV and the Sage HD Theater 300 extenders. I have searched the forums and am not really clear on something. I was under the impression that I could set up my Sage server and use the single HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/DVD drive to play my library to any of the extenders. Is this the case? I want to switch but I need to make sure it is gonna provide some of the functionality that I am missing from Windows MCE. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Fuzzy]

I don't think HD-DVD is an option, BluRay will play the movie only, no menus - DVD's are fully supported. The catch here is the encryption. Sage can't deal with it, meaning you've got to remove it someway else. I think most simply run AnyDVDHD. Worth the purchase, in my mind. It removes the encryption on the fly, so the disc appears unencrypted to anything accessing it (like, for instance, sage).

As for actually playing them form the extender, you can either rip them to a harddrive, or add the drive itself as an import folder, and play it from the video library.

[pknowles]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I don't think HD-DVD is an option, BluRay will play the movie only, no menus - DVD's are fully supported. The catch here is the encryption. Sage can't deal with it, meaning you've got to remove it someway else. I think most simply run AnyDVDHD. Worth the purchase, in my mind. It removes the encryption on the fly, so the disc appears unencrypted to anything accessing it (like, for instance, sage).

As for actually playing them form the extender, you can either rip them to a harddrive, or add the drive itself as an import folder, and play it from the video library.

Just to recap. You are saying that if I insert a DVD or BlueRay into the server, have AnyDVD running on the server, add the drive itself as an import dir, then the DVD or BlueRay will appear under the video library and I can play it on the extender? Cool.

[Fuzzy]

Correct.. you'll have to make sure it does a library refresh after inserting the disc (can be done from the setup menu).

[GovtMule]

I've been using AnyDVD for a long time, as well, so that wouldn't be an issue. But you are saying there is no HD-DVD support in SageTV? I have a pretty extensive collection of them that I use with TotalMedia Theater by ArcSoft and on my Xbox 360 drive. Do you know if there is any integration with the ArcSoft product for SageTV?

[Fuzzy]

I launch Arcsoft TMT5 for BluRays and DVD's, can also launch it for HD-DVD's if I still had any. that isn't going to help with extenders though. For those, you're best bet is to rip the discs to drive, and convert them to a playable format.

[GovtMule]

Great... thanks!

[GovtMule]

Any links for ripping HD-DVD's to like H.264 or something? 720p is fine for resolution and I would like to maintain surround sound encoding. Thanks so much. (BTW, I just bought SageTV and 2 HD300's... can't wait to get them in).

[Fuzzy]

I think TSMuxer, and perhaps MakeMKV, can each take the individual items from the disc and repackage them to a playable file.

[stanger89]

I don't remember for sure, but Clown_BD might understand HD DVDs. I know I converted a couple HD DVDs to BD with eac3to and tsmuxer though.

[GovtMule]

is Clown_BD an all-in-one solution? I really would like something simple. The older I get, the less I want to much around with multiple tools to complete the job.

[Fuzzy]

ClownBD, i believe, is a front-end for eac3to and tsmuxer and such. I think it included everything you'l need.

[GovtMule]

Hmmm... OK... forgive me as I am not very educated on formats and containers. Is the conversion you mentioned with Clown_BD a lossy conversion? I need to decide how to easily get all my content viewable at all my extenders. I have HD-DVD's, Blu-Rays, and regular DVD's. I don't mind doing just regular DVD rips with AnyDVD or something for the DVD's. I would prefer the HD stuff to retain its original quality if possible although I don't really need the special features and what not... just the movie itself with surround encoding.

[trk2]

Clown_BD is not a lossy conversion, it will simply demux the HD DVD stream and then remux them them to a blu-ray iso or file format (use file format for Sage). It is a main movie only solution, forget about menus. The only thing that is not straight forward are HD DVDs with dolby+ audio. Blu-ray and HD DVD differ in support of dolbly digital + so Clown_BD will convert the Dolby + audio to pcm. Otherwise, all HD audio is supported so the converted movies will keep any soundtracks that are dobly trueHD or DTS-MA.