Single Most Critical Feature Needed - DVD and HD-DVD/BLU-RAY from Hard Drive

[Forgotten Illustrator]

From Wikipedia

"The first generation of Blu-ray Disc movies released used MPEG-2 (the standard currently used in DVDs, although encoded at a much higher video resolution and a much higher bit rate than those used on conventional DVDs)"

Use one of these 3 Codec

MPEG-2 - enhanced for HD, also used for playback of DVDs and HDTV recordings.
MPEG-4 AVC - part of the MPEG-4 standard also known as H.264 (High Profile and Main Profile).
SMPTE VC-1 - standard based on Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) technology.

[retret]

Originally Posted by homerpez

Dvd's do play fine on other programs, like PowerDVD, Media Center, and Media portal too... just not the "folder" method of doing it... I'm still trying even now to make that work (I'm a sucker for punishment)

As for HD-DVD... I'm just kinda HOPING that Mediaportal would support this eventually. It looks like just like Media Center, it supports HD files (like avi's and wmv's that are encoded in HD resolutions and codecs) but it doesn't support HD-DVD or BLU-RAY yet.

Just... I'm hoping.

HD-DVD can be configured in MP if you know how..
Below is my post from another forum: I dont want to retype the whole thing again, please post if you have trouble understanding my instructions..Also you dont need to convert your SD DVD to iso. As long as you have the file extension ".ifo" added on the configuration it will search the folders fine..
------------------------------------
I finally found an MCE front end that will work flawlessly on a HD-DVD backup on my HTPC.
I dont know if anyone is using media portal for their HD-DVD but for me this is the only solution after searching for a long time and its free.

Supports multiple Share/Locations
Can be configured to have PowerDVD Ultra or any external player to play HD and SD movies from hard drive by clicking in a movie thumbnail similar to mymovies. No need to run daemon.
Support MCE remote.


Instructions:
After install, go to configuration and add ".dat" to movie files you dont need to add ".evo". Add the folders where your HD DVD backups are. Scan it and it will search for "DISCID.DAT" this is stored in ADV_OBJ. After you scan it will complain that there is a confilct with the titles, this is because every movie has a DISCID.DAT but this is ok, all you have to do is search IMDB for the title and pick the movie..If anyone has a better solution please let me know, for now this will work fine.

Also make sure that ".dat" is associated to powerdvd.exe(if you use this to play your HD movies)...You can do this by right clicking on the DISCID.DAT and click "Open with"


I also have different name than the default when I rip HD-DVD but the directory structure remains the same. If you open "DISCID.DAT" file from PowerDVD ultra it will play the whole movie if you know what I mean. My directory structure is
DIR>MOVIES
>MOVIE TITLE
ADV_OBJ
HVDVD_TS

---------------------------------------
If you open the configuration.exe file, expand movies and then click on movie database. Cick on the "editor" tab then click on files. Inside files you should see
D:\MOVIES\AEON FLUX\ADV_OBJ\DISCID.DAT(depend where your movie is stored)). Then click on coverart. Unfortunately it only search a URL which IMDB is the default, you can probably trick this by uploading your thumbs to a website and then enter the direct link to the picture..Also when you search for picture cover you can always type it in the search box and click find, even partial name will find the correct cover and all you have to do is select the correct one

[retret]

[TheBatfink]

Originally Posted by retret

Ok so I am having a few problems getting this to work. I don't know if its my backup or not though.. It loads up fine but it plays sort of the HD DVD advert about how great HD DVD is etc etc but then stops like its only playing one of the video files. It never gets to the main menu or the movie after the promo?

Also, could this be applied to BluRay discs? If so how..?

[retret]

its your backup..some files are still encrypted, you can use aacskeys and dumphd. I usually dont like menus and extras so I edit the xml file to remove the extras and go directly to the main movie, most of the time the only file you need is FEATURE_1.EVO, FEATURE_1.MAP, FEATURE_2.EVO, FEATURE_2.MAP and HV00000 file..Or you can merge the 2 EVO file into one by running "copy /b movie1.evo+movie2.evo newfilename.evo" this can be done on the command prompt. Then all you have to do is add .EVO file in media portal and point it to that file..no menus..