Playing DVD's from the HDD

fathead · 2006-01-04, 10:15

Hopefully got the right forum.

How does Media Portal react to playing DVD's from the HDD. I have spent a large amount of time backing up my entire DVD collection to HDD via DVD shrink, and now have the ability to watch anything I want without having to go find the damn disc.

What I need to know though is whether media portal will be able to open these movies? DVD shrink generates the a movie folder, with 2 subfolders for audio & video. Within each folder are many different files. Will just clicking on the main movie folder be enough to start media portal playing it? Or will I be better off writting something like a batch file that open the correct file?

fpouels · 2006-01-04, 10:44

Yes, media portal will play these dvd's from the hard disk just by selecting the main movie folder. No need for batch files at all.

fathead · 2006-01-04, 10:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpouels

Yes, media portal will play these dvd's from the hard disk just by selecting the main movie folder. No need for batch files at all.

Excellent! Are you using the same method then? I was worried media portal wouldn't be able to look into the sub folders, never mind find the correct file within those subfolders.

m0rt · 2006-01-04, 11:11

Never tried this before so I gave it a whirl last night. Backed up a DVD and selected the movie folder. The DVD started playing!

Only problem I had was in the language selection screen of the DVD. It gives you two options (Spanish or English). Ordinarily you would use the cursor buttons on the DVD remote till the correct language is highlighted and press Select. Unfortunately I couldn't get MP to highlight either option using my keyboard/remote cursor keys. Using the mouse didn't help either.

Anyone have any ideas?

fathead · 2006-01-04, 11:38

I don't backup the full DVD, instead I reauthor the DVD & only backup the actual movie file (no menus). This should mean that I just select the movie fodler & the movie will instantly start playing

Now I just need to transfer all 74 movies from my external HDD to my HTPC setup.

fpouels · 2006-01-04, 12:51

That's exactly what I'm doing. But only for the movies for my kids, these movies are watched over and over again

fathead · 2006-01-04, 13:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpouels

That's exactly what I'm doing. But only for the movies for my kids, these movies are watched over and over again

What about the DVD covers? Are you downloading these manually? Have you tried using the movie database plugin yet that automatically downloads information about the movie (at least thats what I think it does)?

fpouels · 2006-01-04, 21:20

Nope, not yet. So yes, a manual download, rename to folder.jpg and move this into the movie folder.

Nemulate · 2006-01-05, 00:19

Do you not just have to make sure you name the folder the dvd files are backed into is correct for the film? Then browse to see the folder and press F3 to lookup?

thinksnow · 2006-01-05, 03:35

This is what I've got going on, too. My 1TB RAID in the basement streams movies on demand.

As for the images, I was going through, right-clicking every folder, and selecting the IMDB option. Later, I realized that I could just copy images to the main movie folder and name them "folder.jpg", which does the trick much more quickly.

2006-01-04, 10:15	#1 (permalink)
fathead Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 211 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Playing DVD's from the HDD Hopefully got the right forum. How does Media Portal react to playing DVD's from the HDD. I have spent a large amount of time backing up my entire DVD collection to HDD via DVD shrink, and now have the ability to watch anything I want without having to go find the damn disc. What I need to know though is whether media portal will be able to open these movies? DVD shrink generates the a movie folder, with 2 subfolders for audio & video. Within each folder are many different files. Will just clicking on the main movie folder be enough to start media portal playing it? Or will I be better off writting something like a batch file that open the correct file?

2006-01-04, 11:11	#4 (permalink)
m0rt Portal Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Bolton, UK Age: 33 Posts: 57 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Never tried this before so I gave it a whirl last night. Backed up a DVD and selected the movie folder. The DVD started playing! Only problem I had was in the language selection screen of the DVD. It gives you two options (Spanish or English). Ordinarily you would use the cursor buttons on the DVD remote till the correct language is highlighted and press Select. Unfortunately I couldn't get MP to highlight either option using my keyboard/remote cursor keys. Using the mouse didn't help either. Anyone have any ideas? __________________ Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways in a shower of party shards and gravel, totally spent, thouroughly used, utterly exhausted and loudly proclaiming, "F*** ME THAT WAS BRILLIANT"

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2006-01-04, 10:44	#2 (permalink)
fpouels Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Bennekom Posts: 26 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Yes, media portal will play these dvd's from the hard disk just by selecting the main movie folder. No need for batch files at all.

2006-01-04, 11:38	#5 (permalink)
fathead Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 211 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I don't backup the full DVD, instead I reauthor the DVD & only backup the actual movie file (no menus). This should mean that I just select the movie fodler & the movie will instantly start playing Now I just need to transfer all 74 movies from my external HDD to my HTPC setup.

2006-01-04, 12:51	#6 (permalink)
fpouels Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Bennekom Posts: 26 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	That's exactly what I'm doing. But only for the movies for my kids, these movies are watched over and over again

2006-01-04, 21:20	#8 (permalink)
fpouels Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Bennekom Posts: 26 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Nope, not yet. So yes, a manual download, rename to folder.jpg and move this into the movie folder.

2006-01-05, 00:19	#9 (permalink)
Nemulate Portal Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: IOW Age: 45 Posts: 536 Thanks: 28 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Country: My System	Do you not just have to make sure you name the folder the dvd files are backed into is correct for the film? Then browse to see the folder and press F3 to lookup?

2006-01-05, 03:35	#10 (permalink)
thinksnow Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 52 Thanks: 4 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country:	This is what I've got going on, too. My 1TB RAID in the basement streams movies on demand. As for the images, I was going through, right-clicking every folder, and selecting the IMDB option. Later, I realized that I could just copy images to the main movie folder and name them "folder.jpg", which does the trick much more quickly.