Streaming RAR files

[gazwest]

I'm used to the great application XBMC (Xbox Media Center) - but have now setup a pretty good PC with Win XP, and media portal.
I want to use this because it outputs HD to my HDTV.

The only question I have is, is there a way to stream through RAR files, the same way that XBMC does?

All answers are greatly appreciated.


Best regards,
Christer
Norway

[Aoestein]

I see an increasing number of threads like this, I don't have the knowlegde to do such a plugin but i know some people here have. Streaming RAR i something MP needs.

Regards Aoe

[infinityloop]

Originally Posted by Aoestein

Streaming RAR is something MP needs.

"needs"

there are more importand features on the list

anyone may enlighten me and tell me whats the pro of playing a compressed archive file (zip, rar, ace ect.)?

@gazwest
generaly speaking: if something does not play in Windows MediaPlayer, it wont play in MediaPortal.

[jburnette]

Originally Posted by infinityloop

anyone may enlighten me and tell me whats the pro of playing a compressed archive file (zip, rar, ace ect.)?

It's not something that would be needed, but it would certainly be nice to have. I understand that there are much more important aspects that need to be covered or more fully developed, but this is definitely something that many people love about XBMC (including me.) The benefit, obviously, is that you don't have to extract the data from the archives. Before I get this lecture again, I am well aware that no further compression can be achieved when raring a video/audio file. I know and completely understand that. That, however, does not change the fact that the majority of video that you download is compressed into a series of rars. I'm talking legal uncopyrighted video only to avoid any issues.

[funkstar]

As i understand it, one of the advantages of having videos in RAR files etc. is that any subtitles or additional files to the main video are all kept together. It's like treating a .rar as a folder.

[jawbroken]

funkstar, usually videos you download in rar files are quite the opposite, they are divided into 20-30 14.31MB split archives. So the benefit is not keeping things together, just that when you pirate video you will not have to extract it before watching (this is what I guess people want this functionality for).

Personally I prefer to just extract them and get a single video file.

[infinityloop]

the problem is, to have the same functionality like XBMC (which i have installed on my XBOX too ) is that we would have to implement a new (3rd party) player for Videos.

this is not something that can be done within a few weeks, thats a hugh task. and atm we have no developer for that.

but maybe someone who is willing and able to do that is reading this lines

[idioteque]

In the mean time use PARNRAR, it scans a dir every x minutes and par's and unrars everything inside it

see the download area

[sebrock]

I dont understand ParNrar. As all the movies I download right now are only RAR nothing happens. I dont use usenet right now (cant afford it). Is it possible to scan a directory and just unrar everything or does it have to be PAR first?

thats what Im looking for anyway. tips on that?

[zag2me]

You could use rarslave to automatically unrar everything every couple of hours, its just 1 click and it finds all the rar files, checks them for consistancy then extracts them and deletes the rar's.

I do agree though, this is just a temporary solution, it would be better to be able to stream them like xbox media center.