Blu-ray disk not recognized (1 Viewer)

GeorgeVC

Portal Member
January 5, 2009
14
0
Home Country
When I try to play a Blu-Ray disk, MediaPortal does not seem to recognize the disk. I can play Blu-Ray through Cybelink PowerDVD but when I start MediaPortal and press Play DVD it asks me to load the disk and then doesn't seem to recognize it - it just sits there. I think I have set up configuation correctly by loading CyberLink Navigators and decoders.
Can anyone advise, please.
TV-Server Version: Dunno
MediaPortal Version: Version 1
MediaPortal Skin: Wide
Windows Version: Vista sp1
CPU Type: 2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 32-bit
HDD: 640GB
Memory: 4GB
Motherboard: MSI MS-7529 1.0
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Card Driver: 7.15.11.7813
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 6.0.1.5567
1. TV Card: FusionHDTV USB, AVStream Capture (DVBT-DUAL) (2x)
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: 6.2.0.0
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: no remote
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:
 

Mew

Portal Pro
January 11, 2007
356
111
52
Hertfordshire
Home Country
England England
Hi GeorgeVC

You haven't mentioned installing the Blu-Ray / HD-DVD Player with PowerDVD (a working solution) plugin (see https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/plugins-47/blu-ray-hd-dvd-player-powerdvd-working-solution-32268/) as this is needed to play Blu Ray disks within MediaPortal (although it does launch PowerDVD to do this).

I believe the issue is that MediaPortal uses Windows XP or Vista's native DVD playing abilities available in Windows Mediaplayer to play DVD disks but both XP and Vista (and it seems Windows 7 beta) lack the ability to natively play Blu Ray disks. In order to play them you require 3rd party software (such as PowerDVD). From what I have read, you are unlikely to be able to play Blu Ray disks directly in MediaPortal until Microsoft add native Blu Ray playing to Windows and you can play and navigate disks in Windows Mediaplayer. Even then there may be issues due to HDCP.

Mew
 

GeorgeVC

Portal Member
January 5, 2009
14
0
Home Country
Many thanks Mew.
I found your reference and will attempt it.
I'm only a PC user, not an IT expert or a programmer so I'm not sure if I understand it but nothing ventured, nothing won, as they say, and with computers it seems to me that you have to keep on trying to do new stuff if you're going to learn at all.
My time zone's a bit different to yours, so I'll report progress tomorrow and seek further help, if you don't mind. I'll try to document exactly what I'm doing for the sake of other non-techies like me in the future.
Thank you again.
George
 

Mew

Portal Pro
January 11, 2007
356
111
52
Hertfordshire
Home Country
England England
Hi GeorgeVC

I don't have a Blu Ray (or HDTV) drive so I haven't installed this plugin and probably won't be much help if you get stuck. I do know from reading that it is what you need to play Blu Ray disks from MediaPortal if you have PowerDVD. Hopefully you will find the technical information you need in the thread I supplied the link for.

Good luck

Mew
 

GeorgeVC

Portal Member
January 5, 2009
14
0
Home Country
Almost got it. Just have to get the Blu-Ray extensions right, I think.
It wasn't as bad as I thought, actually. I think I actually understood a bit of what I was doing!
Thanls again.
 

GeorgeVC

Portal Member
January 5, 2009
14
0
Home Country
Note - Warning added below
Just to complete the story for record purposes.
It all worked, following the instructions in https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/plugins-47/blu-ray-hd-dvd-player-powerdvd-working-solution-32268/).
The way it works is that a new HD VIDEO heading appears in one of the MediaPortal opening menu screens and, when you click on this, the Cyberlink PowerDVD opening screen comes up and you use this in the normal way.
Now, my next challenge will be to see if I can network this around the house through my ageing desktop and laptop. Will let you know.
Many thanks for all the help.
WARNING: A keyboard problem occurs when you exit from PowerDVD - The MediaPortal application stays on and has to be closed from the tray icon and also a "HD_Starter" Hotkey process remains running and has to be closedfrom the tray. It was scary when my keyboard suddenly delivered:
Tle quick srown fox juq
Ed over tle lhzy dog
in place of the old typing tutor phrase but luckily I worked out why just before I set out to return the keyboard for warranty.
I'll record this in a bug report.
 

GeorgeVC

Portal Member
January 5, 2009
14
0
Home Country
I guess I'll have to give up on networking from my Bluray host; my client computers don't seem to be able to cope. It was always a rather hopeless task, I suppose, but I wasn't sure where all the Cyberlink PowerDVD processing would take place and hoped that if the host computer did some of it my older XTPro clients might be able to handle the rest of the job. Got sound through but no vision.
Next thing is to try a 14 metre long VGA cord. There are plenty of references on the web to long CAT5 cables working well but I don't think VGA handles sound as well so I think I'll need additional stereo audio cables.
My MSI grahics card has this rather weird adapter that is supposed to outout HDMI through a VGA socket. I understand that HDMI is digital and carries video and audio but I don't know how this works when it is fed through this adapter and then into a VGA cable. What happens at the monitor end? Does anybody have any experience of this?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom