Blu-Ray image iso playback solution (external player) (1 Viewer)

[spokenfore]

Hi,
I did a number of searches in hopes of finding a solution for playing blu-ray episodes in my tvseries, but never found a means of playing back high def blu-ray images. Forgive me if this is old news, I did a few searches and the only advice I found was to trans-mux into MKV (which didn't help me).

This is my current setup:
1) Media Portal 1.1.2.0
2) My TvSeries 2.6.9.1369
3) Virtual CloneDrive
4) imgburn 2.5.4.0
5) PowerDVD 10 Ultra MarkII

Here's how it works:
Find a dvd (or DVD image). Copy the "VIDEO_TS.IFO" file. Create a Folder called "VIDEO_TS" and add the "VIDEO_TS.IFO" file to the folder. Then add the "VIDEO_TS" folder to the root directory (the folder containing the BDMV folder) of your blu-ray. I re-author my tv series into individual blu-ray (or DVD) episodes. You can do this using BDinfo (to find the correct mpls) and TsMuxeR (drag the mpls into tsmuxer and output to a blu-ray format). Add your blu-ray to imgburn. Under the option's tab, set the file system to "UDF" and the UDF revisions field to "2.50." Label your disc & select the destination location. Click Build. Two errors will pop up. They will say that it appears that you are trying to burn a DVD, but your settings are incorrect, do you want to correct them. Click No both times. Two other messages will appear. One is a "Fix VTS sector's failed." It's saying there's a problem with your DVD do you want to continue. Click Yes. The other message is just a burn summary. Click okay to continue. Once the image is burned. Add it to my tvseries. It should now launch & play & update watched tags as if it were a dvd. Hope this helps!

 

[Ryan_M]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up! I was told in another thread that I should be using TVseries for my box set stuff since MovingPictures menu setup isn't all that good at organizing this kind of stuff. But the setup of TVseries wasn't going anywhere since the importer found 394 files for only 12 'episodes' of material. Looks like it's trying to consider each m2ts file as an individual episode.

I have a few questions for you on your process if you don't mind.

1.) As I understand it you are ripping out just the individual episode files out of the full BD structure?
2.) and you end up with a DVD iso?
3.) Is it a lossless process? Do you end up with a file that is still 1080p w/7.1ch. 24bit 192kHz sound (if that's what was on the original disc)?
4.) Does any of the original disc menuing stay intact?
5.) How did you define your external player? or does it use the settings from some other source like My Videos, or Moving Pictures?
6.) How long does the all this extra re-authoring take? say per BD.

Sorry for so many questions at one, and thanks for your efforts!

Take care,
Ryan

 

[spokenfore]

Hey, happy to help.

1) Yes, I prefer to create individual image files for each episode. I rarely watch special features. So I choose to remove them to preserve HDD space. However, if you choose to rip a single blu-ray and associate it with multiple episodes (I've never done this, so I can't comment on the My TvSeries settings), my solution would still work.

2) No, I don't end up with a dvd iso. With the specified settings (udf 2.50), you end up with a blu-ray iso. Let me explain this a bit. When I setup My TvSeries, I found that it played DVD images fine. When I attempted to play a blu-ray iso, it would
mount the file but not launch PowerDVD to play the file. Since it mounted it, I assumed that the issue lay with the criteria my
tvseries used to play dvd images. Therefore (after trial & error), I refined the process down to adding the "video_ts" folder and the "video_ts.ifo" file onto the blu-ray. In the end, what you get is a blu-ray iso/file structure with an additional "video_ts" folder (that is ignored). This folder tricks my tvseries into thinking the disk is a dvd. Your software player (windvd, powerdvd, tmt) will recognize the disc as a bluray.

3) Yes, there is no re-encoding/trans-coding of the disc. I choose to remove streams that I never use (foreign language, subs). But everything you keep is unaltered full 1080p, 7.1 HD-DTS/-AC3, etc.

4) If you do not alter the bd structure (aside from adding the video_ts folder & file), then the menu's will be intact. However, you will have to determine how to link the related episodes to the same iso (in my tvseries). Since I've never tried this, I cannot comment on the process.

5) In mp, there are two sections. The first under "videos" --> "video extensions," add ".iso" to the list so my tvseries will know to import it (you will have to restart the mp config program before trying to import the images). Then under "DVD Discs/Images" --> "DVD Discs/Images Player" configure your external player. And under "Plugins," the "Videos" plugin MUST be enabled.

6) This varies quite a bit. If you choose to make one image per disc, then all it takes is the time to rip the blu-ray, copy a folder to the blu-ray, and build the iso. On my Core i7 950, it takes 45min to rip, a second to copy, and 5-10 minutes to build. If you are going to remove menu's & special features, and create individual episode images, it will take much longer. I use tsmuxer, eac3to, bdinfo, and suprip. I batch process as much as I can. After I rip the blu-ray(s), I use bdinfo to read the file structure and identify the episodes. I then add the mpls associated with the episode to tsmuxer, remove any unwanted streams and save the **** file so that I can batch remux all the episodes at once. This takes about 4-10 minutes per episode. I use eac3to (there's a batch button on the gui I use) to convert the 7.1 HD audio down to 5.1 AC3 (my receiver doesn't support anything else) before remuxing the episodes - but it doesn't sound like you'd be doing that. This doubles my time. So overall, it takes 45min. to rip, 5 min to remux each episode, a second to add the "video_ts" folder, and 5-10 minutes to build the iso. 10-15 minutes per episode + rip time.

I tried to be as thorough as time permitted. If something is unclear or needs further explanation, let me know. Good luck!

 

[Ryan_M]

I'll have to work my way through this and see which way I want to go. I don't watch TV except for hockey games so I don't have any TV series as such, just stuff like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Planet Earth, etc. which I guess means I don't really have a whole lot of work to do re-authoring wise. My biggest concern is system maintenance since I'm setting up my 3rd HTPC now and will probably be adding a couple more before too long so I'd like to do all the work once to the files on the server and have each HTPC's software do most of importing/setup work automatically, which it sounds like your method might get me closest to this target.

Thanks again,
Ryan

 

[Ryan_M]

So I've got some success but still not working properly:

- I reauthored the bluray and made the iso - which I've confirmed works by launching with TMT from the desk top
- The VIDEO_TS folder is in the root and contains a random VIDIO_TS.IFO, FWIW there is also a AUDIO_TS folder there too. I didn't put it there though. Is it supposed to be there? I ignored all the error prompts in tsmuxer.
- My Videos has TMT configured properly as an external player which I confirmed works by launching a bluray (index.bdmv file)
- My TVseries correctly identified the ISO's I made and put them in it's menu

When I try to launch one of the files from My TVseries the screen flickers for a split second but besides that nothing happens. I see that you have Virtual CloneDrive listed as one of the programs you use but no mention of it in your guide... is there a step I'm missing?

Thanks.

 

[spokenfore]

Hey, sorry it's not working yet. I'm sure we'll be able to sort it out.

The AUDIO_TS folder is added by imgburn. It should be there. However, were your errors in tsmuxer or in imgburn? If they were in tsmuxer, there might be a problem. If they were in imgburn, you should be fine.

Here are a couple screenshots of my settings....

The "Drive Tool" field should be the Daemon.exe found in the VCD folder.

"Virtual Drive" should be the drive letter of your virtual drive.

"Drive Number" - if you have only one virtual drive, the number is 0. If you have more than one drive, count the drives (starting from 0) in their alphabetical order to determine their drive number (ie Lets say you have a physical blu-ray drive (E and three virtual drives (F:, G:, H. You want to use drive G: as the MP virtual drive. You would add G: to the "Virtual Drive" field and 1 to the "Drive Number" field. F: = 0, G: = 1, H: = 2)

Here, make sure the external player is configured under the "DVD Discs/Images" sub-category "DVD Discs/Images Player"

The "Video" plugin must be enabled.

If you have adjusted any settings that needed to be changed, and it still isn't playing the images:

Make sure you can mount the image by double clicking it. Then open TMT and play the image from the virtual drive (make sure you select the drive (like G: in the example) not the index.bdmv). If this works, find a dvd. Rip it to your hard drive as an iso. Add it to My TvSeries. Check if it plays. Good luck!

 

[Ryan_M]

The AUDIO_TS folder is added by imgburn. It should be there. However, were your errors in tsmuxer or in imgburn? If they were in tsmuxer, there might be a problem. If they were in imgburn, you should be fine.

I thought imgburn added it. And yes the errors I ignores were the ones you mentioned in your guide in imgburn not tsmuxer.

The "Drive Tool" field should be the Daemon.exe found in the VCD folder.

"Virtual Drive" should be the drive letter of your virtual drive.

Here, make sure the external player is configured under the "DVD Discs/Images" sub-category "DVD Discs/Images Player"

The "Video" plugin must be enabled.

That might be the issue there. I made sure Videos was setup right but I didn't do anything with the DVD Discs part or setup a virtual drive. Thanks for that little walk through. I'll give it a go tonight when I get home and let you know how I make out.