DVD Playback -Doesn't work Period (1 Viewer)

[KublaKhan]

Hi, I am not able to get DVD playback to work. First of, I'm using the the latest CVS (every version I try doesn't work). Changing settings from withing Media Portal's Menu doesn't seem to work at all. I need to open the Media Portal Configuration File to change any settings and anything to happen.
Then, DVD playback only seems to work when I link it to an external player. I did once get DVD playback to work, but it didn't respond to anything and crashed my computer (it played the DVD in a very small size - it wouldn't fullscreen) when I tried to fullscreen it froze. I also can't access any advanced settings in Media Portal for DVD's (Make it more user friendly - next, pause, play, back, ff, rewind, etc.). I would like to see more advanced options in a right click menu too (like Audio, Video settings -brightness, contrast, speakers, etc.). Couldn't you integrate VLC media player into Media Portal somehow?

Another question. Is it possible to watch HD Television in Media Portal. I'm asking because I want to recommend Media Portal to a friend (after this DVD playback bug is fixed) and need to know if it's possible (my computer can't handle it - Centrino 1.6 GHz) and if so what the lowest specs can be to enjoy it, or anything else needed (My friend has a Media Center PC from Sony - 3.6? GHz I think).

Thanks for the quick development of Media Portal! The Media Portal team rocks. If I could code I would join! By the way, how/where could I learn to code (I'm really interested, especially in helping out OpenSource projects like this one.)? And how hard is it -what would I need to know? Do I need to research alot of technical details? :?

Thanks again! Hope you figure out this bug soon! Maybe you could get a VLC dev. to help out with the DVD playing portion of Media Portal. :idea:

Regards,

KublaKhan 8)

(*edit)
P.S. I forgot to mention that I get this message when trying to play DVD's - Could not Play. Did You Insert a Disc?

 

[Taipan]

I don't think that this is a bug - it is most likely a setup or hardware issue.

Could you please use the Support Template and follow the instructions there - that should give us some useful information to figure out what might be wrong.....

 

[KublaKhan]

Here's the template

Area: DVD Plugin
MP Version: CVS mediaportal-cvs-11-17-2005--23-03
Skin: Blue MCE
Windows Version: Windows XP Service Pack 2
CPU Type: Intel Centrino 1.6GHz
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Motherboard Chipset: (don't know- Compaq X1200)
Video Card: ATI Mobiltiy Radeon
Video Card Driver: 7.98-040120a-014371C B
Video Card Resolution: 1280 X 800
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: Intervideo, Nero DVD, Mpeg2Dec, DScaler MPEG 2 Video Decoder (yes I tried them all -if not more)
Audio Codec Type & Version: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LCPM Audio Decoder, Intervideo Audio Decoder, ffdshow Audio Decoder (yes I tried them all - if not more)
TV Card: Don't have TV card yet (Christmas -looking for a good Media Center first. I like Media Portal alot so far, but I do own Nero 7 MediaHome too.)
TV Card Type: none
TV Card Driver: none
Optional Log: -
Optional References: Popup that says Unable to Play Disc: Did you Insert Disc?

Synopsis: DVD's won't play at all or not correctly. An error message pops up most of the time that says unable to play disc -did you insert disc? (And I have a disc in the drive every time! When it doesn't have this error I just get a black screen in Media Portal and have to play around on the keyboard (I think the Esc button usually get's me out of it).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I might have this configured wrong -what is the recommended configuration for playing a DVD with the codecs I have? Maybe that might help.

 

[KublaKhan]

Hi,

What's the problem with it now? Is it me? Doesn't anyone help with troubleshooting problems in this place. Does everyone just have problems and no answers?

 

[Taipan]

Doesn't anyone help with troubleshooting problems in this place?

The more information that you provide about your problem, the better someone is likely to be able to suggest a fix - in this case, it would be helpful if you had posted the relevant section of the MediaPortal.log file.

However, in the absence of any other information, I have a couple of suggestions:-

1. make sure that you have Windows "AutoPlay" disabled for the DVD drive

2. try different DVD navigators - I use the Windows default "DVD Navigator" with NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder and the MPEG/AC3/DTS/LCPM Audio Decoder, and it works fine. But I do recall that some combinations of DVD navigators and video decoders gave similar errors to what you have experienced.

If these suggestions don't help, please provide as much information as you can, so we can get you working......

 

[KublaKhan]

Fixed it partially

Hi, I partially fixed my problem. I can watch movies now with Media Portal using all Intervideo Plugins, but I can't watch it in full fullscreen - it's always a little box (as if playing it in a restored down media portal). Another problem I'm having is that it really slows my computer down in a way it definately shouldn't when playing a DVD. Compared to playing a DVD in WinDVD standalone to in Media Portal: The quality is better in WinDVD player (no pauses), and WinDVD alone is less CPU intensive. Media Portal also seems to have a very slow reaction time when I play a DVD.

And finally, Where are all the advanced options in Media Portal like; skip to menu, fullscreen, minimize, ff, rr, play, pause, stop, advanced color options, etc.? I can't find anything - right click doesn't do anything either. Is this being implemented yet?

Thanks for trying to help.

 

[KublaKhan]

Whoops! replied to soon. I messed around with it and found out that the Nero DVD Audio and DVD decoder work the best at Normal aspect ratio. This fixes all problems. I found the buttons and settings I was looking for too (just drag mouse to bottom of screen in fullscreen mode). Now all I need is to be able to click on stuff in my DVD menu. I'm going to test around with the settings -maybe I'll solve this myself also. I think there should be a automatic configuration of all of these settings when Media Portal is installed. It would make this alot easier!

Thanks for trying to help Taipan!