This is something that I encountered when I was getting ready for XBMC as I too prefer to retain full DVD capabilities when I rip and playback (menus, special features, director's commentary etc).
I would like to take a few minutes to jot down the process I went through, and why I went down the path I did.
I did some research, mostly trial and error stuff, and realised I couldn't have everything I wanted, so I had to choose;
1. Correctly identified episodes by XBMC - check
2. Ability to play episodes - check
3. Keep DVD structure (and hence menus, extras etc) - check
4. Be able to do all of this plus when I click on an episode it just goes straight there - nope
As far as point 4 goes I am not sure how I can have that plus the first three. I would imagine it would only be possible if there was a container (like .avi or .mkv) that not only allowed you to maintain the DVD menu structure, but also contained alternate audio tracks and subtitles.
This is how I did it (not much difference in our naming structure, cassperr, at least how XBMC reads it);
TV Shows/Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Season 1/1x01.1x02.1x03.1x04.iso -this is the first disc
TV Shows/Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Season 1/1x05.1x06.1x07.1x08.iso -this is the second disc
etc
XBMC then lists this as;
TV Shows/Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Season 1/01 Welcome to the Hellmouth (1)
TV Shows/Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Season 1/02 The Harvest (2)
TV Shows/Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Season 1/03 The Witch
etc
This is different to how I used to rip my movies and TV shows for the PS3 (my previous media player) because the PS3 had various limitations that meant it was easier to rip the main content and sacrifice the 'extras' I mentioned earlier.
This was especially challenging when I encountered movies that were split on the DVD, or TV shows that didn't have the episodes in order (but would correctly play in order on the actual DVD - I suspect this was something done to thwart would-be pirates).
Scrubs, for example, used to cut the last few minutes off an episode and put it in a different .vob - this made for some interesting evenings when all I had were about 12 different files for 6 episodes and I had to work out which one matched which. This was back in the PS3 days, were all I had were .avi files - it worked well for the most part, but it wasn't as good as I wanted.
However, as you have probably already discovered, selecting any of the first four episodes will play the 1x01.1x02.1x03.1x04.iso file (ie, no matter which you select it performs the same task), and possibly even more frustrating is the fact that it will list all four episodes as being watched even if you haven't actually watched them all!
Something you mention, CaptainTivo, got me thinking;
CaptainTivo Wrote:I, too, wanted to keep DVD rips of TV shows in IFO or ISO format. However, after I thought about it for a while, I realized the problem: how do you know which VOB (or worse, set of VOBs) is which episode? I have run into this problem before (converting VOB to mpeg for upload to my Tivo). Sometimes, it is obvious and sometimes not. For movie (feature film) DVDs, I assume that the XBMC DVD player simply picks the longest title set in the DVD and assumes that it is the "movie". This won't work with TV shows. Often there is a title set that contains all the episodes on the discs as a single, long file. This could be used with the "time code" solution above but it still not optimal. I think the answer lies in a custom nfo file that describes each and every episode and which VOB contains it. This does not exist as of today (at least I don't think it does).
Comments?
This is exactly the issue I had originally with some TV shows (other TV show DVDs ripped perfectly, but not all).
If it were just a case of XBMC looking for the largest/longest title and playing that (in the case of movies here, obviously this kind of procedure would not work for TV shows), then how would it know how to deal with DVDs that have intentionally split titles? Or extras or commentary for that matter? My understanding is that XBMC (in the case of full movie DVD rips) looks for the main menu title (that splash screen where you have your options on most DVDs to play movie, or go to deleted scenes, or outtakes etc) and in doing so skips the FBI warnings etc.
Actually, now that my train of thought is going along these lines; how would XBMC be able to know if you did want commentary when you clicked play, instead of the actual soundtrack to the movie. If you went back to extracting .avi or .mkv then you might need to have one file for normal soundtrack, and another for the commentary soundtrack. I don't know about anyone else but my storage space is kind of at a premium (especially with the crazy prices we have been seeing on HDD lately).
Perhaps the only way of satisfying everything (with no compromises anywhere) could be if XBMC, upon selecting a .vob or .iso, could 'read' the options and ask you which way you wanted to go.
For example;
You - play 'x-men'
XBMC - do you want the extended version?
You - yes
XBMC - would you like director's commentary?
You - no
XBMC - would you like to watch any deleted scenes or outtakes afterwards?
You - yes
But then again what are you really saving by having XBMC ask you about these things when you can just select them when the splash screen comes up? Might be easier once we have mind-control computers
But I think I am starting to get a little long-winded here so I will sign off by saying that I dream of a time when all digital media is accessible by everyone, everywhere. All you have to do is turn it on, and tell it what you want to watch and it will stream it. No more thousands (millions?) of copies of movies and TV shows - all of it is available. I don't know how to do it, but boy am I jealous of those people in the future who might have it
