Play Disc menu option - how is it triggered? [SOLVED (mostly)]
#1
I have recently been playing around with some Bluray content.

I authored a Bluray disk and created an .ISO out of it. When I mount this ISO using Virtual Clone Drive, XBMC has an option labeled "Play Disc" that appears in the main menu (this is Confluence skin on Eden).

However, when I burn this ISO to a BD-R disc and put this BD-R disc in the drive, no "Play Disc" option appears.

I can browse under Video > Files and start this disc up under the BDMV folder and the content plays....but I don't understand why the .ISO (which should be a replica of the the burned disc) adds the Play Menu option, but the BD-R doesn't.

My suspicion is that somehow the virtual drive still appears to be a standard DVD, and not a Bluray drive and since XBMC normally doesn't play Bluray, it doesn't add the Play Disc option.

However, since this is an unencrypted bluray, XBMC can play it...it just seems that it doesn't know to create the Play Disc menu option.

Does anyone know if this is configurable...and how I can make the Play Disc option show with BD-R or at least always stay up in the menu?

thanks
.peace out.
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#2
(2012-04-19, 03:47)bengalih Wrote: Does anyone know if this is configurable...and how I can make the Play Disc option show with BD-R or at least always stay up in the menu?
thanks
Install this "AnyDVD HD", and you'll have Play Disc option everytime blu-ray disc is inserted.....

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#3
Ok, well I discovered how this is triggered.

In the home.xml file of the confluence skin there is the following section:

Code:
                    <item id="6">
                        <label>341</label>
                        <onclick>XBMC.PlayDVD()</onclick>
                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/playdisc.jpg</icon>
                        <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_PlayDisc_Folder)]</thumb>
                        <visible>System.HasMediaDVD</visible>

It is the System.HasMediaDVD that is a boolean check to determine if there is a disc in the drive or not. However this seems to only detect if it is a DVD and not a Bluray disc. By modifying this <visible> parameter it is possible to have the menu always show.

Unfortunately, the XBMC.PlayDVD() routine which is initiated on an onclick event apparently can't trigger the playback of a BD-R. This seems strange as a mounted ISO with the same structure plays back fine, but there is something about it not detecting the BD-R.

I am going to post this somewhere in the dev forum, but i fear the library they use for the PlayDVD function may not be able to support this.
(2012-04-19, 04:14)bluray Wrote:
(2012-04-19, 03:47)bengalih Wrote: Does anyone know if this is configurable...and how I can make the Play Disc option show with BD-R or at least always stay up in the menu?
thanks
Install this "AnyDVD HD", and you'll have Play Disc option everytime blu-ray disc is inserted.....

Thanks Bluray...but one shouldn't have to buy a program to play back self-authored unencrypted bluray. It is apparent from what I describe above that XBMC is more than capable of playing this back on its own, its just a matter of triggering the right command. I don't think any licensing should be necessary either as these are home-authored bluray structures.

Hopefully this is something the devs can look to.

.peace out.
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#4
Added issue to the Dev forum here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=129334
.peace out.
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#5
(2012-04-19, 04:14)bluray Wrote: Install this "AnyDVD HD", and you'll have Play Disc option everytime blu-ray disc is inserted.....

I just wanted to update that this statement is not true. I have downloaded and installed the fully functional trial of AnyDVD HD and it does nothing to make the "Play Disc" option appear.
.peace out.
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#6
(2012-04-19, 04:48)bengalih Wrote:
(2012-04-19, 04:14)bluray Wrote: Install this "AnyDVD HD", and you'll have Play Disc option everytime blu-ray disc is inserted.....

I just wanted to update that this statement is not true. I have downloaded and installed the fully functional trial of AnyDVD HD and it does nothing to make the "Play Disc" option appear.
Did you reboot your HTPC after you installed it? It'll not active until you reboot it.

If it still doesn't work after you rebooted it, there must some problem with your XBMC installation then. Play Disc option works on all 5 PC's I have......


(2012-04-19, 04:18)bengalih Wrote: It is apparent from what I describe above that XBMC is more than capable of playing this back on its own, its just a matter of triggering the right command. I don't think any licensing should be necessary either as these are home-authored bluray structures.

Hopefully this is something the devs can look to.
XBMC never fully support blu-ray disc playback.....and it have a lot to do with licensing!

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#7
(2012-04-19, 05:19)bluray Wrote: Did you reboot your HTPC after you installed it? It'll not active until you reboot it.

If it still doesn't work after you rebooted it, there must some problem with your XBMC installation then. Play Disc option works on all 5 PC's I have......

Well it seems to have worked after 2 or 3 reboots. Somehow AnyDVD also changed the drive letters on my BD drive (from Z: to E: ).
So it does seem to appear now.

(2012-04-19, 05:19)bluray Wrote: ]XBMC never fully support blu-ray disc playback.....and it have a lot to do with licensing!

I never mention "fully support" - i mention support for unencrypted which already exists in Eden. The problem is not that XBMC can't play back the unencrypted .m2ts file...it can do that no problem. It also can read the index.bdmv file to launch the movie. If it can do all of these things (assuming legally, sans any licensing) then there should be no reason that it can't simply detect the BD-R disk in the drive as it does the .ISO of the same content.

Now granted this would only work for unencrypted discs, but that is better than nothing, or requiring an expensive 3rd party program.

.peace out.
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#8
BTW:
You can change <visible> to only System.HasMedia and <onclick> to PlayDisc() and you should be fine...

mad-max
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#9
(2012-04-19, 05:19)bluray Wrote: Did you reboot your HTPC after you installed it? It'll not active until you reboot it.

If it still doesn't work after you rebooted it, there must some problem with your XBMC installation then. Play Disc option works on all 5 PC's I have......

I actually just discovered what the problem was...and it's very interesting.

If you have Virtual Clone Drive installed on your system and you have a drive letter assigned to your VCD that comes before the physical drive's letter, then for some reason the "Play Disc" will not appear.

So for instance the following works:
BD Drive - Y:
VCD Drive - Z:

But this will not:
VCD Drive - Y:
BD Drive - Z:

I did multiple test with multiple drive letters (disabling and re-enabling AnyDVD between tests) and confirmed this to be a problem on my Win7-64 system.

I have a feeling this is a problem with XBMC in that it only looks to the first drive found on a system (by Drive Letter) to determine if a disc is inserted.

UPDATE: The drive letter issue is a known limitation of XBMC apparently, as discussed in the FAQ
.peace out.
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#10
(2012-04-19, 06:28)mad-max Wrote: BTW:
You can change <visible> to only System.HasMedia and <onclick> to PlayDisc() and you should be fine...

mad-max

Hmm...well that got me a bit excited...sadly, I hate to say it, but neither System.HasMedia or PlayDisc() seem to be valid conditions/commands.

I say this for two reasons:
1) They don't work (System.HasMedia does not cause the "Play Disc" to display, and PlayDisc() does not work to play an item even when the menu item is visible)
2) There is no mention of either of those two commands/methods anywhere in the Wiki or indeed anywhere else via a Google search (with the exception of some references to PlayDisc dated 2006...which my guess is they are deprecated and completely removed from Eden).

I was able however to fix this using "System.Platform.Windows" in place of "System.HasMediaDVD" to make the menu item appear all the time on a Windows system (see here for other boolean conditions for other OS).

Also, the problem apparently is not that "XBMC.PlayDVD()" didn't work, the problem was actually related to my post above where XBMC has a problem with only recognizing the first drive in the system. So, even though the "Play Disc" menu appears, if you have a drive that is empty with a letter assignment prior to the drive with the disc, it will not play.

Therefore, changing the home.xml as follows...

Code:
                    <item id="6">
                        <label>341</label>
                        <onclick>XBMC.PlayDVD()</onclick>
                        <icon>special://skin/backgrounds/playdisc.jpg</icon>
                        <thumb>$INFO[Skin.String(Home_Custom_Back_PlayDisc_Folder)]</thumb>
                        <visible>System.Platform.Windows</visible>

...and ensuring that the drive with the disc in it is listed first alphabetically will work.

Therefore, no 3rd party programs are necessary to play back UNENCRYPTED Bluray content from the main menu. The only issue is getting the "Play Disc" menu to appear. My fix above will make it stay up 100% of the time (which is fine as far as I am concerned). It would however be nice for the System.HasMediaDVD to detect BR sources as well (even if it can't play/errors out on encrypted content).
.peace out.
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#11
(2012-04-19, 06:13)bengalih Wrote: I never mention "fully support" - i mention support for unencrypted which already exists in Eden. The problem is not that XBMC can't play back the unencrypted .m2ts file...it can do that no problem. It also can read the index.bdmv file to launch the movie. If it can do all of these things (assuming legally, sans any licensing) then there should be no reason that it can't simply detect the BD-R disk in the drive as it does the .ISO of the same content.

Now granted this would only work for unencrypted discs, but that is better than nothing, or requiring an expensive 3rd party program.
It's clearly stated in XBMC statement below-

<Does XBMC for Windows support Blu-ray or HD DVD playback with or without menus?

Qualitatively no. There is not yet any C/C++ open source software out there yet capable of fully playing back Blu-ray or HD DVD. FFmpeg (the open source codec-suit that XBMC uses) is able to decode all audio and video codecs used in both Blu-ray and HD DVD, but, even as that might be the case, you still have to get around the DRM encryptions used by the disc formats and there is not yet any C/C++ open source software library capable of that on-the-fly, nor is there any C/C++ open source software library out there capable of displaying Blu-ray or HD DVD menus. XBMC need C/C++ open source software libraries for all of these things to fully support Blu-ray or HD DVD playback. With that said, XBMC does support .m2ts extensions, as well as the decoding and playback of all Blu-ray and HD DVD video and audio codecs. Most current audio limitations are a function of hardware related issues.>


>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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Play Disc menu option - how is it triggered? [SOLVED (mostly)]0