[Antony]

Hi All!
I have got a 4 box set of Doctor Who (2005) with complete series 1-4 ( amazon.co.uk/dp/B002KSA41U ) and copied (AnyDVD+CloneDVD, it took a lot of time) it on my NAS, so I've got my DVD-files like that:
/TV Shows/Doctor Who 2005/Season 1/Disc 1/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO etc.
Every DVD contains 2-4 episodes. Every serie contains 4-5 DVDs
How should I name or rearrange the DVD folders to see it in XBMC under TV_Shows?
I have tried everything...
Doctor Who (2005) / Season 1 / Doctor Who - s01e01e02e03 / Video_TS
Doctor Who (2005) / Season 1 / 1x01.1x02.1x03 / Video_TS
etc. etc.
XBMC recognises the serie Doctor Who 2005 (and shows an empty list of episodes), but not the episodes in the DVD-Folders!
If I go via Video->files->and so on, I can play the DVD-folders, it works fine, but there are no episodes in the TV-Shows Menu! XBMC does not recognise it
I want to keep all dvd stuff like subtitles and special features etc., so I don't want to encode each episode to an mpeg.

[kaffekask]

Are there any reason you wan't to keep it as DVD's?

Why not use MakeMKV and get them transcoded (no quality loss) to mkv files?

If you wan't to keep is as DVD's take a look at this:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add...s/TV_shows

[Antony]

1. It will take a lot of time to get it transcoded to mkv
2. XBMC actually can play DVD-Folders, so there is no need to transcode it!
3. I have read this wiki page. There is no solution for me! All examples need a single video file for an episode. I have got 2 or 3 or 4 episodes per DVD. I need XBMC to recognise my DVDs and show the list of episodes from the DVDs. That's all.

[sialivi]

For the record, there's no transcoding involved when using MakeMKV. MakeMKV just changes the container without changing the encoding, which is much faster than transcoding.

[Fry7]

Well, kaffekask's link to the wiki should help you out as it explains on the bottom of the page how to scrape TV shows in DVD folders.
There also is a link to a thread that handles that exact problem: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=55497

Btw: maybe you try to create ISO-files the next time - it makes things much easier as you won't need to use advanced settings and that regex-stuff as XBMC can open ISOs directly

[Antony]

Btw: maybe you try to create ISO-files the next time - it makes things much easier as you won't need to use advanced settings and that regex-stuff as XBMC can open ISOs directly

Yes you are right! ISO files work fine, I converted a DVD folder to ISO, and XBMC can handle ISO files and shows me all episodes from that ISO! But..
1. Converting folders to ISOs takes a LOT of time! About an hour for a DVD folder over the network.
2. There is not only XBMC, I use an iPad and transcode some episodes to mp4 files for the iPad to watch it on the way to work. So it is pretty simple to transcode an episode from a DVD folder using CloneDVDMobile.

Probably I really have to rip all my DVDs to MKV, so I will get the only one file format for the XBMC@appletv and iPad.

Thanks!

Now I have to think about it.

[Ned Scott]

You could install XBMC on your iPad and thus not have to transcode anything: iOS FAQ (wiki).

[kaffekask]

1. It will take a lot of time to get it transcoded to mkv
2. XBMC actually can play DVD-Folders, so there is no need to transcode it!
3. I have read this wiki page. There is no solution for me! All examples need a single video file for an episode. I have got 2 or 3 or 4 episodes per DVD. I need XBMC to recognise my DVDs and show the list of episodes from the DVDs. That's all.

1. I transcoded 6 episodes of South Park today, took a couple of minutes, but I do it locally at my computer and not over the network. I guess if it isn't faster it's not slower than your AnyDVD+CloneDVD-solution. So rip locally and then copy to your NAS, and you can do other things whilie it copies the files.
2. Single files are so much easier to handle in so many aspects (as you noticed), and they start directly, no menus and crap.
3. As said, the wiki mention DVD's with many episodes on them.

So give MakeMKV a try, I'll think you'll like it.

For the record, there's no transcoding involved when using MakeMKV. MakeMKV just changes the container without changing the encoding, which is much faster than transcoding.

No, transcoding is exactly what MakeMKV does, it doesn't encode...

[sialivi]

No, transcoding is exactly what MakeMKV does, it doesn't encode...

To quote wikipedia: "Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files or audio files"

As you say, MakeMKV doesn't encode so the resulting matroska container still contain the mpeg2 .vob's. You can not have transcoding without encoding. MakeMKV simple changes the container, it doesn't transcode.

[Antony]

Thank you guys.

I will make MKVs instead of DVD-folders.
MKVs can keep subtitles, which can be showed with XBMC@apple TV.
Now I need to find out two things:
1. a MKV player for the iPad. (I tested some players: OPlayer HD goes out of sync, Flexlayer can not handle subtitles)
2. a way to compress MKVs, because an mp4 file is only 726 MB, and a mkv file after MakeMKV is 2.3 GB large!

[kaffekask]

No, transcoding is exactly what MakeMKV does, it doesn't encode...

To quote wikipedia: "Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files or audio files"

As you say, MakeMKV doesn't encode so the resulting matroska container still contain the mpeg2 .vob's. You can not have transcoding without encoding. MakeMKV simple changes the container, it doesn't transcode.

I took it from this on MakeMKV's homepage:
MakeMKV is a format converter, otherwise called "transcoder".

I guess "transcoder" means that it's called that but it isn't really a true transcoder.

Since I hate when people use the wrong word for something I shall no stop calling MakeMKV for a transcoder, I'll use the term ripper instead.

Thank you guys.

I will make MKVs instead of DVD-folders.
MKVs can keep subtitles, which can be showed with XBMC@apple TV.
Now I need to find out two things:
1. a MKV player for the iPad. (I tested some players: OPlayer HD goes out of sync, Flexlayer can not handle subtitles)
2. a way to compress MKVs, because an mp4 file is only 726 MB, and a mkv file after MakeMKV is 2.3 GB large!

2. Handbrake is popular for destroying video to smaller files...