[SecretSquirrel]

I have to say I'm loving the features and versatility of this great app more and more each day, and the benefits of not having to trasncode are huge. No quality loss, and ability to play numerous file types eg TV recording from EyeTv MPEG streams or Topfield .rec streams without conversion makes AppleTV so usable and saves so much time and unnecessary hassle.

Thanks to all the developers who've put so much time and effort in and especially to Davilla and others for the USB stick creator app. and plugins.

Still trying to get to grips with the interface and setup, but that's down to my inexperience with XBMC and likely incorrect assumptions about how things work....


Anyhow, I've backed up some DVDs to an SMB share.

Those stored as VIDEO_TS folders often start up quickly and get to the main menu within a few secs but take 20-40 seconds to play content manually selected eg individual episodes/chapeters or music videos, rather than playing main feature.

By comparison a couple of ISO images seem to play and navigate almost instantly.

Could the problem be that my current backups have been to VIDEO_TS with multiple VOB/IFO files rather than say backing up to single large VOBs - with XBMC thereby having to parse many disjointed files slowing the process when navigating to select content?

Would backing up to single VOBs help, or is it always wiser to try to use ISOs?

Thanks in advance for any tips and/or advice.

[KidKiwi]

I used to use vob/ifo for movies - which produced problems when TVshows were introduced (Stacking wasn't an option then). I switched to ISO for eveything (movie only) and single episode ISO's. Never had a problem since and ISO's definitely start faster than vobs. They are easier to handle as single files and can be named whatever (unlike vob's) - and can be stored in a single large directory if required.

[SecretSquirrel]

Looks like VOBs are the way to go.

Cheers

[SecretSquirrel]

Any experience adding manual thumbs for ISO files?

Sticking video.jpg in the folder with video.iso isn't working right

Do ISO's need to be treated as folders?

Confused.

[gilbreen]

Looks like VOBs are the way to go.

Cheers

Do you mean ISOs are the way to go? KidKiwi above makes it sound like ISOs are better.

Been wondering the same thing myself as I currently have all backed up DVDs as VOBs but they are taking around a minute to start to play. Some sample AVIs I have take only 5-7 seconds to buffer and start. All files are stored on a NAS but part of the issue might be that in my new home, I don't have cat5 so I am using PowerLine AV adapters for my network.

[KidKiwi]

Yes...IMO - ISO files are a better way to go.

Thumbs should be placed in the same folder as the media and named "Folder.jpg" I still use separate folders for each movie.

Again...I have found ISO files start way faster than vobs. In fact, running SD resolution they started almost instantly. Now running 720p they are fractionally slower.

[SecretSquirrel]

Do you mean ISOs are the way to go? KidKiwi above makes it sound like ISOs are better.

Been wondering the same thing myself as I currently have all backed up DVDs as VOBs but they are taking around a minute to start to play. Some sample AVIs I have take only 5-7 seconds to buffer and start. All files are stored on a NAS but part of the issue might be that in my new home, I don't have cat5 so I am using PowerLine AV adapters for my network.

Yes, meant ISOs ! Brain and fingers out of sync !

Interesting, I also use powerline adapters (Devolo AV) in some areas and I think they're great.

I mentioned .recs earlier, actually I meant off-air MPEG transport streams, recorded on a Topfield PVR or Elgato device. These .ts files give a brief buffering progress bar then play within a sec or two.

If my USB drives 'go to sleep' that can occasionally add a bit of lag to startup but I can live iwth that.

In honesty even waiting a minute or so for startup is fine if you know what's going on, it's other users who'll do dozens of keypresses and crash the app!

[SecretSquirrel]

Thumbs should be placed in the same folder as the media and named "Folder.jpg" I still use separate folders for each movie.

Using the separate folder and the folder.jpg method, do your ISO files still show up without icons once you've opened the folder? Not sure if it's a 'stacking' thing but VOBs play from the named folder level without having to get down to a VIDEO_TS folder, but my ISOs don't - i.e. selecting the folder plays the VIDEO_TS folder below whereas with ISOs the folder opens and the file has no icon.

There are obviously many ways to approach this, just trying to fathom out what works best.

[288enzo]

I can't get an ISO to work. I took the VIDEO_TS folder and added it as a seperate folder to see if it would play and with stacking on it didn't seem to give me any problems, while on the other hand my ISO shows up great with my movie poster art but when i try to watch it nothing happens. The VIDEO_TS folder is the same that is in the ISO file, so nothing different there. Any thoughts on this?

[spiff]

you probably just made some random iso with some random filesystem. that's not a dvd iso. in any case, 8 posts and still haven't grasped that we need information to help? that's a bit dull.

[288enzo]

you probably just made some random iso with some random filesystem. that's not a dvd iso. in any case, 8 posts and still haven't grasped that we need information to help? that's a bit dull.

Forums are to help, not criticize unless of course it's constructive criticism which your post is not. If you want to help then great, if not why bother takes the time and effort to post? Thank for not being helpful, it shows what lack of character you have for beating up a noob.

[spiff]

point of the matter is i DO want to help but my will to help naturally dies when i have to tear the information i need from your/whoever asks for help's cold dead hands. can't you see how frustrating that is? so sure, my character is lacking on the front that i'm no god damn psychic.

[DaveGee]

you probably just made some random iso with some random filesystem. that's not a dvd iso. in any case, 8 posts and still haven't grasped that we need information to help? that's a bit dull.

THIS **** ^^^^^^

Simply putting .ISO at the end of a file name (or container like a dmg) does not magically turn it into a real ISO.

If you aren't terminal-phobic this might help if you have dmg's...

Code:

hdiutil convert /path/imagefile.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/convertedimage.iso

Disclaimer: I can NOT speak to the fact that the line indicated above WILL be an acceptable .iso in the eyes of XBMC... but it's worth a shot until someone else says one way or the other...

[DaveGee]

I can't get an ISO to work. I took the VIDEO_TS folder and added it as a seperate folder to see if it would play and with stacking on it didn't seem to give me any problems, while on the other hand my ISO shows up great with my movie poster art but when i try to watch it nothing happens. The VIDEO_TS folder is the same that is in the ISO file, so nothing different there. Any thoughts on this?

THis post could have been said like this:

I can't get an ISO to work but I am unwilling not tell you specifically how I created the ISO in question (that failed to work) but PLEASE I NEED HELP!

Developers field TONS of posts each and every day from lots and lots of people and THEN they go off and actually try and find the time to add IMPROVEMENTS to XBMC...

To that end... it is IMPERATIVE you provide as much details as you can possibly think of so the developers who go out of their way to field peoples problems can resolve them without an enormous amount of back and forth questioning that does nothing more then to keep them from working on IMPROVING XBMC.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about...

"HELP!!!! The wife approaching alarm system in XBMC is not functioning correctly... I was almost caught watching "Super Jugs IX - NO FAKES... REALLY!!" on TWO separate occasions!!!! Lucky for me I never bothered to fix that squeaky stair... (phew!)

My system is: SE30
My OS is Mac OS 8.1
Memory: 256k
Screen: Built-in (almost HD sorta)

Running XBMC v1234567.891011

Here is a link to my log files....

Link to my xbmc.log
Link to my console.log
Link to my CrashReporter.log

When this happened the sky was blue and the temperature was 72 mild.

My dog was barking at the mailman

Beer was chilling in the fridge

Any more details PLEASE let me know...
------------------------------

I'm actually not kidding... the more details (within reason) the better chance you'll get a fix for the problem you've encountered and chances are searching the forums prior to posting a new topic will likely turn up an answer without bothering the developers unnecessarily since chances are you're not the first person running into a given problem.