[realjobe]

Dear Board. Small suggestion for tocome versions of marvellous XBMC:

Backround: I have a lot of .iso DVD images (pure DVD movies, all protections removed) residing on my NAS device on my LAN. There is a case when one Movie is splitted into several disks. Could it be possible to stack .iso files also like with .avi files (CD1.. DVD1... Disk1 and so worth)? With .avi files the idea is plain: play as one but with DVD the situation is different due to a fact that all .iso files are to be considered as individuals. And IMDB lookup is then also working..

Suggestion:
When Stacking .iso files, user sees only the main name (not the DVD1, DVD2 ending). When selecting this movie, system displays a dialog to question what part is to open: DVD1, DVD2. If there eg. DVD1 has history and marker, system querys then wheater to start from the beginning or from the left-off spot.

hopefully you understanded me.

[DaveGee]

If I understand what you are referring to, would the following be an example.

Godfather II

When distributed in the 'collectors edition box set' spans across (2) dvd discs, and somewhere in the middle of the movie you are prompted to change discs.

I for one HATE that. Especially in a move as all riveting as Godfather. Might as well turn on lights on a make a few phone calls, while the wife put the laundry from the washer to the dryer and then continue on with the show.

So what I did was to use DVD2ONE (DVD2ONEX, DTOX, ETC) to merge the two disc's into 1 movie.

- Yes I got rid of the dvd menus (and chapter markers) to do it.

Not a big deal since the Godfather disc menus weren't anything to write home about anyway and was a small price to pay to watch a movie in its uninterrupted form. Purists might argue that even in the theater there was an intermission but somehow I think the director would have rather had the audience see the movie in its full molested form, but I'm just speculating.

- I didn't loose any quality but you have to specifically tell DTOX to allow a non-standard size and make it somewhere over 10-12GB (just to be safe). DTOX will look at the total size of the movie in GBs and then look at the size you put and so long as the 'custom size' is bigger then the final movie size it will do ZERO compression (aka untouched).

The final product doesn't use up the 10 or 12 GBs it only becomes the actual size of the two discs stitched together making it larger is only to ensure no compression takes place.

I guess what you are trying to ask for is a feature that will make this unnecessary, but I don't see how it (XBMC) could automate the procedure. Perhaps I'm wrong but since every 'multi-disc' or 'flipper dvds' can all behave in their own way (some might 'pause' with change disc on the screen and others might bring you back to a dvd menu) XBMC would have a hard time knowing when its time to launch the next disc.

I'm pretty sure using something like DTOX is the best way to deal with these issues.

Dave

[realjobe]

I guess what you are trying to ask for is a feature that will make this unnecessary, but I don't see how it (XBMC) could automate the procedure. Perhaps I'm wrong but since every 'multi-disc' or 'flipper dvds' can all behave in their own way (some might 'pause' with change disc on the screen and others might bring you back to a dvd menu) XBMC would have a hard time knowing when its time to launch the next disc.
I'm pretty sure using something like DTOX is the best way to deal with these issues

No, I will never touch / merge / split / rip my DVD's, besides protection removal. HDD space is cheap and I wish to have DVD-experience as they ment it to be. And If I choose, I can burn DL- disks to my friends... Over 110 movies takes 700GB.

The purpose is NOT to automate this multi DVD, just to stack the files so that the IMDB lookup goes through withut dialog to remove "DVD1" at the end.

eg.
- Wallace and Gromit Story DVD1.iso
- Wallace and Gromit Story DVD2.iso

is suppose to be seeing only "Wallace and Gromit Story" in the Fileview / library. When choosing this item, XBMC will ask an a small dialog in the middle of the screen " Select Disk to Start", with the list beneath.. "DVD 1, DVD 2" and so on. after that XBMC might ask (if the selected disk has a history marker) wheater to start from the beginning or from the spot the disk was previously stopped.