[Horst]

Playing images works fine but I can't play actual disks. When I put a disk in, XBMC sees it but when I hit play I says to enter a disk.

This is "normal" behaviour. XBMC (and any other free software) is not able to play BD. This is why you have to use PowerDVD or ... to play BDs.

I tried the context menu but see no option to "play with" or "play using". Where should I see that?

The context menu is the place, where you should see it.
Please double check step 7 and 8 of my How-To.

Greetings Horst

[sam9s]

I have one question before I try this ..... is it necessary to use virtualclonedrive as the mounting application ...... I use Virtual CD 10, would it work with Virtual CD 10 if I use the exe for the same instead of Virtual Clone Drive

[Horst]

I have one question before I try this ..... is it necessary to use virtualclonedrive as the mounting application ...... I use Virtual CD 10, would it work with Virtual CD 10 if I use the exe for the same instead of Virtual Clone Drive

I think so, but haven't tested it.

Greetings
Horst

[sam9s]

well as a test I created a bat ffile with the VCD 10 exe file path, its does not mount the image but instead opens the VCD 10 management console, so I presume it wont work ....... anyway experts here, this is what I tried ....... without luck offcourse..... some assistance needed ....
I mount the BD ISO in to my VCD drive and then created a bat file with the following command ...

"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 3\uDTStart.exe" /fullscreen r:

I rename the file as PlayBD.bat

If i click the bat file it opens TMT3 and starts the movie in full screen mode successffully ......now created the playcorefactory.xml file

<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="TotalMedia Theatre 3 (BD.iso)" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>M:\XBMC MOVIE\XBMC_BD_Disc\PlayBD.bat</filename>
<args>"{1}"</args>
<hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule name="Blu-Ray" protocols="bd" player="PowerDVD (BD)"/>
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="PowerDVD (BD.iso)"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

My bat file is saved under the path M:\XBMC MOVIE\XBMC_BD_Disc\
and my BD iso mounted is renamed as This Is It.BD.iso

ofcourse as i said does not work ...... in xbmc I get open with totalmedia theater 3 in the context menu if I right click the movie poster but it does not do anything .... can someone please guide me, where am I wrong and point me in the right direction.....

Thanks in advance
Sammy

[Horst]

<filename>M:\XBMC MOVIE\XBMC_BD_Disc\PlayBD.bat</filename>

Hi Sammy,

1. It's always a good idea to NOT use whitespaces in pathes, when working with batch files. Use underscores instead. Rename your directory to XBMC_MOVIE (otherwise you have to enclose the complete path into double quotes, i think)

2. In the <players> section you define players, in the <rules> section you define rules, when to use which of the previously defined players. You are defining "TotalMedia Theatre 3 (BD.iso)" but you are trying to use "PowerDVD (BD)" and "PowerDVD (BD.iso)" (which are not defined, thus XBMC can't use them, thus nothing happens). Your <rules> section should look like this, instead:
<rules action="prepend">
<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 3 (BD.iso)"/>
</rules>

3. In my How-To I differentiate between Blu-ray discs (optical discs, hardware) and *.iso files of Blu-rays (files on your hdd). Therefore I would prefer "PlayBDiso.bat" as the file name.
I could not test it, because I don't have Virtual CD, but I had a look into the manual an I guess it should look like this:

Code:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\...\vc10cmd.exe" %1 r:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 3\uDTStart.exe" /fullscreen r:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\...\vc10cmd.exe" %1 /e

Greetings
Horst

[sam9s]

^^Horst thanks you for the assistance, I forgot to rename power dvd, thats my fault, apologies, I changed the name to XBMC_MOVIES and This is how the playercorefactory looks now (upgraded to TMT 5 as well)


<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>M:\XBMC_MOVIE\XBMC_BD_Disc\PlayBD.bat</filename>
<args>"{1}"</args>
<hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule name="Blu-Ray" protocols="bd" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

With this I had some success but not complete ....... I now get the following message by XBMC when I choose "Play using TMT5" in the context menu of XBMC ..

"EXTERNAL PLAYER ACTIVE"

Click ok when the play back has ended.

and again nothing happens. I thought maybe TMT5 has opened in the background, but when I minimize XBMC, I see no player running.........what could be wrong this time ....... I appreciate your assistance here .... atleast I had some success .....

Thanks in advance
Sammy

[Hagen]

I have a problem with this sollution on Win XP (perhaps that is the problem).

The MyIsoMount player works.
I can right click any movie and use it as the player, not just BD.

But it seems the rules are not read correctly. If I place the Blurays rule above the default dvd rules then suddenly MyIsoMount is the default player and all movies start up in Total Media Theatre.

If the rule is below the default DVD rules then the default DVD player is default and BDs doesn't work again. (I can still right click and chose play with).


It is like XBMC runs trough the rules stopping at the first rule that "might" apply. and does not read trough them all. If it had then it would see that an ISO with "bluray" in the title should be played on the external player and not the default one.

Anyone seen this before and know what is wrong?

[jamesaevans]

Hi bher20,

Thank you for creating such a great utility and helpful guide.

I installed XBMC last weekend on my new HTPC so I'm going to give this a go in the next couple of days once I have ripped a few DVDs and Blu-rays as ISO images to my NAS.

The result that I would like to achieve from XBMC is as follows:

• DVD disc > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• DVD ISO > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• Blu-ray disc > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• Blu-ray ISO > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• All other media files > Playback inside XBMC
  

Do you think this will be possible and do you have any advice on how best to achieve this result?

James

[Hagen]

Hi bher20,

Thank you for creating such a great utility and helpful guide.

I installed XBMC last weekend on my new HTPC so I'm going to give this a go in the next couple of days once I have ripped a few DVDs and Blu-rays as ISO images to my NAS.

The result that I would like to achieve from XBMC is as follows:

• DVD disc > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• DVD ISO > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• Blu-ray disc > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• Blu-ray ISO > Launch and playback in TMT5
  
• All other media files > Playback inside XBMC
  

Do you think this will be possible and do you have any advice on how best to achieve this result?

James

That's what I get when I follow Slingshots instructions
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=653...stcount=92

[sam9s]

^^Horst thanks you for the assistance, I forgot to rename power dvd, thats my fault, apologies, I changed the name to XBMC_MOVIES and This is how the playercorefactory looks now (upgraded to TMT 5 as well)


<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>M:\XBMC_MOVIE\XBMC_BD_Disc\PlayBD.bat</filename>
<args>"{1}"</args>
<hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule name="Blu-Ray" protocols="bd" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

With this I had some success but not complete ....... I now get the following message by XBMC when I choose "Play using TMT5" in the context menu of XBMC ..

"EXTERNAL PLAYER ACTIVE"

Click ok when the play back has ended.

and again nothing happens. I thought maybe TMT5 has opened in the background, but when I minimize XBMC, I see no player running.........what could be wrong this time ....... I appreciate your assistance here .... atleast I had some success .....

Thanks in advance
Sammy

I am not able to solve this, tried everything........ XBMC says the external player has started ...... but I dont see anything. and if I execute the bat file independently, it successfully opens the TMT player ..... Please somebody help me on this as I have to built my HTPC soon .

Thanks in advance
Sammy

[Hagen]

Found my problem, it was addressed in post #63
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=539...stcount=63

[Hagen]

I am not able to solve this, tried everything........ XBMC says the external player has started ...... but I dont see anything. and if I execute the bat file independently, it successfully opens the TMT player ..... Please somebody help me on this as I have to built my HTPC soon .

Thanks in advance
Sammy

You have too much in "rules"
instead of

Code:

<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule name="Blu-Ray" protocols="bd" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>

You could try:

Code:

<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>

I would also for cleanliness rename "TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)" to simply "TMT5", no spaces, no parentheses, no punctuation. All of which is simply not good practice.

No guarantees, but you could try it. Works for me

[jamesaevans]

That's what I get when I follow Slingshots instructions
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=653...stcount=92

Hi Hagen,

Thank you for the heads up I'll give it a go over the weekend when I have some free time and report back with me results.

Having had a very quick look at Slingshots instructions I can see how that would work for the ISO images, but will it also work if I put the oroiginal disc (DVD or Blu-ray) in my Blu-ray drive or do I need some additional rules to make that work?

James

[Hagen]

Hi Hagen,

Thank you for the heads up I'll give it a go over the weekend when I have some free time and report back with me results.

Having had a very quick look at Slingshots instructions I can see how that would work for the ISO images, but will it also work if I put the oroiginal disc (DVD or Blu-ray) in my Blu-ray drive or do I need some additional rules to make that work?

James

That I do not know.
Supposedly you can change the "DVD" rule if you would like everything to play in an external player.
Say instead of "dvdplayer" set "myimagemount2" there as well. presumably you will have to change the drive letter in the .bat file to be the driveletter of the BD/DVD tray.

But no guaranties, as that is not a function I want, so I haven't tried it.

[sam9s]

You have too much in "rules"
instead of

Code:

<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule name="Blu-Ray" protocols="bd" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>

You could try:

Code:

<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)"/>

I would also for cleanliness rename "TotalMedia Theatre 5 (BD.iso)" to simply "TMT5", no spaces, no parentheses, no punctuation. All of which is simply not good practice.

No guarantees, but you could try it. Works for me

OK I simplified the xml file as you suggested but no luck ..:-( :-(

This is what I have now...

<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="TMT5" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>M:\XBMC_MOVIES\XBMC_BD_Disc\PlayBD.bat</filename>
<args>"{1}"</args>
<hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc>
</player>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<!-- Blu-rays -->
<rule filetypes="iso" filename=".*BD.*" player="TMT5"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>

I get the same message that "External Played has been activated" Click ok when the play back has ended

And If I run the command line in the bat file which is ...

"C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Theatre 5\uLaunchTMT5.exe" /fullscreen r:

independently in the windows run command it executes successfully, then WHY does it not shoot the played while in the xml file ....

There is something very basic I am missing here...... anyone out there can solve this.. ?