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2010-01-03, 08:22
It's late, I'm drifting off, but had some bizarre thoughts enter my head first. I see two major lines of thinking on these forums:
(1) I want my menus... thus use a script to automate launching of an external player to play iso or ripped folder structure
(2) I just want the high def movie... thus either package as mkv, transcode, play .m2ts file(s), etc.
Downside of (1) is that it doesn't allow for "native" playback inside xbmc... it's sort of clunky, the transition isn't pretty, it compounds remote setup issues, etc. The full iso or hdd rip also takes up lots of hdd space.
Downside of (2) is loss of menus, possible loss of hd audio (mkv)?, possible loss of image quality of transcoding.
I've got a lot of reading and catching up to do (been out of the ht arena for many many years), so don't laugh too hard at the crazy part...
If xbmc can natively play m2ts and mkv files, and has an embedded player for dvd iso's... is it even remotely possible to assemble a modified iso that is mostly a dvd iso or similar with dvd menu and file structure, but somehow replace the main feature file(s) with the HD m2ts or mkv version, and have the menu "play" or equivalent selection point xbmc to that HD file either within the iso or within a folder containing both dvd and HD components?
A sort of hybrid dvd BD folder or iso? It would seem that this would be no worse than either of the above 2 options, and would retain the primary "benefits" of both (namely, smaller file size vs. full bd iso, and full menu functionality and control natively within xbmc without the need for launching external players, mounting iso's, and such).
How crazy?
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Obviously this would require that you own both DVD and Bluray versions of a disc. Not always the case, but for me often it is. Most of my Bluray's are repurchases of movies I already own in DVD, but really like and wanted the high-def version of. And in some cases, the BD purchase includes the DVD version.
I'd settle for standard def menus, extra features, etc. if the main film was HD and played natively inside xbmc.
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lol... that's what I thought!
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Is this the sound of one hand clapping...?
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2010-01-10, 04:34
(This post was last modified: 2010-01-10, 07:35 by osli.)
Well, the other hand is starting to show signs of life as well.
I'm still learning (starting at the beginning), but even trying the idiot's approach it does sort of work... but just sort of. XBMC can play a m2ts file regardless of what you actually name the extension. Simply renaming the m2ts file to the appropriate vob file, in the case of the movie pair I chose for playing with, VTS_09_0.vob, and moving it into the DVD folder structure (and removing/renaming the existing main feature .vob set), gets the movie played from within the xbmc native playing of that DVD folder, but it breaks the proper flow of the menu structure.
In the example I tried, something went awry after selecting "play" from the menu... several of the shorter vob clips (trailers, warnings, splash screens, etc.) were played multiple times. But eventually the main feature did start playing, and it was the HD version.
So there is the idiot's approach. I think a smarter way might be to edit the DVD .ifo file(s) for the menu to point the player in the correct direction. I've been taking a look at the structure of the .ifo files with pcgedit, but I'm new to that program as well so while I can see where it points to the original .vob sequence, I'm a long way from understanding how to modify it to allow the menu structure to remain intact but point to the hd file.
I know that to be dvd compliant the resolution has to stay within a certain limit, and the vob files each have to be under 1GB. But I'm not worried about creating a dvd compliant iso to burn to work in an external player... a hacked version for use with xbmc is exactly what I'm after. I wonder if breaking the HD m2ts stream into the same number of segments as was originally in the DVD .vob sequence would help? Can anyone tell me if this is how DVD's mark chapters, or if the break points for vob files are independent of any playback markers?
The fact that such a noob approach produced a folder that was recognized by xbmc, placed into the library, started playing and opened the menu, allowed me to select play, and eventually get to the hd stream contained in that structure seems extremely promising. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks so? I'm not sure at this point whether editing the ifo file(s) or breaking apart the m2ts stream should be the next step, but I'll probably try splitting the file into segments to match the original nfo data since I can imagine that will be easier than the learning curve required for pcgedit. Anyone else that thinks this has any merit at all... feel free to offer suggestions! If this could produce a working solution, I could see a tool being created to automate any file splitting or nfo modifications so that the process is reasonably painless.
I have no interest in doing this for my whole collection. I have nearly 3000 DVDs, which I'm still in the process of ripping the good ones to hdd storage, and my BD collection is nearing 200. I'll be waiting on storage space to come down further in price before I think of ripping my entire BD collection, but there are several that are copies of my favorite DVD's and I'd love to have those in HD in a more accessible format.
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I have a small collection of m2ts files that I use to demo my home theater, and have some simple menu graphics/design I would like to use to navigate and launch these clips. Ideally, I would like to have a DVD or Blu-Ray like menu to do this from.
What menu-ing options are available to do this? Since the clips are 1080p w/ HD audio, I can't roll them in to a DVD with a menu without significant loss of fidelity, and since XBMC can't handle Blu-Ray menus yet, that isn't an option either. I've looked at VCD menus, and they don't appear to support HD video/audio either.
I would be happy with something as simple as the ability to write a web page with liked images to the m2ts files, if that could be displayed in XBMC (which I don't think it can).
Thanks!
