Playing DVD with Macrovision?

[ikarus79m]

I just connected my external DVD drive to my Sage box and was eager to see the quality of SageTV playing back DVD's.

I insert the Constant Gardner and go to "Play DVD", however I'm getting the following error message:

There was a DVD Error in playback. Details:
sage.PlaybackExpection: ERROR (-8,0x2): There is a problem playing the DVD content due to Macrovision or CSS.

Can SageTV not play comercial DVD's? Is there a way around this?

[Opus4]

In Detailed Setup -> DVD, what is your setting for the DVD Video Decoder? You'll have to use a decoder that is capable of decoding/playing encrypted commercial DVDs.

- Andy

[ikarus79m]

Hi Andy,

I'm using the NVIDIA Video Decoder. Also I'm outputing to my HDTV via component out. Does that make any difference?

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

I just connected my external DVD drive to my Sage box and was eager to see the quality of SageTV playing back DVD's.

How is your "external" DVD drive connected to Sage? Are you trying to 'capture' the output and playback via Sage? I'm not understanding how you are trying to use it.

With the purevideo decoder, it SHOULD playback just fine through Sage (client or server, but not MVP or placeshifter).

-PGPfan

[ikarus79m]

I fixed the problem. It didn't work because apperantly you can't output DVD content via Component out due to copy right issues. You need to install a program that eliminates the CSS copy protection first.

This is a case where DRM really sucks! I just want to watch my DVD's which I legally bought/rented.

[MeInMaui]

If it isn't too much trouble, try temporarily changing your display resolution to 640x480. I bet that the analog macrovision protection is preventing you from upscaling the DVD output. This only occurs when using an analog connection to the TV (i.e. component cables). If you have a digital connection available, then this would become a non-issue.

Aloha,
Mike

Edit: Nevermind. I see you found a solution. I type too slooooooow.

[ikarus79m]

Thanks anyways Mike.

How does the quality of the Sage DVD player (with the Nvidia Decoder) compare to a good DVD player in terms of upscaling DVD contect to an HDTV btw?

Also, do you suggest resizing the desktop so not too much of your TV and DVD content gets cropped of? The only problem with doing that is that some TV shows have black on top if I resize too much. (On the other hand I loose picture on all my DVD's if I go through sage don't i?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

Thanks anyways Mike.

How does the quality of the Sage DVD player (with the Nvidia Decoder) compare to a good DVD player in terms of upscaling DVD contect to an HDTV btw?

Also, do you suggest resizing the desktop so not too much of your TV and DVD content gets cropped of? The only problem with doing that is that some TV shows have black on top if I resize too much. (On the other hand I loose picture on all my DVD's if I go through sage don't i?

I haven't done a side-by-side comparison, but my impression is that the purevideo decoders provide at least equivalent if not slightly improved upscaling performance over the average consumer level upscaling DVD player (I'm running 1080p). I expect a $3000 DVD player would probably be better, but I'm not going to buy one to test it out.

You can resize the video without messing with the desktop resolution. Look for Aspect Ratio under the Advanced Settings menu. You have 4 independent aspect ratios to play with to get your video just right. I typically go in and set all of them to 103% in both vertical and horizontal to begin with. This will eliminate the annoying closed caption data (white garbage) appearing at the top of the screen in recorded programs.

[ikarus79m]

I have my Component output set to 720p but there is a big portion of my windows desktop missing ony my tv. (i cant see the windows start bar for example)

Is this normal? Does the TV crop of that much, or is something not right?

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

I have my Component output set to 720p but there is a big portion of my windows desktop missing ony my tv. (i cant see the windows start bar for example)

Is this normal? Does the TV crop of that much, or is something not right?

That is called overscan and is perfectly normal on a TV. It is also quite annoying. Sage has an overscan compensation setting for the menus and the aspect ratio settings for the video. Between these you can counteract any overscan your TV has from within sage. You could also play with your resolution and timings in either the display driver configuration or through powerstrip. But be prepared to lose some hair in the process. I never got rid of the overscan on my old TV. That's why it was important to me to get a TV with 1:1 pixel mapping when I bought my new one.

When I had the overscan problem and couldn't see the start bar, I remotely administered the htpc from another computer using Ultra VNC, where I could see the whole screen. Otherwise trying to work with the computer outside of sage wasn't tolerable.

Aloha,
Mike

[ikarus79m]

That's annoying. I can "resize" my desktop in the NVIDIA drivers, which I did, however, when I can fully see my desktop suddenly some of my HDTV recordings have a black bar on the top.... grrrrr...

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

That's annoying. I can "resize" my desktop in the NVIDIA drivers, which I did, however, when I can fully see my desktop suddenly some of my HDTV recordings have a black bar on the top.... grrrrr...

You should be able to fix that with the aspect ratio settings, but I agree it is very annoying.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

Thanks anyways Mike.

How does the quality of the Sage DVD player (with the Nvidia Decoder) compare to a good DVD player in terms of upscaling DVD contect to an HDTV btw?

About as good as anything you can get, save maybe an HQV equiped Denon 5910. When using VMR9 and Fullscreen Exclusive mode, Sage is basically the same as TheaterTek from a decoding/rendering perspective.

Also, do you suggest resizing the desktop so not too much of your TV and DVD content gets cropped of? The only problem with doing that is that some TV shows have black on top if I resize too much.

Not really sure what you're getting at here, if you don't resize your desktop you'll have some overscan, which is normal, but you can compensate for that a few ways.

I don't know what you mean about black on top if you resize too much.

(On the other hand I loose picture on all my DVD's if I go through sage don't i?

You lost me there, sorry.

[nickjw]

This is driving me nuts. I spent a few hours getting everything just right on my panasonic HD projection TV (1080i), and using component cables was the only way to get it looking good, but then, I can't play DVDs. Using the DVI input on the TV looks fine with 720x480, but looks like crap with everything else (convergence goes out, picture is barely decipherable). Perhaps it just doesn't support 1080i over DVI? According to the manual, it does. Model is PT53WX54J.

Even when using DVI at 480p, DVDs fail with the css error. I know I had it working at some point... must have flipped something. I'm also using purevideo codec... any suggestions?

[r00st3r]

I too am having issues. I am outputting to TV via Component cable and have the NVIDEA driver for my 8500GT set to 1080i output (why would I change it to 480?) I get the Macrovision\CSS error and cannot get rid of it. I was trying to play a Region 1 Commercial DVD. I installed PowerDVD 7 and set the DSFilter under the DVD option in setup to use the cyberlink DS Filter. Still doesn't work. I even installed DVD Ghost (which sits in the tray to bypass CSS), it didn't work either. I could play the movie in VLC, but I would rather play it in SAGE so I don't have to mess with my remote settings to control an external app. Any other suggestions?

[r00st3r]

OK, I uninstalled powerdvd and installed the PureVideo decoder from Nvidea(30 day trial) and it wouldn't work. I then installed AnyDVD and rebooted. I can now watch DVD's using component output at 1080i(480i upscaled). All my other movie files and tv shows play fine as well.

I also downloaded the M$ Video Decoder Check utility (easier for me than the Direct Show Filter Manager) from here to make the nvidea decoder the default. When I go into SAGE Setup for DVD, i can now choose defaut and it still plays instead of reverting to the Sage decoder.

Thanks!