Blu Ray or HDDVD 3rd Party integration with Sage

[bialio]

Does anyone have a fairly workable setup where you can launch an external application (PowerDVD for instance) to view Blu Ray and or HD DVD on your Sage client?

If so, how did you do it? Is it as close to seamless as possible? Does it work well? (hardware and video quality considerations aside - I'm just looking for a way to smoothly switch to and from other apps.....)

btl.

[Mark SS]

HIP works reasonably well. Defined a 'master' key on your remote which pops up the HIP dialog and from there you can switch between Sage, PowerDVD or any other app.

[gplasky]

The default STV can use a plugin to call an external app. SageMC also has this capability built in. Now you would need a Blue-ray or HD app like PowerDVD and set to open full screen on play. Then the last piece would be a remote app like Girder, HIP or Event Ghost that would allow you to control both apps based on which one is active and focus. It's doable but there is a learning/difficulty curve to it to get it perfect/seamless. And how seamless you want it.

Gerry

[petereader]

Am I correct in assuming that all of you are referring to Blu-ray or HD-DVD content that you have on your hard drive? If so, will that even show up in the movie list in Sage? I've been trying to get that going for months? I realize that Sage will not play the movies internally, but it would be nice to see them show up along with my other movies, then when I push play have PowerDVD launch as an external app.

[bialio]

No, I'm not talking about ripped HD DVD / BD movies. I'm talking about the real thing. PC drives are a bit less expensive than standalone players, and I'm beginning to think they might work better anyway. The trick is getting SageTV and some other app (powerDVD most likely) to 'play nice.'

btl.

[Fuzzy]

Do the 3rd party apps support directshow playback? For instance, once installing the program, are the discs viewable in windows media player, like is the case with standard dvd's? If so, it sholdn't be a lot of work to integrate HDDVD playback into sage, as it should again, just be an issue of setting up the filters.

But I may be completely wrong. I don't have an HDDVD drive as of yet (Though, there is one coming in the mail, so hopefully I'll start tinkering later)

[stanger89]

Does anybody acually make a player worth launching? PowerDVD can't play the new MKB V4 disks.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Do the 3rd party apps support directshow playback? For instance, once installing the program, are the discs viewable in windows media player, like is the case with standard dvd's? If so, it sholdn't be a lot of work to integrate HDDVD playback into sage, as it should again, just be an issue of setting up the filters.

HD DVD and Blu-ray can't be played via Directshow. AACS requires a protected path and Directshow isn't a protected path.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Does anybody acually make a player worth launching? PowerDVD can't play the new MKB V4 disks.



HD DVD and Blu-ray can't be played via Directshow. AACS requires a protected path and Directshow isn't a protected path.

They can play fine through Directshow if they are being played from the hard drive.

Thx
Mike

[bialio]

So ripping a BD or HD-DVD to hard drive is the best way to play via HTPC? What kind of disc space does a single movie require?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mikesm

They can play fine through Directshow if they are being played from the hard drive.

This is not what was being discussed... the previous discussion was about playing from the DVD disks.

Originally Posted by bialio

So ripping a BD or HD-DVD to hard drive is the best way to play via HTPC?

Since you are the one who started this conversation & you wanted to play the movies from the DVD disks:

Originally Posted by bialio

No, I'm not talking about ripped HD DVD / BD movies. I'm talking about the real thing.

Please take any discussion of ripping commercial DVD content to another forum. Thank you.

- Andy

[bialio]

If you follow the thread of this discussion, this is where it lead. Yes, I started the thread, and I was talking about actual discs. But a very good point was made that software HD players are lacking, and ripping is an alternative. That's a very pertinent piece of info to the discussion at hand.

As long as we aren't talking about methods to rip commercial HD content I don't see what the problem is. My question was a very general one about the size of an HD movie.

If it reaches the point where you think it's crossed the line, just delete the thread. But until then what is the point of raining on the discussion?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by bialio

If you follow the thread of this discussion, this is where it lead. Yes, I started the thread, and I was talking about actual discs. But a very good point was made that software HD players are lacking, and ripping is an alternative. That's a very pertinent piece of info to the discussion at hand.

Not when the forum rules prohibit discussion of ripping encrypted DVDs.

If it reaches the point where you think it's crossed the line, just delete the thread. But until then what is the point of raining on the discussion?

Because I've already deleted content in this topic that isn't allowed on this forum.

- Andy