HD Extenders and (License-free) HD-DVD Files

[Mitch G]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm terrible when it comes to understanding the different coding formats (e.g. mpeg2 vs mpeg4 vs h.264, etc.) so bear with me and these questions.

Can I rip a license-free HD-DVD to my hard drive in the same VIDEO_TS format that I rip license-free DVDs and have the HD100 be able to play it? Or, do I need to rip it/transcode it to some other format and if so, what format would that be?

So, just like I can navigate to a ripped license-free DVD and play it through the extender, can I do the same thing with a ripped license-free HD-DVD?

Thanks,


Mitch

[DualQuad]

Mitch G,
As I am seeing it, "Ripping" an HD DVD staright result in a file structure (.evo) that SageTV canNOT navigate. The workaround that you alluded to is to convert the resulting .evo into something Sage can deal with (some sort of AVI in any number of containers). As you start to convert your files, you will have to deal with the keeping the bitrate manageable for the HD extender. I have heard that 25mb seems to be the upper limit, but have not proved this myself.

Here's a link with some remux info: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29015

DQ

[Mitch G]

Ahhh. OK. I didn't realize references to EVO are references related to HD-DVD.
Thanks that answers my question and thanks for the link.


Mitch

[stanger89]

The extender doesn't understand the logical structure of HD DVD though (menus etc), so they don't work like DVDs do.

[Mitch G]

That's ok about the menus.
If I can copy just the video parts and have it be basically as good picture-quality wise as the original, I'll be happy.


Mitch

[heffe2001]

Too bad it's pretty much a dead format now, with all the major players dropping support for it (even Microsoft has dropped it for the Xbox 360, and as far as I know within the next few months, no new releases from the major title holders for movies). I was just about " close to getting into HD-DVD, glad I waited now, just have to wait till I can get a decent-priced BluRay drive for my PC..

[BFisher]

I assume the same issues apply to Blu-ray... the file format isn't native so it would have to run through some conversion algorithms?

[stanger89]

"Supposedly" the extender can deal with m2ts, which is the native BD container for audio/video. But yes, the same is true of BD menus.

[Berg]

Originally Posted by stanger89

"Supposedly" the extender can deal with m2ts, which is the native BD container for audio/video. But yes, the same is true of BD menus.

Interesting ?!?! Tell us more.

[Deacon Crusher]

I've been working on the m2ts for a while as I went HD DVD a year ago and so have stand alone players for those disks.

So far no luck with straight m2ts files. I can get them seen by sage and the extender and the extender displays a thumbnail that's clearly extracted from inside the file, but when I hit play nothing happens. I've come across one method of converting to a TS file that is fairly striaght forward and that results in a file that extender will play, but it's very, very choppy, so unwatchable.

Trying to avoid transcoding which takes hours at is likely to have some quality issues, but not sure that's going to work out so I've been trying to transcode, but there's no easy/reliable process for that, that I've found so far.

I just ordered my 2nd extender (other then this issue they are awesome) and that will make it easier to test as the other one is in the bedroom, upstairs, with the wife.

Please share if you get it working anyone.

thanks