I watched my first ripped Blu-ray movie on SageTV

[killervette]

thats what i figured.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Hey guys, potentially very good news.

The 7/10 beta firmware that just came out looks to again, finally, play most MKVs fine.

Tested Ratatouille and National Treasure 2 and both play well, so expect that my Spidey 1,2,3 and FF will play fine.

National Treasure 1 (too many pause/skips) and Cloverfield (macro blocking and all kinds of pixelated mess) which don't play on Feb. firmware also don't play on latest beta, but at least they fixed whatever it was they'd broke.

Thanks

Well I just updated to 6.4.5 and the 7/10 firmware and I'm sorry to report that it is no better for me than 6.4.3 and the prior beta firmware.... I have all the same struddering that was happening including on Natl Treasure 2. I've not yet reverted to the February firmware, but probably will tomorrow night.

So, they have not completly fixed what was broken. Maybe they just partially fixed it.

[killervette]

national treasure plays good for me as a mkv. Bankjob, however, does not play with sound. i think its dts 7.1. didnt see a 5.1 ac3 in it

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Rob

Well I just updated to 6.4.5 and the 7/10 firmware and I'm sorry to report that it is no better for me than 6.4.3 and the prior beta firmware.... I have all the same struddering that was happening including on Natl Treasure 2. I've not yet reverted to the February firmware, but probably will tomorrow night.

So, they have not completly fixed what was broken. Maybe they just partially fixed it.

After reverting back to the February Firmware (still using the 6.4.5 server) the studder is gone again. So for me the Feb firmware is working best.

Still hoping Sage can get this straightened out.

[Deacon Crusher]

Newest firmware is closer.

National Treasure 1 which was previously too studdery to watch is now watchable (few studders but tolerable) and VC1 is now viewable (no more pixelation) but to studdery to watch (at least my cloverfield mkv is.)

So close I can taste it now.

I'm actually using Sage more then fiddling with it for the last week.

Family can't wait for me to be done (ish) with this project <g>.

Good luck to the rest of you.

PS didn't upgrade the server yet (still running 6.4.5) and that may make things work even better.

[MarkV]

Just trying to understand the latest, best way to do this with an HD EXTENDER. I can tsmux easily enough to a TS file, but this does not work on the extender (slow or stuttering video, no audio (using AC-3 track)). Works great with Sage or PowerDVD or whatever if the codecs are set up properly (although haven't tested audio).

(From Deacon's email)
It looks like anydvd hd -> either direct rip or to hard drive
eac3to->mkv file + audio file
mkvmerge -> mkv file with audio/video stream

Anyone have a better method for the HD extender? I don't consider re-encoding video as an acceptable solution

Any details on how to handle complicated (well, to me) mpls files as part of this for media that has a large number of m2ts files?

[Deacon Crusher]

With latest firmware and server software (got back from vacation last night and installed the upgrades then and tested this a.m.) all of my blu-ray rips that are h264 or mpeg now work great with no stutters at all.

Cloverfield, my only VC1 rip now looks and sounds great, but stutters, so they (Sage engineers) are almost caught up.

MarkV, you should review the process description more closely. There is no video quality loss. This is strictly moving video into another container (remuxing, no transcoding.) There is some audio loss as I step everything down to AC3, but since that's all the extender supports that's sort of life.

[MarkV]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

MarkV, you should review the process description more closely. There is no video quality loss. This is strictly moving video into another container (remuxing, no transcoding.) There is some audio loss as I step everything down to AC3, but since that's all the extender supports that's sort of life.

Yep, I understand. I was looking for a one-step alternative when I was figuring out the process. I was able to get an mkv of 1080p + audio using your step-by-step. A little time consuming, but the results are great.

One other question - can PowerDVD or other decoders play .mkv files via the SageClient? I noticed the PowerDVD I got with the LG GGW-H20L doesn't like .mkv files although it worked with a tsmuxed .ts file. I didn't try a direct play via Sage as that PC doesn't have a client license yet.

Mark

[MarkV]

The OEM version of PowerDVD Ultra 7.3 stutters when it plays back ripped .mkv files (video stream + ac3). Does PowerDVD Ultra 8 fare better ?

The HD extender seems to do a good job.

I've noticed I don't have an option for mpeg-4 playback other than DirectShow and Sage on the Sageclients (no PowerDVD option). I thought I set all the SageClient.properties values necessary.

I'd like to try playback with an HD-PVR too.

Thanks,
Mark

[MarkV]

So the other not as obvious parts -

If you have a TRUEHD+AC3 file, you must eac3to it separately.

I use eac3to <directory> directory.mkv

That dumps all the files which is unnecessary, but doesn't seem much more time consuming.

If the audio is not TRUEHD or DTS-MA (or probably some other formats), you can just use mkvmerge with the audio format and the video.mkv file and the resulting file will work with the Sage HD extender. If it is TrueHD+AC3 (for example), one must
eac3to truehdfile new.ac3

And then merge the two - at least from what I can tell.

So, what will play these .mkv files on a PC using Sage successfully ? The extender is awesome, but the SageClient chugs.

[Deacon Crusher]

don't use a client myself, all extenders, but I believe many things can once you have the correct codecs installed. K-lite codec pack will get codes and media player classic installed which will play these back just fine.

[Stuntman]

What are you all using to Rip Blu-Ray? I'm thinking of putting a Blu-Ray reader into my server, ripping the discs so that I can watch them on all my HD TV's using the extender... Newegg.com has a SATA Blu-Ray reader on sale for $99!!! If I could get one reader and rip them down, then I can watch them on all my 1080p tv's without needing a player for each TV??!!!

What do you all think??

Neweggs link..
http://promotions.newegg.com/shellsh...909/index.html

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

What are you all using to Rip Blu-Ray?

Giganews

[Deacon Crusher]

You describe my dream, unfortunately it is still a dream.

VC1 based blu-rays like Cloverfield still don't play right through the Extender and I've now found a newer batch of h264 based blu-rays that when played back through the extender can show some hiccups/pauses.

Sage is getting close to being a reliable playback device of ripped blu-ray movies, but it still has a ways to go.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Stuntman

What are you all using to Rip Blu-Ray? I'm thinking of putting a Blu-Ray reader into my server, ripping the discs so that I can watch them on all my HD TV's using the extender... Newegg.com has a SATA Blu-Ray reader on sale for $99!!! If I could get one reader and rip them down, then I can watch them on all my 1080p tv's without needing a player for each TV??!!!

What do you all think??

Neweggs link..
http://promotions.newegg.com/shellsh...909/index.html

[MarkV]

Slightly OT:

Can the extender playback blu-ray disks mounted on the sageserver PC with full menu structures?

[Deacon Crusher]

Pretty sure (positive?) the answer is no.

Originally Posted by MarkV

Slightly OT:

Can the extender playback blu-ray disks mounted on the sageserver PC with full menu structures?

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Pretty sure (positive?) the answer is no.

You are correct! You have to rip and remux just the video/audio in order to play it back.

[srothwell]

All I did was use AnyDVD HD (trial version), rip to a hard drive, then look in the STREAMS folder and copy the single large (usually 25-40GB) file then copy it to the server as the m2ts file.

The m2ts file plays perfectly in the HD Extender.

BTW... extender also plays .m2ts AVCHD from my camcorder as well.

[Deacon Crusher]

that works if the movie is one file. Many movies are many files, then that method doesn't work. Also, the effectiveness of this and the remux to mkv solution both seem to be limited to some movies, others (I suspect with very high bit/compression rates) will make the extender stutter during playback.

Also, you can save a few gigs of space by cleaning out that file (getting read of extra sound tracks and other junk) and remuxing to mkv which is what many/most <?> of us do gets you a more universally playable file.

[dagar]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

that works if the movie is one file.

Maybe just do a concatenated file copy?