How to play a DVD disc, not rip

[Phydeaux]

Not sure which forum this should go in...

HTPC is SageTV 6.5.11 beta
SageMC latest 6.3.8a
Sage HD200 Extender with latest firmware

Pretty bone-stock configuration, no STVi imports or customization. The HTPC has a DVD drive in it. When I put a DVD disk in it and choose Play DVD from the SageMC main menu I get a black screen. After a couple minutes I'll push STOP on the remote and eventually I'll get a "sage.PlaybackException" error. Press STOP again and I'm back to the main menu. How do I make this work? I don't want to configure a fancy external player if I don't need to. But I want to be able to view disks on occasion without having to rip them first.

This happens exactly the same whether the disk I put in is a unprotected, region-free disc or a protected one. As an aside I run AnyDVD on the HTPC - I assume this is required in order to play back a protected disk in Sage via the extender.

RLW


As a side note, I know that research in the forums might provide the answer I'm seeking. However a search using a variety of criteria ended either fruitless of hundreds of hits requiring hours of reading on ultimately unrelated issues. Like many forums about software/hardware under continuous improvement, there's simply too much outdated information "out there" which makes it frustrating to comb through.

[gplasky]

You need to install a video decoder capable of playing commercial DVDs. Sage doesn't come with one. Something like PowerDVD, Arcsoft TME or WinDVD. And make sure you choose that under Detailed Setup-DVD.

Gerry

[Phydeaux]

Thanks Gerry, that makes some sense to me. The HTPC is a headless unit in my utility area - as such I've never had the need to view a movie on it so never thought of software to play the DVD. I'm pretty sure Windows Media Player will try to play the DVD though... I could be wrong.

So there is a decoder needed from one of the programs suggested, but I don't actually need to use the program to play the disk? Any free players out there that would supply what I need?

RLW

[gplasky]

You purchase and install one of those programs (or you could already have one of them from a recently purchased DVD drive)and the deccoders will become available to you to choose from within Sage. If you know your way around decoders I think Media Player Classic has a decoder that can work and google for dscaler5-they had one that worked. Both are free. And yo may need to edit the Sage .properties file to make these available within Sage.

Gerry

[Phydeaux]

Perfect. Now that I know what the issue I have a chance at getting it resolved.

Thanks Gerry!

RLW

[Phydeaux]

Turns out I have not been clear about what I'm doing, which isn't working. I had mentioned in my original message that I was using HD-200 Extenders, but didn't clarify that's ALL I use to access the SageTV server. There are no Sage software clients, not even on the server I'm running SageTV on, since I just run the service. So I assume this is why I see none of the settings Gerry suggested in Detailed Settings. I've looked in Detailed Settings in SageTV, but it's from an HD-200. I can't find it no matter if I'm using the stock STV or the SageMC STV.

How can I enable viewing a DVD disk placed in the server's DVD drive from an HD-200 using the SageMC menu option "Play DVD"?

I know it's supposed to be an option to add the server's DVD drive letter to the import directories, and then scan for new media, but it's not practical to have to scan a couple terabytes of data every time I want it to find the new disk in the drive...

RLW

[MeInMaui]

Once you have added the DVD drive as an import directory, you don't have to rescan every time you want to play a different disc. Just change discs and hit play on the Video_ts item in the library. The only catch is you have to make sure a disc is in the drive whenever you rescan so that it doesn't disappear from the list.

One more note is that you cannot stream the DVD to your extender if it is encrypted.

Aloha,
Mike

[gplasky]

I'm sorry. I totally missed that you were trying on extenders. Follow Mike's instructions above. And Mike is right in that you can't stream encrypted DVDs to your extenders. You would need to decrypt them on the fly before you could. There are programs out there that can do this for any dvd but cannot be discussed here.

Gerry

[Phydeaux]

Thanks for the idea Mike. That sounds workable.

No worries Gerry, I wasn't too clear in my original explanation. Yes, I understand it wouldn't work with encrypted DVDs without adding a special ingredient to the mix.

Thanks guys.

RLW

[phelme]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You need to install a video decoder capable of playing commercial DVDs. Sage doesn't come with one. Something like PowerDVD, Arcsoft TME or WinDVD. And make sure you choose that under Detailed Setup-DVD.

Gerry

I've never been able to get the ArcSoft decoder to play back a DVD *within* SageTV. I just get the black screen. Maybe something else is wrong, though the CyberLink (PDVD8) decoder works fine.

Too bad since I'd like to remove CyberLink from my box to simplify things and since they've decided not to allow their codecs to be used outside of PowerDVD in recent releases.