Can't ply DVD's through placeshifter, options?

[medwynd]

I understand the faq states that you cannot play ripped dvd folders through placeshifter, which is kind of a bummer since on my home theater I prefer to have full menus, etc

I'm guessing one option would be to keep 2 copies on the server? One ripped to dvd folders for my home theater the other ripped to a single video file for playback through placeshifter when on the road?

I'm using WHS, is there a way to stream vobs from that using some other software?

[GKusnick]

You can do it from within Sage by using Media Center > Browse Media Files > Browse Import Library Paths to navigate to the VOBs and play them back individually.

[medwynd]

Hmm I tried that on the Placeshifter and I got an error saying there was no media player that could play the selected file, even though I could view vobs stored on the laptop with a vob viewer like VLC.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by medwynd

I understand the faq states that you cannot play ripped dvd folders through placeshifter, which is kind of a bummer since on my home theater I prefer to have full menus, etc

This is exactly why I bought an HD200. It can handle basically anything you throw at it, and it's small and silent.

You're running Placeshifter to drive your home theater setup?

--John

[medwynd]

No I was running the placeshifter on a laptop so that I could watch stuff on the road.

I have an hd200 coming today to hook up to my home theater.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by medwynd

No I was running the placeshifter on a laptop so that I could watch stuff on the road.

My original plan was to set up something that automatically created mp4 files from each main VOB so that I would access it via Placeshifter or some other remote method but I never got around to it. Now I just convert the ones I might want to watch before I head out on the road.

--John

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by jpwegas

My original plan was to set up something that automatically created mp4 files from each main VOB so that I would access it via Placeshifter or some other remote method but I never got around to it. Now I just convert the ones I might want to watch before I head out on the road.

--John

That's pretty much the situation I think I am looking at right now.

[Naylia]

One thing I've looked at is iPodifier. Someone around here mentioned it. It essentially automates/manages the transcoding of video to be iPod friendly, but see no reason this wouldn't also solve your issues. You should be able to configure it to just do the monitoring/converting and skip the iTunes/iPod portions. This would also let you pre-down-rez the movies if you want to make the streaming easier on your processor/connection.

Basically, iPodifier is an application that automates the process of getting videos onto your iPod. Unlike other transcoding software that simple re-encodes the video into an iPod compatible format, iPodifier takes it a few steps further. iPodifier automates the entire process of getting video from any source onto your iPod. iPodifier will automatically:

* Check for new video
* Transcode new video into an iPod compatible format
* Add the transcoded video to iTunes
* Organize videos into video playlists
* Sync your iPod

In addition to automating these basic functions, iPodifier also does the following:

* Accepts video from a wide variety of sources (i.e. TiVo, Bittorrent, SageTV, Windows Media Center)
* Monitors multiple video source directories for new video and adds new videos to the transcoding queue
* Manage quotas for TV shows (i.e. lets you set how many South Park's you want to keep on your iPod)
* Creates a Podcast for any show (comming soon)
* Video preview window allows you to preview any of your source or transcoded iPod videos

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by medwynd

Hmm I tried that on the Placeshifter and I got an error saying there was no media player that could play the selected file, even though I could view vobs stored on the laptop with a vob viewer like VLC.

I can play back VOBs directly through Placeshifter just fine, with no extra conversion steps. Maybe you need a DVD decoder installed on your server for this to work.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I can play back VOBs directly through Placeshifter just fine, with no extra conversion steps. Maybe you need a DVD decoder installed on your server for this to work.

Well that gives me hope at least I had VLC Media Player on the placeshifted laptop to play the vobs.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I can play back VOBs directly through Placeshifter just fine, with no extra conversion steps. Maybe you need a DVD decoder installed on your server for this to work.

So I decided to give this another try. I browsed to the folder and chose the vob to play. It then said at the bottom "Playing" followed by the name of the vob but it was still showing the browse folder screen and not the vob that was supposedly playing.

Perhaps I shouldn't have ripped my movies to a video_ts folder structure to begin with, although it works great with my hd-200 on my home theater.

[Islander]

I tried Placeshifter tonight for the first time as a test of capabilities to give access to my oldest kid which does not live in the same houselhold. Work great with the exception of the DVD playback. It is no go with SageMC and SMW, DVDs ripped to one file work those with separate vobs will not.

I guess I could try using the stock UI but that seems to work for some and not others. Does anyone know if one could use am HD2000 to connect to a SageTv server remotely over the internet and what the configuration would look like, i.e. ip addressort (which one?). Will something like this even work?

Thanks.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by Islander

I tried Placeshifter tonight for the first time as a test of capabilities to give access to my oldest kid which does not live in the same houselhold. Work great with the exception of the DVD playback. It is no go with SageMC and SMW, DVDs ripped to one file work those with separate vobs will not.

I guess I could try using the stock UI but that seems to work for some and not others. Does anyone know if one could use am HD2000 to connect to a SageTv server remotely over the internet and what the configuration would look like, i.e. ip addressort (which one?). Will something like this even work?

Thanks.

I had no problems playing anything except video_ts folders, which is a bummer since that is what all my dvd's are ripped to.

I had thought about possibly mapping a drive to my homeserver.com address and then just using my SageTV client to play the videos from the mapped directory but didn't have time to futz with it. I couldn't get my homeserver.com address to map to a drive for some reason but like I said I didn't get a lot of time to mess with it.

[Razillian]

Originally Posted by Islander

Does anyone know if one could use am HD2000 to connect to a SageTv server remotely over the internet and what the configuration would look like, i.e. ip addressort (which one?). Will something like this even work?

Thanks.

As long as you can connect across the Internet using placeshifter you can do the same with an HD100 or HD200. Just a matter of manually adding the locator id to the HD200 config. I've been doing this with an HD100 for a couple years now.

[OneOfMany]

On your home theater setup, why not use SageTV Client instead of Placeshifter? It does it all.

grant

[Islander]

Originally Posted by Razillian

As long as you can connect across the Internet using placeshifter you can do the same with an HD100 or HD200. Just a matter of manually adding the locator id to the HD200 config. I've been doing this with an HD100 for a couple years now.

I seem to have more luck with direct access so I am guessing will be address:31099 or whatever the port is. Is there conversion going on or is the experience the same as if the extender was directly connected to the local network?

[Razillian]

It transcodes (converts) the video the same as if it were a placeshifter client, i.e. based off bandwidth available.