Blu-ray support?

[kamikaze2112]

How is sage handling blu-ray these days? I connect my sage server to my TV with component video cables, is HDCP going to be an issue? I've been thinking lately about getting a bd-rom, but not if it's going to be a big hassle. I can just as easily get a blu-ray player...

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by kamikaze2112

How is sage handling blu-ray these days? I connect my sage server to my TV with component video cables, is HDCP going to be an issue? I've been thinking lately about getting a bd-rom, but not if it's going to be a big hassle. I can just as easily get a blu-ray player...

you need to run an external software player if you want to play a Blu-Ray disk on a full client/Sage Media Center. Because of the external software player requirement, I believe you will have HDCP issues. I would check though.... I switched to all digital connections in my house from PC to monitor (HDMI, DVI, etc) so I can't speak to how component outputs from video cards are working.

[Naylia]

Component out should work fine, I don't beleive any studios are using the Image Constraint Token on component out at this point. HDCP is not applicable to component out connections, so you shouldn't have to even think about handshaking or anything like that.

There's a plugin for Sage that helps launching an external BD player when it detects BD disc/rip. SageMC has this capability built in, you just need to put the path to your player in a config file and enable it in a menu option.

[mtncrux]

I had the same question, and after doing some research I bought a stand-alone blu-ray player.


Here is what I learned from my forum searches on this subject:

SageTV does not have native blu-ray support (and may never have it due to the strict licensing requirements involved) this requires you to use an external application to play blu-rays from a bd-rom drive.


What many people on this forum do is rip all of their blu-rays to the server's hard disk, and then watch them on an HD-200 media extender. The HD-200 does have native bluray support.


If you are looking for a simple way to watch blu-ray movies, then just buy the standalone blu-ray player.

If you want an online library of ripped movies, then buy an HD-200 media extender and a BD-ROM for your server.

Playing the blu-rays through SageTV is probably not the best choice unless you are an advanced user. (just my opinion as a relative newbie)

[kamikaze2112]

appreciate the input guys

[samgreco]

I've been using Total Media Theater for BluRay playback, launching directly from a menu item in SageMC. Both Sage and TMT are using MCE remote via Eventghost. Add AnyDVD-HD and it all works amazingly well. So far it's been flawless and seamless.

In fact, if I could get rid of the horrible TMT splash screen, it would be perfect.

[aflat]

Originally Posted by mtncrux

I had the same question, and after doing some research I bought a stand-alone blu-ray player.


Here is what I learned from my forum searches on this subject:

SageTV does not have native blu-ray support (and may never have it due to the strict licensing requirements involved) this requires you to use an external application to play blu-rays from a bd-rom drive.


What many people on this forum do is rip all of their blu-rays to the server's hard disk, and then watch them on an HD-200 media extender. The HD-200 does have native bluray support.


If you are looking for a simple way to watch blu-ray movies, then just buy the standalone blu-ray player.

If you want an online library of ripped movies, then buy an HD-200 media extender and a BD-ROM for your server.

Playing the blu-rays through SageTV is probably not the best choice unless you are an advanced user. (just my opinion as a relative newbie)

You forgot the option to map your blu-ray drive as a media location, so whenever you put a disk in your blu-ray drive it will show up in sage, and you can play it on the HD200. In any case, the HD200 is still needed.

[Fuzzy]

Personally, I'd never give up the full bluray support i get by launching TMT for the VERY limited support the HD200 gives. I value menus, special features, BDLive, and full audio support. TMT does this, HD200 does not (It will only play what it gueses to be the MAIN title, and only DTS/DD). In either case, I certainly don't believe the HD200 is NEEDED for BluRay in sage.

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by samgreco

In fact, if I could get rid of the horrible TMT splash screen, it would be perfect.

This can be done with some work, I just need to find the reference again.

[mmanville]

Originally Posted by aflat

You forgot the option to map your blu-ray drive as a media location, so whenever you put a disk in your blu-ray drive it will show up in sage, and you can play it on the HD200. In any case, the HD200 is still needed.

Forgive me if this question is confused, I am a MS Media Center soon-to-be refugee who is looking into switching to Sage, given that the public beta of Windows Home Server just came out Monday, and still has no support for MC:

Does the above comment mean I can also use a bluray ROM drive on a windows PC somewhere on my network -- running or not running the sage client? -- to serve video from the blu ray disc on that machine, though the sage server (running on my WHS box, let's say), to a HD200? I'm guessing not, but thought I would ask. But you are saying that if I have a standalone Bluray player, instead of a windows PC with a BDROM drive, I could do that, right?

If it is of any relevance to the above discussion, I have a license for AnyDVD, which I could have on the windows pc & therefor DRM issues would presumably be sidestepped.

I have to say, the HD200 has me excited, but one of the things I would miss that I currently have with MC is hardware that has a BR/HDDVD drive, so I could just pop in rental discs right at the TV & watch them with no hassle. It sounds like to do this with Sage I would have to either 1) if I get the HD200, buy a standalone BR player to connect seperately, switching inputs and all that fun stuff (which is a WAF issue for me), or 2) ignore the otherwise very appealing & ready to go HD200 & go through the hassle of building my own box with a drive, and installing an OS plus a Sage client pgm/license.

Am I understanding all this correctly? thanks in advance to anyone who can confirm/clarify.

[aflat]

You can use your bru-ray drive in your machine, that is what I meant. The only difference is you will have to go to the server to put the disc in, instead of going to the HD200. And yes, you will need anydvd-HD, which is different then just anydvd.

If the blu-ray drive isn't on the machine you are running Sage server on, you'll have to use windows sharing to share it, then within Sage map that drive. I don't do this, so I'm not sure if it would work, but since you can map other hard drives on other machines, it should work for a blu-ray drive as well. The HD200 doesn't have tuners, it's only an extender, so you'll still need a server with your tuners to do all the heavy lifting.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mmanville

Forgive me if this question is confused, I am a MS Media Center soon-to-be refugee who is looking into switching to Sage, given that the public beta of Windows Home Server just came out Monday, and still has no support for MC:

Does the above comment mean I can also use a bluray ROM drive on a windows PC somewhere on my network -- running or not running the sage client? -- to serve video from the blu ray disc on that machine, though the sage server (running on my WHS box, let's say), to a HD200? I'm guessing not, but thought I would ask. But you are saying that if I have a standalone Bluray player, instead of a windows PC with a BDROM drive, I could do that, right?

If it is of any relevance to the above discussion, I have a license for AnyDVD, which I could have on the windows pc & therefor DRM issues would presumably be sidestepped.

I have to say, the HD200 has me excited, but one of the things I would miss that I currently have with MC is hardware that has a BR/HDDVD drive, so I could just pop in rental discs right at the TV & watch them with no hassle. It sounds like to do this with Sage I would have to either 1) if I get the HD200, buy a standalone BR player to connect seperately, switching inputs and all that fun stuff (which is a WAF issue for me), or 2) ignore the otherwise very appealing & ready to go HD200 & go through the hassle of building my own box with a drive, and installing an OS plus a Sage client pgm/license.

Am I understanding all this correctly? thanks in advance to anyone who can confirm/clarify.

You can stream direct from the drive to the hd200 as long as anydvdhd is running and the extender can see the br drive. You will not miss MS media center.

[mmanville]

Originally Posted by aflat

You can use your bru-ray drive in your machine, that is what I meant. The only difference is you will have to go to the server to put the disc in, instead of going to the HD200. And yes, you will need anydvd-HD, which is different then just anydvd.

If the blu-ray drive isn't on the machine you are running Sage server on, you'll have to use windows sharing to share it, then within Sage map that drive. I don't do this, so I'm not sure if it would work, but since you can map other hard drives on other machines, it should work for a blu-ray drive as well. The HD200 doesn't have tuners, it's only an extender, so you'll still need a server with your tuners to do all the heavy lifting.

Thanks for the very helpful reply! Yes I do have AnyDVD-HD.

My prospective setup would probably be Windows 2008 Server running the SageTV Server "headed" in the basement attached to an HDTV down there (with tuners taken out of the current MC HDTV box, yes), with two extenders, one in bedroom, one in living room. Eventually, if all goes well, add client Sage software to 1-4 household PCs.

I'm forming a plan, I'm thinking I'll start with the SageTV server running on the new w2k8s basement box, and one HD200. Try out your sharing suggestion of a bluray drive on one of the office Windows PCs, just to see how practical it would be.

If it is usable, get a second HD200. My wife's office (and her PC) is right next to the living room, so it would not be a big deal to just use the drive on that, if it can be accessed via network. The hassle would be offset by power draw & form factor reduction moving away from the HTPC box, not to mention the reduction in boot time & maintenance hassle for Windows OS (I am NOT looking forward to all the registry hacks to get MCE fully functional again if/when I upgrade to Win7!)

If a network BD drive turns out unusable/impractical, then break down and build a client that has a drive built in, put that in the living room where the media center box now lives (in fact, maybe just use that existing Vista Ultimate box as the client to start with), buy and install SageTV client to it, and move the one HD200 to the bedroom. We would only very, very rarely watch rental discs there, so it would not be as big a deal to be without a convenient drive. Or we just keep living with the barely used DVD player we have there now

Just to clarify: you are saying that the only thing I'd need to do at the host PC is physically insert the disc -- let's just say on the w2k8 Sage Server box for now, to keep the question focused -- but not need to do anything more at the host PC, right? In other words, I can use the HD200 remote to manage all functionality (play, pause, rewind, menu navigation, subtitles, etc) of the disc in the remote drive, transparently (there's that WAF thing again)?

[CoolheadAl]

What about support for PowerDVD Ultra 3D v10. I couldn't get Blue Ray to work under SageTV? What is HD200?

[scoful]

Can anybody tell me if Sage can play a BluRay Disc or folder that doesn't have HDCP?

[radiopaque]

Originally Posted by scoful

Can anybody tell me if Sage can play a BluRay Disc or folder that doesn't have HDCP?

Out of the box, it does not. Perhaps after some tweaking, but me being pretty new at SageTV couldn't tell you how...

[Suntan]

I had the same question, and after doing some research I bought a stand-alone blu-ray player.

Don't forget, today's BRs have mandatory (forced) ads and previews that border on the obscene. AnyDVD & Sage extender gives the ability to do away with these. Regular BR players will happily make you sit through 15 minutes of them.

This alone is the main reason why I now run BR discs through the Sage server upstairs to the HD200, even though their is a PS3 (with more capable audio options ) sitting right next to the HD200.

-Suntan

[FlyingDoc]

Hi
I am experimenting with playback of ripped Blu Ray disks with SageMC and TMT3 as an external player. This works but i dont really like the way Sage disappears and the desktop is visible for a few seconds before the external app starts. I would also like to have TMT3 come up without the splashscreen in an ideal world. Is there any way to change/improve this transition to be more seamless? If not, then is is possible to launch the external app only for Blu Rays and use the internal player for ripped DVDs?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mmanville

I have to say, the HD200 has me excited, but one of the things I would miss that I currently have with MC is hardware that has a BR/HDDVD drive, so I could just pop in rental discs right at the TV & watch them with no hassle.

I don't understand this. No Microsoft solution supports Blu-ray (360 can do HD DVD). Sage is no different, with either solution you need to use 3rd party software to view Blu-ray, so nothing need change with your move to SageTV.

But to answer the original question, if you've got AnyDVD HD running on the machine with the BD drive, and you share that drive on the network. And HD200 can play from it, yes.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by FlyingDoc

Hi
I am experimenting with playback of ripped Blu Ray disks with SageMC and TMT3 as an external player. This works but i dont really like the way Sage disappears and the desktop is visible for a few seconds before the external app starts. I would also like to have TMT3 come up without the splashscreen in an ideal world. Is there any way to change/improve this transition to be more seamless? If not, then is is possible to launch the external app only for Blu Rays and use the internal player for ripped DVDs?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

I got TMT working seamlessly thru SageTV w MC STV. When you set up the external program don't select the TMT exe program but instead select uMCEDVDPlayer.exe. This version was designed to link with MCE I guess and it causes TMT to open in full screen and begin play automatically. Also the BACK button on the MCE style remotes works to close TMT and return to Sage.

One other thing, when setting up the external app, when you get to the question of how you want Sage to behave i.e. sleep, disable full screen etc - select DO NOTHING.