HD200 and Blu-Ray playback?

[Deuce24]

Hey all, my intention is to run a Windows Home Server machine with an internal SATA Blu-ray player connected directly to the HD200. If I just share the Blu-ray drive over the network is the HD200 capable of just using it to stream/playback without me actually copying/converting the file to the hard drive first? This would be ideal just to pop in a disc and watch it without having to convert it all.

Also is this possible for standard DVD playback as well, sharing the drive over the network for SD DVDs?

Thanks!

[HawgGuy]

If the media is not copy protected, you can browse to the DVD and play the VIDEO_TS folder or browse to the STREAM folder of a BR disc and play the largest *.m2ts file.

[Deuce24]

Thanks for the reply Hawg. I have never burned Blu-Ray media before, but I want to make backups of my collection to WHS and not have to deal with pulling them out, but still want the capability to use standard "insert disc, watch movie" functionality.

I have AnyDVD HD, which removes the encryption. Is the largest .m2ts file always the entire movie file?

Thanks.

[toony]

Originally Posted by Deuce24

I have AnyDVD HD, which removes the encryption. Is the largest .m2ts file always the entire movie file?

Although usually the largest m2ts file is the entire movie, sometimes it's not. In the case of movies with extended play and theatrical release versions, also the odd movie, you will have to append the m2ts files together, you can do this in anydvd.

use a program like BDinfo, it will show you what m2ts files on a disc make up the main movie.

[toony]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

If the media is not copy protected, you can browse to the DVD and play the VIDEO_TS folder or browse to the STREAM folder of a BR disc and play the largest *.m2ts file.

I thought this only applies to DVD's not bluray, though you did say no copy protection so that may change things. It is my understanding there is no support for bluray at all... plus the bluray folders do not have video_ts folder the m2ts files are in the stream folder.

The only way to watch bluray is to backup and do ones magic with the m2ts file, copy that to the server and play away.

[HelenWeathers]

HawgGuy has this one absolutely correct. You set up the blu-ray drive on the Sage server as a shared drive, browse to the drive and to the subfolder containing the m2ts files, pick one and play.

For movies with seamless branching (multi m2ts files used to build the movie) you would have to play each seperately. Like if you were to go to the DVD video_ts folder and play each vob file seperately).

You need any dvd hd software loaded and resident. But no copying is required.

[jkohn]

But I'm guessing the HD200 cannot bitstream the high-res formats over HDMI, or can it? It would be a bummer to be stuck with compressed audio...

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by jkohn

But I'm guessing the HD200 cannot bitstream the high-res formats over HDMI, or can it? It would be a bummer to be stuck with compressed audio...

The HD-200 seems to default to the first audio track it can understand. If there's an AC3 track that's what plays. DTS gets passed through though. As far as True HD and DTS HD (if they were the only audio streams) you would probably get no sound at all.

Hopefully that will change to at least pass thru for the HiDef audio streams, if it hasn't already.

[Clift]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

HawgGuy has this one absolutely correct. You set up the blu-ray drive on the Sage server as a shared drive, browse to the drive and to the subfolder containing the m2ts files, pick one and play.

For movies with seamless branching (multi m2ts files used to build the movie) you would have to play each seperately. Like if you were to go to the DVD video_ts folder and play each vob file seperately).

You need any dvd hd software loaded and resident. But no copying is required.

Couldn't you just create a playlist for all those files?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Clift

Couldn't you just create a playlist for all those files?

Or use eac3to to stitch them all back together for you.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Clift

Couldn't you just create a playlist for all those files?

You could, but you have to figure out what they are. In the case of something like Hancock, it's easilly 10-20 ts files. And I doubt Sage plays a playlist as smoothly as you'd get if you used an external app to stitch them together.

[appelm]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

HawgGuy has this one absolutely correct. You set up the blu-ray drive on the Sage server as a shared drive, browse to the drive and to the subfolder containing the m2ts files, pick one and play.

For movies with seamless branching (multi m2ts files used to build the movie) you would have to play each seperately. Like if you were to go to the DVD video_ts folder and play each vob file seperately).

You need any dvd hd software loaded and resident. But no copying is required.

I have any DVD HD running and am able to rip a blu-ray DVD to my HD. But I can't browse the blu-ray drive. I get a message when I click on the drive letter that says the disk is unreadable or may not be compatible with windows. Is this normal? I also can't seem to get the drive to be imported by Sage even though I can get a regular DVD-rom drive to be imported. I've shared the drive.

I just got the BR drive so I'm just starting out with this but kind of confused. I only have one movie at the moment so I'll have to get some more to try those. I'm trying Madagascar 2 for now. I've imported the ripped folder structure but when I try to play it in Sage on my HD200 it just brings up the DVD navigation background movie which loops over and over (for 5 hours).. I can navigate to the biggest m2ts file and play that which works though.

I'm using the latest beta and firmware...

[stanger89]

Blu-ray uses UDF (2.5?) file system, Windows doesn't ship with a driver for that (at least not XP, not sure about Vista), so you need to install a driver to be able to access the drive directly.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by appelm

I have any DVD HD running and am able to rip a blu-ray DVD to my HD. But I can't browse the blu-ray drive. I get a message when I click on the drive letter that says the disk is unreadable or may not be compatible with windows. Is this normal? I also can't seem to get the drive to be imported by Sage even though I can get a regular DVD-rom drive to be imported. I've shared the drive. I just got the BR drive so I'm just starting out with this but kind of confused.

Are you running Vista or XP? My Movies server is Vista. Did you load the drivers that came with the BD drive so Windows knows it is BD capable?

I only have one movie at the moment so I'll have to get some more to try those. I'm trying Madagascar 2 for now. I've imported the ripped folder structure but when I try to play it in Sage on my HD200 it just brings up the DVD navigation background movie which loops over and over (for 5 hours).. I can navigate to the biggest m2ts file and play that which works though.

The primary audio track can confuse playback if it's LPCM. Movies with seamless branching do confuse playback. I don't know if that's your issue, but you should try another disc.

The "disk is unreadable or may not be compatible with windows" message bothers me the most. When I go to start, my computer my BD Drive shows the movie title of the inserted disc and I can explore the disc and see the folders and files whether any dvd hd is loaded or not.

Did you install the BD playback software that came with the drive and does that work?

EDIT: stanger89 is right and I think if you install the player drivers/software for the BD the UDF 2.5 gets installed at the same time if it's not present already.