How to play Blu Ray disks

[SusieQQ]

Having trouble and can't seem to find a good straightforward answer in my searching:

I just used AnyDVD HD to rip a couple of BDs to my hard drive. They're in a file structure that looks like this:



I tried using MKV to make a file, I've tried using Clown BD to make an ISO. Both play (the ISO is pretty choppy) but neither have sound.

What do I need to do to convert the bdmv files I have, into a playable file for the HD200? (I'd love to have the DVD menus also, but I believe that isn't possible correct?)

Thanks!

[PLUCKYHD]

You don't have to do anything on extenders native ripping just like that is supported and should show up and play as is.

[Pirin]

The HD200 will play a full BD image natively by selecting the longest running track and automatically playing it. You are correct that full menus are not supported.

It sounds to me like you are able to play the BD just fine on the HD200 using the file structure; it only stutters with the ISO. If that is the case, then you have done everything correctly and you are all set to just watch it from the folder structure.

Now, to figure out why there is no audio. The most probably reason is that you have ripped a Blu-Ray movie that has your desired language as its first audio track. The standard for Blu-Ray is that the first audio track is encoded using DTS, while all extra tracks are in AC3 (foreign languages, director's commentary, etc.). The HD200 does not support decoding of DTS audio, so if you are feeding it directly to your TV, or to a receiver that cannot decode DTS, then that is why you have no audio. You can always try to change the audio track during playback of the BD and see if you get audio.

If I am on the correct track, then you have 3 options:
1) direct the audio stream to a receiver that can decode DTS
2) re-encode the primary audio track into AC3 and mux it into the movie (ClownBD can do this, as well as a plug-in someone developed for SageTV [I don't remember the name of it])
3) Buy an HD-300!!!! This has native support for stereo down-mixing DTS, DTS-HD, and True Dolby HD (or whatever the AC3 7.1 standard is called)


**EDIT: The plug-in I was thinking of in option 2 above is an actual utility and not a plug-in. You can read about it here: SAGEAudioConvert. I believe this requires that you make an MKV file.

[SusieQQ]

Ok so when you say a receiver that can decode DTS, I have a Onkyo TX-SR507 that does DTS decoding. My setup is:

Component cables from HD200 to TV for video
RCA cables from HD200 to receiver for audio

I'll try and see if it lets me flip between audio tracks when the movie is playing, but I'm not hopeful that will work.

As to re-encoding the primary audio to AC3, I'll attempt it with Clown BD but I'm such a newb to all of this and the Clown BD process I followed before took like 5 hours and called 2 other programs (eac3to and txMuxer) that I have no idea about. There were a million options to select and I just kind of followed the main process not really knowing what each thing does. So when you say to change the primary audio to AC3, I'm not sure exactly what switch to flip and where to do this, if that makes sense

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by SusieQQ

Ok so when you say a receiver that can decode DTS, I have a Onkyo TX-SR507 that does DTS decoding. My setup is:

Component cables from HD200 to TV for video
RCA cables from HD200 to receiver for audio

I'll try and see if it lets me flip between audio tracks when the movie is playing, but I'm not hopeful that will work.

As to re-encoding the primary audio to AC3, I'll attempt it with Clown BD but I'm such a newb to all of this and the Clown BD process I followed before took like 5 hours and called 2 other programs (eac3to and txMuxer) that I have no idea about. There were a million options to select and I just kind of followed the main process not really knowing what each thing does. So when you say to change the primary audio to AC3, I'm not sure exactly what switch to flip and where to do this, if that makes sense

You need to be hooked up digital optical sound to the receiver to get the DTS benefit not rca cables. If you do that you will not need to rencode any movies.

[Pirin]

Yes, your Onkyo will work just fine for decoding DTS. However, I am concerned that you say you are using RCA cables from HD200 to receiver for audio. Do you mean you are using the L and R (white and red) outputs on the back of the HD200? If so, you are only outputing stereo to your Onkyo, and that cannot carry the DTS signal.

For DTS, you need to be using either the HDMI or SPDIF (optical) output on the HD200. If you use the SPDIF output (my recommendation), then you would plug that into either of the optical ports on the back of your Onkyo (inside the Digital In 'box' in the upper left hand corner). You will then have to check your Onkyo manual to pick the correct input on the receiver when you turn it on. If you go this route, then you need to get a Toslink cable to make this connection. Once that is complete, you need to boot your HD200 up in stand-alone mode so that you can configure the audio output to use the S/PDIF (optical) connection (see Page 4 of the HD200 manual).

If you change languages, and that works, then that means the HD200 is internally decoding the AC3 track and down-mixing it to stereo to send out the RCA jacks in the back.

[SusieQQ]

Ahh perfect. Yes that is my problem, I'm just using the Red/White stereo cables to my receiver for sound. Ok I'll pick up an HDMI cable and just run the whole thing (video/sound) through my receiver and to my TV.

It wasn't hooked up that way in the first place because I didn't have an HDMI cable from my TV to my receiver, but I'm having one installed (wall obv) today for something else, so this works out perfectly

[ccsmoke]

Hello,

One thing to consider is the HD300 would be good fit for you as your Onkyo supports DTS-MA and Dolby HD. The HD300 will bitstream HD audio to Onkyo to decode through HDMI.