Bluray playback question.

[Talon1]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading these forums for about 5 years and have always found an answer to my questions without posting, but now I'm stumped. I've just done a clean install of Windows 7 64 bit and Sage Version 7.19. Working through a couple of small bugs, and here's my question. Does version 7 support Bluray playback from a BD-ROM drive? I have Yes specified in Detailed Setup>DVD>DVD-ROM Drive, but Sage doesn't "see" a Bluray disc in the drive when I try to play one. I can browse the drive via the Search>Browse File Systems>Browse files on the SageTV Server (local) and see a BDMV folder, which I thought the User Manual said was supported. Do I have to rip the movie to watch it via Sage? FWIW, Windows Media Player doesn't see the disc either, but PowerDVD 7 plays it fine. Thanks for any help.

[stanger89]

Not like it does DVDs, for BD you have to add your drive as an import directory and play from the imported videos. And it just plays the longest playlist (by default, you can select others manually if you want), you don't get menus.

[Talon1]

Thanks for the quick reply stanger89. I reviewed the user manual for playing a bluray from the hard disc, and added E:\, which is my BD-ROM drive, to the Media Center Import Directories. I made some progress; after I put in a new bluray disc and scan for imported media, the title appears in Main Menu>Videos>DVD/BD, but when I select the title and click Watch Now, I get a sage.PlaybackException: Error (-4,0x80004005): There was a problem rendering the video portion of the content for playback. Then I get kicked out to live TV. I've tried every combination of Video Renderer (Overlay, VMR9, EVR), MPEG2 decoder (ArcSoft, Cyberlink, Microsoft DTV-DVD, NVidia, SageTV), and both h.264 decoders (ArcSoft and Microsoft DTV-DVD) all with the same result. Any ideas?

[Fuzzy]

sage cannot play encrypted discs. I think most here likely use AnyDVDHD to decrypt the disc on the fly.

[Talon1]

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but I still can't play blurays via SageTV. I've set the BDROM drive as an import directory and bought/installed ANYDVDHD, but when I play back the bluray, the video and audio are extremely choppy/stuttery and completely unwatchable/unlistenable. PDVD9 and TME play blurays no problem. I CAN load the bluray in the server and watch it via SageTV on the client....smooth video and audio.

One thing I noticed is that CPU usage on the server goes to 60-80% when I try to watch a bluray; watching TV only uses about 20%. Client CPU usage is 50-60% when I watch the bluray on it....but as noted, video and audio are smooth. I noticed CPU usage was 0-3% when I watched a bluray via PDVD9 with SageTV in standby mode and recording a program.

I've tried Arcsoft, Cyberlink, SageTV decoders, all with the same result...I don't think it's a decoder issue...I'm wondering if I have enough computer to do the necessary processing, or is there some setting I need to change? I have EVR9 as a renderer and 3D acceleration enabled.

Why does SageTV use so much CPU compared to PDVD9?

Any help would be great....I've got a brand new home theater system that sounds great and I would like to use Sage to play blurays for the UI and remote functionality....I don't want to learn Girder unless I have to.

[BobPhoenix]

Do you know what your format your BluRays are encoded to? (H.264 or VC-1)? If the ones you have tried are VC-1 then try another that is H.264. If it plays back OK then that is your problem. My Q6600 Asus P5Q-EM won't playback VC1 encoded BluRays either. The only way I can play them back on it is to Rip them to MKV files and turn off the SageTV splitter and use Haali.

For instance Chuck Season 1 BluRays are VC-1 and won't playback without studdering without ripping them to MKV. StarGate Universe season 1 plays back just fine. It is encoded to H.264.

[Talon1]

The movie I'm working on is Iron Man 2...Menu>DVD/BD>Iron Man 2 Disc 1>Video Video Detail shows Format: MPEG2-TS[H.264 1080p@24fps, DTS-MA@48kHz 5.1 eng,...

Do you think it would be worthwhile to try ripping the movie and changing splitters....that would be new to me but I've read a little about it on the forums...

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Talon1

The movie I'm working on is Iron Man 2...Menu>DVD/BD>Iron Man 2 Disc 1>Video Video Detail shows Format: MPEG2-TS[H.264 1080p@24fps, DTS-MA@48kHz 5.1 eng,...

Do you think it would be worthwhile to try ripping the movie and changing splitters....that would be new to me but I've read a little about it on the forums...

Possibly. The M2TS native BluRay container will not use any splitter but the SageTV one so if you rip pick another container like MKV to test with.

My Stargate Universe episode rips were essentially just copies of the M2TS files from the BluRay (used DVDFab to do it) They are H.264 and they played back fine using the SageTV splitter. I've since deleted the individual episode rips and just dumped them to HDD as folder structure BluRays. I did this because I wanted to see menus by using TMT5 and it is quicker to rip that way. I use EventGhost to switch between TMT5 and SageTV.

So not really sure what to tell you. Maybe someone else will have more.