PVR-350 DVD Revisited Yes or NO

[chrispy]

I am still confused, after reading all here, as to weaher if it is possbile to to get DVD playback on the TV output over a PVR-350.

So far I have seen suggested :

1. Convert to MPEG and it will work (less than desirable)
2. Rip to hard drive and remove CSS and it will work.

Has anyone truely been able to get either of these two solutions to work?

Am I missing another solution?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

[stanger89]

You can not play DVDs through the 350, there is no other answer. The 350 is incapable of decoding/passing CSS or AC3.

What complicates matters is that since DVDs are MPEG2 based the conversion to a compatible format is not terribly complicated.

The only way that will work and get you full audio and video out of the 350 is to convert the DVD to and MPEG file with MPEG audio.

The other alternative, that may or may not work is to strip the DVD of CSS and then use both the 350 and software decoding so that the video is decoded in the 350 and the audio in software, the video would be output from the 350 and the audio from your soundcard. You may (probably?) also have to rename the DVD to .mpg and give up menues and chapters.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by chrispy

I am still confused, after reading all here, as to weaher if it is possbile to to get DVD playback on the TV output over a PVR-350.

So far I have seen suggested :

1. Convert to MPEG and it will work (less than desirable)
2. Rip to hard drive and remove CSS and it will work.

Has anyone truely been able to get either of these two solutions to work?

Am I missing another solution?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

I have ripped several dvd's to my hard drive now, and they all play through my PVR-350 as well as the Media MVP. Specifically, I'm using GBPVR to rip the dvd's. (Here's a link on how to do it: http://www.bladerhq.com/pmwiki/pmwik...lugin/DVD2MPEG)

Now, the bad news is that yes, you have to re-encode the sound to mpeg instead of ac3. However, it's still worth it in my opinion.

Also, I'm working on a vbscript that will do the rip for me instead of having to use GBPVR to rip movies. The only problem I have so far is that when it transcode's the audio and video back together, my output via vbscript is roughly double the size of that which the gbpvr plugin.

Like I said, I'm still working on it, but all in all, I'd say that yes ... it's possible.

[bhageman]

I can get Sage to play DVDs I've ripped to ISO using DVDShrink on my monitor only, so I assume that Sage is able to decode the ISO.

What else do I need to do to get playback to the TV?

I've got that annoying feeling that I am one minor option or setting away...

[stanger89]

Sage can play DVDs just fine (with the requisite software decoders) the 350 however CAN'T play DVDs unless you convert them to MPEG first. There is no option you can set that will magically let the 350 play DVDs.

[Hector]

As mentioned, convert the audio from ac3 to mpeg.

If you did the ISO rip and have one single VOB, what I do is load it into womble mpeg2vcr, click the audio button to mpeg and save it again. The pain is more in the time and having to pay attention to it than anything else. Otherwise its just few clicks.

One tip is to make sure you extract the right audio track. I just went through this last night while everyone was waiting and I got the stupid directors commentary track.

Krutaw's script will make him the BMC around here for awhile among us 350 owners.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by bhageman

I can get Sage to play DVDs I've ripped to ISO using DVDShrink on my monitor only, so I assume that Sage is able to decode the ISO.

What else do I need to do to get playback to the TV?

I've got that annoying feeling that I am one minor option or setting away...

[Cayars]

I just added this to my STV for the next release too in case anyone here uses my STV.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by Hector

Krutaw's script will make him the BMC around here for awhile among us 350 owners.

ROFLMAO. Well, it looks like Cayars beat me to the punch on this one which is just fine with me. hehe :-D This means that it'll be supported by him instead of me. muhahahaha *cough cough* lol

[Hector]

Hmmmm you might have found a button on his forehead. What else do we need that you can threaten to do?

Originally Posted by krutaw

ROFLMAO. Well, it looks like Cayars beat me to the punch on this one which is just fine with me. hehe :-D This means that it'll be supported by him instead of me. muhahahaha *cough cough* lol

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by Hector

Hmmmm you might have found a button on his forehead. What else do we need that you can threaten to do?

Hmm... well let's see... we need...

- Studio
- HD support


Anyone think of anything I missed? ehhehe

[Hector]

I tried to tell him expectations would rise once he started taking donations

Come on Carlo, get a move on.

Originally Posted by krutaw

Hmm... well let's see... we need...

- Studio
- HD support


Anyone think of anything I missed? ehhehe

[bhageman]

Thanks for the tip. I was able to get this to work. Finally, I'm able to watch ripped DVDs in Sage (via GB-PVR).

It sure would be handy if Cayars addition to this used all the same applications as the GB-PVR plug-in since I have them all installed now (hint, hint :-).

Stanger: Thanks for your infinite patience in explaining the technical aspects very simply.

Originally Posted by krutaw

I have ripped several dvd's to my hard drive now, and they all play through my PVR-350 as well as the Media MVP. Specifically, I'm using GBPVR to rip the dvd's. (Here's a link on how to do it: http://www.bladerhq.com/pmwiki/pmwik...lugin/DVD2MPEG)

[Cayars]

It's going to use the same tools. Anyone using my latest (16) version of my STV should already have everything too as the tools are already being used for DVD Burning.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by Cayars

It's going to use the same tools. Anyone using my latest (16) version of my STV should already have everything too as the tools are already being used for DVD Burning.

Cayars ~

Did you run into any size problems when working on your ripping? I got my script to be able to automagically rip the dvd's, however, the output from my scripting is almost double the size of what gb-pvr's output.

I goofily assumed that using the same command lines as the source code from the GBPVR plugin would produce the same results. Boy was I wrong.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by krutaw

Cayars ~

Did you run into any size problems when working on your ripping? I got my script to be able to automagically rip the dvd's, however, the output from my scripting is almost double the size of what gb-pvr's output.

I goofily assumed that using the same command lines as the source code from the GBPVR plugin would produce the same results. Boy was I wrong.

Ah ha! I figured it out, the command lines being used between v1 and v2 are significantly different. The mplex command in v2 are outputing to "Generic MPEG2" and the command in v1 is using "DVD with NAV sectors".

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by krutaw

Cayars ~

Did you run into any size problems when working on your ripping? I got my script to be able to automagically rip the dvd's, however, the output from my scripting is almost double the size of what gb-pvr's output.

I goofily assumed that using the same command lines as the source code from the GBPVR plugin would produce the same results. Boy was I wrong.

Nope, not sizing problems at all.