Online DVD Library with ISO's..(progress).. Advice/Ideas?

**kolemieux** · 08-23-2006, 08:20 AM

Dinasty -

Thanks a million for keeping on this - job got in the way yesterday and travel ;-) I am testing now and in advance can confirm Nero is not on either of my machines so should be a good test for starter..... Actually its on none of them at the moment so there is immediate substance to your test from my vantage point......

Here is one thing I know FOR CERTAIN...... I have absolutely had issues with Nero 7 and DAEMON TOOLS..... Meaning - in 7.0 they have a virtual mounter of sorts and that may be exactly what is helping this...... I use Daemon on every machine, when I install Nero 7 it will play issue with Daemon so I yank it. This may be it.... And for me would be the fix and awesome.

Let me try and confirm. Again thanks!!!!

Originally Posted by DiNASTY

@LS: OK, maybe I'm not 100% sure then... lol. I tested multiple times and it works when Nero is installed and doesn't when it's not. Tested on both my desktop and my laptop. Perhaps there is something other than Nero that makes it work on your machine?

@All: Please help by reporting if the following ISO image plays on your RR with the "built-in" player. This is what you need to test:

1) Download this test ISO image (4.5MB)
2) unzip it to your video folder.
3) check "Use Built In Player" in the Video tab of RRconfig.
4) add ".iso,.ISO" without quotes to the "Video file Types" feild.
5) open RR select the ISO and try and play it.

Please lemme know how it goes

-DiNASTY

**kolemieux** · 08-23-2006, 08:22 AM

Yea - yikes

Originally Posted by liquid_smoke

what if you've never had nero installed on your machine?

**kolemieux** · 08-23-2006, 09:44 AM

BINGO --- Dinasty kickin work... I am going to break down this install and see what it is in the actual install (codec or mounter) that makes this happen.... As far as LS's comment and I clearly assume he built those boxes like I do from scratch - I am intrigued......

I am going to break this down more but man, all of you, thanks for sticking with me on this - sincerely!!! It's huge for me and is great for RR as well.

Now back to my skinning of this - seems like the rest should flow rather easy but my intent would be to creat ultimately a MOVIE PAGE!

1) Thumbs View - structure will be c:\MOVIES\.iso, .avi ..... foler.jpg synopsis.txt. Looking for a similar almost identical approach to the ALBUMS page with alpha sorting and filtering

2) Perhaps a popup of sorts to show the synopsis text - I will not look back at your original guidance on this. As well as maybe on the side

3) Mainly just giving this a look other than a plain old directory click, but an HTPC kinda front-end for movies like we do with Albums.

I plan to plug away on this but there is much more knowledge in this forum than combined in my skull so would love the input and ideas. This little tip here save me 1/2 the effort and man am I grateful.

I will strip the install down (remove and see if it breaks) then reinstall to see what makes it work as well.

Love some ideas on the skinning and thanks guys.....

Originally Posted by DiNASTY

kolemieux,

Good news!! I'm 100% positive it is something in the Nero 7 Ultra Edition package that makes this work. I basically updated the laptop with every media player and codec from my desktop and checked the video in RR after every program install. Now it's just a matter of narrowing down the Nero components that allow MPC to pick up an ISO and play it. My initial guess is that it has something to do with the Nero ImageDrive component or perhaps a codec of some sorts.

Here is the info on the Nero package:

Version 7.0.8.2 Ultra Edition Package Includes:

Nero BackitUp
Nero Home
Nero PhotoSnap
Nero SoundBox
Nero Toolkit
Nero Fast CD-Burning Plugin
Nero MediaHome
Nero Showtime
Nero SmartStart
Nero WaveEditor
Nero Vision
Nero Soundtrax
Nero Recode
Nero ImageDrive
Nero CoverDesign

Give me a few minutes to single out the file/files that are in use while MPC is playing the ISO.

**liquid_smoke** · 08-23-2006, 11:39 AM

cool, glad you got it working.

Funny enough, i tried the iso on my laptop and it didnt work in mpc, i can play it with VLC and it plays fine in mpc my car though. Neither have had nero, esp the car.

Im going to compare the codecs and filters installed on my laptop ver of MPC with what i have in the car and try to figure out what the difference is. I know ive done this is the past on my laptop too.

**kolemieux** · 08-23-2006, 11:48 AM

LS,

I am working thru it as well - here is something quick I noticed and could still have some codec relations which I am going to work thru. Most all of my DVD's are rip'd with DvdShrink and all to ISO, some with menus - most not.

1 - When loaded can u tell me if its loading like a DVD or video file. What I see is if menus are present in the ISO - it is (in all cases) not loading like a DVD but a video file and does not have frame sequencing so menu navigation not only does not exist, but with a few it started just playing super fast.

2 - I am verifying with those that have no menus, if transit controls - ffwd, skip, or any of those respond at all. Again this could be a codec and sequence frame issue.

Let me know if you could - Dinasty also not sure what you saw.... Menus are not a big thing and we will just need to note it, but sometimes if transit controls dont exist - that can bite. I will work thru it this is good progress.

LS - any input on the skinning sir? I could see your "mousewheel" popup as the concept area for a snyopsis overlay and is likely where I am going to work this in.

Thanks guys - interested on feedback and still crankin on this to.

Originally Posted by liquid_smoke

cool, glad you got it working.

Funny enough, i tried the iso on my laptop and it didnt work in mpc, i can play it with VLC and it plays fine in mpc my car though. Neither have had nero, esp the car.

Im going to compare the codecs and filters installed on my laptop ver of MPC with what i have in the car and try to figure out what the difference is. I know ive done this is the past on my laptop too.

**JohnWPB** · 08-23-2006, 10:56 PM

I just came across this thread, and though I would share how I have done this.

I gave up on the whole ISO thing some time ago, with the mounting, and problems with some devices with ISO format ect ect... I personally do not need the menu's, and all the extras in a portable situation.

I rip my DVD's with a program called "1Click DVD to DivX AVI". I save them dirrectly to .avi format, compressed with Xvid. a Hour and a haf movie, at about 90% quality, 352x288 comes out to around 200 megs. (With my 200 Gig hard drive thats around 1000 DVD's!) I know this seems like a small resolution, but it looks VERY good and clear on a 7" screen, Actually if dosent look TOO bad on my 26" LCD monitor full screen, some artifacts of course, but not as bad as one might think stretching a 252x288 up to 1920 X 1080. It's just a little worse than standard broadcast TV.

The other advantage of straight .avi format is the file can play on just about any portable video device.

**DiNASTY** · 08-24-2006, 01:19 AM

I agree that divx/xvid avi is the way to go for the car-pc. however, kolemieux does have a good point with the ISOs how you can just rip one in the car or transfer one from the home pc without any encoding etc...

Personally I have tons of DVD ISOs that i rip with dvd shrink and it IS rather tedious to then have to encode all of them just for the sake of saving space. I say if you plan on having 50+ DVD files in the car, maybe it's time to think about converting to divx. On the other hand, if you only have a few and you have the space, why not use it.

@kolemieux: I did notice some extras flying by at the beginning of some of my ISOs when using the built in player. I usually "re-author" my DVDs to exclude all foreign languages and menus so that I can get the best quality for and the least "shrinking" as possible. I haven't tried an ISO with a standard menu so my ISOs just start playing from the beginning right off the bat.

As for your other ideas, I'm pretty sure you can accomplish this in RR. have a look at the "SD" definition in skincommand.txt. If you apply it to the video_browser.skin it should show thumbnail previews in the list but i haven't tested it though. I'm guessing the synopsis is only effective on the audio/video browser skins so having it in a pop-up would probably be difficult. Having it in a label, however, would likely solve this problem and even open the door for flash integration. I would definitely ask Guino about that one

**kolemieux** · 08-24-2006, 07:02 AM

Correct - we all agree and to add to Dinasty's well put comments - if you've ever worked with DVD Shrink its by far the fastest way to pull DVD off of disk - no comparrison. Better yet - it's also the best mechanism for having the content in near losless format for you to do what you mentioned, "and" drop directly back to a physical DVD if you need that.... Disk space is getting cheaper by the day - and is why MP3 to FLAC is not getting a lot of action.

Again - we discussed this early in the thread and there is a bazillion ways to do this with the flavor of your choice, mp4-ipod, divx, avi, xvid, wmv - this is covering just what Dinasty said - ISO's. If in fact we get a solid way to not have to convert, have a ton of disk at a good $, wouldn't 1 file format for in-home, in-car, back to DVD be nice.... or at least for the one-offs.

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

I just came across this thread, and though I would share how I have done this.

I gave up on the whole ISO thing some time ago, with the mounting, and problems with some devices with ISO format ect ect... I personally do not need the menu's, and all the extras in a portable situation.

I rip my DVD's with a program called "1Click DVD to DivX AVI". I save them dirrectly to .avi format, compressed with Xvid. a Hour and a haf movie, at about 90% quality, 352x288 comes out to around 200 megs. (With my 200 Gig hard drive thats around 1000 DVD's!) I know this seems like a small resolution, but it looks VERY good and clear on a 7" screen, Actually if dosent look TOO bad on my 26" LCD monitor full screen, some artifacts of course, but not as bad as one might think stretching a 252x288 up to 1920 X 1080. It's just a little worse than standard broadcast TV.

The other advantage of straight .avi format is the file can play on just about any portable video device.

**kolemieux** · 08-24-2006, 07:09 AM

Dinasty - thx again....

Here is what I would check - I 9of10 times do the same thing, a reauthor, and yank the movie only and most of the time 2.5GB is about my target range which Shrink does cake and fast.

What I did see though is it does not look like it just flies thru those menus - it will continue flying thru everything if those menus exist.... double check that on your side. The last piece that makes this "perhaps a bummer" - is when even reauthored, and just the movie, the playback will be fine - but transit controls even just ffwd / rwd may be gone. Often this is a codec or DVD naviagator issue but need to play with this one....

Please double check if you could but that last piece could possibly be an issue. Pause/play may work but it could put any rwd/fwd out of the picture because ... I will keep testing.

I am also going to work on the skin pieces and know where to start and just will look for samples, ideas, concepts as there are so many good ones right here.

Thanks to all for the help .........

Originally Posted by DiNASTY

I agree that divx/xvid avi is the way to go for the car-pc. however, kolemieux does have a good point with the ISOs how you can just rip one in the car or transfer one from the home pc without any encoding etc...

Personally I have tons of DVD ISOs that i rip with dvd shrink and it IS rather tedious to then have to encode all of them just for the sake of saving space. I say if you plan on having 50+ DVD files in the car, maybe it's time to think about converting to divx. On the other hand, if you only have a few and you have the space, why not use it.

@kolemieux: I did notice some extras flying by at the beginning of some of my ISOs when using the built in player. I usually "re-author" my DVDs to exclude all foreign languages and menus so that I can get the best quality for and the least "shrinking" as possible. I haven't tried an ISO with a standard menu so my ISOs just start playing from the beginning right off the bat.

As for your other ideas, I'm pretty sure you can accomplish this in RR. have a look at the "SD" definition in skincommand.txt. If you apply it to the video_browser.skin it should show thumbnail previews in the list but i haven't tested it though. I'm guessing the synopsis is only effective on the audio/video browser skins so having it in a pop-up would probably be difficult. Having it in a label, however, would likely solve this problem and even open the door for flash integration. I would definitely ask Guino about that one