DVD's on MVP

[pBS]

sure..i'd think so...but i don't have any files to play with so you'll have to check that one out...
see if you can play them with mplayer....then see if you can use same commands with mencoder and it should overlay them if told to read them..
check the manual page included with mplayer and search for cc
let us know how it goes..

[fvfv]

Well. It works !!!!

the mplayer docs talk about closed captions on DVD, but if the mpg contains closed captions, it will work as well. Of course, in order for the mpg to contain closed captions in the first place, it must have been captured with a PVR250 or PVR350 and the closed captions options enabled on the config applet, using Intervideo decoder.

What I did was install the mplayer and mencoder apps on my "c:\windows" folder so that they are available anywhere on my system. I had to copy "c:\windows\fonts\arial.ttf" to "c:\windows\mplayer\subfont.ttf", as it kept on asking for this "subfont.ttf" file. I guess you can use any font you wish, but It seems to always use CAPS so it might be a little big. I used:
-subfont-autoscale 2 option to get it a little smaller.

The entire mencode command line is :

mencoder.exe -slang en -ovc lavc -cache 10240 -alang en -oac lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf:telecine -ofps 24000/1001 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vqscale=4.5:vmax_b_frames=2:keyint=16:acodec=mp2:abitrate=128:autoaspect -af volume=16 -idx -o [OUTPUT.MPG] -subcc -subfont-autoscale 2 [INPUT.MPG].

Here, the relevant options are -subcc and -subfont-autoscale 2. The rest are the same that you had given me.

Out comes a very nice mpg file with Subtitles overlayed.

Thanks a lot for your support.

[tsheal]

Hi,

I've recently set up my home PVR system with a server that captures live tv and stores DVDs on my hard drive. This drives 2 Hauppauge MediaMVPs in the lounge and my bedroom. Naturally I have installed the XDVD plugin to playback my DVDs through the MVP clients, but the inability to interact with the DVD menus is a little frustrating.

I have taken a look at the feature set of VLC, which XDVD uses to transcode the DVD data, and it claims to support DVD menus through the use of the libdvdnav library.

Is it possible to redirect remote control input from the GBPVR server to VLC during DVD playback to allow interaction as per a normal DVD player? I am quite willing to develop the necessary plugin, but others' thoughts and tips would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Tristan

[pBS]

if there is a way i'm clueless as to how...tho i did think about it since seeing the web streamer plugin...he has the client controlling vlc from over the web so it should be able to locally...tho i don't think it aloows mouse input,just ff/rw/pause,etc..
i know there are control interfaces for vlc that should allow it,telnet,http,etc..
total control would be the ultimate cuz as it is, it's pretty hard to select alternate audio languages/subs and extra features on dvd with xdvd...[i still use it for dvd's on my mvp]
hmm,wonder if the built-in dvd player would help? not sure if that source is available..
but it should be possible...i thought about using the vnc protocol for immediate feedback and mousing with remote thru menus.. then pass video playing off to transcoded file and play that back normally on mvp...[remember HAVE to transcode audio for MVP use]
but can get quite complicated with the dvd menu structure...
[may not be able to get dvd games,etc to play right]

have you looked into ratdvd? not sure if it's still supported in gbpvr tho..
[i'd rather have true dvd access]

i know i'd love to have that functionality as well as many others i'm sure...
would be nice if it could do the ripping too
i'll help ya test,i have a few nasty dvd's to check it out with..[odd structured ones]

[ww4397]

oh, and don't get the mencoder with sse+ support! it has problems grabbing a whole dvd and cuts them short...[actually can't handle a long mpg,i think it's a ffmpeg codec thing, something about the math]
i have a sse2 system and didn't really notice any speed increase anyways...
just wanted to add a warning,it gave me fits for a while....lol

Can you point me to the version of mencoder you are using (the non-sse+ version)?

Thanks.

[bungle]

Can you point me to the version of mencoder you are using (the non-sse+ version)?

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. I was going nuts trying to figure out why I couldn't get DVDs ripped anymore since it used to work. Turns out I got a newer version of mencoder and it had problems where it just quit in the middle of a DVD. I went back to an older version and now it works. Strange. I only see one win32 version to download, though.

[ww4397]

Yeah, I'm having the same problem. I was going nuts trying to figure out why I couldn't get DVDs ripped anymore since it used to work. Turns out I got a newer version of mencoder and it had problems where it just quit in the middle of a DVD. I went back to an older version and now it works. Strange. I only see one win32 version to download, though.

I've been working on this for a while and I found these versions of Mencoder after reading this Wiki entry. Then I found that I needed these additional files to make it work.

Then I tweaked the command line found here to the following:

[HTML]start /low C:\Progra~1\mplayer\mencoder.exe -ovc lavc -cache 10240 -dvd-device %2 dvd://%3 -alang en -oac lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ofps 24000/1001 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vqscale=2:vmax_b_frames=2:keyint=18:acodec=mp2:abitrate=192:autoaspect -af volume=16 -idx -o %1[/HTML]

And, finally I placed that line into my playmvpdvdfiles.bat and rem'd out the VLC command lines.

In the end, doing all of this has allowed me to essentially replace VLC with Mencoder as the transcoder that xDVD uses. The best improvments, for me anyway, are louder sound and better timelines for FF, RW and skipping around, etc.

Good luck.

PS: I found out the hard way that you can't have any spaces in the filename/path to the folder containing the video_ts folder. I replaced the space(s) with underscores and then all worked well.

[EDIT]

Made the command line change suggested by pBS in the post below -- changed "%2" to %2. This change allows for spaces in the filename/path. I also dropped the quotes from "%1" and made it simply %1.

BTW, I tried %~2 (note, without the quotes) and that did not work.

[pBS]

here's where it's going wrong for spaces in source...use -dvd-device "%~2" instead of -dvd-device "%2"
[%~2 removes any quotes if there, and adds them, so it always has quotes even if incoming param doesn't...as it was, if quotes were on incoming path, it would add more making them irrelevant, eg:""%2""]

windows adds quotes when needed, so you ould also just use %2 without quotes at all..

[undret]

A little off topic, maybe, but I have just done a few testruns on VLC and mencoder given the example commandlines I have found in this thread and others.
I have very little experience and knowledge about VLC and mencoder, just beginning to look into them.

Even if it is subjective, how would you compare the two to each other? Suppose you have a commandline of both that would generate equal output of a DVD (mpeg2 file with subtitle overlay and audio that can be played by MVP). How would you rate:
1. Quality
2. Resulting file size
3. Speed of transcoding
4. Processor load
5. Command line functionality (as applicable to your MVP-equipped GBPVR-based system)

In my tests I have run both using standard VLC from the xDVD and then the mencoder commandline I found here. Both with subtitle overlay. mencoder gives a better aspect ratio, smaller file size, less processor load, and better audio volume. Both transcode approx in realtime on my computer. Quality of the generated output I could not tell on this small old computer screen.
I guess part of this is due to the command line, where the mencoder one is perhaps more optimized.

Any comments?

Regards,
Undret

[pBS]

vlc is ok, but mencoder beats it in almost all respects..quality/cmd-line options/speed/cpu/etc..
mostly because of the vlc lack of actual timeline support, and the many variable options in mencoder, including filters, [you can actually use dshow filters as well] and decent quality/file size..

i still like ffmpeg better for quality but it doesn't have the input options like dvd or streaming stuff but it does have piping both in and out..
it's amazing how different they are when they use the same core codecs code[avlib,etc.]

and for our purposes, mencoder is a great option as it 'plays nice' with other apps and doesn't hogg all the cpu so you can play while transcoding..[tho not applicable to mvp usage]