How To: Bluray/HDDVD playback with GBPVR

[whurlston]

I was able to patch the ffdshow tryouts to connect to the ArcSoft Demux with a DD Plus audio track. I posted the patch on Doom9, hopefully they will add it to the SVN in the next day or two.

I missed the DD Plus when I added the ArcSoft GUIDs originally.

[TheDudster]

whurlston,
It took me many many hours of tinkering with my computer to get this all implemented. Your directions are not the simplest to following. However, now that I have it up and running, I must say that I am very pleased with the setup.

One comment I'd like to make, however, is that one main purpose of gbpvr is to provide a FREE media center alternative to WMC. This solution for watching blue ray and HDDVDs is nice, but unless you are willing to be a pirater, there is no way to legally set this up without shelling out $100+. I could not find a copy of MediaSplitter that was compatible with Vista (when I try to register the file, windows tells me that it is not compatible). There does appear to be one included in the k-lite codec pack (I am not sure where to find that version besides inside this codec pack...if you find it...please let me know). I dont want to install k-lite because it is the culprit that is installing the Haali Demuxer...and it is really not necessary to install since ffdshow will handle pretty much all of your media decoding needs.

For everyone trying to install Whurlston's Blue Ray / HD-DVD solution on Vista x64, here are some things to keep in mind:
- The Haali issue is most likely due to having the k-lite (or equivalent) codec pack installed.
- You need to install the NEWEST ffdshow (the daily alpha builds) to get ffdshow to handle TrueHD and DTS-HD (beta 6 does NOT work).
- Total Media 3.5 does NOT work!
- MediaSplitter is NOT compatible with Vista (both x86 and x64 I believe).
- When extracting Movie Library, if you are using Windows' built in unzipper, make sure you don't just "extract" to the gbpvr folder. You need, specifically, to extract the "plugins" folder and the "skins" folder located in the zip file to to the gbpvr folder so that the Movie Library is installed in the correct location (this took me awhile to figure out). Also, if you are using a different skin than "blue" (like the community skin) you need to go into "skins\blue\" and copy the "MovieLibrary" folder into the folder for whichever other skin you are using (such as "skins\community\"). Movie Library crashed on me SOO many times until I figured out that this was what was causing the "null pointer exception".

Thanks for the work around though! It is working GREAT! I definitely cant wait, however, for Sub to add Blue Ray and HD-DVD support the general gbpvr release.

[BigMoose]

I've got it working on Vista64 all with free codecs (I use the MPC-HC's MPEG Splitter (32bit) as mentioned on page 1, works fine, latest ffdshow tryout for audio and MPC H264 decoder) - only thing I have to pay for is AnyDVDHD which given I legally own all my Bluray disks, I dont think is illegal in any way. Also didn't have any trouble extracting the Movie Library....

[TheDudster]

I've got it working on Vista64 all with free codecs (I use the MPC-HC's MPEG Splitter (32bit) as mentioned on page 1, works fine, latest ffdshow tryout for audio and MPC H264 decoder) - only thing I have to pay for is AnyDVDHD which given I legally own all my Bluray disks, I dont think is illegal in any way.

How did you get the MPC-HC MPEG Splitter working? I downloaded it and tried installing it (using regsvr32) and it told me that MPEGSplitter.ax is incompatible with my version of windows.

Also didn't have any trouble extracting the Movie Library....

The problem I had was, when I pressed "extract all" (from windows explorer) and pointed the extraction folder to the gbpvr folder, it created a folder within gbpvr called "Movie Player 0.0.0.2" instead of just extracting the "plugins" and "skins" folders. It took me awhile to figure out that I needed to move those folders themselves to the gbpvr folder (so that "Movie Library" could be added to the "plugins" and "skins" folders)..I know this was mostly just a PEBKAC issue, mainly because this was my first time installing a plugin in gbpvr which didin't come with its own installer.

[BigMoose]

I've discovered that if you put the .ax files in the system32 folder it will not let you register them for love nor money, but if you put them somewhere random (in my case I just created C:\filters) they register fine. Took me ages of getting very annoyed with 32bit filters before I happened to stumble on this. The download site lets you download individual filter files, but I guess you have the .ax anyway.

[whurlston]

"MediaSplitter" is not the MPC-HC demuxer. "MpegSplitter.ax" is the filename of the MPC-HC demuxer. The latest build can be downloaded at http://www.xvidvideo.ru/content/view/630/1/ (Make sure you donload the "x86" version.

I never recommend codec packs like the k-lite. They can cause a lot of issues.

A good place to place extra filters is the "Devnz\GBPVR\Third Party" folder if you have UAC turned off, if you don't then I would place them in a user folder like Downloads.

[TheDudster]

"MediaSplitter" is not the MPC-HC demuxer. "MpegSplitter.ax" is the filename of the MPC-HC demuxer. The latest build can be downloaded at http://www.xvidvideo.ru/content/view/630/1/ (Make sure you donload the "x86" version.

Thanks whurlston! That is, of course, what I meant to say.

Right now I'm satisfied with the Archsoft solution. However, if it stops working, I now know where to find a good (free) demuxer.

I think you might want to consider editing your guide at the start of this thread (and the other thread on your movie player plugin) to mention some of these issues that I came across.

[whurlston]

- The Haali issue is most likely due to having the k-lite (or equivalent) codec pack installed.

Many users have installed Haali without installing codec packs so I referenced Haali in the instructions as generically as possible.

- You need to install the NEWEST ffdshow (the daily alpha builds) to get ffdshow to handle TrueHD and DTS-HD (beta 6 does NOT work).

I did specify the minimum build number that needed to be installed.

- Total Media 3.5 does NOT work!

I did say it might work. The TM 3.5 version included with my HDHomeRun worked. I'll test the standard TM 3.5 installation.

- MediaSplitter is NOT compatible with Vista (both x86 and x64 I believe).

It is compatible with Vista but you need to install the x86 version (even if you are running Vista x64) for use in GBPVR because it is a 32 bit program. I have all Vista machines and have never used Bluray or the MPC filters on anything but Vista.

- When extracting Movie Library, if you are using Windows' built in unzipper, make sure you don't just "extract" to the gbpvr folder. You need, specifically, to extract the "plugins" folder and the "skins" folder located in the zip file to to the gbpvr folder so that the Movie Library is installed in the correct location (this took me awhile to figure out). Also, if you are using a different skin than "blue" (like the community skin) you need to go into "skins\blue\" and copy the "MovieLibrary" folder into the folder for whichever other skin you are using (such as "skins\community\"). Movie Library crashed on me SOO many times until I figured out that this was what was causing the "null pointer exception".

The plugin is a very alpha, so I'm not going to spend much time on the instructions for it at this point. There are going to be many bugs in it. The final version will include an installer and better instructions but it has a long way to go before then.

[dalabera]

I dont' have a blue ray drive yet, but if anyone is installing one on XP make sure you have the UDF 2.5 driver. You can use this one, that allows me to open ISO blue ray files on my htpc.

[whurlston]

Quick heads up guys. The latest MPC-HC Mpeg Splitter will handle seamless branched titles. If you load open the .mpls file, it will play all the the video files seamlessly.

Still playing with it before I update the instructions but it looks pretty sweet so far.