MovieWiz - Play DVD Directories RFI

[JavaWiz]

Several users have asked if MovieWiz could play DVDs that have been ripped to the HD. I am looking at adding this feature, but (mostly due to lack of disk space) have never tried putting a DVD on my hard drive. I have quickly learned, it is not as easy as copying the directories to the HD.

I've stumbled on DVD Shrink, which seems to be able to copy the DVD into the proper directory structure on the HD.

As I develop this feature, I want to make sure I'm not totally off track...

• For those of you looking for this functionality, is DVD Shrink a reasonable way to get the DVD image locally?
  
• Are there other formats/methods I should be aware of?

[Dan Soussi]

Hi,

I'm looking forward to including full DVD's into GBPVR via MovieWiz.

Typically, external players (e.g. VLC) can play a ripped DVD, given all the content of the VIDEO_TS DVD directory has been placed into a given directory. The ripped directory name should not be important.

Maybe a checkbox is required to indicate a directory contains DVD content?

[mkenyon2]

I was using DVD Shrink to make .isos of the DVDs, and then Movie Wiz loaded them into CD Daemon. However, this doesn't work for MVPs. I then was using DVD to MPEG (from the Video Archive plugin) which worked for most, but not all of my ISO files. (Loading them as a DVD in Daemon, and then using DVD to MPEG to convert.)

I'm guessing that's in the ballpark, but I haven't hit a home run yet.

[Dan Soussi]

Can I suggest that the method to get the DVD content onto the hard disk is outside the scope of what MovieWiz needs to achieve? There are many tools out there that assist in copying a DVD onto your hard disk.

Other formats to consider are VCD and SVCD. If required, their playability can be left to the intelligence of the external player.

[JavaWiz]

Can I suggest that the method to get the DVD content onto the hard disk is outside the scope of what MovieWiz needs to achieve? There are many tools out there that assist in copying a DVD onto your hard disk.

Other formats to consider are VCD and SVCD. If required, their playability can be left to the intelligence of the external player.

Right. I just wanted to make sure that the output DVD Shrink actually reflected they way folks would have DVDs on their HD. I think the answer is yes, it seems to be a standard format with standard directory names and file names.

[ilovejedd]

I'm just curious, what's the status on this? What type of DVD rips does it support (.ISO or VIDEO_TS folder structure)? Does it work in client mode, both PC and Popcorn Hour? Thanks!

[mrxtc89117]

I play ripped dvds from my hard drive. I have 2 - 1 terabyte hard drives on raid0 with 200 movies now. I believe Windows XP has a limit of only seeing up to 2 terabytes. After ripping the dvd, I use file2iso to make it into one file and MovieWiz plays it. Of course I have daemon tools installed.

[ilovejedd]

The 2TB limit is only for NTFS volumes on Windows XP. For network shares you can go as high as you want/can afford. I'll be storing my DVD rips on an unRAID server so the limit does not apply.

Kinda roundabout way you're going about ripping. You do know you could rip directly to ISO, right?

Now that we've established ISO DVD rips work with MovieWiz, are they playable on Popcorn Hour and PC clients?

[JavaWiz]

The 2TB limit is only for NTFS volumes on Windows XP. For network shares you can go as high as you want/can afford. I'll be storing my DVD rips on an unRAID server so the limit does not apply.

Kinda roundabout way you're going about ripping. You do know you could rip directly to ISO, right?

Now that we've established ISO DVD rips work with MovieWiz, are they playable on Popcorn Hour and PC clients?

I don't have a Popcorn Hour, but ISO and VIDEO_TS formats work on GBPVR clients just fine. I suspect they should work on the PCH as well.

[ilovejedd]

Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I needed to know.

Now, time to start ripping my DVDs. :p