PC CLient and MPV w/DVD

[haarvik]

Ok, I have 2 issues.

1. My server is a true server (not homemade). It is an IBM Xserver. I do not - repeat DO NOT have a DVD drive in this server. I do NOT have a DVB card. All I use this software for is viewing recordings, period. I have everything configured, and I have intervideo windvd installed. However, on the MVP client I get no DVD menu option. So how do I playback DVD's? I have the DVD tab configured to use my hard drive as the DVD drive.

2. I have a PC client I have set to do streaming. However, none of my server configs show up in the client. I don't get the display of my plugins like I do on the MVP. Does the PC client not load the dongle.bin from the server? Shouldn;t the pc client look identical to the MVP?

[sub]

1. My server is a true server (not homemade). It is an IBM Xserver. I do not - repeat DO NOT have a DVD drive in this server. I do NOT have a DVB card. All I use this software for is viewing recordings, period. I have everything configured, and I have intervideo windvd installed. However, on the MVP client I get no DVD menu option. So how do I playback DVD's? I have the DVD tab configured to use my hard drive as the DVD drive.

The MVP cant play DVDs so it doesnt show any DVD menu option.

2. I have a PC client I have set to do streaming. However, none of my server configs show up in the client. I don't get the display of my plugins like I do on the MVP. Does the PC client not load the dongle.bin from the server? Shouldn;t the pc client look identical to the MVP?

PC clients work quite differently to the MVP. On a PC client its more like a full independent install which happens to reuse the recording database from the server machine. If you want any plugins you'd need to install them locally on the client.

[haarvik]

So how do I get my DVD's top play on the client? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having the client?

[sub]

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having the client?

No, definitely not. The vast majority of people here want to record TV and watch it later. The MVP is well suited to this task, giving nice cheap clients that can be connected around the house.

If you need to play DVDs, the Popcorn Hour would have been a better client for you to buy. It can play DVDs that you've ripped to a hard drive, giving full DVD menus etc. It might also be able directly from a shared DVD drive if you have SlySofts AnyDVD installed (to remove encryption), but I havnt tested this myself. ... or you can use a PC client.

[haarvik]

Ok, so how do I convert my DVD's so I CAN view them on my MVP?

[sub]

The MVP hardware only plays MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MP3 files. The hardware is not designed for playing DVDs. So if you wanted to play your DVDs on your MVP you'd need to find some third party software to rip your DVDs to .mpg files (with MPEG2 video and MPEG1 Layer 2 audio). I've never done it myself, so couldnt tell you what software would do this for you.

[martint123]

If you rip your DVD to disk then VideoRedo I think will let you join the VOB files together to make one large MPG file that I think will work with the MVP.

You lose all chapters and things though.

[sub]

If you rip your DVD to disk then VideoRedo I think will let you join the VOB files together to make one large MPG file that I think will work with the MVP.

I suspect you'd need to more than that. You'd need to transcode to get rid of the AC3 audio.

[martint123]

I suspect you'd need to more than that. You'd need to transcode to get rid of the AC3 audio.

Ooops, true - my failing memory. It was quite a time since I had to do it for the MVP - life is so much easier (in some areas) with PCH/NMT devices.

[HtV]

I just found this out the "hard" way. I tested videoredo and mpeg_streamclip to convert a dvd to mpg. I just clicked a few times and everything seemed fine, till I found out the sync was bad on the mvp. I tried several things (remux etc), but nothing helped.
Then I found out the mpg I had made had AC3 audio. The mvp with the mvpmc dongle played it, but as Martin V. has said several times it will loose sync quickly. So it took me a few hrs to find out what I already knew.:o
Well it was a christmas-day well spent.

Hans