Mediabrowser running on customised VMC....

wizbongre.....pretty much exactly the path i followed tbh.

I used to stream to my 360 ( or attempt to ) and was always frustrated by lack of file compatability , and the noise of the 360 whirring away didnt help either.

So I bit the bullet and built an HTPC......my original build cost my about £300.....so its not that costly a deal. Since then ive expanded the setup a bit , as when i built myself a new main PC , i relocated my old one to the loft , put a bunch of 1TB disks in over time , and arrive where I am today. All my data is on the loft 'server' providing it to 3 HTPC's ( lounge , daughters room and bedroom ) and they all play anything you can throw at them, and look stunning to boot.
Frustrated is the word!! I think I've tried every possible thing to get it working, with the exception of re-encoding ripped films/episodes as I don't see why I should have to do this. Why can't MS just make the 360 support different codecs - I genuinely don't understand why they have to be so stupid about it all!

I've probably got enough spare PC parts kicking about that I could make something usable as a HTPC right now but would need to get it into a HTPC case that the girlfriend approves of! I have a feeling it's the only way forward and has been on the cards for ages. I spent ages last year running Cat5E around the house in preparation... I had a big server up in the loft for a while for this purpose running XP MCE for a while but was so cheesed off with the 360 not playing anything it got retired. So I have enough disc space kicking about to maybe build a FreeNas based system as well.

Just a quick question regarding MakeMKV. I'm running Vista x64 and loaded it but it doesn't recognise my dvd writer. Does it have a problem with sata connected dvd writers or is it x64 related? Had a look on the forms but didn't see anything related to it.
Mine works ok with my SATA DVD drives so don't think it is that?

don't have an XBox or any extenders, but a collegeague at work does, so I am not totally qualified to answer this.

But my understanding was that all his video files (whether ripped from an original DVD or not) are converted to DVRMS format (Using VideoReDo) so that they will play on his XBox 360.
Thanks m4rky - I'll look into that as a last resort before HTPC build time. The only thing that has stopped me going down this route is the amount of time involved in getting a DVD from it's case to a usable file on the PC that you can watch - re-encoding probably takes ages! Plus, and this is the most important thing for me, there is a potential for quality to drop.
 
Anyone know if this will work for all my "dvd library" movies ripped to vobs within VMC???, just a pointer.....dont really want to start mucking around just yet.

Are they in the usual Video_TS and Audio_TS folders with all the usual .ifo's that are created when ripping a DVD ? If they are then you'll be ok. I spent a weekend converting most of my DVD's with cloneDVD to this standard ripped format and they work perfectly well in MediaBrowser.
 
Groove, they are ripped to one folder per movie with several vobs and info files, will drag a shortcut over to media browser and give it a whirl, cheers.
 
Are they in the usual Video_TS and Audio_TS folders with all the usual .ifo's that are created when ripping a DVD ? If they are then you'll be ok. I spent a weekend converting most of my DVD's with cloneDVD to this standard ripped format and they work perfectly well in MediaBrowser.
Just to back up what groove has said - it works fine with full length DVD's in standard Video_TS and Audio_TS folders full of .VOB files. this is how I started out messing with this software last week.

It doesn't on the other hand cope with DVD rips of TV shows in this format as there is no easy way to identify which VOB's related to which episode.

I've just downloaded the trial of VideoReDo to see how it goes. It manages to convert a 40 minute episode of Lost from raw VOB to DVR-MS format in less than a minute which is a lot better than I thought, and there doesn't appear to be any noticable quality loss. So I was getting all excited that maybe I'd found a solution but then noticed I was only getting analoge stereo sound - not the 5.1 DD soundtrack I would expect - playing on my Xbox360 extender. I'm not sure what is causing this - is it a limitation of the 360, VMC, or the conversion performed in VideoReDo? Will have to have a proper play but it's a step forward for others who might want to use this with their 360 and aren't as anal as me about quality and sound!
 
Groove, they work as you thought but slight problem i have is the chapters which used to have info on them whilst scrolling through only display chapter number.

Hmmmm.............do i need to update .xml file or replace it with something else??

Ta.
 
Tried to use metabrowser to update ripped dvd folders but it does not find the folders despite being pointed to the correct location.

Do i need to change the file extensions or folder type????

I am lost....:mad:

Kept trying still comes up no media found???
 
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I've just downloaded the trial of VideoReDo to see how it goes. It manages to convert a 40 minute episode of Lost from raw VOB to DVR-MS format in less than a minute which is a lot better than I thought, and there doesn't appear to be any noticable quality loss.
I am a noob. :rotfl: The reason it was so fast is because the trial version is limited to only 10minutes of output. Just got a trial key to remove that limitation and it has actually taken about 4 minutes to rip an episode of Lost. Still more than manageable and not any slower than using any of the other methods Ive tried. I've had a tinker with the audio preferences as well and managed to ensure that the rip has the original DD 5.1 soundtrack - just need to go and see if the 360 can see that.
 
Ooooh....sounds promising wizbongre......

Groove, they work as you thought but slight problem i have is the chapters which used to have info on them whilst scrolling through only display chapter number.

hmmm.....can't say i've really tested this, when you say scrolling through how do you mean ?
 
Skipping through chapters used to give me chapter title and number, now only number but its all good.

Got the metabrowser working with other folders just had to add .vob to file extensions, how stupid am i!!!!

Cheers again.
 
Ooooh....sounds promising wizbongre......
Yes, very promising. Would have been even better if I wasn't an uber-noob. There wasn't a problem with the DD 5.1 soundtrack - there was a problem with me and my new amp in that the Xbox360 was assigned to stereo analog inputs and not the proper optical connection! :rotfl:

Plus, my new AV200 Devolo Homeplugs have just been delivered so my 360 now has proper bandwidth to the VMC machine.

Result? I've just watched a bit of Lost Season 4 Episode 1 with perfect picture quality and full 5.1 surround via a pretty stunning interface on my Xbox 360 :)

Well chuffed. :thumbsup:

p.s. I'm still having a few smaller issues with VideoReDo in that for episodes 2 and 3 of Lost it ripped the Spanish language track. Not sure why or if I can fix it or not as I can't seem to select the correct audio stream. Still, it's a big step forward and at least means I can get a lot of my movies on my PC as I'd originally planned.
 
Ahh good point DB.......something to add to our instructions !!

wizbongre.......nice one fella, Im tempted to have a play with my 360 now...just you know...to see what it looks like :smashin:
 
Just to back up what groove has said - it works fine with full length DVD's in standard Video_TS and Audio_TS folders full of .VOB files. this is how I started out messing with this software last week.

It doesn't on the other hand cope with DVD rips of TV shows in this format as there is no easy way to identify which VOB's related to which episode.

I've just downloaded the trial of VideoReDo to see how it goes. It manages to convert a 40 minute episode of Lost from raw VOB to DVR-MS format in less than a minute which is a lot better than I thought, and there doesn't appear to be any noticable quality loss. So I was getting all excited that maybe I'd found a solution but then noticed I was only getting analoge stereo sound - not the 5.1 DD soundtrack I would expect - playing on my Xbox360 extender. I'm not sure what is causing this - is it a limitation of the 360, VMC, or the conversion performed in VideoReDo? Will have to have a proper play but it's a step forward for others who might want to use this with their 360 and aren't as anal as me about quality and sound!

Cheers for that pointer regarding VideoReDo, I'm emarking on a quest to convert 300 DVDs to DVR-MS with 5.1 and no loss in PQ or AQ! :clap:

Now I can ditch Transcode 360 and just use this to convert my DVD as the DVR-MS is played natively on my MCE Extenders! Yahoo!!!!!
 
hi, can music be played through media browser? I have it installed running vanilla and its amazing!

If it cant could someone point me in th eright direction? thanks
 
hi, can music be played through media browser? I have it installed running vanilla and its amazing!

If it cant could someone point me in th eright direction? thanks

No it can't. Would be nice if it could though :rolleyes:

I just use the standard Vista Media Centre Music stuff.
Looks nice enough with the album wall etc.
I have always been very happy with the way Media Player treats music and the standard VMC stuff is just Media Player.
 
Cheers for that pointer regarding VideoReDo, I'm emarking on a quest to convert 300 DVDs to DVR-MS with 5.1 and no loss in PQ or AQ! :clap:

Now I can ditch Transcode 360 and just use this to convert my DVD as the DVR-MS is played natively on my MCE Extenders! Yahoo!!!!!
You surely can :thumbsup:

I've just ripped 3 films and a few different episodes from various seasons of Lost (basically the first DVD's I found!)

After playing around with VideoReDo I've got it all working exactly as I want it. Here's a mini-guide to how I've got mine working as there are loads of settings but the following appears to work A-ok:-

  1. Open VideoReDo before inserting your DVD else it will autoplay in VMC - d'oh!
  2. Open the settings for VideoReDo (Tools->Options)
    1. General parameters - change Default file save format to dvr-ms
    2. Stream parameters - Set Ignore transport stream maps (I'm pretty sure this was my audio stream problem as I can now select whatever stream I want); Encode quality = High
    3. File Types - should be set up when you launch the appplication for the first time, ensure you tell it you want to work with .DVR-MS files!
    4. Audio Alerts - Set Upon output completion play sound to Never else it's annoying ;)
    5. MCE / dvr-ms output - I have all boxes unchecked and all fields cleared on this page. Not sure how that will pan out but it works for now!
  3. Insert your DVD to rip
  4. Select the correct title to rip
    1. Go to menu option File->Open Title From a DVD
    2. Select the DVD drive and hit OK
    3. It will automatically select the biggest title which with films is typically the feature. With TV shows you will likely have a number of large titles which appear to be numbered according to their episode number, named something like "VTS_01 - PGC 1", "VTS_02 - PGC 1" etc... Select the title you want to rip and also use the drop down at the bottom to choose which audio stream to rip with it - typically 0x80 is the "best" English stream. Hit OK.
  5. Once the title is loaded go to menu path Tools->QuickStream Fix...
    1. Press Select Stream... and ensure the stream you want is selected. NOTE: When you first open the title in step 4-3 above you can see what language and type the audio is for each stream whereas at this point you can't so try to remember ;) Hit OK.
    2. I have been setting Enable Filters as true and leaving the default values in the pop up - not sure what difference it makes yet!
    3. Leave the Input Stream box as default and click on the "..." button next to the Output Stream box. Browse to your desired folder; laugh as the software has ignored your default Save-As setting from before and change it to DVR-MS; set the filename accordingly - Reservoir Dogs.dvr-ms for a film or Lost.S04E02.dvr-ms for a show episode for example.
    4. Click on Start Quick Fix and let it run.
Once complete, you should have a nice file you can play both via VMC on your PC and also on your extenders. :thumbsup:
 
wizbongre.......nice one fella, Im tempted to have a play with my 360 now...just you know...to see what it looks like :smashin:
You know it makes sense ;) Just make sure you get a trial key for VideoReDo else you'll only get 10mins of each rip and wonder how it's managed to get the quality the same for a file so small... Then you'll feel stupid for asking stupid questions on a public forum about it... Or was that just me?!
 
Figured out what happened. I'm running Win 7 off a Drive labelled K: and thats where I put the dll but I guess theres something in Mediabrowser to look in system32 on the C: drive which is where my vista install is. Once I dropped it in there all the info started coming up.

Anybody know if theres a way to have a desktop shortcut that opens Mediabrowser directly? I don't use any of the other media center features so it would be nice to have one less button to click.

Found the answer to my question again. If anyone wants a desktop shortcut to directly open MB use this path.
%SystemRoot%\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{CE32C570-4BEC-4aeb-AD1D-CF47B91DE0B2}\{FC9ABCCC-36CB-47ac-8BAB-03E8EF5F6F22}

*source Media Browser BBS • View topic - Launch Video Browser automatically when MCE start
 
It should work on 64-bit. Is this your issue??



Tell her to go shopping after the hair and you'll get yourself another few hours :)

Too late! She called me back within 2 hours :(

I don't get any error messages when I start the programme, it just says in the box that no drives were detected. I am using AHCI though so that's probably it. Not gonna bother changing it just for this though. Thanks for the pointer.
 
I've got the Mediabrowser installed & it looks great -My thanks to Groove for the heads-up!

Guys help!
I think I am missing something obvious, I can not get either mediascout0.9beta2 & 2a to work.
I have mediascout0.9beta1 working & I have successfully looked up all my ripped DVD's artwork, But now I am desperate for the backdrop image you get from the newer versions.

From googling I found out that you need to extract the downloaded zip file to a folder, and that is how I got the beta1 to work.
When I try doing this with 2 or 2a ones it just comes up with an stop error & that is it!

Anyone know where I am going wrong?
 
I've got the Mediabrowser installed & it looks great -My thanks to Groove for the heads-up!

Guys help!
I think I am missing something obvious, I can not get either mediascout0.9beta2 & 2a to work.
I have mediascout0.9beta1 working & I have successfully looked up all my ripped DVD's artwork, But now I am desperate for the backdrop image you get from the newer versions.

From googling I found out that you need to extract the downloaded zip file to a folder, and that is how I got the beta1 to work.
When I try doing this with 2 or 2a ones it just comes up with an stop error & that is it!

Anyone know where I am going wrong?

Not sure, you might want to try downloading the package again, although if it unzipped without any errors it should be ok. Does it run off .Net framework? maybe it needs an update.

btw i'm running beta2a on Win7 without issues.
 
These any good to you ?

Had photoshop open so i just knocked em up real quick

Ive added them to the genres.rar on my SKYDRIVE

Hi, thanks alot i got the tv series logo to match the movies one now, thanks alot finally got it all set up, wondering if you could do logo for logo that said others to match these two ??

Thanks for being so helpfull, i tried Mediaportal and found it so buggy crashed etc but loved the look of it when selecting movies which what a media center should look like, i was just using vista but now it looks great
 
Cheers for the reply, I have several downloads of each beta version I don't think its a corrupt download -they all do the same "mediascout has stopped running" error...

I assume you just extracted the Zip to a folder then it just worked?
 

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