i have recently started burning and ripping my own dvd's. i have used dvd shrink to rip the dvd's to my hard drive and now i would like to play them on my computer without having to burn them to a disc.
i have decided to use XBMC as my media player which i dl'ed the other day but i cant seem to get the right file path to the dvd folder. i cant set where it is because a dvd file technically has two folders one for video one for audio and i cant combine them to make one file either.
should i use a different media center or can i combine all the files from the one dvd into a playable file?
You don't need to worry about the Audio_TS folder, it is empty anyway.
I use XBMC on my XBOX, but I never tried to play a DVD folder, not sure how it handles it.You can try and play VIDEO_TS.IFO, see if it plays the entire DVD.
DVD folders should stack directly into a playable item, so you can try and play VTS_01_1.VOB. Or, for sure,the Video_TS folder that you just ripped and is on your HDD, run it through DVD Shrink again(or ImgBurn) and make an ISO which XBMC will play with no problems(it should only take a couple of minutes). Also the next time you rip a DVD, save the result as an ISO.
ohh sweet as then i thought it would be better to have it as a dvd file but if that is the case then iso all the way hahaha
i tried a whole heap of things with the video folder and it would only play the actual part you selected it to play so if i wanted it to start from the beginning then it would only play the first 2 mins or something and then the next chapter would have to be started manually. kinda lame.
another question in that case, can i burn and image file to a dvd and then watch it normally like a dvd in a dvd player?
Yes, you can burn the ISO to DVD and it will make a DVD-Video playable in a standalone DVD player.
As for the XBMC issue... I am to lazy to fire up the XBOX and play some movies I have on my external HDD. But most likely the content of the Video folder can be stacked( I thought it might be automatically) and everything will play. What player did you try? If the Windows version is the same as the one for XBOX, you should have a choice of players. Choose "DVD Player" instead of MPlayer, see if it makes any difference( I am suggesting that because, for example, VLC does not stack the content of the Video_TS automatically, whereas WMP does, so different players might give you different results).
Selecting the "VIDEO_TS IFO" file will do what you need,make sure the file is the IFO not the "VIDEO_TS MPEG"
Selecting the VIDEO_TS 1 etc will play them as individual files with breaks as one finishes & the other starts
Best bet is to convert the dvd's to AVI it'll save space,i set mine to 1.3gb per AVI unless it's a 6gb video in which case i make it 1.3gb-2.0 gb depending if i like the movie or not..lol..
Well, if we're talking about space, then I would suggest converting using X264. Even a 500MB file will look good, a 1000MB will look awesome...I do all mine using FairUse Wizard.
