No video -BD rips in .wmv

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cKuR6

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No video -BD rips in .wmv

#1

Post by cKuR6 » Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:00 pm

I’ve read a bunch of threads and google searches. Everyone has their own ways, and most of these threads just end up in an argument between Pro’s, in language a noob can’t grasp.

I’m looking to rip BD’s to view on extenders (echo’s). I want the minimalist option. If I have to spend a few bucks, for ease of rip, quality, and wmc integration, I’m fine with that. I’m also fine with doing a little work, if it’s reliable, free, and good quality. Least possible software, codec, splitter addition preferred. Just adding MyMovies has already caused new glitching. I don’t really care what format I use, as long as my rips are BD quality and my sound is 5.1.

What I’ve done is rip two test movies via PavTube, to a shared folder on the HTPC, in .WMV (One is AVC1 and the other is WMC3. Both are AC3.) In my reading, I found PavTube to claim .WMV was the answer because it was natively supported, and bd quality. On My HTPC, it looks great, so I tend to believe that part….. however,

What I have:
LG Blu Ray Drive
WMC 7 x64
Recorded TV HD
My Movies
PavTube Trial Version
Echo’s running on MoCA (Channel Master devices)

What works:
I use WMC for Recorded TV, Live Tv, Ripped DVD’s, Music, Pictures, and Home videos.
I can see the ripped BD’s in Windows Explorer.
I can watch the ripped BD’s with WMC via right click, open with WMC, on the HTPC.
BD Rips show up in MyMovies

What does not work:
BD Rips do not show up in WMC Movies, Videos Library, or Recorded TV HD Movies section. (Yes, I’ve added the folders to the libraries.)
On extender, in MyMovies: e
When playing one movie (Guardians of the Galaxy), I click play, screen goes black, and sound is audible. Never obtains video.
When playing the other (Mocking Jay part 1), I click play, a pop up appears asking Blu Ray or DVD:
Blu Ray choice results in pop up telling me to insert disc.
DVD choice results in same situation as Guardians of the Galaxy, black screen with sound.


Optionals: I'd like to be able to rwd, ffwd, paus, skip scenes. I'd like to have the option to include extras. Menus, extended cuts, games, etc.

cKuR6

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#2

Post by cKuR6 » Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:15 am

Ill add, I've read the threads reporting the issues with echos and moca. I've tested this on one of my ethernet connected echos.
I have tv coax signal issues,but my network is sound.

cKuR6

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#3

Post by cKuR6 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:24 pm

Alright, let's take another shot here.... maybe this will be like my echo black screen thread. I'll post to myself for awhile, and then the problem will just resolve itself! :thumbup:

I am still googling, coming up with..... nada

Bare bones question:

At my extender, why is my .wmv file (WMC3 & AVC1, AC3) playing only sound, no video?


edit, I assumed, if WMC will play, then the extender which is reported to not "handle" anything, but only extends the PC, would play it. However, I've found:
Echo•Video formats supported: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264
So, I'll try to convert to H.264. I'd still really enjoy a point in a direction at least.
Last edited by cKuR6 on Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mdavej

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#4

Post by mdavej » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:36 pm

You're probably not getting sound because of licensing issues. Ripping to MKV avoids all of that.

I never rip BD's myself, but I do play rips others have done. From what I've read, most rip them to MKV and run LAV or Shark to enable playback on WMC and extenders without issue. I would forget about WMV if I were you and use MKV. Your files will be a lot smaller and more portable too.

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#5

Post by cKuR6 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:48 pm

I am ONLY getting sound.

If MKV is the way only way to go, which I've read is not reasonable to stream to the Echo..... then I will put together a plan and post back for feedback. I don't want to intall 5 things testing. There's enough people who've done this, someone has to know exactly what the minimal need is. Like I said, every thread I've found with promise, just ends in a bunch of bickering, without a concise answer.

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#6

Post by mdavej » Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:59 pm

I've only done part of what you're trying to do. But what I have done is stream mkv to Echo. I don't know why it would be a problem. Do those other threads go into detail?

EDIT: Looks like I'm not the only one who plays mkv on Echo:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =69&t=5337

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#7

Post by cKuR6 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:25 pm

Ok then, thanks. I'll shoot for mkv, if installing shark doesn't work for getting Video. BUT now I won't get any help when things go wrong. Any codec installs seem to run the pro's away from problem threads!

That thread you linked is not one I ran across..... I have read multiples here, windows, and AVS. No specifics, per se, just mentions of inability to stream the files at BD quality, reliably, at the speeds possible with the device. I know I could rip down to a lesser quality, but if that's the only option then I'll just return the BD drive and buy more BD players at the tv's. I want BD's, not crappy dvd.

I found another thread with some ideas. Looks like the only way I'm going to get this done is with codecs & splitters. I used .wmv, because the claim was it was supported natively.... and would play in wmc without changes / additions.
Post #6: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 573#p58573

what is in your .mkv's ?

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#8

Post by cKuR6 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:30 pm

edit to add... we're back at square one.... from your link:
This does not allow playback of all mkv rips. In fact most of mine play exactly the same. I have noticed a little bit of an improvement on the low bit rate small file sized mkv's that I do have, but Blu-ray rips.. Forgetaboutit!

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#9

Post by mdavej » Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:44 pm

Use lower bitrates then. The alternative is no video at all. I have no problems. Ripping to WMV must result in incredibly huge files. Wouldn't you rather take a more efficient approach?

The mkv codecs and splitters are all free and install with the click of a mouse. It's very simple.

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#10

Post by cKuR6 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:50 pm

I have 2 requirements: BD video and sound.
Efficiency is irrelevant in this case. As long as it works, and meets these two requirements, that's all that matters.

To specifically answer your question, no I don't want to be more efficient, if it means i'm not streaming Blu Rays. Like I said, if this is impossible, with BD quality, then I can just return the drive and get BD players. I am trying to be more efficient, by using the equipment I already possess, and store my media digitally. That's efficient. It's plain nuts to invest in BD's, and then play them in DVD quality.

Additionally, as I previously stated, I'm not concerned with simplicity. I'll take the simple or hard, cheap or costly route, if it gets me to the goal. I appreciate if you're trying to help, but it seems as if you have not really tried to understand my question and this is just turning into another irrelevant thread......

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#11

Post by mdavej » Fri Mar 13, 2015 9:23 pm

Since you're using Echoes, I assumed perfect quality wasn't a priority. Since it is, I don't think it's possible to do what you want to do with an Echo. I want top quality on my main TV too. But for the 32" or 42" in other rooms where I use Echoes, it's not that critical. I'd rather have something that works ok rather than something that doesn't work at all. I can stream slightly lower bitrate 1080p (far better than DVD quality) on my Echoes today. It isn't perfect, but it's very good and quite sufficient for the remote screens my Echoes use. Just trying to suggest a simple solution that seems to work for me and others. I imagine a 10GB MKV can be about the same quality as a 50GB WMV. If I could increase my available storage by that amount with virtually no drop in quality, I would.

I only posted in the first place because nobody else would. I'll stop talking now.

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#12

Post by Ed  » Fri Mar 13, 2015 9:44 pm

No WMC extender is going to give you 1:1 BR quality playback. You will either need to transcode/re-encode due to video bitrate, audio format/bitrate or subtitle format; or any combination of.

If you will only suffice for 1:1 quality, give up on the idea of using WMC extenders entirely. You will either will need computers at each TV to playback the 1:1 files over the network; or use BR players with the actual discs at each TV. Your choice.

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TheOsburnFamil

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#13

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Fri Mar 13, 2015 11:28 pm

Using DVDFAB I have personally ripped over 200 of my blurays. I have many extenders so my requirements were very similar to the OP. Because per the official documented specs of the Xbox the wmv container was going to provide the highest officially supported bitrate that include 5.1 audio. So I use wmv, wmv3 at 15MB constant bitrate, 1080p, and wma 5.1 audio with forced subs burned into the video. Takes a lot longer than ripping mpeg2 but it's the best most reliable highest quality I could reliably get working with extenders. Ff rw skip resume. Worth thinking about.
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

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#14

Post by cKuR6 » Sat Mar 14, 2015 4:07 am

Maybe I'm not understanding the 1:1 thing. Ill do some searches on that subject to remove my ignorance.
Dave, I do appreciate you trying to help, but you have to be able to see my frustration. You had my needs backwards, then link me to a thread saying its the answer, which says its impossible to do. I don't see any issue with echo quality. I have an awesome pic at all tv's. blows my old cable co boxes out of the water, and I don't see any less quality than the few times I've hooked the actual PC up.
I originally planned to do pc's, but TWC keeps that from being feasible. I needed a total home Dvr, and I have it, with good quality.


I had read that wmv was the only container for bd quality, 5.1 rips at extenders. It sounds as if that's possible. Osburn, do you have a codec pack installed? Did you ever have my issue? Audio only? I've created another restore point. Going to give shark a shot tomorrow.
Ill check out DVD fab. It was definitely a slow process. GotG ran all night.

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#15

Post by mdavej » Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:10 pm

Understood. I have a lot of Echoes too. They're great for wtv files, but struggle with others. BD files are much higher bitrate than wtv files. It simply doesn't have the horsepower to handle full BD quality. So to make it work, you've got to compromise, and cut back the quality a bit, until you find the sweet spot that's playable on Echo. If I play what looks like Netflix quality BD rips in mkv, still looks great and plays smoothly. Never tried wmv, so Osburn can hopefully help you out there.

Should be do-able, but will never be 100% as good as the original BD.

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#16

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:24 pm

Sorry for the delay--
As mentioned, I went with WMV because it was the only one that actually had official Microsoft provided documentation on a supported format with the highest bitrate possible (15MB). You could go the route of mp4 (using h264) or even wtv/dvr-ms (using mpeg2) as many others have done; however, because there was never any official documents on the max supported bitrate that could exceed the WMV 15-- I saw many folks post various results on their experience.

Here's a MediaInfo Output of one of my Bluray rips you can use as reference. It was done with DVDFab using the WMV option. Constant Bitrate set to 15MB and WMA audio at 5.1 with any subtitles burned into the video. Every video done this way plays on all my extenders flawlessly every time and allow for FF, RW, SKIP, and RESUME (even RESUME many days later after doing lots of other stuff).

To be clear-- it's still NOT as good as a native bluray. Most have variable bitrates in the 20+MB range. And it also takes a decent machine to transcode since it's WMV/WMA. But if you can be okay with the conversion time in-order to get the best possible quality that works perfect on Extenders-- then that's the best I've ever found anyone can get.

General
Complete name : \\MEDIACENTER\Bluray\Movies\Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 (2011)\Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 (2011).wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 10.6 GiB
Duration : 2h 10mn
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 11.6 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 15.4 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-11-13 15:31:40.548
MediaFoundationVersion : 2.112

Video
ID : 1
Format : VC-1
Format profile : Simple
Codec ID : WMV3
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint : WMV3
Duration : 2h 10mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 15.0 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.407
Stream size : 13.7 GiB
Language : English (US)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : WMA
Format profile : Pro
Codec ID : 162
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 10 Professional - 384 kbps, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 16 bit 1-pass CBR
Duration : 2h 10mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 358 MiB (3%)
Language : English (US)
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

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#17

Post by cKuR6 » Tue Mar 17, 2015 12:56 pm

Ok, thanks for the info. Guess I'll give DVDFab a shot. I'm assuming since you didn't state it, that you don't have any codec packs installed? I am confused why my rips wouldn't work then, since I have vc1 in .wmv container, which is exactly what you've suggested above.

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#18

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:07 pm

cKuR6 wrote:Ok, thanks for the info. Guess I'll give DVDFab a shot. I'm assuming since you didn't state it, that you don't have any codec packs installed? I am confused why my rips wouldn't work then, since I have vc1 in .wmv container, which is exactly what you've suggested above.
Correct-- no codec packs are required for this to work. HOWEVER, I do have ffdshow & haali mkv installed for other reasons but again, I could build a clean Win7 WMC PC, add an extender, but not install ANYTHING ELSE and these rips would all work just fine.
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

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#19

Post by cKuR6 » Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:31 pm

strange... guess I'm back at square one.... I really do not want to add anything, which is why I went this route. However, I get no video from the wmv container, with either VC1 or WMC3.

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#20

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Wed Mar 18, 2015 3:47 pm

Strange indeed. I don't need anything other than the Windows OS for my WMVs to play.

Out of curiosity-- can you open one of the wmv's up in something like GraphEdit to see how it's getting rendered?
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

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