Can a Anydvd rip actually be bad and cause skipping?

[AndyD]

I'm trying to figure out why some of my blurays when streaming are not playing back properly. Keep getting stutters throughout playback for some movies. Same movies play perfectly off of the disc.

1. I don't think it's a bandwidth issue. I've got my mediasmart server and htpc hooked up to a Gigabit switch. Confirmed that both have gigabit in properties and speed tests show at least 50mb/s between the two

2. Fellowship of the Ring - I had a lot of issues with this one but I re-ripped and now seems to be ok? I haven't watched the entire movie though but parts where it would definitely skip are no longer skipping. Doesn't make sense to me that the rerip would help

3. Task Manager on both systems show no signs of there being performance issues

Anyone know if streaming in general can be an issue? I'm using Mediabrowser to load the movie into TMT3 using file structure as opposed to ISO. Initially the movies I ripped were all ok but now not sure what is going on what some movies.

[redwudz]

What are you using for a video card? Is DXVA enabled? You can use this DXVA checker program to see: http://bluesky23.hp.infoseek.co.jp/

I stream BDs and MKVs from my servers with no problems. I have a Gigabit LAN, but I have been able to stream to my WDTV live even with a wireless G connection, though I normally use the wired LAN. I use TMT3 for my PCs. But even VLC can playback the MKV or the .m2ts files from the decrypted BD discs or the servers.

Some BDs are especially hard to rip and convert. Usually the newer ones, though. For the problem ones, I rip to the PC hard drive, then use tsMuxeR to select the correct tracks, then RipBot to convert to MKV. I think the problems I've had are mostly with the BD file structure, not the AnyDVD rip.

About all I can suggest is to play one of the problem files locally from your PC HDD and then stream the same one over your system to rule out any LAN problems. But it sounds more like a playback issue than a server/LAN issue.

I'd also check the problem files with MediaInfo, tree view. You may find something different in the file info compared to the files that work properly.

[AndyD]

I tried that on my main pc but I can't see where it would say that DXVA is enabled. FYI - video card is a ATI 4300 Mobility card but I don't think this is a video card issue considering the fact that the disc plays just fine

I want to actually back up my discs with full menus for now but I'm not sure now whether ISOs made more sense

One thing though - I just re-ripped (still folder structure) )Tropic Thunder to see if it would make a difference and it has. I don't know if this is coincidental but I'm not getting any skipping.

[fritzi93]

I've had occasional trouble with "bad" Blu-Ray rips, sometimes ex-rentals I've bought, sometimes it's the audio on new discs.

For the former, it's usually just a dirty disc, as Blu-Rays are more resistant to scratching than DVDs. Careful cleaning and a re-rip fixes the problem most times. For the few times it's happened, though, I was in no doubt about it, as the file transfer would hang.

For the latter, it's usually the decoder used in conversion that's at fault. For example, libavcodec used in decoding True-HD or DTS-MA. You can correct that with eac3to using one of the GUIs available, ClownBD being the easiest. EAC3TO will look for a suitable True-HD or DTS-MA decoder (ArcSoft, Sonic) and, having to fall back on libavcodec, will explicitly tell you it cannot decode all the information in the audio stream. It may also warn about "sync byte missing" or "sync discontinuity". But you can output to AC3 and the audio will be okay. The upshot is that for *some* discs, re-encoding directly from a full-disc rip with BDRB or AVCHDCoder *may* produce an out-of-sync result. You can avoid that with a movie-only rip using ClownBD, etc., re-encoding the audio. If you have the latest ArcSoft or Sonic decoders ($), you're okay.

Now, I do BD 5/9, so re-encoding the audio is necessary. AFAIK, if you burn directly to BD25/50, or re-encode to BD 25 and don't re-encode the audio, the problem doesn't arise. Likewise if there's no re-encoding at all, i.e. you're just playing the ripped file, which it seems you're doing.

My reading of your posts, however, makes me doubt that you have a "ripping" issue. I'm thinking Redwudz is on the right track.

[AndyD]

The audio issue would only apply to external players right? eac3to would not effect TMT3?

The only thing that bothers me is that re ripping seems to fix the issue. If it's not that, then it may be one of the drives that is causing the hiccups? What I mean is that my WHS will spread files over different drives that are mounted as one drive. Perhaps when I re upload the re rip to the server the main part of the film ends up on a different drive? Not sure how that would effect playback but it's the only other thing I can think of besides TMT3 or the drivers being the issue. I tried rolling back to previous drivers and that didn't help. Won't roll back TMT3 - I'll just wait for the next update to see if that resolves anything.