Steam DVd folders from PC to Ps3/xbox360

[pcexpress911]

i am lost with the postings...

here is what i want to do...

i have a pc that has a bunch of ripped dvd movies saved on a harddrive

D:\\movies\rambo\VIDEO_TS (as an example)

in folder D:\\movies\* I have about 200 such movies... i am running vista home premium. these are native ripped dvd movies, nothing special... i figured out how to get the PS3 to see the media player share (extender) or whatever... but i can not figure out how to get the movies to seen by the device... i added the folders... i see the folder under the ps3, but when i go into the folder, there is nothing there (like it is looking for a movie file, not a standard dvd_folder with VOBs, and IFO's and the like...

can someone give me a simple point in the right direction... or is there different software that will do this easily? (if that is a limitation of media center or something?)

thanks!

[Baldrick]

I have not seen any good solution for this.

Be sure that you can play vob files using media player. And you probably have to join all vobs to one and maybe rename to mpg.

Try google for vob stream xbox 360 and you will find different solutions.

[pcexpress911]

are we the only two people that find such a thing as useful?

alternative #1, I don't really want to go this route... too much work, but is there a simple utility that will create a "movie file" that media center will recognize? Something that will take a dvd folder and convert (without encode/decode or loss of quality) to video file format? I guess a 8gb file... or is there a way to stream a dvd folder to a recognizable video file format, without creating the actual file... (so i don't have duplicate and waste of space on my hard drive)

eithe way seems like a complicated way to do something that should be easy, yes?...

just fyi, i can get media player to add local "dvd" folders locally... i just can't get the media center to make it available to other media center clients (media center, extenders like ps3, xbox, etc).. also... i use the nero player and it plays the entire movie by clicking on the .IFO file...

[RabidDog]

PS3 made by sony. DVD discs made, produced and sold by Sony.
PS3 will not play Ripped DVD discs.. How strange?
Convert using any convertor program

[pcexpress911]

its strange that there is not an easy work around via software like so many of the tools found in the tools section to do many things which if it were left up to sony would not be allowed... like dvddecrypter, and hundreds of other little apps.. ya know? ...this issue is more a function of windows media center then sony i would think... ps3 supports windows media center as extender or whatever... so if i had an xbox, i would have same issue.. the thing alos plays mp3 files and the like... it is just that media center does not serve/stream out dvd files for the implied reasons you mention... (they(microsoft/sony) have no reason to)

[FulciLives]

Just a thought but ... couldn't you use VOB2MPG to create a single MPEG file and then stream that?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[pcexpress911]

i suppose so.. 200 videos... that seems like a pain in the ...

what would be cool is something that would stream the dvd's/vob's directly in native format..

right now... we can play dvd's movies across network shares... it just seems to me that it would not be terriably difficult to either hack media center (in a nice ethical way, mind ya ) to get it to stream this OR an utility based software that could allow the dvd folder to appear as a movie file that media center could handle... otherwise one has to deal with dvd's across diffent locations in their house instead of a central location, that a streaming server would allow it seems...

i suppose one thing is to just output the video directly via a wire to the tv's... i just think it is a round about way and less convenient way to do what many out there probably would like to do... have a dvd server in their house, stream movies via media center (or something) to different locations in their house...

what did i miss?

[FulciLives]

Well I meant use VOB2MPG when you want to watch a movie via the PS3 or XboX 360 ... then when you are done watching it delete said MPEG file.

It really is just a demux and mux process so it doesn't take very long ... just a couple of minutes. Time that can be spent going to the bathroom and getting a drink and popcorn and letting the dog out etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[pcexpress911]

well i hear ya... if it was just one... i suppose this would be ok... the goal is to have an entire library of dvd's avaliable via media center to any tv in the house via media center extenders (or use a software similar to media center) some are not dvd movies, but dvd family movies, so switching between dvd's is likely..i think i have like 3T of movies... and a media server centralized and accessible in different areas of the house, would be really cool...

[dbone1]

well i hear ya... if it was just one... i suppose this would be ok... the goal is to have an entire library of dvd's avaliable via media center to any tv in the house via media center extenders (or use a software similar to media center) some are not dvd movies, but dvd family movies, so switching between dvd's is likely..i think i have like 3T of movies... and a media server centralized and accessible in different areas of the house, would be really cool...

If you don't want to convert any files, the only other options would be to get a Popcorn hour or SageTV Extender. There are plenty of other extenders out there besides PS3/Xbox360 that recognize and stream VOB files

[pcexpress911]

dbone1, please expand on your post... I am not familure with "other options" besides vista extenders... as i understand it ps3/xbox360, technically are extenders for vista media center, not really native anything ps3/xbox360 created per se...

but yea, i will check out the two you mentioned. any others? thanks much!

[dbone1]

dbone1, please expand on your post... I am not familure with "other options" besides vista extenders... as i understand it ps3/xbox360, technically are extenders for vista media center, not really native anything ps3/xbox360 created per se...

but yea, i will check out the two you mentioned. any others? thanks much!

What I was trying to point out is that PS3/XBox are not the only extenders out there. PS3 really has nothing to do with vista media center (Xbox is the only device where you even use the WMC interface). Very simply put, your PC is set up to share your media files on your network, so any device that is on your network and can access those files can play them. The issue with PS3/Xbox/AppleTV and some of the other devices out there is they limit what you can and cannot play. There are other devices out there like the PCH and SageTV extender that don't have those limitations. For intsance, if you PC is set to share media files on your network, you can hook up a PCH to your network, it will be able to access those files and play back on the tv it is hooked up to (and it can play back almost any format, including ripped dvds in original structure). Every devide out there will have pros and cons, you just need to do the research and figure out what features are the most important to you. Hope this helps.

[t0nee1]

Well I meant use VOB2MPG when you want to watch a movie via the PS3 or XboX 360 ... then when you are done watching it delete said MPEG file.

It really is just a demux and mux process so it doesn't take very long ... just a couple of minutes. Time that can be spent going to the bathroom and getting a drink and popcorn and letting the dog out etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

That's what I do now, or rip to single .VOB...Eventually I'll take the time and convert all my collection,which easily exceeds 200 and save to a HDD,then stream any flick I want to my PS3.....Is it or "that seems like a pain in the"..... Yes maybe,but It'll be time well spent and worth it for me..... 8)

[pcexpress911]

hey thanks for the replies guys... does the PCH or sage treat a dvd folder like a dvd? or does it just play the VOB ... i mean... if i load a dvd folder will IT play the whole movie without intervention or just one of several vobs are played and you have to point it to the next one or something... ? hope my question makes sense...

[dbone1]

hey thanks for the replies guys... does the PCH or sage treat a dvd folder like a dvd? or does it just play the VOB ... i mean... if i load a dvd folder will IT play the whole movie without intervention or just one of several vobs are played and you have to point it to the next one or something... ? hope my question makes sense...

PCH/SageTV will recognize the VOBs as if you insterted a DVD, you will not have to play individual vob files.

[pcexpress911]

dbone1, thanks... you seem to have some experience with this... can you tell me from your point of view the pluses and minuses between the two devices you mention... from the website, i don't really get a good feel for how the devices actually behave installed.. also i can't really find another device that plays dvd's.. you read the sites info, and it is not clear from the sites i have been too... if it does or does not.. i assume if it doesn't say, then it doesn't.

is there a software solution that could run on the computer with the files, that would serve them out to ps3/xbox360 in a way the devices would recognize.? i guess not... ah?

Thanks!

[dbone1]

dbone1, thanks... you seem to have some experience with this... can you tell me from your point of view the pluses and minuses between the two devices you mention... from the website, i don't really get a good feel for how the devices actually behave installed.. also i can't really find another device that plays dvd's.. you read the sites info, and it is not clear from the sites i have been too... if it does or does not.. i assume if it doesn't say, then it doesn't.

is there a software solution that could run on the computer with the files, that would serve them out to ps3/xbox360 in a way the devices would recognize.? i guess not... ah?

Thanks!

I have SageTV and actually just received a few weeks ago PCH. I would say that the biggest difference b/w the two is that SageTV is meant to be a pure media extender. What I mean by that, there is no harddrive, so you can only stream. With PCH, it does not come with a harddrive, but you can add one. I would say SageTV is a little more user friendly, but also costs more (you have to purchase the software alongside). Also, SageTV is also meant to be used along with a tv tuner (although you don't need one). If you are just looking to play streamed media files, I would probably lean towards the PCH (especially since you don't have to purchase additional software, you can only use the SageTV extender with the SageTV software, which is basically Sage's version of WMC). If any site says that a supported format is VOB then it does play dvds, if this is not mentioned then it does not.

The only software solution I know of is www.tversity.com. I have had some success with it, but don't use anymore. Check out the website to get a feel for what it does. Some people have great success with it, some don't, you might have to do a lot of tweaking.

[t0nee1]

I'm one of those that's had great success using TVersity....I stream to both the PS3 and the Xbox360 via my wireless network....try it out...What do you have to lose? it's free and you can always uninstall it, if it doesn't meet your needs....

[FulciLives]

I use MediaTomb as my streaming program. It is freeware but is for Linux. I did have to edit a file to get it to stream "raw" M2TS files and to work with XviD and DivX files. So yes some tweaking was involved but it works well for me.

I hear the newest version of TVersity can finally do M2TS files without having to rename them ...

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[t0nee1]

Hey FulciLives, yeah I read that also,I just haven't updated to latest version.. I'm looking forward to trying it out..

Cheers!

[pcexpress911]

just an update to this thread... does anyone know if slingcatcher will do this?