programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
Ever since creating my first home theater PC, I've archived my Netflix rental DVDs to files on the hard drive. I don't do this because I want to rip off the movie industry; I do it for convenience. It's easier to deal with a collection of digital files than it is to deal with a bunch of shiny, easily scratched plastic discs. Nor do I keep the movies around after I watch them. I already own more movies than I could possibly ever watch in one lifetime. As I get older, my desire to collect things is rapidly diminishing. My ripping is purely about simplicity and ease of use for me, the consumer.
After years archiving DVDs on my home theater PC, I was concerned that the dawning Blu-Ray era would make this impossible. Fortunately, that's not the case. I experimented with AnyDVD HD and my first batch of rented Netflix Blu-Ray discs:
So brainlessly easy, even I can do it.
You'll end up with a folder containing all the subfolders and files that make up the Blu-Ray title. I'm not terribly interested in extras and so forth (did I mention that I don't have time?), I just want the movie itself. It's not hard to find. The movie file is in the folder:
/BDMV/STREAM/*.m2ts
Sort by file size, identify the biggest file, and that's your movie. Some movies are broken up into multiple files, but most of the ones I've done so far have been one giant honking file, somewhere between 8 and 20+ gigabytes in size. Rename and copy that one giant m2ts file wherever you want it, then delete all the other files.
Let's look at Terminator 3 as a specific example. (Digression: I don't understand why this movie gets such a bad rap. Sure, it's not a landmark film like T1 or T2, but it's a solid entry in the franchise, at least in my opinion.) Blu-Ray encompasses multiple video and audio encoding formats, so we need to crack open the file and see what's inside. I recommend using the most excellent MediaInfo application for this.
General Complete name : terminator3.m2ts Format : BDAV Format/Info : BluRay Video File size : 13.0 GiB Duration : 1h 49mn Overall bit rate : 17.1 Mbps Maximum Overall bit rate : 48.0 MbpsVideo Format : VC-1 Format profile : AP@L3 Duration : 1h 48mn Bit rate : 13.9 Mbps Width : 1920 pixels Height : 1080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16/9 Frame rate : 23.976 fps Colorimetry : 4:2:0 Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.280
Audio (1 of 6) Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Duration : 1h 49mn Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 640 Kbps Channel(s) : 6 channels Channel positions : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
I've clipped a lot of the extraneous information away, but the most important parts here are the encodings:
The ripping part has been straightforward; what I haven't been able to understand is why playback of 1920 x 1080 high definition files is so spotty on my current home theater PC:
Everything I've read led me to believe that any modern reasonably fast dual-core CPU is more than enough for high definition video playback. While that's generally true, some files are tougher than others. For example, taking advantage of my new multi-format drive, I picked up a cheap copy of the now-obsolete HD-DVD edition of Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series. (Which is amazing, by the way -- it's probably the ultimate high definition demo disc, and the shows are fascinating to boot.) These files are also encoded with VC-1 but at a somewhat higher bitrate than Terminator 3.
Unfortunately, on a dual core Athlon -- even overclocked to 2.3 GHz -- the Planet Earth rips are on the ragged edge of playability under Windows Media Player. CPU usage is well north of 80% all the time, and some peaks at 100% mean video stuttering and sound breakup at least a few times in each episode. This is unacceptable.
After a great deal of research, I found Media Player Classic Home Cinema. The big deal here is two things:
Now, remember that Terminator 3 is encoded with VC-1, effectively a Microsoft video codec. Windows Media Player supports this natively. You'd expect it to perform great, since it's baked into the operating system, right?
Wrong. This isn't terrible performance, per se, but watch what happens when we play this same file using Media Player Classic Home Cinema, with hardware accelerated decoding enabled:
Holy cow. Using video hardware acceleration, we went from 75% CPU usage to 30% CPU usage. That's incredible. I knew modern video cards could assist in decoding high definition video, but I had no idea the difference was this profound.
But I want to play my movie files in Windows Vista Media Center, not a weird little standalone app. Here's the most awesome part of this post: you can!
As I discovered buried in an obscure forum post, here's how:
MPCVideoDec.ax and copy it into c:\windows\system32\
c:\windows\system32\, and run regsvr32 MPCVideoDec.ax
Be sure you don't have any other video codecs registered, as the MPC-HC filter can handle everything. Once you register this magical codec, Windows Media Player (and thus, Windows Media Center) will use hardware accelerated high definition video playback. It's amazing. How amazing? Those Planet Earth rips, which used to take 80-100% of a mainstream dual core CPU, barely take 40% when using the hardware accelerated MPC-HC filters.
There is one caveat: for some reason, the MPC-HC filter doesn't accelerate the H.264 Blu-Ray encoding format out of the box. But it can, though. You'll need to use something like the Radlight Filter Manager to fix this. After launching it, navigate to the DirectShow filters part of the tree, then look for "MPC - Video decoder", and click the Property Page button.
On the Codecs tab, the only format not ticked for me was H.264/AVC. Tick that box and you're covered. You now have fully hardware accelerated playback for every possible Blu-Ray video encoding format. For free!
In my earlier attempts to solve this high definition video playback problem, I bought a copy of CoreAVC's "world's fastest H.264 software video decoder". And it was fast. Much faster than, say, the H.264 decoder included with ffdshow. My Casino Royale rip went from unplayable under ffdshow to eminently playable under CoreAVC, albeit at 80-90% CPU usage. I thought that was a great result until I saw the MPC-HC filter play that very same Casino Royale file at around 25% CPU usage. Zow. That's a night and day difference between "world's fastest" software and hardware accelerated H.264 decoding.
Now, if you have a very fast dual core CPU, or a moderately fast quad core CPU, you might be able to get away with pure software high definition video decoding (albeit at the cost of high CPU usage). But if, like me, you want to use a cheap, power-efficient dual core CPU to pull off high definition video playback, you'll need to properly harness the hardware decoding abilities of modern video cards. Media Player Classic Home Cinema is an excellent example of how this should work, and it's about the only one I could get to work.
As for caching the NetFlix rentals, I just use the Watch Instantly option. I wish they had a larger selection of these movies. It's not my place to judge, but I'll have to agree with others Jeff that it's probably not wise to discuss your NetFlix practices in such detail. You are strapping a target on you back by doing so.
T3 sucked because they rewrote the John Connor character. T2 introduced a brassy, independent kid who was not afraid of anything. Exactly the kind of boy that could grow up to be the John Connor of the future. T3 neutered the character into a sniveling, shallow and self-centered excuse of a human that would have been the first to fall after the rise of the machines. At this rate, T4 will have Sara Connor playing Mahjong at the social center.
twmcneil on December 16, 2008 8:23 AM@rmf
I had to go back to the Netflix's site and verify, but it turns out there is a plan (the cheapest plan) that gives you 1 DVD at a time out, limit two per month for the low, low price of $4.99 a month.
In that situation, provided you will hit your cap of two rentals per month, keeping them for two hours or two weeks will not affect how many movies you get to see, how much postage Netflix has to pay, or how much Netflix will have to pay in royalties.
But yeah, the assumption here is that Jeff is doing this to be able to rent more movies each month that he could watch if he were not to copy them. I don't see why people want to make that assumption and then accuse Jeff of 'stealing'.
I could assume that EVERYONE who has Netflix is illegally copying movies because, otherwise, Netflix doesn't seem worth it to me...but that seems extreme.
It also seems extreme to assume that everyone who copies a movie from Netflix is doing so to 'cheat' the system in some way, because without some type of cheat, it doesn't seem worth it to me to take the time to copy them.
Rob on December 16, 2008 8:27 AMThanks for the info!
Rob Boek on December 16, 2008 8:48 AMThere seems to be a general opinion of who cares he paid to rent the movie in the comments and even Jeff's own admission he sees no harm in doing this. At the risk of being pedantic I'll re-state the problem:
When you rent a movie from Netflix you are paying for the right to watch the movie _while you have the disc in your possession_. Ripping it to watch later (after you send the disc back) may seem innocent enough, but it is breaking the rules and the reason why is important. The price the studio sets on the disc is based on the idea of exclusive ownership: 1 person can only ever watch the movie at a time. As soon as you rip the movie and watch it beyond your possession of the disc you are breaking that model. Studios have separate fee structures for on-demand/streaming media, but the media on the disc is intended to be used solely by the person who possessed it.
No, I can't assume Jeff is exploiting this to an extreme degree, but I can assume, but his own comments, that he doesn't understand why it's bad for Netflix and, in the end, consumers. You can't be critical of DRM and studios attempting to protect their content then turn around and blatantly disregard laws of legal ownership.
rmf on December 16, 2008 8:59 AMI don't think people should just give me the software they write.
@department_g33k
Most free software is written by people who were paid to write it. And when they work for the next client or employer, they can still use the stuff they wrote earlier. Unlike microserfs, who must forget everything they know before going to work for someone else.
So far as movies and TV go, I just say no. I won't watch them until the copyright crap and the captive audience ads are gone.
@rmf: As soon as you rip the movie and watch it beyond your possession of the disc you are breaking that model
When you tape a TV show with VCR, you are breaking the model by which the free TV stations operate: you get the ability to watch the show while fast-forwarding through the commercials. Yet, taping TV shows is legal. I bring this up just to illustrate that if some activity breaks someone's business model it does not necessarily mean that such activity is illegal.
Going back to the copyright and fair use, there should be a balance between the rights of the producers and the rights of the consumers. Neither side should tip the balance to its advantage too much. It's been ruled that time-shifting TV shows with the help of a VCR is legal and fair use, even if it hurts the business model of the TV stations. Time-shifting rental DVDs seems to be just as fair.
Regarding T3:
In T1, Arnold was a terrifying enemy.
In T2, he was a father figure.
In T3, he was John's goofy uncle.
Having said that, the last 10 minutes of the movie make up for an otherwise average action flick.
Tim S on December 16, 2008 9:33 AMYeah, Windows just works. Except when it doesn't.
What a myth.
Andr on December 16, 2008 9:35 AMI think Jeff has a valid point with ripping Netflix DVD's to his harddrive so that he can view them later. Sounds good to me.
In fact, when I finish upgrading my computer I'll borrow my friend's copy of Vista and install it on the computer so that I can use Vista Media Center just like Jeff recommends. No need to buy a copy, I'm just 'time-shifting' the Vista DVD onto my computer!
Note: the above is obviously sarcasm (and not well done, at that). It does, however, amaze me that people who complain about people ripping off the software they wrote the go and justify their ripping off other people (and usually with the same arguments). Also note that the complainers are just as likely to be complaining about people ripping off their GPL'd software as it is shrink-wrapped software.
If you depend on copyrights/licenses/etc for your product, it's hypocritical to turnaround and say that it doesn't matter or it does no harm when you ignore those on other people's work
RJ on December 16, 2008 9:47 AMYou know what? This sounds so cool, I'm going to dump cable and get a NetFlix subscription just to do exactly this same thing.
+ 1 to Jeff
Charles on December 16, 2008 10:20 AM@rmf I agree with your argument, however I do have a question: is your main issue with the practice of backing up rented DVDs the fact that it's from Netflix that he's doing it, or the principle itself?
I understand that Netflix's business model is derived from the fact that the value of each DVD is based directly on the length of time you keep the disc, but how does the issue of copying rented DVDs come up in situations where the value of the DVD is constant?
Aside, of course, from the illegality of going around the copy protection.
For example, does renting a DVD from a video store and copying it for your own use really damage the profits of the store or anyone else?
Or for that matter, what about renting a DVD from a free source, such as a library?
Should I be worried about my morals if I or someone I know does this?
Jake C. on December 16, 2008 10:23 AM@Jake
No, my issue here is not specifically tied to Netflix that just happens to be what Jeff wrote about. Renting/borrowing a video from anywhere (video store, library, Netflix, etc), copying/'archiving' it then returning it all create the same problem. In every case its not the lender who is losing profit - it's the movie studio. They set the price of a disc with the intention that 1 person will be able to use it at a time. Once 2, 3, 100 people have digital copies of the same disc the studio has now made profit from a price charged for 1 disc while potentially dozens are watching it.
I don't bring this up to defend the poor movie studios - they're no angels themselves. But to have intelligent discourse on digital ownership and DRM issues one must understand the problems content creators are wrangling with. In this case it's crystal clear to me - copying rented discs is illegal and wrong. If you do it that is your choice, but don't complain about restrictive DRM content providers shove down our throats to prevent this exact sort of behavior.
rmf on December 16, 2008 10:55 AMWhile this article is interesting from the techinical point of view, explaining what's on a blue-ray disk.
On the other hand, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to just watch a movie, when you could just play the disk in your player and get on with your life.
If for some crazy reason you want to watch T3 next month, why not just put it back on your Netflix list?
And I really wonder about people who consume so many Netflix DVDs that they get throttled. If you're watching that much TV, then you have no life and should be sent to some kind of re-education camp that would help you discover some purpose for your life.
Jim Howard on December 16, 2008 10:59 AMThe crime is that Arnold not only made some so-so movies, he's helped ruin the economy of my home State, cut school programs, blah blah.
If you only watch the movie while you have it checked out from Netflix, I doubt if you are breaking the spirit of the law.
The real question: is Arnold worth the disk space?
Steve on December 16, 2008 11:42 AM@Jason
Ok, by the law, it might not be legal
makes me :)
Even if Jeff isn't breaking the law by seeding torrents ...or building some massive multi-terabyte digital video library. He did just explain to the masses how to do just that. ;)
Joe on December 16, 2008 12:06 PMYou've discovered the difference between a general microprocessor (CPU) and a special purpose microprocessor (GPU). :P
Ronald on December 16, 2008 12:13 PMHow can people have trouble playing back video on modern PCs?
My 6 year old Radeon9800 + amd3200+ has no problem with 1080p videos.
Using mplayer (http://www.mplayerhq.hu) on vista with dwm disabled and ffdshow as codecs.
Crazy Ivan on December 16, 2008 12:27 PMCan VLC make use of coreAVC?
I have an ancient 6 year old computer (Athlon 1800+) which is unable to play even 720 HD content. But when I use coreAVC with MPC, it is smooth and watchable. The same clip in VLC is choppy and unwatchable.
So I guess the Geforce 4 doesn't support video acceleration? No 1080 HD for me then...
Andrew on December 16, 2008 12:47 PMThanks a lot Greg...
Samrat Patil on December 17, 2008 3:13 AMThat seems like a lot of time/effort to watch a video once. I just hdmi out to my tv. Disc only goes in to the drive once, except I don't need to burn it all to a temporary drive.
Manfre on December 17, 2008 3:14 AMI built my HTPC based on Jeff's spec (added blu-ray drive, more RAM, bigger hard drive) and found out the hard way that HD content is a pain to play - even with PowerDVD HD. So I went and installed all the scary codec packs and got it all working. Recently though, PowerDVD keeps crashing and locking me out of the system when I try to load a movie (even from disc).
I want to switch down to the single uber-codec though so how do I un-register the old codec packs? Is uninstalling from the control panel sufficient?
Rob Allen on December 17, 2008 6:29 AMWOW!
Thank you again for doing all this research and providing us with the cliff notes...
I followed the post and confirmed the exact same performance metrics with my media center pc (same specs as yours except tuner), the only other difference was that I used The Polar Express Blue Ray as the baseline.
Funny thing, I have what I consider a beefy workstation at home in my office, a windows experience of 5.8, 8 GB of RAM, RAID 0 OS (10K RPM) RAID 5 Data, Radeon X1950, that just chews up code code when I compile it, BUT the playback of the ripped file was choppy and I had colored squares randomly, oh and plus massive cpu usage to boot. It is a mazing how much the hardware helping out with decoding can make a difference.
after paying for (even cheapest $260) Windows Vista with Mediacenter?
Windows Vista Home Premium OEM is only about $100-$120 last time I checked.
And it is dead easy to set up. That's worth a hundred bucks to me. YMMV of course.
Define set up. You have an entire blog post about getting it play HD without video stuttering and sound breakup. Looks like there was quite a bit of time spent on tinkering, installing various codecs, copying files into magic locations. Doesn't seem like $100 well spent to me ;)
Dear Jeff, as a younger computer scientist
Neither Jeff, nor you are computer scientists. As a matter of fact, I sometimes suspect that Jeff isn't that good of a programmer even.
DMB on December 17, 2008 10:20 AMJust wanted to point out...
http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/prodbrief/dg45fc_prodbrief.pdf
Supports integrated HDMI and a fixed function blu-ray decoder.
Also supports core2duo chips.
Letting fixed function hardware decode these discs is key- but it doesn't mean you need a whole graphics card...
Chees0rz on December 18, 2008 2:38 AMNeither Jeff, nor you are computer scientists. As a matter of fact, I sometimes suspect that Jeff isn't that good of a programmer even.
wut
dave on December 18, 2008 5:41 AMKNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Hi, are you Jeff Atwood?
Click - click go the handcuffs...
Have you failed to catch the FBI warnings at the start of every disk you ever ripped?
** You're fcuked! **
This post is one big hunk of horshit after another.
First you essentially advocate ripping off netflix (no pun intended) let's be real here the more often you return movies in a given month the less money netflix makes period. Moreover if you're ripping them to your hard drive you'll never rent them again denying netflix more revenue.
And let's cut the crap ripping a movie is only worth your time if you don't intend to ever delete the file.
Now let's talk codecs.
Dxva live it, learn it, love it, it obviates your entire post.
On to linux,
Linux obviously has lower hardware overhead. Htpcs are still generaly speaking in their infancy so whether you choose windows or linux hardly makes much difference you'll still waste much of your life attempting to fix shit.
In fact I would say if you really wanted a functional htpc you'd forego media center altogether and go with meedios, yes it would require some learning but that's life, stop whining about the tech learning curve on a tech blog and if its too hard don't write about it at all, the world doesn't need another half informed nimrod parroting his numbnuts opinions.
P.S
I rip netflix movies all the time, but I don't lie about it I'm an unrepentant media whore.
I know fuckall about linux, except that like any tool it can be useful and to simply dismiss it is ignorance.
Dxva has a number of tools out there to determine if its turned on and whether your apps are using it. I'm on a blackberry so be a man and google it.
chris on December 18, 2008 7:55 AMJeff you say: Be sure you don't have any other video codecs registered, as the MPC-HC filter can handle everything
Is there any easy way to ensure the only video codec you have registered is the MPC-HC filter?
Thanks!
Steve on December 18, 2008 10:39 AM@DMB
Have you heard of StackOverflow.com? Just wondering? It's kinda like this whole big website thingy that Jeff just kinda hacked out in his spare time.
Maybe you have something that we can use to compare how good you are compared to Jeff? Hmm?
HB on December 19, 2008 1:51 AMI love your site! every problem i encountered you have talked about -- HTPC setup, 1080p TV as monitor, desk chair comparison, even this --- the article about how 1080p video is taxing the cpu too much and the solution for it. big thumb up.
Brett on December 19, 2008 11:58 AMHi Jeff,
Thanks for the post. Does the MPC-HC filters allow WMP and WMC to play H.264 films or do you still have to have ffdshow pack installed?
Thanks,
Calum
All of you amateur, holier than thou blood sucking lawyers really need to get a life. Or stop reading technical blogs.
Now where is that button that filters all this garbage out from the real information in the comments? I think it was called hide bullshit?
Jeff, thanks for the article. But do be careful that some of the posters arent hiding in your closet to see what other child molesting habits you have -
Joe in Philippines on December 21, 2008 4:32 AM@Calum
Be sure you don't have any other video codecs registered, as the MPC-HC filter can handle everything. Once you register this magical codec, Windows Media Player (and thus, Windows Media Center) will use hardware accelerated high definition video playback. It's amazing. How amazing? Those Planet Earth rips, which used to take 80-100% of a mainstream dual core CPU, barely take 40% when using the hardware accelerated MPC-HC filters.
All you need is that one codec installed.
I'm tring it now on my HTPC to see if it works (I cna play 720p fine but 1080p jumps around)
TenOfZero on December 21, 2008 5:48 AMCalum get rid of FFD sow it just trips thing sup, all you need is the link he provided us with, works great.
TenOfZero on December 21, 2008 6:50 AM@Frank
Obviously, you understood nothing about geeks... A programmer is somebody able to spend 10 minutes on a script to do automatically a job that would have took 5 minutes to do manually. Except that writing the script is much funnier, and once the job is done, it might be re-used.
I have children, and totally understand the need to do backups of DVDs. Once my children have manipulated the real DVDs a few times, they are hardly readable anymore...
I can't afford a multimedia hard disk now, but I would certainly use one if I could.
Beside, in France, we have the right to make private copies... :-P
PhiLho on December 21, 2008 7:39 AMThe ripping part has been straightforward; what I haven't been able to understand is why playback of 1920 x 1080 high definition files is so spotty on my current home theater PC
I've been messing around with HD playback on a HTPC since the LG BluRay/HDDVD hit the shelves last year. In my experience, the biggest culprit in spotty playback is the ATI drivers themselves. If you spend some time reading on AVS forums you'll see that most people have the best luck with the 8.4 drivers. Anything newer than that is hit or miss depending on what you are trying to play. This general rule of thumb does vary depending on which ATI card you have however. The second biggest culprits are the media player applications themselves. I've had to keep both PowerDVD 7 and Arcsoft Total Media Theater installed because sometimes one app will have problems with a particular disc.
Daniel Auger on December 21, 2008 12:32 PMDear Netflix,
You abandoned your HD DVD subscribers, so please feel free to shut up.
Love, / a former fan
it's good to see someone getting everything in one place for people who don't understand. it's very sad to see people who obviously can't read, or just want to fight/stir up trouble.
it was so nice back in the day when everyone on the internet had to have at least passing technical knowledge to get them there... smart people usually have manners.
harley on December 27, 2008 2:59 AMrmf - breaking the rules puts the service at risk for all of us that happily follow the rules.
Just because YOU CHOOSE to be a sheep and a schmuck who follows all the rules, don't expect the rest of us to. America was founded by rule breakers who questioned authority! Your morals are NOT absolute...
Stay in your nice straight line, don't make waves, and make sure you come to a complete stop at the sign - boy!
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG
Thanks for this article. Until now the only thing that I could play 1080p files with was CoreAVC. Both VLC Media Player and Mplayer's AVC codecs SUCK big time. With VLC it's not multithreaded, so as soon as CPU usage hits 50%, the video freezes sometimes for 5 seconds. And MPlayers codec (which I was using SMPlayer in this case, a nice GUI for it) would use a max of 30% but would only have a framerate of no more than 15.
Now I have another option besides paying for a codec that forces me to use windows media player (and when I use WMP I cannot crop video, volume normalize, etc).
Cody-7 on January 3, 2009 2:43 AMI can tell you now that:
- MC on a fresh install of MCE 2005 will not play M2TS files.
- WMP will not play M2TS files that are about 7gb in size.
- MP (Media Portal) will play M2TS with only the MPC-HC filter installed but not accelerated, without the codec it wouldn't play. Radlight confirms it is enabled.
- MPC will play M2TS files accelerated but with breakage in the last line of blocks. However you can move the screen down 8 pixels and the breakage is off the screen.
I used the blu-ray version of Planet Earth, and the output was 1280x768 (I have a 1336x768 Philips TV, but haven't been able to get the corresponding output res). My rig is similar to Jeff's.
I've got a 32gb SSD ordered (my current main drive is an ancient 10gb drive) and downloading Windows7 to see how that fares.
Graham Reeds on January 19, 2009 12:23 PMHi great post,
Does this work with .mkv files? it doesn't seem to get recognised by MCE or windows even.
I followed the steps and installed the MPC-HC filters.
anybody having this problem?
Dave D on January 23, 2009 2:00 AM@TenOfZero
Thanks for that mate got it working. Completely forgot I commented sive head :)
Calum on January 23, 2009 7:20 AMA comment, couple of suggestions and a couple of questions:
COMMENT:
I rip down the Blu-Ray movies to a single file for no other reason than I have a video front end (XLobby) that allows me to view my collected movie titles, select one and launch TheaterTek with custom intros and trailer previews pulling the actual movie from a NAS array. The ability to watch my purchased Blu-Rays in this manner without having to go to the media closet, load a disk wade through menus, just to watch my movies is why I rip my disks.
SUGGESTION:
The original author is making the ripping process more difficult than it needs to be. If you have SlySoft's - AnyDVD HD software installed (and he must) then once the BD is recognized you can use BDInfo (v.0.5.2) to scan the BD. It will analyze the .mpls files in the PLAYLIST directory and sort the file with the proper playlist to the top of the list. Additionally, it will let you see the details of each playlist.
Once you have noted the .mpls file which contains the proper playlist for the movie you can start up TsRemuxer 1.8.4(b). Using this tool you can click the 'Add' button and navigate your way on the BD to the PLAYLIST directory and select the .mpls file that contained the playlist for the movie in question. This will populate the details of the movie allowing you to delete unwanted audio streams (other languages, director comments, etc.) along with any 'presentation graphics' for menus, etc. For DTS-HD and True-HD a convenient option is provided to down convert them to their AC3 and DTS counterparts. Chapters can be preserved by selecting the Blu-Ray tab and selecting the 'Custom' radio button as the chapters have been defined by the .mpls file you loaded into TSMuxer. Select the .m2ts container option and designate a destination and name for the resultant movie file. Depending on the speed of your BD-ROM drive you will have a complete single .m2ts file with whatever audio stream(s) you selected on your HD in a matter of minutes. This eliminates the problems you noted regarding Blu-Ray movies that have split the video files, etc. You will also save some extra space by having eliminated all but what you wanted in the output file. Since this is a bitstream copy there is no re-encoding or loss of the video stream and depending on your ability to decode True-HD, etc. on your HTPC no loss in audio either.
QUESTIONS:
I have tried diligently to follow the instructions you have provided, but have not had any success in actually getting this to work. If I use the standalone MPlayer it works as advertised. However, using just the MPCVideoDec.ax registered properly within the codec stack consistently yields a 'Rendering Failed DirectShow' 0x80040265. After research the code appears to indicate the no valid rendering filter could be found to render the file. Going back to previously installed version of the Community Codec Pack allows successful rendering.
When I look at the codec stack for Directshow it does not appear that the 4CC for MPEG-2 TransportStream is set for the MPCVideoDec.ax filter (I could not find anyway to change this). Also, of note is that when I opened my MPC - Video decoder Properties window I had two additional entries with check boxes next to them. The first was 'H264/AVC (ffmpeg)' and the second was 'VC1 ffmpeg. I unchecked these options and received the same results.
For clarity, your article suggested that we should download download the standalone MPC-HC filters. But then you only mention registering the one. Just to be clear it was not your intention to install and register the other MPC-HC filters, correct?
I have ensured that the 'Merit' is maxed out for the MPCVideoDec.ax filter. Using GSpot it appears (although it is hard to tell for sure) that DirectShow doesn't even recognize that MPCVideoDec.ax is a filter for MPEG-2 Transport Stream. It shows up in the codec stack aligned to the 4CC of 'FLV1'.
Can you please, provide a complete list of your DirectShow Codec stack?
Also, can you provide what 'format' MPCVideoDec.ax is indicated within the codec stack? (this is available many ways, but if you have GSpot you can see it under the 'Codec' listing window)
Your time and answers would be greatly appreciated, as this is the final piece missing from my HTPC configuration!
Argyll on January 30, 2009 7:46 AMI love your site! every problem i encountered you have talked about -- HTPC setup, 1080p TV as monitor, desk chair comparison, even this --- the article about how 1080p video is taxing the cpu too much and the solution for it. big thumb up.
http://zalpstroy.ru/
3.Open a command prompt, navigate to c:windowssystem32, and run regsvr32 MPCVideoDec.ax
Okay now how do you exactly do this
Sorry, Jeff, I did not notice that the HTML tags are disabled
:-[
http://xrumer-palladium.blogspot.com/
Piter on March 19, 2009 2:02 AMHi, Jeff, you make nice site and blog, thanks.
hr /
a href=http://xrumer-palladium.blogspot.com/Xrumer/a
well,
you'd probably laugh,
but i play mkv files on old athlon xp oc'ed to 2.08GHz,
and with funny old Ati 9250 card, connected to 32 lcd-tv via dvi-to-hdmi cable :)
it plays 720p regulary, no glitches.
of course, depending on movie, cpu goes from 50% to 100% usage.
i even tried 1080p stuff, but only .ts (mpeg2 ?) files worked,
enough good to be watchable.
BSPlayer + k-lite mega codec pack (ffd show audio and video)
b.r.
Thanks for this article. Until now the only thing that I could play 1080p files with was CoreAVC. Both VLC Media Player and Mplayer's AVC codecs SUCK big time. With VLC it's not multithreaded, so as soon as CPU usage hits 50%, the video freezes sometimes for 5 seconds. And MPlayers codec (which I was using SMPlayer in this case, a nice GUI for it) would use a max of 30% but would only have a framerate of no more than 15.
http://meliortour.ru
Thank you so much Jeff. My own HTPC was inspired by your previous articles and our hardware is very similar. Great recommendation on the moBo; I LOVE it. I usually get fantastic results watching HD TV content (over-the-air 1080i) but if I can offload more to the video card I would love to try. Do you think the above would help WMC recorded HD content?
I also followed the record watch process w/ Netflix. My media center at the time was an XBox w/ XBMC (the only piece of software that made the XBox worth anything) and the DVD drive would hardly read anything. Rip to a network drive and now I can watch in the living room, bedroom, copy to the laptop and watch on a trip, etc. I likewise didn't keep the movies. If I liked it enough to want to keep it around I always spoke with my wallet.
Now I am making the rounds on online video rental. I think I have tried them all that have a WMC presence. The now-defunct Vongo was the only service with a descent user-experience from the couch. I would love to hear about your experiences with this method of delivery should you decide to give it a whirl. My cable's on-demand experience is, sadly, superior to anything I can get out of the Rich Media experience in my WMC HTPC with a great internet connection.
And that makes me sad.
Jason Crist on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMIt's not like I'm seeding torrents here, or building some massive multi-terabyte digital video library.
Na.. that's so last year!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000815.html
Anon on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMbut I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend Media Portal. It's does everything MCE does *and* you can configure it to your liking. Oh, and it's open source too!
And it looks sh*t, and it's 10 times harder to setup/use than Vista MCE! Great!!
Anon on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMFor most people, the decision to privately use Netflix this way is probably not going to do him any harm in a legal sense. However, the publicity of this forum and the readership Jeff enjoys makes him a target for litigation.
Here's a guy who quit his day job and is a pro blogger. All these people want to hear what he says about computers, technology, and software development.
It's more cost effective to make an example of someone recognizable than go after a bunch of nobodies. The other strategy is to try to go after the guy running a multi-terabyte torrent, which if I were Netflix, I might think Jeff is.
Jason B on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMOMG, he's a felon! He's paying neflix to watch movies and then he's doing that. Quick, cancel his account before he can give them more money to watch movies!
I've done the same thing, and I'm sure I was one of the lightest renters (aka, Netflix's favorite). In fact, I was on the 3 at a month plan, and I would say that I averaged renting 3 movies/month TOTAL. I'm sure Netflix really hated my money (sarcasm).
Ok, by the law, it might not be legal, and that's a fair argument. That doesn't mean that you can argue that he's some kind of immoral person, and a drain on society.
Jason on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMIf I may offer to other HTPCers out there, GBPVR!
http://www.gbpvr.com/pmwiki/
This is a freeware Media Center software package that runs on WinXP/Vista/Media Center with it's own menu system and architecture. It's built with .Net 2.0, and is open for plugin development.
The community is active, and they have worked with Hauppauge (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_mediamvp.html) and Popcorn Hour (http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/) to work with their Media Extenders, allowing some really nice features.
One thing I love it for that I haven't (yet) seen in other packages is a plugin that allows easy access to multiple emulators, for a super gaming experience. I can play Atari thru Playstation from one simple menu.
M Kenyon II on February 6, 2010 11:14 PMGreat post Jeff, we use products such as Kaleidescape for our clients but it works out rediculously expensive and although this is more time consuming it's a great way to get the content easily accesible and protected. As you mentioned, it's perfect for watching on your home cinema system http://homecinemasystem.co/articles/design-your-own-home-cinema-system/ and makes the integration into a home automation system such as Crestron nice and easy. Good post!
Justin The Home Cinema Guy
Justin Hyne on August 28, 2010 1:56 PMI haven't personally done any BluRay ripping, but I think the author did a great job explaining all the steps, and reasons why they took those steps. I will be sure to test this out next time I'm at my PC. Great post.
www.gupiltd.com
GUPIltd on October 12, 2010 1:47 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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