OK, I finally got the Roku set up pretty much how I want it for the most part. Still working out sime kinks, but I'm trying to get the DVD playback sorted out. I'm trying to back up my copy of Father of the Bride DVD and get it to play properly using mplay.

I loaded the disc, opened up DVD decrypter, selected only the main feature movie, and decrypted the disc in file mode. The result is I get the following directory on my hard drive...

Father of the Bride
VIDEO_TS
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_01_2.VOB
VTS_01_3.VOB
VTS_01_4.VOB
VTS_01_5.VOB

I copy this structure onto my NSLU2 to a common share. Open the roku, browse to mplaydvd, browse to the Father of the Bride folder and hit the "play dvd" button. The video starts to play almost imediatley and it's really pretty impressive.

Here is where I am running into problems though... First, there is no audio. I tried to select a different audio stream by selecting the 'info' button twice, but no luck. Still no audio.

Second, and more interestingly, it seems mplay is trying to playback both the English and the French video at the same time. During the intros and at several instances during playback, I can see that mplay is actually playing BOTH the English and the French video files. For example, when the intro credits are rolling, it plays back "Steve Martin" then it jumps and plays back "Steve Martin" again, except the font it different and there are French characters in the spelling. This happens for every seperate into credit.

FYI: I also used DVD Decrypter to extract the entire disc including all the *.IFO and *.BUP flies and am having the same issues as above.

Any ideas? I'm new at backing up DVD's so I suspect that I'm doing something wrong during the backup process.

Thanks

Drew

drew138 wrote:

Here is where I am running into problems though... First, there is no audio. I tried to select a different audio stream by selecting the 'info' button twice, but no luck. Still no audio.

What audio track are you ripping? If it's DTS or PCM, it won't play on the Roku. If there is a DD5.1 track, use that one.

drew128 wrote:

Second, and more interestingly, it seems mplay is trying to playback both the English and the French video at the same time. During the intros and at several instances during playback, I can see that mplay is actually playing BOTH the English and the French video files. For example, when the intro credits are rolling, it plays back "Steve Martin" then it jumps and plays back "Steve Martin" again, except the font it different and there are French characters in the spelling. This happens for every seperate into credit.

Multi-angle DVDs (different languages are stored as different angles) have the video for each angle inline, so when you play it back on the Roku, you'll see exactly what you're seeing (DVD players know to skip the alternate angle, the Roku currently does not). Unfortunately, the only way to get around this right now is to rip the DVD specifying which angle to rip. I'm not sure if DVD Decryptor has that option or not. Perhaps someone who knows will chime in.

TheEndless

Under settings...File Mode...

Make sure "Multi Angle Processing" is checked, and in the drop-down you've selected the angle you want. It SHOULD then only rip that angle.

dgburns wrote:

Under settings...File Mode...

Make sure "Multi Angle Processing" is checked, and in the drop-down you've selected the angle you want. It SHOULD then only rip that angle.

Thank you for the specific details.

Any thoughts in why I am getting no audio?

Drew

drew138 wrote:

Any thoughts in why I am getting no audio?

The Roku can't play PCM or DTS audio. Only MPG and AC3.

You could try running the VOB's through VLC as Endless suggested in another thread. Set it for stream output, DO NOT select a video codec (so VLC just copies source video directly without modifying), DO select an audio codec either mpga or mp2a at your preferred bitrate. That's assuming when played with VLC to your PC screen you hear audio then.

Thanks. I am going to try a few different options tonight. I try these suggestions.

Would it matter to mplay or Roku that I have both the coax and the RCA L/R hooked up? I don't get sound from either, but its only a variable thatI can think of that would account for a lack of audio? I get audio from other applicatins Hexradio and the built in media player so I doubt that is an issue.

Drew

I havee the same "no audio" problem. Please keep me posted if you work it out.
Thanks
Peter

hollandpeter wrote:

I havee the same "no audio" problem. Please keep me posted if you work it out.
Thanks
Peter

OK, I finally got it to work. I took the advice of the above posts. In DVD Decrypter you need to go to Tools>Options and under 'File Mode" I selected the option for View Angle and selected Angle '1'. I also selected only the Main VOB's and IFO's to rip. Once I copied these into my NAS everything worked as expected. I also ran one of the VOB's through VLC and it worked there as well. I suspect it was the angle issue since it also got rid of the alternating french/english titles! I still have the french sound track for Father of the Bride that I can select from the mplay window.

Thanks to all for the help. I am a very happy camper.

Does Roku upscale the DVD's? The quality is really awesome. It's posible that my DVD player is just cr*p too.

Drew

The PB upscales all output to whatever you have set in the video options (480p, 720p, 1080i, etc.) I agree that it looks nice. Running tests against my DVD player, the PB still looked better even when the video was compressed 25% by DVDShrink.