DVD from Computer to Dreambox

T_G

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I have read that you could use the VLC plugin to view a DVD from your PC to the dreambox.

Anybody tried it yet? If yes, please let us know the details. Looks like another one that is interesting!! :)
 

skydreamer

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Yep, I have got it working last summer on some peculiar image but since then I did not bother as my PC is upstairs and I did not feel like running up and down everytime it looses sync.
I like the other way around better- streaming from DB to a WiFi laptop, watching telly everywhere around the house on a rescued FS laptop PIII 600/500 MHz that was destined for skip, works like a charm, CPU load around 95%.
 

T_G

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Hmmm interesting. I would like to try it out. If there is one man who can help.....Everybody call together: PeeeCeeedeeeeeh!!!!!! :D
 

rolfw

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Well I've got the VLC plugin installed with the SDT Tertiary image, but how do you change the directory for the files/DVDs? Would be nice to try it. :)
 

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T_G said:
Hmmm interesting. I would like to try it out. If there is one man who can help.....Everybody call together: PeeeCeeedeeeeeh!!!!!! :D

I felt sorry for you :rolleyes: so had a go on it and got it working, actually in two diferrent ways:

1. Less preferrable- mount your exported and unlocked Windows DVD drive using CIFS plugin and play it back with embedded DBox player. Unfortunately no sound from vob files however standard mpeg2 files with audio should play fine. Which includes your DV camera ones, unless you use some non-standard format.

2. Full monty :cool:
- install vlc plugin for Dreambox
- edit vlc.xml to suit your PC config
- run videolan on your PC with enabled http controls. On XP SP2 you will get a warning from the firewall, allow videolan to create the output socket @8080
- start vlc plugin on Dreambox, select DVD, hit play.

If you loose lip sync, pause and play again (yellow button). Do not be hasty with the playback controls it reacts slowly - approx 2-5 secs.

Is it clear enough or do you need a more detailed explanation?
 

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@skydreamer

I tried vlc plugin 1.5 in the past, it worked only with Videolan 0.7.1 not 0.8.1. 'worked' is not quite correct, as I tried only mpeg files and it kept stopping every few minutes - probably a buffer problem.

As a matter of interest, did you create an extra line in the xml file for dvd as there isn't any ?

@Rolfw. You need to edit the xml file of the plugin to give the directory link.

From the reports I have seen, the vlc method is unpredictable, for some it works well, for some works badly, for others for no apparent reason it fails.

Regards, pcd.
 

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PCD said:
@skydreamer

I tried vlc plugin 1.5 in the past, it worked only with Videolan 0.7.1 not 0.8.1. 'worked' is not quite correct, as I tried only mpeg files and it kept stopping every few minutes - probably a buffer problem.

As a matter of interest, did you create an extra line in the xml file for dvd as there isn't any ?

Regards, pcd.

I have Videolan 0.8.1 and plugin 0.1.5. There was already a DVD line in the config.
<setup name="DVD-Mode" ext="none" Videorate="1000" Videotranscode="0" Videocodec="mpeg2" Videosize="704x576" Audiorate="192" Audiotranscode="0" ac3="1" />
I watched a film yesterday for approx 2 hours without a glitch or lip sync failure.
I also tried plugin 0.2.3 but it crashes when the streaming begins.
The CPU load is shocking 100% on PIV 2.4GHz so perhaps some of the unreliable behaviour might be linked to processor overload.
Then perhaps I am wrong since my machine has a number of special mpeg codecs and I am not sure if this does not interfere with the standard videolan ones, as I am getting unusual high CPU load on HDTV too.
 

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skydreamer said:
I have Videolan 0.8.1 and plugin 0.1.5. There was already a DVD line in the config.
.

Sorry, I can see it now. Will have a go later. regards.
 

T_G

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I felt sorry for you :rolleyes: so had a go on it and got it working, actually in two diferrent ways:

That's right, exactly what I was hoping for :D . Nothing works better than a bit of reverse psychology [/QUOTE]

1. Less preferrable- mount your exported and unlocked Windows DVD drive using CIFS plugin and play it back with embedded DBox player. Unfortunately no sound from vob files however standard mpeg2 files with audio should play fine. Which includes your DV camera ones, unless you use some non-standard format.

2. Full monty :cool:
- install vlc plugin for Dreambox
- edit vlc.xml to suit your PC config
- run videolan on your PC with enabled http controls. On XP SP2 you will get a warning from the firewall, allow videolan to create the output socket @8080
- start vlc plugin on Dreambox, select DVD, hit play.

If you loose lip sync, pause and play again (yellow button). Do not be hasty with the playback controls it reacts slowly - approx 2-5 secs.

Is it clear enough or do you need a more detailed explanation?


I will try and play with it after I come back from my holiday in two weeks. By then I am sure you'll sort it out. The minute you guys think it is ready for all put it into the idiot guide. Just make sure it is easy to understand!!
 

PCD

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Have a nice holiday ! We will also be off (to the Canaries) in a week's time. :-bighappy
 

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Hope you guy's talk normal and not in abbrevations when you are in the pub, I was always told to explain before abbreviate? it helps people "like us thickies" to understand. Was some very good info above but was lost after the first VLD,TBC???????????? Come guys give us a chance. Thanks.
 

rolfw

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I agree that the acronyms can cause confusion when unexplained, but unfortunately VLC is the actual name of a media player by Videolan. :)
 

T_G

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maurice594 said:
Hope you guy's talk normal and not in abbrevations when you are in the pub, I was always told to explain before abbreviate? it helps people "like us thickies" to understand. Was some very good info above but was lost after the first VLD,TBC???????????? Come guys give us a chance. Thanks.

Generally, this is a valid point, I am for one always try to get the experts to speak in "idiot" so things are a bit more clear. (also, so I can understand it myself). We are putting a lot of efford into this...

But in this case, as Rolf already pointed out, the main talk was about the VLC plugin, mpeg, DVD and some other plugins. Mainly abbrevations that anyone who is a bit familiar with dreambox material should know what they are. Especially if you had a good run in the idiot guide and maybe read some of the how to related to playing and recording from dreambox to pc etc, you would know what these are.

Now if you don't know what a plugin is, then you need to do some serious reading & load up any modern image and look for plugins.

So, before going on to question the pub speaking culture of honest beer drinking dreamers :-beer make sure to read all the basics first.

If you check up on the idiot guide postings by PCD for instance you will find the most detailed idiot explanations you can have.

So, to finish this off I welcome you to the dreambox world, and use MY favourite abbrevation: RTFM :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 

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Just a side note: Do not loose the big picture!

Although DVD playback through the Dreambox is an interesting technical concept it can hardly compete on convenience or ease of use with your Lidl picked SilverCrest DVD/CD/memory cards flashable Linux based player for €60.

I am definitely NOT going to play another DVD this way.

But one can learn a lot trying....

And now for fellow geeks: Perhaps an interesting concept would be to build a SAN on RAID5 using inexpensive SATA RAID controlers and 200GB disks, use it as music/film/video library and mount it into your Dreambox or stream it using itunes/videolan all over your house. In this scenario I can see it worthwhile.
 

T_G

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Skydreamer, you are probably right. I might use it once and then never, still would like to try it...
I must say though that since I managed to record and playbeack from PC I constantly use it. So simple to record and playback...

And now for fellow geeks: Perhaps an interesting concept would be to build a SAN on RAID5 using inexpensive SATA RAID controlers and 200GB disks, use it as music/film/video library and mount it into your Dreambox or stream it using itunes/videolan all over your house. In this scenario I can see it worthwhile.

Now here you really try to push buttons, don"t you? :-ohmy If you want me to answer this please explain this in idiot!

If you are thinking of connecting some sort of hard drive directly to the 5620, I would really be interested to know about that...
 

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Hi Friends,

For those interested in streaming of digital videos and music, here is a description of some of the frequently used terms. I quote this from a Videolan Document, although the description is general (BTW VLC was originally Videolan Client and VLS the Videolan Server. Now VLC combines both functions. MPEG is Motion Pictures Expert Group) :-

"What is a codec ?

To fully understand the VideoLAN solution, you must understand the
difference between a codec and a container format

* A codec is a compression algorithm, used to reduce the size of a
stream. There are audio codecs and video codecs. MPEG-1, MPEG-2,
MPEG-4, Vorbis, DivX, ... are codecs
* A container format contains one or several streams already encoded
by codecs. Very often, there is an audio stream and a video one.
AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, ... are container formats. The streams
contained can be encoded using different codecs. In a perfect
world, you could put any codec in any container format.
Unfortunately, there are some incompatibilities. You can find a
matrix of possible codecs and container formats on the
[13]features page

To decode a stream, VLC first demuxes it. This means that it reads the
container format and separates audio, video, and subtitles, if any.
Then, each of these are passed decoders that do the mathematical
processing to decompress the streams .

There is a particular thing about MPEG:

* MPEG is a codec. There are several versions of it, called MPEG-1,
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ...
* MPEG is also a container format, sometimes refered to as MPEG
System. There are several types of MPEG: ES, PS, and TS
When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG
stream is actually composed of several streams (called Elementary
Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio,
another for subtitles, and so on. These different streams are
mixed together into a single Program Stream (PS). So, the .VOB
files you can find in a DVD are actually MPEG-PS files. But this
PS format is not adapted for streaming video through a network or
by satellite, for instance. So, another format called Transport
Stream (TS) was designed for streaming MPEG videos through such
channels."


Finally, there are three procedures we are talking about in these threads. (1) How to watch tv programs on the pc. This is the simplest matter and there are good alternatives like webinterface, gemini tv, mgrab, mtuxvision etc. (2) How to record tv on the pc hard drive and playback on the pc monitor, on the tv or burn cd. The CIFS method seems to be the best for this. (3) The most problematic issue, how to playback dvd or files from the pc to the DB.

As Skydreamer says, the third method is only being looked at as a matter of finding out how to, since the simplest mehod is to use a dvd player or do what he says !

For anybody who wants to try the Vlc method follow Klona's guide for playing Divx, it will either work or not work depending on your computer and lan capacity. I have only managed by reducing video size, but still with occasional glitches.

Regards, pcd.


_________________________________________________________________
 

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Sorry, it works but still unpredictable ! I'll keep trying when I have some time.
 

PCD

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How to stream a DVD from pc to Dreambox :-

Stable method, no processor problem. Tested with Gemini 1.04 in DM5620.

(1) Download and install VLC media player 0.7.2 (wxWindows interface exe) from w*w.videolan.org/vlc/index.html. Look in Download - Older versions - download site.

(2) Start VLC. Select Settings - Preferences - General settings-Reset All. In Input - Server Port write 8080. In Interface - Extra interface modules write http . Select save and exit VLC.

(3) Download Plugin Vlc2.2 from the I-Have-A-Dreambox website database. It is a .tar.bz2 file. For the Gemini image, you can ftp it as it is to /tmp and do manual install. You can also install it thru Gemini Manager. For any other image you can unrar it and you will get after opening the folders 3 files - vlc.so, vlc.cfg and vlc.xml. Ftp the vlc.xml file to /var/tuxbox/config and the others to /var/tuxbox/plugin. Change attributes to 755. Right-click on the vlc.xml file and select edit. Insert your pc ip in 'server ip' and 8080 in 'web-if port' and the dvd drive letter in 'cddrive'. In the 'DVD-Mode' line make Audiotranscode=1. Save and exit file. Exit ftp.

(4) At pc, insert the DVD and start VLC media player. At dreambox, go to Plugins (by blue button in the Gemini image or the yellow button) and select Videolan. After a while you will see the videolan window, select blue for DVD. Select OK when you see Play. After a delay 'Please wait - Buffering' will appear and then the DVD play will start. If it does not work the first time repeat OK, or reboot DB and restart vlc media player and repeat procedure.

Good luck !

Regards, pcd.
 

T_G

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Sounds easy! Will test it as soon as I am back. Anyone else who has tested it please post your remarks.

Well done PCD, I think this is another one for the idiot guide...
 

T_G

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anyone? No reports? Come on you DBBT!!!! Show you care!
 
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