DVD launch menu on Emby?

[Dac10 2]

I know Emby doesn't fully support DVD but I have transferred unencrypted DVD content to my Emby library and I can view it without converting to another format. However, I miss having the DVD launch menu. I guess this is NOT supported by Emby?

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Dac10,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42078]

Hi, it’s not supported, sorry. But if you rip the special features along with the video and import those into Emby, then the Emby app essentially becomes that menu.

[Dac10 2]

By "special features" are you referring to one of these files: VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB or VTS_01_0.IFO? I can see that there are 2 menus embedded in the last file, one ofwhich appears to be a submenu. Thanks.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, well those file numbers will vary per movie, but I would suggest using makemkv to convert to mkv.

[Dac10 2]

I updated MakeMKV to the latest v1.17.4 win(x64-release) beta, and converted all the files in VIDEO_TS and wound up with some .mkv files but no DVD launch menu. 

[Luke 42078]

1 hour ago, Dac10 said:

I updated MakeMKV to the latest v1.17.4 win(x64-release) beta, and converted all the files in VIDEO_TS and wound up with some .mkv files but no DVD launch menu. 

You're not going to get the dvd menu. What you're going to get is the movie and extras as separate video files. Then if you import those into Emby Server, then you'll be able to use the Emby user interface to select the movie or specials.

[Dac10 2]

I wanted the DVD menu to open scenes individually like the DVD. In this case it's a concert of various musicians and I like some of the acts, not all. Anyway, thanks for your help.

[Ronstang 293]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

You're not going to get the dvd menu. What you're going to get is the movie and extras as separate video files. Then if you import those into Emby Server, then you'll be able to use the Emby user interface to select the movie or specials.

I realize this is how emby works....but let's be honest...it doesn't actually work.  Ripping the extras from a DVD or Blu-Ray using MakeMKV is painful at a minimum and takes forever because it is IMPOSSIBLE to identify those extras to properly name them UNTIL you ripped them to MKV.....watched at least the intro...and then have the original DVD or Blu-Ray in a standalone player to play the extras from the menu....to TRY and identify them so you can name them properly.  This takes so long because it's a crap shoot every time you play the disc because you might have to play 4 extras or more to identify the one in question....name it, move on to the next....but then you get confused about the extras you viewed before that were not the one you were looking for.....and you end up going through them in order once again, until you have them checked off a list.  This is a ludicrous way to do it and when you are done you have a bunch of extras that I have no idea to integrate into emby to keep them with the movies and accessible from that movie's menu in emby. 

In other words it's an incredible waste of time that results in a mess that is pretty unusable in my opinion.  Now if there is a way to organize these extras and keep them with the movie easily please elaborate.....but even if so.....being able to keep the menu and use it with emby would be the best solution.  Until then emby to me is for movies only, no extras.  Not worth the time for the mess it results in.

[Luke 42078]

36 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

I realize this is how emby works....but let's be honest...it doesn't actually work.  Ripping the extras from a DVD or Blu-Ray using MakeMKV is painful at a minimum and takes forever because it is IMPOSSIBLE to identify those extras to properly name them UNTIL you ripped them to MKV.....watched at least the intro...and then have the original DVD or Blu-Ray in a standalone player to play the extras from the menu....to TRY and identify them so you can name them properly.  This takes so long because it's a crap shoot every time you play the disc because you might have to play 4 extras or more to identify the one in question....name it, move on to the next....but then you get confused about the extras you viewed before that were not the one you were looking for.....and you end up going through them in order once again, until you have them checked off a list.  This is a ludicrous way to do it and when you are done you have a bunch of extras that I have no idea to integrate into emby to keep them with the movies and accessible from that movie's menu in emby. 

In other words it's an incredible waste of time that results in a mess that is pretty unusable in my opinion.  Now if there is a way to organize these extras and keep them with the movie easily please elaborate.....but even if so.....being able to keep the menu and use it with emby would be the best solution.  Until then emby to me is for movies only, no extras.  Not worth the time for the mess it results in.

Hi, naming is covered in our movie naming guide:

Movie Naming

And that results in this:

[crusher11 1101]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, naming is covered in our movie naming guide:

Movie Naming

And that results in this:

Please learn to read and understand posts in full before replying. 

[Dac10 2]

FYI, naming is not the issue. 

[ebr 16176]

9 hours ago, Dac10 said:

In this case it's a concert of various musicians and I like some of the acts, not all

Hi.  It is very likely that those scenes are marked as chapters and makemkv should transfer those chapters to the MKV where Emby will see them and you will have direct access to them both before and during playback.

[Dac10 2]

There are 4 mkv's. The first one is huge and contains numerous scenes. The other 3 are smaller and also contain several scenes. How to I click on chapters within the mkv's?

[Luke 42078]

1 hour ago, Dac10 said:

There are 4 mkv's. The first one is huge and contains numerous scenes. The other 3 are smaller and also contain several scenes. How to I click on chapters within the mkv's?

Can they be joined into one file?

[Dac10 2]

I suppose. I used the default settings on makemkv. What would this do?

[Luke 42078]

1 minute ago, Dac10 said:

I suppose. I used the default settings on makemkv. What would this do?

It would just make things easier so that all chapters would be available for selection in the Emby video player.

[Dac10 2]

How to do select chapters?

[Luke 42078]

The Emby video player has a chapters section. You can’t miss it.

[Dac10 2]

Is this within the Emby server?

[Luke 42078]

Yes.

[Dac10 2]

Not home. I'll check later. BTW, I usually use the Anazon Firestick app to use Emby on my TV. Is there a way to access chapters this way too?

[Luke 42078]

11 minutes ago, Dac10 said:

Not home. I'll check later. BTW, I usually use the Anazon Firestick app to use Emby on my TV. Is there a way to access chapters this way too?

Yes, in the same fashion.

[Dac10 2]

I found the chapters. Looking for media player software that plays DVDs w/launch menu. But not a big deal.

[visproduction 315]

In today's market and demand, DVD menus are not worth integrating into Media servers. It uses separate software to process, interact and access the menus.  I don't believe I have seen this work over any network.  The player software has to access the files directly and then send the media stream through the server.   Any command going back to the DVD menu would have to initiated from a click inside the user's front end software, sent as a TCP/IP packet to the server, then converted to a software DVD menu command to request the new menu image, video or audio, start a video stream and pass it the back to the user.    I think this could cause huge lag times and I don't think I have ever seen this attempted over a media stream connection. 

DVD menu playback was created in the early 90's.  Yes, it is still working on DVD's, but even the DVD producers have reduced extras and features.  I have personally produced film DVD's.  Almost all the DVD market has been replaced with streaming or a very smaller than expected market in blu-ray discs.  Extras are also added to blu-rays which use a menu system that requires a heavy licensing fee and needs encryption code release for playback, often even for menu access.  Blu-ray menus are also not suitable for media server.

DVD sales have dropped, about 99% in the last couple years.  Blu-ray sales are not doing, as expected.  Both have great content and blu-ray quality is exceptional and most always better than streaming.  Any DVD or blu-ray libary owner may wish to see all this content converted for the media server use.  But,  I don't think it makes business sense to incorporate menus into streaming.  People who do streaming online, Youtube, Netflix, Prime all work with individual videos that stream and no more disc menus online.  The online UI takes the place of the menus.

DVD menus over streaming is just not practical. It's not really in demand and any integration would have many problems and probably cause all sorts of errors that cannot be supported and it could easily kill any streaming site online.  No one does it.  Sure, your computer software player can handle DVD menus.  That is a software player directly working in the OS with the files on the DVD.  That is not the same as sending DVD menus to a media server.

I believe all home theater installations solutions with DVD or blu-ray disc playback only ever solve menu views by remote control of an actual blu-ray player which then streams directly to the TV or projector and bypasses any streaming video server.  If the home user switches remote control to a video server, there are no DVD or blu-ray menus anymore.

If you want every DVD extra converted, saved and made available inside the media server playback page for that film, it can be done.  DVD menus are not in video space, so adding the menu interaction makes no sense.  DVD design with menus was made with the idea that it should not be easy to pull out the content and that the user should want to purchase the DVD to get the full experience. So, it is a little difficult to get quality videos pulled out but there are some softwares that do it somewhat automatically.  You can run those software, get all the extras and they can show up nicely in the Emby media page 'Extras' folder.  This should take perhaps 5 minutes each to setup and may take 20 to 30 minutes to pull from the DVD and another 3 minutes to add to your media server.  If all the files are already on a hard drive, some software may convert all of them automatically, one after another and you could maybe get 20 done in an afternoon on an average workstation. Run a couple of workstations and you will twice that.  That's a possible solution.  You are making a copy of a product you purchased.  If you wanted to get that media in the streaming format, without doing any work,  you could buy a license to watch it online and use an online media service.  DVD and streaming are separate products.

Anyway, I wanted to be an outside voice to make the case that it is not a good idea to try to get DVD menus running on a streaming service, even though some users would love to have this feature.  Is there a video streaming product that shows DVD menus?  I would be like to see if somebody did it.  I don't know of any.