Blu-Ray -Disc- Playback. Point me in the right direction please.

[nickbuol 31]

I am fairly new to the whole HTPC scene, but I have a requirement from my wife that I *must* be able to pop in a blu-ray disc into the HTPC and have it play, not just be able to access my already ripped library of movies.  This would be for those times that the kids have friends over any they bring a movie, or they hit up the local Red Box for something that we don't have.  I don't want to have to rip the movie before it can be watched.

 

What should I be looking into that integrates with MB3?   Again, not asking for a tutorial (unless someone wants to give me one), just some key words that I can Google search or something.

 

I should also note that I am looking to use something that gives me the best HD video and audio output.  I've heard of programs like madVR and such for improving the video, but not sure if that ties into how a blu-ray disc is played back.  The integrated playback plugin/app/whatever also needs to play back the HD audio.  My searching, while yielding OLD information, talks about VLC not being able to do HD Audio.

 

Thanks a MILLION.  The success of my HTPC is depending upon it (due to my wife's requirement).

Edited October 20, 2013 by nickbuol

[gcw07 347]

If your wanting to play a disc, that will have to be done outside of MB and won't have anything to do with integration with MB3 at all. Basically it would just mean you would need to use a program like AnyDVD or TNT to play the disc directly within their software. Unless you rip it and put it into your collection MB would never see it.

 

Honestly, to me I just have a separate blu-ray player device for those instances and just pop it into the player. Sure it means switching inputs, but that doesn't really mean much to me at least.

[xliv 2]

If you want to play BR discs with menus, then you have basically 2 choices: Arcsoft's TMT, and Cyberlink PowerDVD. They are not free, and quite expensive.

It's true that this will be done outside MB.

Both have the ability to auto-launch when you insert a disc.

In terms of quality, they are pretty much equivalent. Very good picture and sound quality, when setup right.

I have a preference for PowerDVD, playback is smoother in my case (no frame drop), last version (13) is pretty stable. But I encourage you to try both (both have trial versions).

 

There are others, but I was never lucky to make them work right.

madVR is a renderer that would be used in conjunction with MPC-HC. But I'm not using MPC for Blu-rays as MPC won't display BR menus, and won't auto launch either when you insert a disc.

Edited October 20, 2013 by xliv

[nickbuol 31]

Crud.  I was hoping for full integration into Media Browser.

 

I have a licensed copy of TMT6.  Maybe I will just have to move it over to the HTPC from its current install, set it to auto-launch when a disc is inserted and call it a day.

 

I know it seems silly, since I already have a nice stand alone blu-ray player, but again, when "selling" this whole setup with a media server and HTPC to my wife, she said "only if you can get it down to 1 box" meaning no more HD-DVD player, and no more blu-ray player.  Getting rid of the HD-DVD player is easy since my media for that is old and nothing is being added (ever) to that format so it all got ripped.  Getting rid of the blu-ray player is proving to be a bigger task.

 

Thanks again guys for the posts and guidance.

 

Now if I can just figure out why it keeps thinking that I am not using UNC paths when I am, I'll be golden... LOL  I will tackle that one tomorrow after a night's sleep.

[CWNashvegas 170]

 

Now if I can just figure out why it keeps thinking that I am not using UNC paths when I am, I'll be golden... LOL  I will tackle that one tomorrow after a night's sleep.

You getting the "cannot access...attempt to stream... use UNC paths" in MB Classic? That's sort of a catch-all WMC error, not MB3s fault that it's often misleading. If your media plays fine in the web client, look for possible codec issues instead.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Crud.  I was hoping for full integration into Media Browser.

 

I have a licensed copy of TMT6.  Maybe I will just have to move it over to the HTPC from its current install, set it to auto-launch when a disc is inserted and call it a day.

 

I know it seems silly, since I already have a nice stand alone blu-ray player, but again, when "selling" this whole setup with a media server and HTPC to my wife, she said "only if you can get it down to 1 box" meaning no more HD-DVD player, and no more blu-ray player.  Getting rid of the HD-DVD player is easy since my media for that is old and nothing is being added (ever) to that format so it all got ripped.  Getting rid of the blu-ray player is proving to be a bigger task.

 

Thanks again guys for the posts and guidance.

 

Now if I can just figure out why it keeps thinking that I am not using UNC paths when I am, I'll be golden... LOL  I will tackle that one tomorrow after a night's sleep.

You can run your TMT6 on more than one machine, I do, and have never had it complain, and yes I'm using a legit paid for copy of it.

[nickbuol 31]

TMT6 is working well for a blu-ray disc playback.  I can have MB3 running, and then just pop in a disc, and TMT6 takes over and plays it.  I can't get TMT6 to close down when I eject the disc, but that is minor.

 

Jeremy, I don't really use TMT6 on my desktop any more, so it is not an issue, but I may try reinstalling it on there at some point just to see if it works.

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

Edited October 23, 2013 by nickbuol

[JeremyFr79 228]

to close TMT6, you just use the "back" key on your MCE remote or "start/green" and it will close TMT, also make sure you have the latest update for TMT6 as there was some issues with the initial release.

[ttmb 0]

Hi all

 

With many apologies for returning to this one, but just requesting an update for me or others...

 

Please can anyone confirm if MB3 does or does not stream Blu-ray to Roku or other clients:-

 

ie if you have a Windows 8.1 PC with MB3, Blu-ray hardware and TotalMediaTheatre on it can you play back a movie on to a Roku or other client on your home network?

 

Or another way(!) if someone comes home with a Blu-ray, they put it in the PC which has MB3 on it, would a Roku 3 on the home network be able to see / play it in MB3!

 

Once again, many apologies if this has been updated since the above entries on any other thread.

 

With thanks and regards

Edited January 12, 2015 by ttmb

[Luke 42077]

if the bluray is ripped to mkv then yes no problem.

 

If it is a folder structure or Iso - then yes you can try but we consider streaming those an experimental feature. often it will work great, but sometimes it won't work at all.

[ttmb 0]

Hi Luke

 

Many thanks, re the above, this was not for ripped discs but for hard copy media blu-rays

 

ie If we have no existing iso / ripped media, but someone comes to our home and places a blu-ray in the pc (ie like they would place in a standalone Blu-ray player) could a Roku 3 on the home network play the DVD?

 

With many thanks and regards

[Luke 42077]

in theory you could point Meida browser server at the path to the drive (with the disc inside), and it should work at least attempt to stream it.

[ttmb 0]

Hi Luke

 

Many thanks, is there a post / can you point me in the right direction re how to do that?

 

 

Many thx

[Luke 42077]

it's not designed for it, so you would be the first i am only saying that in theory, it might work.

[ttmb 0]

Hi Luke

 

Understood! Please can you confirm where I need to go in the settings, for me to point Media browser server at the path to the drive (with the disc inside) to try?

 

With many thanks and regards

Edited January 12, 2015 by ttmb

[Bert 49]

I would guess you would add the drive as a media folder