2012-07-25, 17:59
I recently ripped my entire DVD collection into ISO files in anticipation of building a media center infrastructure throughout my home. Since then I have stumbled across XBMC. What an awesome product!
Prior to trying XBMC, I had been mounting the ISO files on my own desktop using Daemon Tools as a virtual DVD drive and playing them with VLC, which always worked. I used this as a "proof of concept" that I was building my ISO files correctly. Unfortunately, XBMC fails to play the same ISO files, but I managed to resolve that issue and will describe the solution below.
Here is how I was ripping a single DVD movie. I use DVD Smith Movie Backup (free) to rip the VIDEO_TS directory from the DVD to a hard drive, removing the encryption and region settings along the way, and then Folder2Iso (free) to convert the directory into an ISO file. Sometimes I copied over the JACKET_P directory (or AUDIO_TS directory if one existed that actually contained files), but mostly I intentionally preferred to strip away all of the other junk that tends to come on a DVD (players and auto-launchers, etc.).
Later I batched this process by building a light machine with many (5+) DVD drives and launching many copies of DVD Smith Movie Backup at once, dumping each into a separate folder. I then used a simple Powershell script (which I can post later if anyone is interested) to locate folders with VIDEO_TS sub-folders, execute MKISOFS for each, and delete the original folder upon completion. I was able to rip 15+ DVD's per hour into folders this way, doing the conversion to ISO at night while I slept.
Folder2Iso uses an internally embedded copy of Mkisofs to build ISO files. I've found that the easiest way to acquire Mkisofs on Windows is simply to use Folder2Iso on a large directory and then go into your user %TEMP% directory and copy out the following files (which are deleted once Folder2Iso is complete).
mkisofs.exe
cygwin1.dll
cygintl-8.dll
cygiconv-2.dll
Put these files into any folder and you now have a working copy of Mkisofs on Windows to use for batch ISO operations.
Now when I tried to play these ISO files on XBMC, they all fail. In the debug logs I found the following clues.
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: opening target '%mypath%\Back to the Future 1.iso'
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: msg:
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdcss debug:
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: using libc for access
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: msg:
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdcss error: failed creating cache directory
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav: vm: DVD Title: BACK_TO_THE_FUTURE
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav: Unable to find map file 'RIVE=C:/.dvdnav/BACK_TO_THE_FUTURE.map'
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav
VDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnavVDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdnav: vm: failed to read VIDEO_TS.IFO
00:22:57 T:6504 ERROR: Error on dvdnav_open
00:22:57 T:6504 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - failed to open [%mypath%\Back to the Future 1.iso] as DVD ISO, trying Bluray
The key here is that it seems to be unable to find the /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO file (or its backup) even though I can readily see these files using WinRAR or when the ISO is mounted with Daemon Tools. After digging through the source code for a while, I found the DVDOpenFileUDF routine, and eventually the light bulb went on. My ISO files were CDFS and not UDF!
When Folder2Iso launches Mkisofs, it uses the following command line parameters.
-J -joliet-long -jcharset iso8859-1 -l -r -V "BILLCOSBY169" -o "%mypath%\Bill Cosby Himself.iso" "%mypath%\Bill Cosby Himself\BILLCOSBY169\"
By adding -dvd-video to this command line, I am able to generate an ISO file with UDF support that XBMC plays without error.
It looks like I will need to extract and rebuild all of my ISO files using this new approach, but this can be scripted easily enough to run over a weekend (nearly 4TB total), so I'm happy to do it.
I hope this helps others.
Thanks to the XBMC team for a truly excellent product!
Prior to trying XBMC, I had been mounting the ISO files on my own desktop using Daemon Tools as a virtual DVD drive and playing them with VLC, which always worked. I used this as a "proof of concept" that I was building my ISO files correctly. Unfortunately, XBMC fails to play the same ISO files, but I managed to resolve that issue and will describe the solution below.
Here is how I was ripping a single DVD movie. I use DVD Smith Movie Backup (free) to rip the VIDEO_TS directory from the DVD to a hard drive, removing the encryption and region settings along the way, and then Folder2Iso (free) to convert the directory into an ISO file. Sometimes I copied over the JACKET_P directory (or AUDIO_TS directory if one existed that actually contained files), but mostly I intentionally preferred to strip away all of the other junk that tends to come on a DVD (players and auto-launchers, etc.).
Later I batched this process by building a light machine with many (5+) DVD drives and launching many copies of DVD Smith Movie Backup at once, dumping each into a separate folder. I then used a simple Powershell script (which I can post later if anyone is interested) to locate folders with VIDEO_TS sub-folders, execute MKISOFS for each, and delete the original folder upon completion. I was able to rip 15+ DVD's per hour into folders this way, doing the conversion to ISO at night while I slept.
Folder2Iso uses an internally embedded copy of Mkisofs to build ISO files. I've found that the easiest way to acquire Mkisofs on Windows is simply to use Folder2Iso on a large directory and then go into your user %TEMP% directory and copy out the following files (which are deleted once Folder2Iso is complete).
mkisofs.exe
cygwin1.dll
cygintl-8.dll
cygiconv-2.dll
Put these files into any folder and you now have a working copy of Mkisofs on Windows to use for batch ISO operations.
Now when I tried to play these ISO files on XBMC, they all fail. In the debug logs I found the following clues.
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: opening target '%mypath%\Back to the Future 1.iso'
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: msg:
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdcss debug:
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: using libc for access
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: msg:
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdcss error: failed creating cache directory
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav: vm: DVD Title: BACK_TO_THE_FUTURE
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav: Unable to find map file 'RIVE=C:/.dvdnav/BACK_TO_THE_FUTURE.map'
00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav
VDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO failed00:22:57 T:6504 INFO: msg: libdvdnav
VDOpenFileUDF:UDFFindFile /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP failed00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdread: Can't open file VIDEO_TS.IFO.
00:22:57 T:6504 DEBUG: libdvdnav: vm: failed to read VIDEO_TS.IFO
00:22:57 T:6504 ERROR: Error on dvdnav_open
00:22:57 T:6504 ERROR: CDVDPlayer::OpenInputStream - failed to open [%mypath%\Back to the Future 1.iso] as DVD ISO, trying Bluray
The key here is that it seems to be unable to find the /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO file (or its backup) even though I can readily see these files using WinRAR or when the ISO is mounted with Daemon Tools. After digging through the source code for a while, I found the DVDOpenFileUDF routine, and eventually the light bulb went on. My ISO files were CDFS and not UDF!
When Folder2Iso launches Mkisofs, it uses the following command line parameters.
-J -joliet-long -jcharset iso8859-1 -l -r -V "BILLCOSBY169" -o "%mypath%\Bill Cosby Himself.iso" "%mypath%\Bill Cosby Himself\BILLCOSBY169\"
By adding -dvd-video to this command line, I am able to generate an ISO file with UDF support that XBMC plays without error.
It looks like I will need to extract and rebuild all of my ISO files using this new approach, but this can be scripted easily enough to run over a weekend (nearly 4TB total), so I'm happy to do it.
I hope this helps others.
Thanks to the XBMC team for a truly excellent product!
