2007-10-04, 09:48
Does such a thing exist?
I've been trying to think of ways to make the entire XBMC simpler and more 'normal-person friendly', right now the biggest problem I can see is getting media into the system (onto the xbox internal HD/network shares/wherever) since it's currently a multi stage process. Assuming the normal person will *only* be using owned DVD's/CD's to put media into the system, you need to do the following:
> Rip DVD using program 1
> Pick appropriate files and compress using program 2 (optional)
> Name file / folder appropriately
> Move data to the appropriate place if it's not already there
> Run a scan to get the data from imdb/thetvdb/etc.
Then, to view something off this (say episode 12 of a DVD boxset), you need to find the dvd in the database, load it (maybe watch some anti-piracy ads/trailers etc) and go through the menus to get to that episode.
That's a lot of stuff.
My first idea for making this a bit easier is to have a cue sheet file for dvds (hence the title
)
So that a DVD can be ripped to ISO (or video_ts), and have a thisdvd.DVDCUE in the same directory/somewhere that has pointers to the file/time/byte position that partX of that DVD starts, eg.
This way, doesn't involve any sort of compression, so any storage might fill up fast, but if there was a central storage database for DVDCUE files , like thetvdb is for episode info, the entire process could be automatic.
> Put DVD in Xbox
> Some sort of autorun thing could happen (python script?) to look at the DVD's name (unique id? do dvd's have a way of explicitly identifying themselves?) and if the DVD doesn't already exist on the share, you get a prompt: "Do you want to VIEW or RIP this DVD"
-> Choose RIP and DVD2XBOX rips the DVD, copies it to a share/wherever and runs a database update script.
-> The script looks at the DVDs name/id, goes to theDVDCUEDB.com and gets the appropriate CUE file for that DVD/Region/Issue/etc.
-> If the CUE doesn't have all the info (I imagine it'll just be name/file combos) the update library script kicks off and gets the rest of the media's info from thetvdb/imdb etc.
Like I say this is a first step in thinking about things. It might be impossible to start an arbitrary DVD file from an arbitrary point (I can't see why though), or lots of other things might be wrong/hard to do. But I'd like to know if this sounds feasible in the long run - if it is, I'm more than willing to do it
It might even be feasible now with normal shortcut files - I don;t know, but I cant see anything on the wiki/anywhere else to suggest that there's a complete 1 step method to getting media from DVD to XBOX without a lot of extra pain.
I've been trying to think of ways to make the entire XBMC simpler and more 'normal-person friendly', right now the biggest problem I can see is getting media into the system (onto the xbox internal HD/network shares/wherever) since it's currently a multi stage process. Assuming the normal person will *only* be using owned DVD's/CD's to put media into the system, you need to do the following:
> Rip DVD using program 1
> Pick appropriate files and compress using program 2 (optional)
> Name file / folder appropriately
> Move data to the appropriate place if it's not already there
> Run a scan to get the data from imdb/thetvdb/etc.
Then, to view something off this (say episode 12 of a DVD boxset), you need to find the dvd in the database, load it (maybe watch some anti-piracy ads/trailers etc) and go through the menus to get to that episode.
That's a lot of stuff.
My first idea for making this a bit easier is to have a cue sheet file for dvds (hence the title
)So that a DVD can be ripped to ISO (or video_ts), and have a thisdvd.DVDCUE in the same directory/somewhere that has pointers to the file/time/byte position that partX of that DVD starts, eg.
Code:
Friends_SeasonX.DVDCUE
"The one with the funny thing that happens"
VTS_02_0.VOB
00:00:00
"The one with hilarious consequences"
VTS_02_1.VOB
00:00:00
etc.This way, doesn't involve any sort of compression, so any storage might fill up fast, but if there was a central storage database for DVDCUE files , like thetvdb is for episode info, the entire process could be automatic.
> Put DVD in Xbox
> Some sort of autorun thing could happen (python script?) to look at the DVD's name (unique id? do dvd's have a way of explicitly identifying themselves?) and if the DVD doesn't already exist on the share, you get a prompt: "Do you want to VIEW or RIP this DVD"
-> Choose RIP and DVD2XBOX rips the DVD, copies it to a share/wherever and runs a database update script.
-> The script looks at the DVDs name/id, goes to theDVDCUEDB.com and gets the appropriate CUE file for that DVD/Region/Issue/etc.
-> If the CUE doesn't have all the info (I imagine it'll just be name/file combos) the update library script kicks off and gets the rest of the media's info from thetvdb/imdb etc.
Like I say this is a first step in thinking about things. It might be impossible to start an arbitrary DVD file from an arbitrary point (I can't see why though), or lots of other things might be wrong/hard to do. But I'd like to know if this sounds feasible in the long run - if it is, I'm more than willing to do it
It might even be feasible now with normal shortcut files - I don;t know, but I cant see anything on the wiki/anywhere else to suggest that there's a complete 1 step method to getting media from DVD to XBOX without a lot of extra pain.
