[ultra]

Hi there,

I am using an core duo mac mini with the intel GMA onboard graphics for DVDs currently and all works fine.

Now I think about upgrading with the Crystal HD to add Blue Rays support what leads to a few questions.

1) What formats does XBMC support for 1080p content ? So how do I need to store/convert the blue rays ?
2) Is there any way to have the same nice library display there is for DVDs also for BlueRays ?

So basically do the same as currently done for DVDs with BlueRays.

Thanks in advance for any help.
ultra

[idioteque]

Do you want full bluray disk experiance like menu's and or is just the movie enough for you?

[ultra]

Full experience with menu's would be great and the final target.

If not the only the movie will also do as a first step.

[idioteque]

XBMC can play almost any fileformat. The hardware is the main problem.

1: The Mac mini on its own is not fast enough to play any scene mkv or bluray's
2: Inserting a Crystal HD will make it play most mkv or blu-ray files (not disks) as long as they are within specs. (most real scene releases are now a day's)
3: The mac cannot play any blu-ray disks with menu's, retail or backed-up, for lack of software and licences.
4: the Mac with VLC or XBMC can play the main movie or can read the file structure of a blu-ray disk but not 100% reliable. (might stutter when going to next part of the movie)
5: Not all HD audio formats are compatible on the mac. MA etc. AC3 and DTS are of course fine.
6: inserting a Cristal HD, you wil lose Wifi but that can be fixes by using a USB wifi dongle

My advise:

1: If storage space is not an option and you want the best quality and compatiblity, just copy the largest MTS file and put it in a folder. Like \The Wrestler (2008)\0000.mts
XBMC will download all movie info and show up in your library
2: Rip the movie to mkv to preserve diskspace but lose some quality in auto and videoif you wish.
3: Buy a NAS with 4x 2TB disk RAID 5 for a total of $500. You dont want to lose all the work you put in building a movie collection disappear when a disk fails. This gives you 5,5 TB and if 1 disk fails you still keep al the data. I own a Netgear Readynas with Flexraid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexRAID) Is is easy for dummies. All is automatic.



Goodluck

[ultra]

Thanks idioteque!

This is already very helpful. I knew about the lack of BlueRay support of Mac, but this seems to be a good way of doing it.
I have a NAS and other external storag, so that is ok.

I will do some tests with XBMC library info and mts and mkv files.

Sounds like a good way to do it. Thanks again !

[ultra]

Thanks idioteque,

found some time over Xmas to test some things, but up to now it did not work unfortunately.

I copied the largest mts file to e.g. \Invasion\00000.mts and tried to get the movie information in XBMC but it did not work.
Any ideas ? Do I need a special scraper or the mkv format ?

BTW, I first tried to put a symbolic link to 00000.m2ts so that the structure would look like this
\Invasion\00000.m2ts --> \Invasion\BDMV\STREAM\00000.m2ts
But XBMC did not recognize the link. Any idea for that ?