Playing DVD, HD DVD and BluRay DVD from hard disk using TotalMedia Theatre

This documentation is a summary from different discussions and instructions in this thread.
Many thanks to mediadogg, Giga Wizard and all other forum users helped me
to set up my configuration properly  


Relevant SW installed on my PC:
- Windows XP Professional SP2 German
- DVD Profiler 3.1.1 Build 1171
- DVD Profiler Plugin LoadDVD version 1.45
- TotalMedia Theatre version 2.1.x.113

Intro:
  I ripped my DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs to the hard disc keeping the original file and folder
  structure. The idea is to run a movie from hard disc with its original menu and all features available
  just as it would do when play the disc with a player.

Here the steps I did:

1) I first modified the PlayFromDisk.bat in the C:/Program Files/DVD Profiler/Plugins/LoadDVD/ directory
    with a text editor to look like:

@echo off
rem %1 DescriptionSideA
rem %2 profileid - this is usually the UPC code
rem %3 disc#
rem %4 slot# or collection#
rem %5 Title or Sort Title or Label Side A
rem %6 filepath
rem %7 mediatype = "DVD", "HD" or "BluRay"
rem %8 and thereafter - remainder of Location field
echo %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
if %7=="DVD" c:\program files\TotalMedia Theatre\uDTStart.exe %6
if %7=="HD" c:\program files\TotalMedia Theatre\uDTStart.exe %6
if %7=="BluRay" c:\program files\TotalMedia Theatre\uDTStart.exe %6

2) I linked each movie in DVD Profiler with the movie on the disc.
    In each ripped movie folder there is one file that is used by TotalMedia Theatre to start the menu
    and play the movie.
    The correct path and name of this file must be entered in DVD Profiler.
    For a DVD it's the file VIDEO_TS.IFO in the folder VIDEO_TS
    FOR a HD DVD it's the file VA00001.VTI in the folder HVDVD_TS
    For a BluRay DVD it's the file index.bdmv in the folder BDMV
 
  -  open DVD Profiler
  -  select the DVD title
  -  Right Click on the Title in the Window 'Collection List'
  -  select 'Personalize'
  -  Now in the window 'Personalize DVD' enter the following text line in the 'Notes' field
      (modify the path to fit your configuration)

      a) for DVD enter:

[filepath]d:\DVDs\Normal DVDs\Aliens\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO[/filepath]

      b) for HD DVD enter:

[filepath]d:\DVDs\HD DVDs\King Kong\HVDVD_TS\HVA00001.VTI[/filepath]

      c) for BluRay DVD enter:

[filepath]d:\DVDs\Blu-Ray\I AM LEGEND\BDMV\index.bdmv[/filepath]

  -  in the 'Discs' section under 'Location:' enter: Play
  -  Make sure that the media type in DVD Proviler for each movie is correctly set to DVD, HD or
      BluRay.

3) Now I linked the index files mentioned above with the TotalMedia Theatre application
  (this only has to be done once for each type of file):

  - for DVD: go to the VIDEO_TS.IFO file and modify the file property that the file will open
    with TotalMedia Theatre
  - repeat this for HD with the file HVA00001.VTI
  - repeat this for BluRay with the file index.bdmv

4) for a test just double click on one of the VIDEO_TS.IFO, HVA00001.VTI or index.bdmv files,
  and the movie will start with TotalMedia Theatre.

Now all is configured and you can start your movies out of DVD Profiler

Hi everyone,

Im new to this forum, and I'm not quite sure this was the right thread to post this , so please forgive me!

after messing around a bit I finally made LoadDVD playing my movie trailers from a drive in my network :-) , super tool for doing this by the way. I have just come load of huge storage space in wanted to start saving my DVD's to HD. The plan is to be able to play them from DVDprofiler with the help of LoadDVD, as i can see others do this.

Now i need help, im totally new to this kind of thing.
Is it legal ?. I suppose when backup is the only purpose, but when u intent to use it forplayback , I could practically sell all my DVD's afterwards, would it then still be legal?)

What tools do ya all use for saving DVD's to HD, and is there a quality loss ?, how about subtitles and menus, extra materials etc.

Is there a guide to do al this somewhere on-line ?, i bet there is!

Greetings.
Nick Jensen

Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
@Martin_60 I think you want to take the "pause" out ...

it works fine on my PC with that "pause". so why remove? what's the purpose of it?

Quoting Martin_60:

Quote:
Quoting mediadogg:

Quote:
@Martin_60 I think you want to take the "pause" out ...

it works fine on my PC with that "pause". so why remove? what's the purpose of it?

"Pause" is a command that stops execution of the .bat file. It is useful during debugging with the play/s or file/s options - the "/s" means "show" rather than hide the script window. Maybe when the script is hidden, the pause does not take effect - I have never tested that. You can check windows taskmanger to see if you have a bunch of dormant command file windows with TheaterTek. If so, that is just eating up your system resources. If on the other hand, only one copy of TheaterTek is allowed to be open, then the only possible result is that it never closes. It just picks up the next movie request.

If you want to leave it that way, fine but I see no reason to pause the script at that point - it was in there for testing purposes only. (Edit: sorry Giga - why can't I just leave things to you?????  )

Quoting johnnowak:

Quote:
Has anyone actually set LoadDVD to control a CX995?  If so I could really use your help.

I'm confused by the documentation for this.  I see LoadDVD can create a batch file using the USBUIRT command.  However, what is the program in the batch file that would be used to send the IR to the USBUIRT? Girder?  Reading other posts, it looks like LoadDVD directly controls the USBUIRT without need of the batch file.  If so, exactly what IR commands does it send to the changer?

I have a USBUIRT but am confused on whether I need to add a program like Girder so that I can pass batch file commands to the USBUIRT or whether that is not necessary.

Thanks

Answer is here.

@johnnowak,

Hi, would you do me a favor and edit out the quoted instructions? When I update them, your post will contain obsolete information, and it adds clutter to the thread. Thanks. Best way to answer all those simple questions is ti just install the thing and try it. I can repond better to your experience.

@johnnowak:

Ok, now we are talking. If you want to edit your own IR commands, be my guest. A few posts back, I gave some info to a user who wanted to send his own commands to an A/V receiver. You can call the IR blasting program from usbirt.bat, which is triggered by using "USBIRT" in the location field.

Now, so far as the delays - do you think I would arbitrarily insert unnecessary delays? The command sequence was recommended by a user who had perfected them for his Harmony Remote. Then I did my own testing and made adjustments. You say it works - that was my goal. I don't have time to individually tweak stuff for each user's machine. Wanna write your own to shave off a few milliseconds here and there, and do your own debugging, be my guest.

Edit: Here is the info on a program you can call from USBIRT.bat to send any IR codes you want.

Thanks, by the way for your kind comments, and your prompt attention to my request about the quoted post. 

Media Dog:
I am getting an error with Ver 1.45 and 1.43

startIndex cannot be larger than length of string.
parameter name: startIndex

I get this after selecting a second or third DVD form the list with LoadDVD.

I went back to Version 1.40 and it does not happen.

I am also waiting on a USB uirt to try those other options for changing imputs on the receiver.

Thanks
Art