Similar to how you can direct your player software to the video_ts folder, as long as encryption is not an issue (I have AnyDVD HD) it will play just like the disk was in a local drive. I tried to point my PowerDVD to various folders on the disk, but it didn't seem to recognize any of them as a playable movie. Is there any way to do what I'm trying?
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Any way to play a Blu-ray disk over a network?
- Thread starter davel23
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What I do is use MediaPortal as a frontend. With this setup, I then use virtual clone drive's ability to act like daemon tools, which will automount and autoplay bluray movies over the network when I click Ok on my remote in mediaportal. Works fantastic. I always use tsmuxer to strip everything out of blurays except for the main video, AC3 audio, and english subtitles to create an iso file.
Any version of PDVD after 7.3 build 3319a will not play back blu-ray from a folder, yo can get it to play the m2ts file for the film (assuming it's just 1 file for the movie) but it won't play back HD audio tracks when playing back in file mode
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I don't know, maybe WinDVD?
Johnny B Richman
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My WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray definitely cannot do that.
lampshader
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the only way to do this is to use .iso files. I do this over my network by having the bluray iso's on one of my servers, i then mount the iso with daemon tools and just use pdvd9 to play them, ive tried this with gigabyte network and it's fine i think you mgiht strugle if ou use 100mb/sec and you have other traffic on the netwrok tho
thephantomfl
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Play Blu Ray over Network
I have built a media server with 5 terabytes of space with two workstation computers on each tv. I simply use anydvd and extract the movie to a directory I have made for its genre. I don't shrink the DVDs because I think it work better this way although space does get sucked up quick. On the server I make each directory shared and on the workstations I map a drive to the directories I have set up. On all the PCs I have anydvd and total media theatre 3 which is the only program that will play a bluray from a hard drive just like it was playing a disc. Works perfectly. I am still looking for something that will organize the library in XP but haven't found anything. Can't stand Vista and Windows 7 has glitches that cause total media theatre to freeze up. However this works like a champ without hiccups. Once Slysoft comes out with clonebluray (heres hoping) I will condense them down. I don't have the time to shuffle through each file piecing movies together. Anyway this is one solution that works.
I have built a media server with 5 terabytes of space with two workstation computers on each tv. I simply use anydvd and extract the movie to a directory I have made for its genre. I don't shrink the DVDs because I think it work better this way although space does get sucked up quick. On the server I make each directory shared and on the workstations I map a drive to the directories I have set up. On all the PCs I have anydvd and total media theatre 3 which is the only program that will play a bluray from a hard drive just like it was playing a disc. Works perfectly. I am still looking for something that will organize the library in XP but haven't found anything. Can't stand Vista and Windows 7 has glitches that cause total media theatre to freeze up. However this works like a champ without hiccups. Once Slysoft comes out with clonebluray (heres hoping) I will condense them down. I don't have the time to shuffle through each file piecing movies together. Anyway this is one solution that works.
PowerDVD plays them the same as if they were disks. Also, again, I recommend MediaPortal as it has some fantastic browsing and sorting abilities, not to mention several skins with some very sexy and sleek interfaces.
I think I'll have to go this route. I'm wired for Gig-E so bandwidth shouldn't be a problem.
Seeing as blu-ray maximum bitrate is 40mbps I don't think streaming on 100mbit network will be a problem.
Not so.
In order to perform the standard BluRay functions, every BD drive is capable of at least 2X read performance. The drive also supports burst reads from its track cache at much higher rates than that.
This is part of what allows fast forward (although skipping occurs) and other trick play options.
2x means at least 80 Mbps and usage at 80% on an Ethernet style network tends to have issues with consumer switches and routers. Packets are lost and must be resent.
In addition, there is almost none of the burst capacity that you would have even with the lamest USB2 interface (which is in practice three times as fast as the ideal 100 Mbps of the Ethernet).
And, as lampshader mentioned, there might be other traffic sharing the network segment.
A streaming server could certainly play HD on a 100 Mbps interface. A XBox 360 does so easily. A streaming server, however, uses strategies appropriate to a network connection. By contrast, a BluRay player, even when playing back from a network image, uses the strategies and guarantees of a local BD drive on a much faster interface.
That difference tends to mean that playback will most likely be unsatisfactory on such an anemic transport.
To compensate for the difference between local and network playback (without redesigning the player) you need a lot of headroom on the interface.
Gigabit provides that headroom and is very low cost or free with most devices. And no, you don't need to replace your existing CAT5 wiring to use it. It was designed for CAT5.
retiredskiinstructor
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The max video bit rate of Blu-ray is 40mbps. The max transfer rate is 54mpbs. 1X on Blu-ray is 36mpbs, and the minimum spin rate for a Blu-ray video player is 1.5X (54mpbs).
I think 100mbit should do the job. I use GigE, but you can sustain 54mpbs point to point in a 100mbit system, especially if both devices are plugged directly into the same ethernet switch. This gives the two devices a virtual channel of nearly 100mbps (each direction, 200mbps full duplex) dedicated to them (minus a little bit of broadcast traffic), which should be enough to carry the day. Even when doing FF/REW operations, as those don't usually just send the data quicker, they skip over some data.
I think 100mbit should do the job. I use GigE, but you can sustain 54mpbs point to point in a 100mbit system, especially if both devices are plugged directly into the same ethernet switch. This gives the two devices a virtual channel of nearly 100mbps (each direction, 200mbps full duplex) dedicated to them (minus a little bit of broadcast traffic), which should be enough to carry the day. Even when doing FF/REW operations, as those don't usually just send the data quicker, they skip over some data.
The difference between theory and practice is the difference between wishful thinking and satisfaction.
I will take the latter.
It is clear that 100Mbps networks are adequate most of the time. If I had only 100Mbps hardware, I would not hesitate to try to make it work.
However, if I am planning hardware purchases, it would be foolish to buy 100Mbps equipment at this time. The cost increment for gigabit networking is too small, and the benefits too large.
Discs like The Fifth Element (remastered) run at the full A/V rate of 54Mbps for extended periods. At about 55% of theoretical bandwidth and 65% of practical bandwidth, the residual bandwidth is limited.
The slowest drives are still 2x or 72Mbps. This is almost exactly the same as the effective data rate maximum for 100Mbps Ethernet of 75Mbps. It leaves no room for the burst transfers that real players expect.
Most of the time, this will be adequate. From time to time, though, you will have glitches, skips and a lack of responsiveness that you would not see on a gigabit network.
I will take the latter.
It is clear that 100Mbps networks are adequate most of the time. If I had only 100Mbps hardware, I would not hesitate to try to make it work.
However, if I am planning hardware purchases, it would be foolish to buy 100Mbps equipment at this time. The cost increment for gigabit networking is too small, and the benefits too large.
Discs like The Fifth Element (remastered) run at the full A/V rate of 54Mbps for extended periods. At about 55% of theoretical bandwidth and 65% of practical bandwidth, the residual bandwidth is limited.
The slowest drives are still 2x or 72Mbps. This is almost exactly the same as the effective data rate maximum for 100Mbps Ethernet of 75Mbps. It leaves no room for the burst transfers that real players expect.
Most of the time, this will be adequate. From time to time, though, you will have glitches, skips and a lack of responsiveness that you would not see on a gigabit network.
I must be doing something wrong. {Sarcasm} 8)
I only have a 100Meg network & my son can watch a high def TV program or 1 of his DVD's in the bedroom on my HD-200 & I can watch a Blu-ray rip just fine in the living room. Both items are being served from my unRAID server. I've never had a problem with this. Of course I'm running XP which might help, since Vista has had problems with throttling network activity with media files.
If I was buying network equipment for the first time, it would be a no brainer. Go for 1 Gig all the way. Much less chance for problems.
But if you already have a 100 Meg network & have it optimized for error free service, you will not have any problem watching Blu-ray thru your network.
Of course this has been my experience only..
I only have a 100Meg network & my son can watch a high def TV program or 1 of his DVD's in the bedroom on my HD-200 & I can watch a Blu-ray rip just fine in the living room. Both items are being served from my unRAID server. I've never had a problem with this. Of course I'm running XP which might help, since Vista has had problems with throttling network activity with media files.
If I was buying network equipment for the first time, it would be a no brainer. Go for 1 Gig all the way. Much less chance for problems.
But if you already have a 100 Meg network & have it optimized for error free service, you will not have any problem watching Blu-ray thru your network.
Of course this has been my experience only..
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I have not had any problem playing blurays on any of my server OS's. I have had vista servers, server 08, and now windows 7. Windows 7 is what I would recommend, as it provides the best network throughput of these three options. With vista/xp64, i would get about 40MB a second transfer, however with windows 7 and 0 configuration changes, I get a sustained 89MB data transfer rate.
This was more in response to Phil saying he had throttling issues, which thankfully I have not experienced. Maybe disable the autotuning or the NTI?
This was more in response to Phil saying he had throttling issues, which thankfully I have not experienced. Maybe disable the autotuning or the NTI?
Well, it's been a while but I've found an elegant, if pricey solution to the problem. I picked myself up one of these. They come one- or two-terabyte configurations and either a DVD or Blu-ray drive. You can also get one without hard drives, so I got myself one with the Blu-ray drive and bought two 2-terabyte drives. The optical drive can be mounted over a network as an iSCSI device, so I can mount it on any of my computers and play Blu-rays directly from the disks. Not to mention I now have 4 terabytes of network storage for ripped media. Pretty sweet!