Multiple drives past "Z" possible?

[ZoWillie]

Am I trying to do something the hard way or....?

Im wanting to basically make a streaming HTPC that my other systems can connect to and play movies in whichever room Im in.
Is it possible to create a VCD disk past Z , like "AA", "AB" etc...? I'm wanting to mount all my movies in order to access thru a home network for viewing wherever. Is there a different/easier way to do this? I know of the Roku type boxes you can get, but $$ is a no go for me. I have computers in all my rooms , connected to my internet, I've look at XBMC, Windows Media, and other DVD/Bluray players, but I have to mount the ISO'S before playing them over the internet. Obviously I have a brain fart going on, every Media library software I've tried wants the files mounted for me to just click on them to play them. I would like a Netflix like setup of my files. Do I need to convert every movie to a ".MKV" to view without mounting ? What am I not understanding.

Any & all help/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Here's what I have to work with;
3 XP, 1 Win 7 Ultimate (main) systems
(All 4gb ram or more, all AMD Phenom X4/Intel 3.2 GHZ or more)
Linksys Router E2500
Internet Connection
8TB in USB drives / 4TB internal drives
(all fully loaded with "iso's of my library. )

Thank you in advanced for any & all help and to keeping your laughing behind "PM's"...

 

[mike_r]

Does your Windows build allow this?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ZoWillie]

Thanks for your reply.

Does your Windows build allow this?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Does my system support what? Was there a link that didn't make it thru or are you talking about the ClownBD and other programs listed at the bottom of your reply?


If its the programs I do have them, but I think I'm missing something. I'm trying to find a program that will play any video file in my library "ala Netflix style" be it .iso, .mkv, .mp4, etc... as I haven't seen one that does that as everything I have tried seemed to be restricted to only the available VCD mounted drives and I have to keep mounting & un-mounting manually in order to play them.

Thanks again for your time.

 

[George++]

Does my system support what? Was there a link that didn't make it thru or are you talking about the ClownBD and other programs listed at the bottom of your reply?


If its the programs I do have them, but I think I'm missing something. I'm trying to find a program that will play any video file in my library "ala Netflix style" be it .iso, .mkv, .mp4, etc... as I haven't seen one that does that as everything I have tried seemed to be restricted to only the available VCD mounted drives and I have to keep mounting & un-mounting manually in order to play them.

Thanks again for your time.

If Windows supports drive letters past "Z" then VCD will support drives past "Z". VCD uses the Windows system drive letter allocation.

You really need only one VCD drive, you can mount a new image without unmounting the previous one.

 

[ZoWillie]

What program is able to...

If Windows supports drive letters past "Z" then VCD will support drives past "Z". VCD uses the Windows system drive letter allocation.

You really need only one VCD drive, you can mount a new image without unmounting the previous one.

What program is out there that I can use for a HTPC setup that will play all my .iso files without having to manually mount a new one every time? Or do I need to convert them all to .mkv's or .avi's? Thanks for your time. -ZoWillie-

Apologies if this should be in a different thread.

 

[Howard Bates]

Windows only supports drive letters A-Z; I think Linux can handle an indefinitely large number of drives.
Both my cheap-ish streamers can play ISO files directly but I don't know of any Windows software that does so. However, in my experience, streamers don't handle disc menus very well, so I prefer to play from Windows.

Given the above, I think your approach is not the best way to achieve what you want, I think you would be much better off automating the process of mounting and playing images. It is quite easy if you have a little programming skill and a certain amount of patience.

I have a list of media items stored in an Access database, these items are audio disc images, audio tracks, video disc images and video files. I actually hold a lot of information, but a bare minimum would be ID / full path to image or file / media type.
I have a simple VB script which interrogates the database and if necessary loads a specified image onto a drive; it then starts the program defined for the relevant media type (FWIW I use different programs for audio and video). All the user has to type is the script name and the item ID, everything else happens automatically. Printed lists of images sit by the hi-fi and by the TV, they are updated once a month. My family tell me that this is the fastest and simplest way they have yet found to watch our stored media - browse the list, then type 'mim 234' or similar.

You can do all of this and much, much more from within the database if you wish - because I use a Windows PC as the playing device, you can access the database on the same screen that you watch on.

I'll be happy to explain more if you would like.

Best regards

 

[ZoWillie]

Yes please

Hey Howard, thanks that does sound like something I would like to do. If you have the time, I would like to know more, Thanks for your help.

I have found that XBMC will play all my files without mounting, but I get access to the movie only and the quality seems lacking compared to mounting and playing with VLC or PDVD.

Patiently awaiting your knowledge Sensai

 

[Howard Bates]

Automated media

Hey Howard, thanks that does sound like something I would like to do. If you have the time, I would like to know more, Thanks for your help.

I have found that XBMC will play all my files without mounting, but I get access to the movie only and the quality seems lacking compared to mounting and playing with VLC or PDVD.

Patiently awaiting your knowledge Sensai

OK, give me a little time to put something together. Perhaps you might give me an idea of your level of expertise, so I can pitch it about right ...

Best etc

 

[Howard Bates]

Automated media playing

Apologies for the delay.

I have attached a summary of my media system. You are welcome to have the code which finds physical/virtual optical drives and identifies any mounted images, also the code to mount and dismount images. The data structures and code relating to image content and its sub-divisions is of commercial value to me, and is not available freely.

The very simplest way to automate media playing as as follows :
Create ISO images from your DVD and Bluray discs. Create images of your audio discs (use Clone CD). For clarity, append A to audio images, V to DVD images and B to bluray images. For each audio disc, create a playlist (fpl) from the mounted disc image. Put all images of the same type in the same folder, then use the following batch file to mount and play them automatically. The file slp.exe causes a wait of the specified number of seconds, this allows time for the mounted image to be spotted and processed by Windows.
--------------
@ECHO OFF
REM Command line is vv.bat <image-ID>
SET imgfile=
SET imgtype=0
SET path-aud=<path to audio images>
SET path-blu=<path to Bluray images>
SET path-dvd=<path to DVD images>
SET playlist=
REM Get correct form of image file
IF NOT EXIST %path-aud%\%1A.ccd GOTO c01
SET imgtype=1
SET imgfile=%path-aud%\%1A.ccd
SET playlist=%path-aud%\%1A.fpl
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /U
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /L=T: %imgfile%
ECHO PLEASE WAIT - LOADING DISC
C:\PROGRAMS\slp.exe 5
C:\PROGRAMS\FOOBAR2K\foobar2000.exe %playlist%
GOTO end

:c01
IF NOT EXIST %path-dvd%\%1V.ISO GOTO c02
SET imgtype=2
SET imgfile=%path-dvd%\%1V.ISO
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /U
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /L=T: %imgfile%
ECHO PLEASE WAIT - LOADING DISC
C:\PROGRAMS\slp.exe 5
C:\PROGRAMS\VLC-PLAY\vlc.exe -f dvd:///T:
GOTO end

:c02
IF NOT EXIST %path-blu%\%1B.ISO GOTO error
SET imgtype=3
SET imgfile=%path-blu%\%1B.ISO
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /U
C:\PROGRAMS\VCLONEDR\vcdmount.exe /L=T: %imgfile%
ECHO PLEASE WAIT - LOADING DISC
C:\PROGRAMS\slp.exe 5
C:\PROGRAMS\VLC-PLAY\vlc.exe -f bluray:///T: :bluray-menu
GOTO end

:error
ECHO CANNOT FIND IMAGE
:end
-------------

Hope this helps
HB