The Choice (US Netflix)

[TheAviator7]

When The Choice first came out I tried to rip it (sorry I don't have the unprotected log files for that disc). It works in Cyberlink PowerDVD 10, but not in Kodi or my KDLinks box. Lionsgate "Dear Customer,..." would come up then scenes were all screwed up and out of order after a certain point. So I waited a couple of months and requested it again. Tried to rip it (not sure if it is the same version disc as before) and it has the same issue. "Dear Customer,..." error in Kodi and on my KDLinks box chapters out of order, but again plays fine in Cyberlink PowerDVD 10. So I read through the forums and realized Lionsgate has some new protection methods. So I downloaded AnyDVD HD 8.0.3.1 Beta and it actually made it worse. The audio is screwed up (no voice/character audio after a certain point and random sounds/music) in addition to the track list issues or scenes being out of order. Below are the log files. I hope I created them correctly. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Hackerjac]

it already tell you the right playlist in status window

And when you say PowerDVD plays it right, it is as it should be
kodi isent a licensed player, so it just pick a random playlist, normaly the biggest

 

[Pete]

About Kodi playing the wrong playlist: AnyDVD mentions playlist 917 being the correct one. If you can make Kodi play that one, you'll be fine (I don't use Kodi, don't know what is possible).

About the other thing, I don't know, someone will need to look at that.

 

[ddjmagic]

If you can make Kodi play that one, you'll be fine

The following should work for Kodi:

Settings > Video > Discs > Blu-ray Playback Mode > Set to 'Show Simplified Menu'
Note: Settings level has to be set to advanced or higher (not Basic) to see that option.

Once set, any Blu-ray Disc format media should now show a pop up a box when you try to playback.
One of the pop up options will be 'select from all titles', choose that and navigate to title 917 (or whatever AnyDVD shows as the good playlist)

I believe Kodi also supports AnyDVD Speedmenu, so if you use those (it's an optional AnyDVD setting) try choosing the 'Show Blu-ray Menu' option on the pop up box instead.

 

[TheAviator7]

it already tell you the right playlist in status window

And when you say PowerDVD plays it right, it is as it should be
kodi isent a licensed player, so it just pick a random playlist, normaly the biggest

@Hackerjac I didn't know about the status window for AnyDVD and showing the correct playlist number; thank you for that! As you stated for Kodi because it is not an officially licensed Blu-ray player (from the Blu-ray Disc Association?) therefore it just picks a random playlist (normally the biggest). If it was officially licensed like Cyberlink then it probably wouldn’t have a problem with choosing the appropriate playlist?

About Kodi playing the wrong playlist: AnyDVD mentions playlist 917 being the correct one. If you can make Kodi play that one, you'll be fine (I don't use Kodi, don't know what is possible).

About the other thing, I don't know, someone will need to look at that.

@Pete Thanks, you are correct 917 is the playlist I needed. I verified it this evening. As stated above I wasn't familiar with the status window. Also there is a way to select which playlist in Kodi.

Why are there so many playlists for some movies? Is it to prevent decrypting/ripping as part of the discs protection software?

Now once I have ripped the title and it is unprotected how can I find out what the correct playlist is? I have mounted it with Virtual CloneDrive, but it no longer shows in the status window what the correct playlist is.

Also is it kind of a one shot deal with AnyDVD? By that I mean if I were to rip a movie and it didn't rip correctly/remove the protection correctly I can't take that now unprotected .iso file mount it and try to fix it with AnyDVD again and rip a new version. I would have to rip it from the original again and maybe even update AnyDVD (if need be for new decryption method), right?

Does that mean if I rip with AnyDVD and choose "Keep Protection" (and don't use speedmenu or anything) that I would basically have the exact same image of the disc and can later mount and rip from the protected .iso version to create a decrypted version? The reason I ask is in case I don't have access to the physical disc at the time.

Is there a way to tell from the status window in AnyDVD that there will be a playback issue with a movie or that the decryption failed? Currently I don't know until I sit down to watch a ripped movie, which ruins the experience.

The following should work for Kodi:

Settings > Video > Discs > Blu-ray Playback Mode > Set to 'Show Simplified Menu'
Note: Settings level has to be set to advanced or higher (not Basic) to see that option.

Once set, any Blu-ray Disc format media should now show a pop up a box when you try to playback.
One of the pop up options will be 'select from all titles', choose that and navigate to title 917 (or whatever AnyDVD shows as the good playlist)

I believe Kodi also supports AnyDVD Speedmenu, so if you use those (it's an optional AnyDVD setting) try choosing the 'Show Blu-ray Menu' option on the pop up box instead.

@ddjmagic I am familiar with those settings. I had changed it from "Show simplified menu" (which I think is the default) to "Play main movie" for ease of use. Before now it was fine with whatever playlist it chose to play automatically. I wish there was a way to use manually set which playlist you want it to play (preferably outside of Kodi like I do my meta data with Media Companion). If I have my entire library in Kodi and still have to remember which playlist for certain movies then it kind of defeats the purpose of using Kodi.

Do you know of a way to set the default for which playlist it will chose so I can use the "Play main movie" option in Kodi?

As for the "Show Blu-Ray Menu" option in Kodi (with simplified menu or even as playback mode in settings) it wouldn't work for this particular title for some reason both with or without the AnyDVD Speed Menu. I guess the only other option is to transcode the .iso to .mp4 or something, but I have tried the trial of CloneBD and haven't gotten it to convert a movie. I could only get it to convert the movie trailers/previews.


Sorry for the long post, but as you can see I have been doing a lot of testing today and I came up with more questions than I had answers to. Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[TheAviator7]

Oh btw this is the other device I was talking about http://www.kdlinks.com/index.php/popular-products/kdlinks-hd700-network-media-player.html the KDlinks-HD700. It used to work great with the movies Blu-ray .iso files I ripped with AnyDVD HD, but now it struggles with some titles. I guess sometimes it just chooses the wrong playlist like Kodi, but no way to override it from what I can tell. I might need to update the firmware, but not sure that will actually fix the problem.

 

[ddjmagic]

1) Why are there so many playlists for some movies? Is it to prevent decrypting/ripping as part of the discs protection software?

2) Now once I have ripped the title and it is unprotected how can I find out what the correct playlist is? I have mounted it with Virtual CloneDrive, but it no longer shows in the status window what the correct playlist is.

3) Also is it kind of a one shot deal with AnyDVD? By that I mean if I were to rip a movie and it didn't rip correctly/remove the protection correctly I can't take that now unprotected .iso file mount it and try to fix it with AnyDVD again and rip a new version. I would have to rip it from the original again and maybe even update AnyDVD (if need be for new decryption method), right?

4) Does that mean if I rip with AnyDVD and choose "Keep Protection" (and don't use speedmenu or anything) that I would basically have the exact same image of the disc and can later mount and rip from the protected .iso version to create a decrypted version? The reason I ask is in case I don't have access to the physical disc at the time.

5) Is there a way to tell from the status window in AnyDVD that there will be a playback issue with a movie or that the decryption failed? Currently I don't know until I sit down to watch a ripped movie, which ruins the experience.

6) Do you know of a way to set the default for which playlist it will chose so I can use the "Play main movie" option in Kodi?

1) That's right it is a protection scheme.

2) AnyDVD creates a file on the root of the disc/rip called 'disc.inf' for movies with this protection,there will be a line inside that says 'playlists=xxx'

3) Yes, if AnyDVD doesn't handle the disc correctly you will need to rip again from the original (unless you have a protected ISO image)

4) Correct.

5) Not with this protection. Best way (but still not 100%) is to open the disc in your player before you rip and you will see hundreds of playlists with the same/similar length, you then know the disc contains this protection. Lionsgate are the main studio using this protection, most of their popular releases will have it.

6) No, AnyDVD leaves the 'disc.inf' for non licensed players to get the info, but Kodi doesn't use it (only JRiver Media Center does that I know of) the only way in Kodi would be to use the external player option and run a script that reads from the 'disc.inf' and launches an external player like MPC-HC. This is how I've used Kodi in the past.

You could post a request on the Kodi forum and ask if they would consider using the playlist info that AnyDVD kindly leaves

As for the "Show Blu-Ray Menu" option in Kodi (with simplified menu or even as playback mode in settings) it wouldn't work for this particular title for some reason both with or without the AnyDVD Speed Menu.
I guess the only other option is to transcode the .iso to .mp4 or something, but I have tried the trial of CloneBD and haven't gotten it to convert a movie. I could only get it to convert the movie trailers/previews.

I haven't tried Speedmenu in Kodi for a while, I may have been wrong about it being supported.

Yes, making a movie only ISO or MKV/MP4 is probably the best option. I've done this many times in CloneBD, it's fairly straightforward. I'd recommend posting in the CloneBD forum and someone will help you out with that.

 

[TheAviator7]

@ddjmagic Thanks for answering my questions. I have never really used forums myself only read through them, but you and the others have helped make it a good first experience.

2) AnyDVD creates a file on the root of the disc/rip called 'disc.inf' for movies with this protection,there will be a line inside that says 'playlists=xxx'

5) Not with this protection. Best way (but still not 100%) is to open the disc in your player before you rip and you will see hundreds of playlists with the same/similar length, you then know the disc contains this protection. Lionsgate are the main studio using this protection, most of their popular releases will have it.

6) No, AnyDVD leaves the 'disc.inf' for non licensed players to get the info, but Kodi doesn't use it (only JRiver Media Center does that I know of) the only way in Kodi would be to use the external player option and run a script that reads from the 'disc.inf' and launches an external player like MPC-HC. This is how I've used Kodi in the past.

2) I looked in the disc.inf and didn’t see the playlists= at all. I also checked older ISO movies in my collection.

5) Yeah in the past the ones that have always given me trouble are the Lionsgate new releases at the time.

6) Do you know where I can get that script? I looked up external players in Kodi and I found the official page in the wiki http://kodi.wiki/view/external_players and skimmed it really quick. Didn't really have time to dive in and figure it out. I understand I will probably be manipulating some xml files.

How good is MPC-HC player? Anything you did or didn't like about it, such as certain limitations?

You could post a request on the Kodi forum and ask if they would consider using the playlist info that AnyDVD kindly leaves

That is a good idea to post a request in the Kodi forum! Since Kodi can only read unprotected ISO files then why not use the AnyDVD playlist info.

I haven't tried Speedmenu in Kodi for a while, I may have been wrong about it being supported.

I think this title is just a bear to deal with. You might be correct because I can't get anything to work using the "Show Blu-Ray Menu" option in Kodi for this title. It doesn't matter if I use the speedmenu or leave it as the official menu. I have used the "Show Blu-Ray Menu" for other titles and it works. So I would assume it could handle the speedmenu on other titles as well just not this one.

Yes, making a movie only ISO or MKV/MP4 is probably the best option. I've done this many times in CloneBD, it's fairly straightforward. I'd recommend posting in the CloneBD forum and someone will help you out with that.

Yeah I have been meaning to post in the CloneBD forum section. I even have the log files for several titles that gave me issues. Surprisingly I gave it a shot last night and it transcoded the entire 917 playlist that I wanted, which was a first. Now I just have to find the best quality level.

Any recommendations as to the best quality level for the space it takes up? I want to get as close to Blu-ray quality as possible, which is why I've always stuck with ISO files. I normally choose quality over space since I have plenty of storage. However, if I am going to take the time to transcode it I would like to save some space compared to the ISO files. If I save 5 GB to 10 GB per movie I can have more movies per TB or per HDD. Ideally I would like it right at the threshold where there is no noticeable change in quality compared to using the ISO version.

The other reason I have never transcoded my movies was because I didn't know what the best format would be AVI, MKV or MP4, etc. I would prefer something that is friendly with most devices, which means probably MP4, right? I know I've seen people talk up MKV, but I've never really understood the benefit of one over the other.

I know I should probably ask some of that in the CloneBD forum section, but I thought while I had you I would get your opinion.

 

[ddjmagic]

I looked in the disc.inf and didn’t see the playlists= at all. I also checked older ISO movies in my collection.

Make sure AnyDVD isn't scanning the unprotected ISO image when you mount it else it will replace the 'disc.inf' with a new one (without the playlist info)

I'll look for the script I used in Kodi and post it. MPC-HC usually works well, it's basic but it a great player for main movie playback.

Yeah I have been meaning to post in the CloneBD forum section.
Any recommendations as to the best quality level for the space it takes up?

I personally don't transcode and just let CloneBD passthrough the video/audio either as an ISO image or MKV file.
You can play with the settings and find the best quality to size ratio that suits your requirements.