DVD-Video discs inserted into your computer can't be shared?

[Linea Recta]

Finally found why I can't get it working.

According to
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Sharing-media-on-a-network-using-Windows-Media-Player

Is this because of patronizing MS?



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os

[Paul]

Linea Recta wrote:
> Finally found why I can't get it working.
>
> According to
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Sharing-media-on-a-network-using-Windows-Media-Player
>
>
> Is this because of patronizing MS?

Part of the game, is not naming in detail, what you fear legally.

So don't expect Microsoft to word it like "we do it this way to
suit DMCA" or "we're proud supporters of DRM" or the like. They
always leave that for you to read between the lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca

I think partially, it's done that way, so that no "lawyerly opinions"
escape into the wild. You don't want to leave anything around, which
can be submitted "in evidence" in a trial. So it's just better
to leave some things unsaid, so there's no potentially expensive
evidence trail left behind. A lawyer may have advised Microsoft,
what to do and what not to do, but his exact words won't be appearing
in print. Because they could be used against the lawyer or Microsoft later.

I'm really surprised you're allowed to share content on the local subnet :-)
You should have to buy separate copies for the living room and for the
kitchen :-) (That's a little MPAA/RIAA humor.) Damn those consumers :-)

Paul

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Paul" <nos...@needed.com>

** Ridiculous answer ! **

The DVD format is a physical format. It is not a computer file format.
Thius sharing a drive with a DVD Movie is not going to play the DVD in the
shared drive. The remote computer sees it as a UNC share or as a mapped
drive not a physical drive. Thus a computer DVD Player won't "play" the
media. However if you convert the DVD movie to a MPEG then you can play the
movie as a standard Computer disk file and then it doesn't matter if its a
physical drive, UNC or mapped drive.

--
Dave
Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk
http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

[Paul]

I was making light, of the "local subnet" restriction, mentioned on the
Microsoft page. And why they might want it that way (or think they do).

I wasn't attempting any heavy weight analysis of all the various ways
of getting a movie from machine A to machine B.

*******

Using two virtual machines, I enabled file sharing on drive D:
(the optical drive). I mounted a 7GB dual-layer ISO9660 I use for testing
here, as the contents of that D: drive.

On the second machine, I browsed "machines near me", found that virtual
machine, logged into it using the account and password, and the 7GB drive
was successfully shared. I navigated to a VOB on that shared DVD,
right clicked on it, selected "Play with PowerDVD", and it started playing
just fine.

That's not streaming, that's file sharing.

The networked drive did not cause PowerDVD to start playing immediately,
the way a local DVD insertion would. But I could still play VOB files
from the mounted volume, and they played.

*******

Streaming it with WMP is a different matter, because that's not ordinary
file sharing protocol. Streaming requires Microsoft to make WMP read
that file and then stream the information, and they can really implement
any policy they want. And I certainly don't have the materials, to
be testing this here (no good TV, no DLNA, no nothing).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_media_player#Media_streaming

Now, having seen the contents of this page...

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Sharing-media-on-a-network-using-Windows-Media-Player

the thought occurs to me, you could put your broadband modem in "bridged"
mode, connect a single computer to the modem - with the express purpose
of the computer ending up with a public (routable) IP address. I wonder
whether the streaming feature is smart enough to realize the type of address ?
Not every way you connect a home computer, to broadband, results in a
192.168.x.x style address.

Paul

[Paul]

Linea Recta wrote:
> Finally found why I can't get it working.
>
> According to
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Sharing-media-on-a-network-using-Windows-Media-Player
>
>
> Is this because of patronizing MS?

I had another idea.

I wonder if you could install a copy of Windows 8 Release Preview
on the serving machine, and test the latest version of Windows Media Player,
and see if you can get it working from there.

You'd need something like a separate disk for the Windows 8 install,
for safety reasons.

That's in case there are some restrictions of WMP version, that
prevent you from testing the version you want. A copy of Win8 might
allow the latest one to be used.

Paul

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht
news:k1d841$gcl$1...@dont-email.me...

Afraid I can't do that because 1. I haven't half enough time, 2. my pc is
too old for a heavy OS like Win8 and 3. I haven't enough empty disk space
left.
Weeks ago I thought I was going to make this streaming DLNA work in a few
hours or so, but after weeks of testing I can say that it's of no use in
practice. Sometimes some files will play but that's not goog enough. Some
files don't play at all. Then you have the earlier mentioned problem of no
DVD drive access. In fact I can even stream vob files(!) as long as they
reside on the HD. Of course I'm not going to copy numerous vob files before
I can watch a dvd!
And then there's the nightmare of codecs. I have installed K-lite. Many of
the files won't play with right aspect ratio. I really wonder why people
don't seem to give a shit (or even notice) movies playing with stretched
picture. Suppose I'm too perfectionist...

[Paul]

Getting this working, would be for the same reason people climb Everest :-)

Paul

[glee]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> wrote in message
news:k1e103$g08$2...@dont-email.me...
> snip

> Getting this working, would be for the same reason people climb
> Everest :-)

...or go to the pub. :-)

...glen

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

news:k1e103$g08$2...@dont-email.me...

I think I'd prefer Everest...

[Paul]

For some fun, I did a test on my computer. Since I don't have a DLNA TV,
I had to find a substitute. I decided to try two OSes on the same computer,
with Windows 8 serving files and XBMC trying to play them.

[Host] [Guest]
Windows 8 --- VirtualBox ------ Linux Mint
| (Bridged Mode upnp-inspector,
| Networking) XBMC
| ^
| |
+--- Windows Media Player ------+
serves the files

After a gazillion button clicks, and over 8 hours of debugging...

1) I got a VOB file, copied to a library on Windows 8, to play
on XBMC. Windows Media Player is supposed to take care of
transcoding, if it's necessary. I couldn't tell, on the XBMC
end, whether such a transcoding had happened or not.

2) Files on removable media, apparently can't be streamed. I found
a couple lines in Windows 8 Help to that effect. And, I got a
neat sound effect, when I tried to "Organize" my video library
on Windows 8, navigate down into the DVD folder, and attempt to
offer the folder full of VOBs. I didn't try that step first, because
first I had to succeed at playing *any* movie within XBMC. And
that took most of the effort.

3) By enabling remote control on XBMC, I managed to "Play To",
a few different files, to the XBMC application as it was sitting
there. So I could both "pull" and "push" files via upnp.

The test was done with Windows 8, so I could use the latest
Windows Media Player for a test. It seems to be "design intent"
that removable media can't be used for the library. The DVD
I used, by the way, was unprotected, and was non-Hollywood
content (made with my WinTV card, and a DVD movie making application).
So it wasn't a protected content issue.

*******

If you're a glutton for punishment, there's a replacement
written in Java, for performing the same function. The
instructions, include using the Services control panel,
to disable the WMP entry that currently does the serving.
So once the WMP capability is turned off, you can test this.

http://www.serviio.org/

http://www.serviio.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5

(Review comments)
http://download.cnet.com/Serviio/3000-18515_4-75666364.html

What I can't tell, is whether this changes anything. If it
relies on Windows Libraries for source files to stream,
it's possible the same annoying dialog box is going to prevent
the DVD from being added to the library. If, instead, it allows
"partitions" to be streamed, it may function as a way around this
problem. The fact it relies on FFMPEG, suggests a transcoding
capability, in case the DLNA device doesn't have a CODEC for
a particular flavor of media.

The only thing you're guaranteed with this stuff, is to
waste a lot of time setting it up.

Paul

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

news:k1kja0$u0t$1...@dont-email.me...

Interesting. Meanwhile I have been testing with Tversity, one of the apps
that's supposed to be compatible with my TV. Although I found no profile for
it. So I chose 'automatic'. After a long battle with all kinds of settings I
was able to play a long mp4 file (a downloaded broadcast of Dutch TV
program). This was streamed very well, but no wonder: the file had same
aspect ratio as my screen 16:9. The file was being transcoded, which can be
seen on status page.
Another advantage: it can stream media from DVD!
But unfortunately still having trouble when streaming 4:3 files. I have not
succeeded yet in playing this correctly. It is still blown up to fill up the
16:9 screen...
When Tversity is running (transcoding) on my old XP machine, I can't do
anything else. I can't open a text file, no multitasking!

>
> The test was done with Windows 8, so I could use the latest
> Windows Media Player for a test. It seems to be "design intent"
> that removable media can't be used for the library. The DVD
> I used, by the way, was unprotected, and was non-Hollywood
> content (made with my WinTV card, and a DVD movie making application).
> So it wasn't a protected content issue.
>
> *******
>
> If you're a glutton for punishment, there's a replacement

Not really glutton for punishment, but finding it hard to let things go
unfinished, sort of addiction perhaps...

> written in Java, for performing the same function. The
> instructions, include using the Services control panel,
> to disable the WMP entry that currently does the serving.
> So once the WMP capability is turned off, you can test this.
>
> http://www.serviio.org/
>
> http://www.serviio.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5
>
> (Review comments)
> http://download.cnet.com/Serviio/3000-18515_4-75666364.html
>
> What I can't tell, is whether this changes anything. If it
> relies on Windows Libraries for source files to stream,
> it's possible the same annoying dialog box is going to prevent
> the DVD from being added to the library. If, instead, it allows
> "partitions" to be streamed, it may function as a way around this
> problem. The fact it relies on FFMPEG, suggests a transcoding
> capability, in case the DLNA device doesn't have a CODEC for
> a particular flavor of media.
>
> The only thing you're guaranteed with this stuff, is to
> waste a lot of time setting it up.
>

Thanks very much for the links. I will look into this asap. It seems Philips
TV is supported also. Although one Philips TV isn't the same as another, as
I already learned from the Philips support site.

From the manual:
Supported DLNA-compliant media server software:

 Windows Media Player (for Microsoft Windows)

 Twonky Media (for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X)

 Sony Vaio Media Server (for Microsoft Windows)

 TVersity (for Microsoft Windows)

 Nero MediaHome

 DiXiM (for Microsoft Windows XP)

 Macrovision Network Media Server (for Microsoft Windows)

 Fuppes (for Linux)

 uShare (for Linux)

[Paul]

Linea Recta wrote:
> "Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

OK, I finally got Serviio working.

It was a battle. Much hair loss.

The problem turned out to be, Serviio has a "Console", but it
doesn't provide enough feedback to tell what's going on.

On the Linux machine used to emulate a DLNA TV set, the
"upnp-inspector" program was a great tool for determining
from the outside, what Serviio was doing. At least, it made
up for the "thick" interface on XBMC (the actual media player
that was supposed to prove Serviio could serve files).

Initially, I told Serviio about several folders of video
files, but absolutely nothing was coming through to my DLNA
emulator. Serviio has a "transcode" option, and there is no
feedback as to whether it's transcoding anything or not. Since
Serviio runs as a "service", it tends to hide what it is doing.
I'd hoped to see a separate process running, doing the transcoding,
but it didn't seem to work that way.

Serviio consists of two pieces. The core is Java code. I had problems
getting Java to install, to kick off the initial fun. But at least
the program didn't need the very latest edition to work. So I was
thankful for that at least.

In a folder (\lib) in the place you choose to install Serviio, is
a copy of FFMPEG.exe . That's a movie application from the free software
universe, which is excellent for transcoding. So, I noted the
application was in there.

I opened a Command Prompt, cd'ed my way down to the \lib directory,
and tried

ffmpeg.exe --help

and was greeted by a Windows complaint that msvcrt.dll did not
have certain C runtime routines in it. Great.

Next, the serviio web site, directs users to a web site that hosts
Windows builds of FFMPEG. I downloaded a statically linked copy
from that web site, and *more* complaints about missing
library stuff. I was getting a bit annoyed at this point.

While I'm not a "multimedia guy" by any stretch of the
imagination, I did have a copy of ffmpeg.exe from a previous
experiment. Only a fraction of the size of the ones used
by serviio. My ffmpeg.exe was "made by Tripp" and that
person obviously knows his/her stuff. I tested that in
my Command Prompt window, and no more bitching. The thing
ran.

So now, by moving the defective ffmpeg.exe out of \lib,
and putting in a known-working ffmpeg.exe (an older one),
I try again. This time, VOB files start showing up on
my DLNA emulator. It would seem, that serviio wants to
read the VOBs with FFMPEG, before it will offer them to
the DLNA device. That's my interpretation of what might
be happening there. But I can't be sure - I couldn't
see any evidence of what was going on.

There is a tab in the serviio interface, that controls
transcoding. When I tried my first VOB, transcoding was
set to run on one core, and Task Manager showed about
20% usage. I have no idea what the output format was,
that was being sent to the DLNA emulator. All the software
was very quiet, about what was going on.

The strangest part, is I've been unsuccessful in getting
the damn thing to transfer an AVI file (this would be
extremely high bit rate, by comparison to the VOB experiment).
Serviio could not be coaxed to serve those files.

*******

And now, the part you've been waiting for. I put a non-Hollywood
DVD in the optical drive, told Serviio to serve up E:\VIDEO_TS,
and it did! All the VOB files on the DVD, showed up on my
"fake TV set". I think it's basically treating the optical drive,
as if it's a hard drive. This has both positive and negative
attributes.

The negative attribute, is I don't think an "event" is raised,
when a new DVD goes into the drive. Serviio probably doesn't know
anything has changed. Serviio has a button to click, to "rescan"
the library folders, and at that point, I could hear the optical
drive spin and reading was going on (checking file names etc).
Then, when I went over to my DLNA emulator, I could see the
new set of VOBs show up. If you didn't want to click any buttons,
you might have to wait up to five minutes, before Serviio would
present the files to the TV. (Serviio has a "polling interval",
where it rescans the library folders for new files.)

So, the experiment was a success, but it took forever to get
it running. And the lack of feedback from the various tools,
made progress a lot slower than it had to be. The only bright
spot in the whole experience, was "upnp-inspector" in Linux
did a great job of allowing me to browse the file tree,
without having to deal with issues of the interface on XBMC.

The only negatives at this point:

1) Couldn't get it to serve a plain YV12 or HUFFYUV AVI.
2) DVD optical drive doesn't alert Serviio that a new disc
is present. May require clicking a rescan button, before
DVD will be served. I don't know if I missed some option
there or not.

The transcode of VOB into "something", used about 20% CPU on one
core of the server, which all things considered, is pretty damn good.
On my machine, running FFMPEG, I've had plenty of occasions
where an encoding event, uses the entire CPU. So whatever
it was doing, it couldn't have been using a "heavyweight"
compression option. Maybe it was just decoding the video
somehow. But I don't know what it was sending, or even
what bitrate it was using over the network.

I wanted to test the AVI file, to see whether Java could
deal with that kind of data rate over the network...
But no luck there.

Paul

[Paul]

One other comment. Since I tested with a *non* Hollywood
DVD (made by recording from a WinTV card), I have no
proof that Serviio could deal in any way with CSS (content
scrambling system) on a Hollywood DVD. And that is likely
to stop you dead in your tracks, for the intended purpose.
I don't have any Hollywood DVDs here at all. I've never
had a rental in the house...

You'd need to rip the DVD, remove CSS, store on a hard
drive, as a potential solution. Things you didn't want
to hear.

Paul

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

news:k1t32p$f2m$1...@dont-email.me...

Yes I'm aware of that. In my case it this was no issue because I don't have
any "hollywood disks".
I read you have been doing hard research with Serviio, and I still intend to
look into that app too, but for the moment tversity does a great job here.
In fact the only problem I still have is with playing 4:3 aspect ratio video
files.
This weekend I noticed a new firmware for my TV, so I had my hopes high the
issue might be resolved. I applied the update, but the avi files still play
stretched :-(( On the Philips forum, apart from two example codec info
files, I gave them a piece of my mind. But I haven't had any reactions yet
:-)
BTW the files I mentioned play just fine in the stand alone DVD player. And
also on the computers (Media player and VLC). I suppose I have to learn
those Philips people to read & write...

[BillW50]

On 9/3/2012 1:35 PM, Linea Recta wrote:
> Yes I'm aware of that. In my case it this was no issue because I don't
> have any "hollywood disks".
> I read you have been doing hard research with Serviio, and I still
> intend to look into that app too, but for the moment tversity does a
> great job here. In fact the only problem I still have is with playing
> 4:3 aspect ratio video files.
> This weekend I noticed a new firmware for my TV, so I had my hopes high
> the issue might be resolved. I applied the update, but the avi files
> still play stretched :-(( On the Philips forum, apart from two example
> codec info files, I gave them a piece of my mind. But I haven't had any
> reactions yet :-)
> BTW the files I mentioned play just fine in the stand alone DVD player.
> And also on the computers (Media player and VLC). I suppose I have to
> learn those Philips people to read & write...

Easy there. I'm a retired senior engineer from Philips. :-(

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v14
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 7 SP1

[Paul]

Again, I'm not a "multimedia" or "movie guy" by any means, but I thought
at least one video standard (divx/xvid) had a problem with declaring
proper aspect ratio. I think in one case, the CODEC even reverses the
video (upside-down or left-right mirror?). So it may be a case of the
maturity of the standard, rather than a failing of the TV. To work
right, it may require that the software written to play it, "use its imagination"
to figure out how to play it, rather than reading the declarations in
the video file itself.

When I use transcoding software, I'm so dumb at this stuff, I
can't figure out what CODECs go with what containers. I'd have
a hard time making a test file, that "looks like" yours :-)

The container formats, contain multiple fourCC codes. You may be
able to see those codes with a hex editor. It's possible that
the file could be annotated in some way, to provide a hint as
to how to play it, but this is just an idea. Not being a movie
guy, I'd be relying on my hex editor for search terms, rather
than using my brain :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FourCC

Paul

[Linea Recta]

"BillW50" <Bil...@aol.kom> schreef in bericht
news:k235j9$qke$3...@dont-email.me...

> On 9/3/2012 1:35 PM, Linea Recta wrote:
>> Yes I'm aware of that. In my case it this was no issue because I don't
>> have any "hollywood disks".
>> I read you have been doing hard research with Serviio, and I still
>> intend to look into that app too, but for the moment tversity does a
>> great job here. In fact the only problem I still have is with playing
>> 4:3 aspect ratio video files.
>> This weekend I noticed a new firmware for my TV, so I had my hopes high
>> the issue might be resolved. I applied the update, but the avi files
>> still play stretched :-(( On the Philips forum, apart from two example
>> codec info files, I gave them a piece of my mind. But I haven't had any
>> reactions yet :-)
>> BTW the files I mentioned play just fine in the stand alone DVD player.
>> And also on the computers (Media player and VLC). I suppose I have to
>> learn those Philips people to read & write...
>
> Easy there. I'm a retired senior engineer from Philips. :-(
>

Well, that's great! So you can help me with this problem. :-))

Below is the media info about two example files playing stretched on TV. As
you can see: it does contain information about its aspect ratio.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
General
Complete name : D:\MediaManager content\08 Lionel Moves
into the Neighborhood.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 231 MiB
Duration : 26mn 15s
Overall bit rate : 1 229 Kbps
Writing application : FairUse Wizard - http://fairusewizard.com
Writing library : The best and REALLY easy backup tool

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 26mn 15s
Bit rate : 1 025 Kbps
Width : 576 pixels
Height : 432 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.137
Stream size : 193 MiB (83%)
Writing library : XviD 1.1.0 (UTC 2005-11-22)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 26mn 15s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 36.1 MiB (16%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 33 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms

-----------------------------------------------------------------
General
Complete name : D:\MediaManager
content\pfa-bh.1984.p2.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 550 MiB
Duration : 50mn 51s
Overall bit rate : 1 512 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build
2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 50mn 51s
Bit rate : 1 405 Kbps
Width : 576 pixels
Height : 432 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.226
Stream size : 511 MiB (93%)
Writing library : XviD 64

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 50mn 51s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 94.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 34.2 MiB (6%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.60 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 487 ms
Writing library : LAME3.93
Encoding settings : -m m -V 0 -q 0 -lowpass 19.5 --vbr-new

-----------------------------------------------------------------



--

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

news:k2410e$8mj$1...@dont-email.me...

>>>>> ? Windows Media Player (for Microsoft Windows)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? Twonky Media (for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? Sony Vaio Media Server (for Microsoft Windows)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? TVersity (for Microsoft Windows)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? Nero MediaHome
>>>>>
>>>>> ? DiXiM (for Microsoft Windows XP)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? Macrovision Network Media Server (for Microsoft Windows)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? Fuppes (for Linux)
>>>>>
>>>>> ? uShare (for Linux)

This whole codec subject is exrraordinary chaotic subject, dealing with all
sorts of formats, subformats, containers and you know what more. So in fact
when you can play one AVI file, it's by no means guaranteed that you can
play all AVI files. And that's only talking about AVI files! Not to mention
the 100 other video formats. I do have some knowledge, but I'm no expert. In
my opinion it's all a question of lacking standards. And it is very
frustrating to think you are going to watch some file for a few minutes and
get entangled in all sorts of complications with the file not playing on one
device, while playing perfectly on another device and playing crippled on
yet another device. What a shambles,,,
I read many messages about the subject, people bumbing into this sort of
problems, but no real solutions. Replies are: "you can try this", or "you
might do that", but none what you call 'straightforward'...

You might have a look at the file media info examples I attached to Bill.


--

[Paul]

Linea Recta wrote:

>
> This whole codec subject is exrraordinary chaotic subject, dealing with all
> sorts of formats, subformats, containers and you know what more. So in fact
> when you can play one AVI file, it's by no means guaranteed that you can
> play all AVI files. And that's only talking about AVI files! Not to mention
> the 100 other video formats. I do have some knowledge, but I'm no expert. In
> my opinion it's all a question of lacking standards. And it is very
> frustrating to think you are going to watch some file for a few minutes and
> get entangled in all sorts of complications with the file not playing on one
> device, while playing perfectly on another device and playing crippled on
> yet another device. What a shambles,,,
> I read many messages about the subject, people bumbing into this sort of
> problems, but no real solutions. Replies are: "you can try this", or "you
> might do that", but none what you call 'straightforward'...
>
> You might have a look at the file media info examples I attached to Bill.

After reading a few threads, one suggestion was actually to go to the
TV and look through the OSD for display options. It's possible
you could fix the aspect ratio issue at that end.

Paul

[Paul]

Another thing to research, is PAR and DAR. One is pixel aspect ratio,
and the other is display aspect ratio. Apparently some display
devices, ignore the value in one of those.

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/283886-XviD-Resolutions-PAR-DAR

Paul

[Linea Recta]

"Paul" <nos...@needed.com> schreef in bericht

news:k24pqk$186$1...@dont-email.me...

Well, that's an issue I also posted on the Philips forum. (sorry it's moving
far away from the group topic).
I do have TV settings for the aspect ratio.
When playing video files it only toggles between unscaled (very small but
with aspect ratio OK!) and enlarged to fill the screen (but 4:3 stretched to
16:9 and that's NOT good). When enlarging 4:3 correctly on a 16:9 screen I
have to keep black bars on the left and right of the screen.

When watching TV normally (from HDMI sat receiver) I have more choices for
the aspect ratio. I can always achieve 4:3 manually when needed.
I have to add: the Philips has no setting to adapt the TV setting to the
right aspect ratio automatically! "autofill" doesn't work!

As a comparison: since some time I also have an inexpensive small Salora HD
TV in the bedroom, which is connected by HDMI to the same sat receiver. But
this thing is smart enough to detect automatically the right aspect ratio.
E.g. when I watch CBS at nighttime it switches to 4:3 all by itself for
Dallas, Jerry Springer etc. When the ads come it switches back to 16:9 etc.
This works great!

Now I really wonder, why can't the expensive Philips do the same trick too?
It doesn't! I have to do the aspect setting manually each time.
But as I indicated above, for video files I can't even achieve the right
setting manually...

I hope Bill reads this too :-)

[BillW50]

On 9/4/2012 8:05 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
> I hope Bill reads this too :-)

Yes I have been keeping up. Although I worked in a totally different
division of Philips known as the "Electronic Instruments". We didn't
deal with compressed video and we didn't need or use codecs. So I am in
the same boat as you about this. :-(

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Thunderbird v14

Centrino Core2 Duo T5600 1.83GHz - 4GB - Windows XP SP2

[Linea Recta]

"BillW50" <Bil...@aol.kom> schreef in bericht

news:k25910$138$1...@dont-email.me...

OK. Now something else. I noticed your sign states XP SP2. Is there any
special reason you don't run Windows XP SP3?

[BillW50]

On 9/5/2012 6:50 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
> "BillW50" <Bil...@aol.kom> schreef in bericht
> news:k25910$138$1...@dont-email.me...
>> On 9/4/2012 8:05 AM, Linea Recta wrote:
>>> I hope Bill reads this too :-)
>>
>> Yes I have been keeping up. Although I worked in a totally different
>> division of Philips known as the "Electronic Instruments". We didn't
>> deal with compressed video and we didn't need or use codecs. So I am
>> in the same boat as you about this. :-(
>

> OK. Now something else. I noticed your sign states XP SP2. Is there any
> special reason you don't run Windows XP SP3?

I do run SP3 on some of my computers. I've been running Windows since
'93 and I never have been infected with a virus or a trojan yet. But I
have worked on and cleaned up many other computers that have been
infected. And I always believed that if you didn't update your
computers, that your computer would become a malware magnet.

That is until 2008. When I got into the netbook craze and bought an Asus
EeePC 701 with a 4GB SSD soldered on the motherboard. It came with XP
SP2 and only had 200MB of free space. I could delete some of the stuff,
but not enough to fit SP3 on this machine. So I figured it would get
infected.

A year later, nothing at all. And it worked great. Since I have dozens
of computers here. I started experimenting with about 6 of them and
stopped updating them. None of those ever got infected either. In fact,
the ones that were still getting updates were having stability problems
and .NET update trouble. The ones that weren't, ran just like they did
since day one.

I do use some hotfixs, which address a particular problem. But it
doesn't make a lot of sense installing hotfixs that has nothing to do
with your machine, but people do everyday. Malware hasn't bothered me
over the decades, but updates that has gone wrong has.