RatDVD and WMCE....

Pongo

Ok, here's my problem, I've stored my entire DVD collection on a couple of hard drives using DVD shrink, and then RATDVD, so far so good... However, I've now realised I want to use WMCE to play the DVDs, I was juts using Windows Media Player with no problem. The RATDVD files won't play under WMCE at all, I just get a black screen. Please, someone tell me I'm just missing a codec or something simple like that, because the thoughts of having to reencode the entire bloody DVD collection again makes me weep....
And yes, I know, I really, REALLY should've looked into this properly before I used RATDVD....

Thanks in advance for your help!

8T8

Well that's the danger with a proprietary format like the ratDVD containers.

However they must use a directshow decoder to be able to play in WMP and MCE is an extension of WMP they even have a screenshot of it playing on MCE on the Canadian mirror.

Try re-installing the software, also what kind of graphics card do you have is it a Direct-X 9 class one ?

Pongo

I'll try reinstalling Rat, but it seems to be working fine. Graphics card is a 9800 pro, up to date drivers....

Pongo

Reinstalled Ratdvd, but still no joy. I'm getting a black screen, and then the pc crashes. Had a look around a few Rat forums and it seems to be pure hit and miss as to whether it will work for you in WMCE.

So... Unless anyone has any idea what the hell I'm doing wrong, I'm looking at converting everything again from Rat to another format so it'll play in WMCE.... Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated....

Edit: Some progress.... I uninstalled WinDVD, had that and Nero installed. Now RatDVD files play in Media Centre, but it takes about 30 seconds for them to start, and the quality is dog rough, very choppy playback, although the sound is perfect....

Any ideas?

8T8

Just thinking out loud...

If WinDVD and Nero are both installed then un-installing WinDVD must have set Nero back as the primary decoder MPEG-2 decoder.

There is a program called DECCHECK that allows you to set the priority of which MPEG-2 decoder to use within MCE so if you want to keep WinDVD around you can do so.

Now as for ratDVD I saw a posting once that it is just a mutant MPEG2 compressor combined with file compression, inside the actual ratDVD container are zip files that the ratDVD decoder decompress in real-time and streams back the video.

Whether that completely accurate or not I don't know you may be in a better position to know but it sure sounds like the issues your having with the long load times.


Download Graphedit and run the application from the file menu select render media file and point it to a ratDVD file then post a screenshot of the filters it says are used for decoding this format.



As for other compression methods it would probably be a good idea RatDVD has some cagey things going on with it;
* The devs said at one point they would open source it they didn't
* Possible infringement of other open source technology
* Those ratDVD containers supposedly hold a lot of personal information about your computer.


The best video compression on offer at the moment is H.264 but retaining the menu structure is not possible at the moment. If you want more info on how to encode in this format let me know, otherwise the next best is XviD which is very widespread in terms of popularity.

Pongo

I agree, the more I read about RatDVD the more I wonder was it wise to use it at all...
Will H.264 work with WMCE, and can I convert RatDVD files to H.264? I'll run Graphedit and post the screenshot later today,
Thanks for all your help so far, this forum and the mods/posters deserve gold medals for the help they give...

8T8

Yeah H.264 is a standard video codec and decoders are available that work within MCE (in fact its what I use for compressing movies and watching them through MCE).

The only downside to H.264 is that it is demanding to encode so depending on what kind of encoding profile you select like High Quality, Insane High Quality etc will take longer to encode. There are other profiles which require less in terms of computer power & hence time.

XviD on the other hand isn't as demanding but is faster to encode but doesn't work as well as H.264 on smaller file sizes, still a high bitrate XviD encode will still look pretty good.



One thing you could do is un-install everything all other video decoders including ratDVD now just install ratDVD again and see if it plays within MCE without any interference from other video decoders (it could be some other product has taken over the duties of the ratDVD MPEG splitter).

SouperComputer

feckin' typical MCE. RAT DVD worked fine for me on my rig. I can't think of anything else that could be wrong. Codecs can be an aweful headache, it's more than likely a conflict with another codec.

Changes from ratDVD v0.6.1122 to ratDVD v0.7.1235

* New Features:
* Added Direct burning capability
* Added ISO creation engine
* (Nero needs to be installed for ISO creation / DVD burning functionality)
* Added MCE (Windows Media Center Edition 2005) support
* *ratDVD files are listed as video files
* *full control with mouse and remote control
* Codec quality/speed optimizations
* Added advanced codec options
* *Ignore scaler
* *Use alternate quantization model

^ Thats a couple of versions ago too. Maybe they broke it in later revisions? Try this version before you go re-ripping everything!

Pongo

I'll try everything and anything before I re-rip! I haven't had a chance to follow 8T8's advice re Graphedit and other decoders, will do tommorow and let you know how things go, I'm thinking the conflicting decoder thing makes sense, it IS playing, just very bloody slowly....

Pongo

Problem solved, although I've no idea how... I've just set up a server pc to store all my DVDs and music, which is why I haven't had a chance to run Graphedit or much around with decoders. Anyway I took the hard drives with all my DVDs out of my media pc, and intsalled them in the server machine, then I changed the location of my videos in media centre.

That's all, no software changes, I just moved the drives to another machine and set up a network, and now the RatDVD files play perfectly.... Don't know how or why, but at least it works now!

8T8

Weird, so it wouldn't play the files locally but does over a LAN how odd..

Pongo

Yup, weird alright, I'm half tempted to start fiddling around to see exactly what the problem was, but if it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it!

SouperComputer

thats really odd!!!