Backing up DVD's to .ISO not working

[Trebz]

Hi all

I have tried this several times and it's failing.

Forgive the new post but i do feel that there needs to be a definitive answer for what seems to be the easiest way to back up DVD's.

I have read through many posts and have not found good a enough answer.

What i and others need is a very simple way to back up our DVD's to a server for playing over a network with XBMC on the Xbox.

I have used 'DVD Shrink' to make a DVD into an ISO file then FTP'd it to my NAS server. When i try to play the ISO with XBMC it hangs for a while then tells me that it cant play the file due to too many failed attempts.

I have read many times that the easiest way to back up is to use DVD Shrink and convert to ISO so why is it still not working.

If i convert the DVD to an AVI all is well save for the quality of the picture.

Disk space is not an issue as i have 1tb of storage in my NAS server running on Freenas.

I also looked into other ways of converting / backing up but they all seem quite complex, needing a myriad of different codecs and applications to achieve decent results. I dont want to spend the next month learning how to use four or five different applications to simply backup a DVD. I just dont have the time.

Come on then chaps, we need the simplest way to backup DVD's whilst keeping all the menu's intact.

Thanks

[idlerobbo]

Strange... I wanted to post a similar question just now. I have backed up a blu-ray as an iso using Anydvd and getting the same results where it just wont play (locally or via NAS) and gives me to the too many failed error messages.

As far as plain DVD's go I just back them up using dvd shring but don't make them as iso's just as individual folders with VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS in there. When you add a film to XBMC library it loads the menus. I personally just re-author the dvd's before shrinking them though and just pull out the main movie. I do have a number that I have done with the menus though and they seem to work fine.

Should BluRay iso's work just the same or not?

[Trebz]

Originally Posted by idlerobbo

Strange... I wanted to post a similar question just now. I have backed up a blu-ray as an iso using Anydvd and getting the same results where it just wont play (locally or via NAS) and gives me to the too many failed error messages.

As far as plain DVD's go I just back them up using dvd shring but don't make them as iso's just as individual folders with VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS in there. When you add a film to XBMC library it loads the menus. I personally just re-author the dvd's before shrinking them though and just pull out the main movie. I do have a number that I have done with the menus though and they seem to work fine.

Should BluRay iso's work just the same or not?

Hello...

I sent a little time this afternoon working on this. I Backed up the DVD 'The Last Samurai' with DVD Shrink and pulled out what i didnt need, i backed up to individual folders with VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. When i try to play the DVD data which is now on my NAS erver XBMC just hangs. Same applies if i back up to an ISO, even if i scale the thing down to approx 3GIG in size.

I have heard so many people talking about backing up to ISO and it;s a little frustrating to know that mine just doesn't work.

Im at a point now where after many weeks of trying to get this running i may just go back to using my old DVD player in the living room. I just put a DVD in it and it plays.

Although i like XBMC for what it is i have noticed that i am once again using the Xbox for nothing but playing games. I have taken to using the old DVD player for watching my movie collection and the streaming TV function via scripts is a bit hit and miss.

Im hoping a solution will come along which is not too complex as i fear that the old Xbox is going to be relegated to the the loft once again.

[smcnally75]

You are backing up the DVD properly. It sounds to me like you have network issues.

[Trebz]

Originally Posted by smcnally75

You are backing up the DVD properly. It sounds to me like you have network issues.

Fair comment but....

My music collection plays fine, flawlessly via XBMC.

My network's like this:

NAS Server with CAT5 Patch to>Belkin Wireless Router which runs wirelessly to>Xbox with Belkin Wireless Access point attached via CAT5 to>Xbox with XBMC.

Works fine when playing .AVI's. .MP3's, .MOV etc etc.

I can backup the same DVD to an AVI and it works fine. The problem with this is that i obviously dont get the menu's included and the quality is a little low.

...

[idlerobbo]

can you run some wires temporarily to see if it fixes the problem? I had network issues with wireless so sacked it off and went back to cables.

[Trebz]

I took the Xbox upstairs and hard wired it into the router which sits two feet away from the server....

I can play the 1GIG DVD sections seperatly if i drill down into the Video_TS folder but then it only plays that individual 1GIG portion of the film.

I can do this downstairs over wireless faultlessly.

The menu at the beginning of the movie does not work, i had been led to believe that we can have the DVD menu system working.....

If i press the white controller button on the Video_TS folder and select 'Play' from the menu it crashes XBMC.

All of this happens wired and wireless.

[vdrfan]

In case you're not using the very latest Beta2 release of XBMC, you should update to it. If the issue still exists please post a full debug log.

[Trebz]

Im running this:

XBMC-SVN_2008-10-06_rev15805-T3CH-BETA2

I'll work on the debug log.

Thanks

[yazoo]

Try playing the iso on your PC - mount it using MagicISO or similar. If it does not play then your not backing up the DVD properly.