Multi-disc DVD movies can't be played in browser

[skyy99_1111@…]

I'm running a Mac Mini with Leopard 10.5.2 and Sapphire beta 6. The import process recognizes multi disc DVD movies (i.e. VIDEO_TS folders) as just 1 movie in the browser and applies the IMDB and poster art as just 1 movie (which is expected and appreciated). For example, importing:

DVDS

Movie A Pt. 1

VIDEO_TS

Movie A Pt. 2

VIDEO_TS

Will result in 2 entries in the metadata.xml for the same movie, but just 1 entry for "Movie A" in the browser (it notices the "Pt. x" and trims it off). Great, good, excellent. However, when you go to play "Movie A" via the browser, it only plays the second VIDEO_TS folder data. Since now you're in the DVD player, there's now way to navigate to the Pt 1. VIDEO_TS. In fact there's no way to play the Pt. 1 VIDEO_TS from the browser now.

Clearly there should be a way to play the first VIDEO_TS and then the second VIDEO_TS (as that would be expected). It'd be ideal to play them automatically, back to back (as that's typically the pattern for playing a movie). I've tried the Join Group functionality to see if that would work. Unfortunately, it only works to join .mov files. Does nothing for VIDEO_TS.

At this point, I cannot play any of my 2 disc movies using Sapphire (e.g. LOTR, Godfather 2, etc.). I'll probably hack the metadata.xml to distinguish the two parts of the same movie so at least both parts show up in the browser. But this seems like a pretty big bug, no?

Thanks, Matt

[gbooker]

Replying to skyy99_1111@yahoo.com:

But this seems like a pretty big bug, no?

More like outside the scope of the design. Patches welcome

[skyy99_1111@…]

OK. I understand. Playing multiple VIDEO_TS movies back to back is not in the design scope. Any pointers you have for places to look at changing this in the code would be appreciated.

But even from the position that this is not a bug, we must concede that hiding the different parts (i.e. Pt. 1/2) in the browser is a bug. If there's no provision to play the movies, not displaying them in the browser (when they are there and recognized) prevents the user from selecting and playing them him/herself. Basically, movies are not being displayed.

[gbooker]

At the moment, playback of VIDEO_TS is somewhat hacky. It is essentially telling the built-in DVD player to play it, and then letting it take complete control of that part of the playback. This would likely have to be redesigned to handle what you want.

As per the virtual directories, again it was not designed to have more than file per entry. The backend code is currently being redesigned, and handling this situation is something which it now handles. When the current design was implemented, we did consider the ability to have more than one file per entry in the virtual directories, but chose to not implement the code for it as it would have complicated the design.

[skyy99_1111@…]

I see. Is there an ETA for the new version with this revised backend code?

Thanks, Matt

[skyy99_1111@…]

Patch for unique (duplicate) entries.

[skyy99_1111@…]

I've attached a patch that seems to rather simply support multi-disc DVD entries. It basically appends the path to movie entry key so that movies with the same title, but in different directories, show up as duplicate entires in the browser. This is a short term fix that at least allows multi-disc movie titles to show up in the browser so that each part can be played.

Any chance this might be included in the next release?

[gbooker]

The redesigned backend code already has this ability. I've been taking advantage of it when it comes to having multiple versions of a TV episode.

[skyy99_1111@…]

OK. Is this redesign in the next release? I just need to know what release to look for.

[gbooker]

It's likely to be b7 as the b6 code is in bug-fix only stage.

[gbooker]

b7 was released.