Program to watch DVD over network??

[davidamarkley]

Hello, everyone!!

Not sure if this is the correct forum category to put this in, but here goes...

What I'm looking for is a program that can play DVD movies over the network.

Example scenario:

DVD-ROM drive with the "Who am I" DVD in the drive in "Comanche" computer.

I'm wanting to watch the "Who am I" movie on "Sequoia" over the 100Mbit network.

Well, I've tried to open the drive over the network in different media players, tried to mount the DVD-ROM drive, and tried to use a video lan server, all without success.

Is there a way that I can accomplish watching "Who am I" over the network, and preferably without any visible(open window) program on "Comanche".

Thanks!

David

[muno]

I don't have a dvd at hand to see if anything would work, but if nothing does, you could copy it to hd as an image and mount the image from other computers to watch it.
The file will be awfully big though
-M

[davidamarkley]

Yeah, while I do have the space to do what you mentioned, I was trying to avoid imaging the entire DVD onto the HDD. Thanks for the info though.

Trying to make it so I can just put any DVD in "Comanche's" DVD-ROM Drive, and watch it on "Sequoia" or any other computer for that matter.

I was looking into PVS(Personal Video Station) but it's geared towards movie files(.avi, .mpg, .mov, .etc) and recording live broadcasts and and replaying them. More like a TiVO kind of program.

If anyone has any ideas, I'll be willing to try them out.

Thanks again!

David

[<[o_0]>]

You can try VideoLAN, but I haven't personally tried it.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Tell me how it goes.

to be honest i have seen this asked in the pass but dont believe there was any real solution to it yet.

i have searched and seen some articles using openbsd tho

maybe your answer lies in here?



http://www.techimo.com/forum/t18426.html

[Droppyale]

That VideoLan looks pretty good...

has anybody got it working?


I might give it a try.

[davidamarkley]

Thanks for the links, everyone...

I still can't believe there's not some program for doing this. I don't think I'm the only one wanting to do this...

The VideoLAN looks promising, I've used it prior to this, but I only thought it played single movie files(.avi, .mpg, etc.) and not DVDs. But will try again, it's been awhile since I've used it, and some new features have probably been added.

The WinDVD things in the thread you linked to still requires you to backup the DVDs to the HDD. But RR's second link that he posted has a program called "EmpgPlay" and it says it can play "*.vob" files. (Those are the files that are the individual movie clip files on a DVD.) I don't know about the audio though... I'm gonna try that out this afternoon.

Thanks again for the links, ideas, and helps!

Keep them coming, because I don't feel that I've found the solution yet. I'm still googling away though...

David

// EDIT

I just checked out the VideoLAN page, and on the diagram of the features it mentions streaming DVD playback... If that's true, then I'll be one BIG HAPPY CAMPER!!!

Will try it out and let you know...

// END OF EDIT

[Scott Tiger]

Wouldn't it be possible to share the DVDrom of the host machine and then map to it with the machine you want to watch the movie with?

Just a thought.

[davidamarkley]

Yeah, I've tried to share the drive and mount it on my computer. The problem is that it just shows up as a folder/directory and not an actual DVD-ROM drive.

Thanks for the thought though...

I haven't really got a chance to try out the VideoLAN prog. I tried it real quick but it didn't seem to do anything. I need to do a bit more reading first I think...

David

[davidamarkley]

OK, well I tried to setup the VideoLAN server, but can't figure out how to make it so the DVD drive is set to be able to stream off of.

Here's the config file for the VideoLAN Server: (vls.cfg)

# vls configuration file (Example)

# Application wide settings
BEGIN "Vls"
  LogFile       = "vls.log"             # log file
  ScreenLog     = "enable"              # log to the console
  SystemLog     = "disable"             # log to the systemlog
END

# Security informations :
#
# The section "Groups" describes which group is allowed to use which command.
# Each user who belongs to the 'master" group has all the power on the server.
# Each one who belongs to the "monitor" group is a "read-only" user.
BEGIN "Groups"
# --- Format: 
# groupname     = "cmd1|cmd2|..."
# --- Example:
  monitor       = "help|browse|logout"
  master        = "help|browse|start|resume|suspend|stop|shutdown|logout|config|program|input|channel|show"
END

# The section "Users" describes each user
# Use "mkpasswd" to generate the encrypted password.
BEGIN "Users"
# --- Format: 
# username      = "encryptedpassword:group"
# --- Example:
  monitor       = "3BcKWoiQn0vi6:monitor"       # password is 'monitor'
  bozo          = "JKg2TpPerilnw:master"        # password is 'bozo'
END

# Telnet Administration
BEGIN "Telnet"
#  Domain        = "Inet6"              # Inet4 or Inet6
  LocalPort     = "9999"                # Port to use for that purpose
  Use = "true"
END

# Streams sources declaration
BEGIN "Inputs"
# --- Format:
# InputName     = "Type"
# --- Example:
  local1       = "local"                # Local input example
#  kfir         = "video"               # Video input example (mpeg encoder)
#  dvb          = "dvb"                 # Video input example (DVB card)
END

# --- Format:
# BEGIN "program_number"
#   Name     = "program_name"
#   Type     = "type"          # can be Mpeg1-PS, Mpeg2-PS, Mpeg2-TS, or Dvd
#   FileName = "path"          # use this variable if Type is not "Dvd"
#   Device   = "device"        # use this variable with type "Dvd"
# END

# --- Example:
#BEGIN "1"     # MPEG2 stream stored in /home/videolan/streams/Dolby.vob
#  Name     = "dolby"
#  FileName = "/media/films/Dolby_Canyon.vob"
#  Type     = "Mpeg2-PS"
#END

#BEGIN "2"     # another file
#  Name     = "canyon"
#  FileName = "Dolby_Canyon.vob"
#  Type     = "Mpeg2-PS"
#END

BEGIN "1"     # DVD
  Name       = "DVD"
  Device     = "D:@0:1"
  Type       = "dvd"
  DvdTitle   = "1"    # Start title
  DvdChapter = "1"    # Start chapter
END

#BEGIN "4"     # DVD stored on a hard disk
#  Name       = "matrix"
#  Device     = "/media/matrix/VIDEO_TS"
#  Type       = "dvd"
#  DvdTitle   = "1"   # Start title
#  DvdChapter = "1"   # Start chapter
#END

# Video input configuration
BEGIN "kfir"
# --- Example:
# Device        = "/dev/video"     # Video4linux device (default is /dev/video)
# Type          = "Mpeg2-PS"       # Stream type (default is "Mpeg2-PS")
END

# Video input (DVB) configuration
BEGIN "dvb"
# --- Example:
#  DeviceNumber = "0"                   # /dev/dvb/adapter<i>
#  SendMethod   = "0"                   # 0 - Send All Pids
                                        # 1 - Send only MPEG2 datas 
END

# Channel (outputs) declaration
BEGIN "Channels"
# --- Format:
# ChannelName   = "Type"
# --- Example:
  localhost     = "network"
  client1       = "network"
#  client2       = "network"
  multicast     = "network"
#  localfile     = "file"
END

# Channels configuration
#BEGIN "localhost"         # The client is on the same host as the server
#  DstHost = "127.0.0.1"
#  DstPort = "1234"
#END

#BEGIN "client1"                          # unicast example
#  DstHost = "192.168.2.111"                # destination host
#  DstPort = "1234"                       # destination port
#END

#BEGIN "client2"                          # unicast with IPv6 example
#  Domain  = "inet6"
#  DstHost = "3ffe:ffff::2:12:42"         # destination host
#  DstPort = "1234"                       # destination port
#END

BEGIN "multicast"                        # multicast example
  Type    = "multicast"
  TTL     = "1"                          # Time To Live
  DstHost = "192.168.2.111"                # multicast address
  DstPort = "1234"                       # destination port
END

#BEGIN "localfile"                        # file output example
#  FileName = "stream.ts"
#  Append   = "no"                        # rewrite the file if it exists
#END

# Commands automatically lanched on Startup
# Commands shall be like they would be typed in a telnet console.
BEGIN "LaunchOnStartUp"
#  command1 = "start dolby localhost local1 --loop"
#  command2 = "start 28009 client1 dvb"
END

And what I need to do is change the /dev/cdrom part to D:\ or whatever command I need, but I can't seem to get it to work right.

The main thing is I'm not understanding the variable - syntax relationship of this config file.

Any help is appreciated!

David