OK, so after much tinkering I have finally gotten my PS3 to stream MPG, by ripping in DVD Shrink and converting VOBs to MPG with VOB2MPG. But I'm still not getting the ability to chapter search, fast forward, remind, etc.

I suspect it may be my ripping process, as DVD Shrink is fairly new to me (I previously used AnyDVD). Here's what I do: Load a disc and use 'Open File' to initiate the rip (in this case, I'm use a disc everyone should be familiar with Spiderman)

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/CDLehner/screen1.jpg

I then de-select all the subtitle and audio formats I don't want

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/CDLehner/screen2.jpg

Then I click 're-author' to get a breakdown of all the sectors

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/CDLehner/screen3.jpg

And I move the main title to be ripped

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/CDLehner/screen4.jpg

But I suspect I need to also re-author some of the 'VTS' information in order to get time tags that will allow chapter skips and scans. Using this example, which files would do it...the 4 menus under Title Menus?

Thanks,
CD

I havent done it in a while but the PS3 plays VOB files and was able to FF and rewind. Was there a reason you were converting to MPG? Does it make smaller files?

EDIT: Im no expert but I assume you can't chapter as after it seem after you rip the disk you are only converting the vob files and the IFO file seems to be the one that hold all the info for chapter jumping and so on. If I remember correctly on my PC if I ran the IFO file it lets me do whatever I need but If I ran the VOB files seporately it would only play, FF or rewind for the amount of movie in that file. (assuming you split the movie up info more then one VOB)

I havent done it in a while but the PS3 plays VOB files and was able to FF and rewind. Was there a reason you were converting to MPG? Does it make smaller files?

EDIT: Im no expert but I assume you can't chapter as after it seem after you rip the disk you are only converting the vob files and the IFO file seems to be the one that hold all the info for chapter jumping and so on. If I remember correctly on my PC if I ran the IFO file it lets me do whatever I need but If I ran the VOB files seporately it would only play, FF or rewind for the amount of movie in that file. (assuming you split the movie up info more then one VOB)

No, I'd love to play a single VOB, but I don't think PS3 will stream them; maybe just locally, like off its hard drive or a usb external?

CD

I've practically given up on the PS3, since it's unable to to deal with simple .MOV files, .MKV, play streamed .VOB, 2 GB limit on Xvid...it's all very pointless to try to go around the console's deficiencies by re-encoding everything. They call it a media center, but the 360 has better media support. And the firmwares seem to have stopped as well.

Yes it will. I stream them from TVersity as well as just play them locally on the HDD or flash storage device.

I've practically given up on the PS3, since it's unable to to deal with simple .MOV files, .MKV, play streamed .VOB, 2 GB limit on Xvid...it's all very pointless to try to go around the console's deficiencies by re-encoding everything. They call it a media center, but the 360 has better media support. And the firmwares seem to have stopped as well.


You dont really have any limitations if you stream them from something though, like TVersity. Which is how I perfer it as I don't want to store 400GB of moves on my PS3's HDD. TVersirt will transcode pretty much anything you set it up for. I do understand you don't want to transcode everything but streaming is allot easier to manage the large needed file storage.

I've practically given up on the PS3, since it's unable to to deal with simple .MOV files, .MKV, play streamed .VOB, 2 GB limit on Xvid...it's all very pointless to try to go around the console's deficiencies by re-encoding everything. They call it a media center, but the 360 has better media support. And the firmwares seem to have stopped as well.

Well obviously you're somewhat biased Megalith, but you're not far off point; streaming to the PS3 has not been easy. I gave up on streaming FLAC audio to it, but mainly because my Squeezebox and Duet (when it arrives) do a much better job anyway; others have reported fairly easy streaming of FLAC through transcoding with TVersity and others.

That leaves video. I've been through several processes, and like you am not interested in pounding a square peg into a round hole to get the PS3 to stream (and I'm trying to avoid transcoding at all costs, which is why I gave up on the FLAC). But the DVD Shrink/VOB2MPG combo is pretty straightforward...if I can get this scanning issue licked.

CD

When you guys are saying VOB2MPG you are just talking about renaming the extension, not converting it right? If you are converting the files from VOB to MPG that is a wasted step as just renaming the file works just fine. It's somewhat frustrating not being able to move through chapters when your streaming; maybe Sony can give an option in the Display window to "Skip 5-10-15-30 minutes" into your video. Would make having your DVD collection on a server much easier to use on the PS3.

I use DVD Shrink to make 1:1 "No Compression" .iso backups of my DVD's. Burn them to Dual Layer DVD's, and bam, perfection.

When you guys are saying VOB2MPG you are just talking about renaming the extension, not converting it right? If you are converting the files from VOB to MPG that is a wasted step as just renaming the file works just fine. It's somewhat frustrating not being able to move through chapters when your streaming; maybe Sony can give an option in the Display window to "Skip 5-10-15-30 minutes" into your video. Would make having your DVD collection on a server much easier to use on the PS3.

I had stuttering issues when just renaming a VOB to MPG, and have heard others say the same. Using VOB2MPG helped eliminate that.

CD

I have been running DVD Shrink to create single VOBs and then renaming to get MPG format. I run into issues regularly with movies stopping and then I cannot FFWD to where it left off. I can't get to 'Go To' function in the PS3 menu to work either. 30 min TV shows work great but 1.5hr+ movies seem to be problematic. Anyone have a solution to the FFWD issue or Go To function??

I've practically given up on the PS3, since it's unable to to deal with simple .MOV files, .MKV, play streamed .VOB, 2 GB limit on Xvid...it's all very pointless to try to go around the console's deficiencies by re-encoding everything. They call it a media center, but the 360 has better media support. And the firmwares seem to have stopped as well.

QFT. For a 'media center', it's woefully inadequate when it comes to HD playback. Yes, obviously blu-ray looks amazing but it's quite a chore to watch any HD capture you might have on hand.

Until the firmware is significantly improved, or a Linux distro is easy to use and can play HD files well, I'll stick with making 3x DVD5/9s and watching them on my HD-DVD player.

I have been running DVD Shrink to create single VOBs and then renaming to get MPG format. I run into issues regularly with movies stopping and then I cannot FFWD to where it left off. I can't get to 'Go To' function in the PS3 menu to work either. 30 min TV shows work great but 1.5hr+ movies seem to be problematic. Anyone have a solution to the FFWD issue or Go To function??

That is where VOB2MPG come in.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=969198

Above link is to an ongoing discussion on this very subject.

...

Guys...I need help here. The PS3 plays (and will copy) single VOBs to and from the hard drive. But my problem is that, after using DVD shrink, the run time on some of the files is either 0'00", or really short, like 0'17".

Also, even though I re-author and include subtitles, the PS3 says that no subtitles are available during playback.

Can anyone help me with these two things?

Thanks!