Transfer DVDs to your AZBox HDD

[AcWxRadar]

I have written about this previously, but I am getting more adept at it as I progress. I thought you might like to hear the instructions that I have to offer.

You can do this easily with FileZilla or MaZEdit 3.0.

Let's look at using FileZilla as most everyone can access and run this application.

Assuming that you have your AZBox set up and cooperating/communicating with FileZilla, we will take off from that point.

Open your FileZilla application program and connect to your AZBox.

The upper right panel named "REMOTE SITE" is your AZBox. Locate the first folder shown with the "?/" and left click on that folder. It will open the main directories. Search for the folder named "DATA" and left click on it. It will open the directories within that folder. Locate the "MOVIES" folder and and right click on it. In the sub-menu that opens, click on "CREATE NEW DIRECTORY". You will see the path and filename with the "NEW DIRECTORY" highlighted. Here you may edit the name of the directory.

Type in any name you wish to call this new directory. For example: WESTERNS, SCI-FI, DRAMA, COMEDY, etc. Press enter and the new directory will be created.

If you do not create sub-directories in this way, all of your DVD titles will appear individually in the one huge directory called MOVIES and will make it harder to navigate when you start filling it up with hundreds of movies.

Creating these sub-directories will allow you to organize your movies into categories so that they are easier to navigate and locate. I have not found a way to organize the movies after the fact (you cannot move them around once they are in place like using drag and drop or cut and paste on your PC).

Let's say you want to transfer a comedy DVD to your AZBox HDD. Click on the COMEDY directory so that that folder's contents opens in the "FILENAME" box just below the "REMOTE SITE" box on FileZillas panel.

Insert your DVD and allow your PC to scan it. If it automatically opens a DVD player application, close that or at least minimize it. Then, on the FileZilla panel to the left, where it shows "LOCAL SITE" which is your PC's drive listings, click on the DVD drive of your PC to open the contents of the DVD and view them.

Locate the file folder "VIDEO_TS" and right click on it. You will have a menu that allows "ADD FILES TO QUEUE". Select that option and the files of the folder will be added to the queue list at the very bottom of the FileZilla screen.

In the tool bar at the top of the screen, click on TRANSFER and select PROCESS QUEUE. FileZilla will start transferring the DVD's "VIDEO_TS" folder to the directory that is open on the AZBox HDD.

The transfer process will take almost as long as the movie is in length. It seems to transfer the movie bit by bit as if you were watching it play. So be prepared to wait until it is complete before viewing it.

You may go back to your AZBox and use the remote to access other movie titles in the MOVIE directory and watch them or watch your satellite TV programs or You Tube while the transfer process is underway. It doesn't seem to like it if you try to watch the file you are transferring (it slows it down considerably), but you can do nearly anything else that you please.

When the file is done transferring to the AZBox's HDD, you need to rename the file as it will be listed as "VIDEO_TS". Click on the filename and rename it as the movie title the way you want it to be shown. If you do not do so, the next movie title that you transfer will simply overwrite the previous one with the name "VIDEO_TS". It will not create a new title automatically for you, it simply overwrites what is in the "VIDEO_TS" folder without prompting you if you want to do so.

If you have any troubles with copy protection codes, try installing SlySoft ANYDVD on your PC. It will run in the background. Not a very expensive program and it will allow your system to ignore these codes.

When you wish to watch your DVD titles, simply click on the AZBox's remote HOME button, scroll to MOVIE and select the MOVIE folder. Find the sub-directory for the movie category you want (i.e. WESTERNS) and press OK. Highlight the movie you wish to watch, press the CHECK button on the remote to select the movie nd then press OK. A store-bought DVD will be presented identically as if you were playing the DVD in a DVD player. So all the start menu features will be in tact as it will be a bit for bit copy of the original DVD.

I have been trying to delete and omit some of the extraeneous files, like subtitles and scene selections, blooper files, director cuts, actor interviews and language options so that it just plays the movie and the movie alone (trying to save space on my HDD) but everything seems to be interconnected somehow and dependant upon the other files being present. The best I have been able to do so far is cut out most everything down to the basic movie itself, but then it doesn't play quite right. The movie has several "divisions" and the transistion between each division causes the screen to go blank during a scene for about 1-2-3 seconds and then restart where it left off. It just isn't quite right, if you know what I mean. So I leave most of the files in tact to avoid this quirk. Maybe I will get it down pat someday so that I can reduce the space the DVD takes up on the HDD.

I can delete quite a few files, like the alternate language copies of the movie, and save a good amount space, but the rest of the files I must leave in tact or else the movie doesn't play correctly.

Well, that is pretty much all there is to the whole thing. Hope you enjoy playing with it all.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

I should state that I am able to do this with MaZEdit 3.0. I actually prefer it to FileZilla, but not everyone is having luck with MaZEdit, so I wrote it up using FileZilla's example.

MaZEdit is slightly more convenient as it elliminates some of the process steps. I can click and drag the file I want between the DVD on the PC and the file folder on the AZBox. This is not a huge benefit, but it does help a little. It still takes just as long for the transfer process, so there isn't anything to go yippee about here.

RADAR

 

[stargaze]

If you do not create sub-directories in this way, all of your DVD titles will appear individually in the one huge directory called MOVIES and will make it harder to navigate when you start filling it up with hundreds of movies.

When I read that statement I thought wow, I wonder if I can create new folders for the programs I am recording. Never thought of it before this. Low & behold you can and you can move the files to the new folders.
I would not have thought of this before I read your post.
Thanks!

 

[AcWxRadar]

When I read that statement I thought wow, I wonder if I can create new folders for the programs I am recording. Never thought of it before this. Low & behold you can and you can move the files to the new folders.
I would not have thought of this before I read your post.
Thanks!

Stargaze,

You are welcome. It really works quite slick! Not entirely perfect, but it is good information to know. Makes the price of admission worthwhile.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

File Manager

DOH!

Now I know what to use the FILE MANAGER for!

If you want to move your "files" around from one directory to another, open the FILE MANAGER system. Select the directory you intend to work on, locate the file you want to work with and click the "CHECK" button on th remote, then click on the MENU button and select COPY. When the file registers as being ready to copy, find the folder or directory where you want to move it to and press MENU and then PASTE. Very simple and fairly fast, just a few minutes to move an entire DVD.

I was trying to attempt this with FileZilla and MaZEdit. I couldn't find a way to do it there.

RADAR

 

[stargaze]

Now I know what to use the FILE MANAGER for!

If you want to move your "files" around from one directory to another, open the FILE MANAGER system. Select the directory you intend to work on, locate the file you want to work with and click the "CHECK" button on th remote, then click on the MENU button and select COPY. When the file registers as being ready to copy, find the folder or directory where you want to move it to and press MENU and then PASTE. Very simple and fairly fast, just a few minutes to move an entire DVD.

I was trying to attempt this with FileZilla and MaZEdit. I couldn't find a way to do it there.

RADAR

That's the way I did it !
But it took your first post to make me go look for it.

 

[B.J.]

Just to once again propose an alternative way of viewing video using the file manager, I usually don't bother to move anything TO the Azbox, but instead, I use the file manager to pull up the directories on my PCs where I have stored all sorts of movies, and videos from DVDs, recordings from satellite, etc, etc, and I can just play them on the Azbox, directly over the network. Basically, I think that as far as the Azbox is concerned, there isn't much difference between a drive on the Azbox vs a drive on a networked computer, so it really isn't necessary to move things over there before playing the files. It may not always be true, but I think generally if you can play it from the Azbox drive, you can play it from your computer's drive.

 

[stargaze]

I use the file manager to pull up the directories on my PCs where I have stored all sorts of movies, and videos from DVDs, recordings from satellite, etc, etc, and I can just play them on the Azbox, directly over the network. It may not always be true, but I think generally if you can play it from the Azbox drive, you can play it from your computer's drive.

How are you getting the azbox to see your pc's hd? or am I misunderstanding your post?

 

[B.J.]

How are you getting the azbox to see your pc's hd? or am I misunderstanding your post?

Just go into the File Manager (on the Axbox), and select "Network", and it will pop up your LAN, and list any directories that you have shared on your network (or your computer if you only have the one computer). If you have a video file that the Azbox is capable of playing, just highlight it, and hit the OK button, and it will play. Of course you'll need a network fast enough to play the files, but most people now have a 100Mbps hard wired LAN or a 54 Mbps wireless. I can play up to the ~20 Mbps Azbox recording limit via a wired lan, and can play SD and low to medium bitrate HD over my wireless. To me, it's much easier than transferring the files to the Azbox. Besides lots of programs I've recorded off sat that I have on my computers, I also have a bunch of old TV shows that I bought the DVDs of, and have saved the episodes on my hard drive, and if nothing is on regular TV, I just go into the Azbox file manager, and pull up an old Get Smart, Mork&Mindy, Taxi, Bob Newhart, Gilligan's Island, Batman, etc, etc.
In addition to the video programs, you can do the similar things with photos and music files. If the Azbox HTTP channel thing worked better, you could stream live programming from other tuners to the Azbox too, but the Azbox seems to choke if the bitrate is more than something around 10 Mbps. I can stream live programming at the ~20 Mbps limit via UDP channels, but I don't have a very convenient way of doing that, I have to send the stream to VLC, and have it recode it as UDP, which is a pain.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Just to once again propose an alternative way of viewing video using the file manager, I usually don't bother to move anything TO the Azbox, but instead, I use the file manager to pull up the directories on my PCs where I have stored all sorts of movies, and videos from DVDs, recordings from satellite, etc, etc, and I can just play them on the Azbox, directly over the network. Basically, I think that as far as the Azbox is concerned, there isn't much difference between a drive on the Azbox vs a drive on a networked computer, so it really isn't necessary to move things over there before playing the files. It may not always be true, but I think generally if you can play it from the Azbox drive, you can play it from your computer's drive.

This is a good alternative. I would like to set this network up, but I haven't got this to function yet. I will post a Q regarding that later.

However, to explain my specific endeavor, I am utilizing my AZBox as the source of all the stuff I am putting up at my cabin "drive-in". Having all my recorded movies on the AZBox HDD is my goal in this specific endeavor. I can pull stuff off the dish or the HDD, whatever I desire. Otherwise, I would have to haul more components out there and I don't like to do that. So, I want to keep this system as portable and as condensed as I can.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

Additional Information (helpful)

I found a nice trick to use, very simple and easy.

If you have SlySoft AnyDVD and SlySoft Clone DVD programs installed on your PC, then you may "copy" a DVD and burn it to a Rewritable (RW) DVD disc. You could probably use a temporary file on your PC if you want to, but I usually like to make a hard copy of the DVD for my library. Using a RW DVD media, you don't have to worry about mistakes as you can start over many times and reuse the disc many times over again.

Once the "copy" is made, then you may use MaZEdit or FileZilla to FTP the file VIDEO_TS from the "copy" disc to your AZBox HDD.

If you do it this way, you will have stripped the WARNING messages that appear at the beginning of the movie title and you will also have stripped the menu selections (like the opening page where you select to PLAY the movie, select special features and specialty audio/video tracks).

What you end up with on the "copy" DVD is just the movie itself. Then, when you tansfer it to the AZBox HDD, and select to play the movie, it just starts right at the beginning of the movie, from the credits and opening as you would see if you saw it in a cinema theater.

If you CLONE the disc or transfer the disc directly to the AZBox HDD, It acts identically as if you inserted the original DVD into a DVD player. In that case, you have to wait for the warning messages to cycle through and then you have to highlight "PLAY" and press OK to start the actual movie.

If you use the "COPY" method, then when you select the movie from the AZBox file system, it just starts playing the movie. Much better and it saves some HDD space.

Try it out sometime, both ways, to see for yourself.

By the way, here is the link for SlySoft products, they are not FREEWARE, but worth the investment...

SlySoft AnyDVD | any dvd, region free, dvd copy, copy dvd movies, dvd decoder, dvd ripper, macrovision, dvd copying software

RADAR

 

[stargaze]

Just go into the File Manager (on the Axbox), and select "Network", and it will pop up your LAN, and list any directories that you have shared on your network (or your computer if you only have the one computer). If you have a video file that the Azbox is capable of playing, just highlight it, and hit the OK button, and it will play. Of course you'll need a network fast enough to play the files, but most people now have a 100Mbps hard wired LAN or a 54 Mbps wireless. I can play up to the ~20 Mbps Azbox recording limit via a wired lan, and can play SD and low to medium bitrate HD over my wireless. To me, it's much easier than transferring the files to the Azbox. Besides lots of programs I've recorded off sat that I have on my computers, I also have a bunch of old TV shows that I bought the DVDs of, and have saved the episodes on my hard drive, and if nothing is on regular TV, I just go into the Azbox file manager, and pull up an old Get Smart, Mork&Mindy, Taxi, Bob Newhart, Gilligan's Island, Batman, etc, etc.
In addition to the video programs, you can do the similar things with photos and music files. If the Azbox HTTP channel thing worked better, you could stream live programming from other tuners to the Azbox too, but the Azbox seems to choke if the bitrate is more than something around 10 Mbps. I can stream live programming at the ~20 Mbps limit via UDP channels, but I don't have a very convenient way of doing that, I have to send the stream to VLC, and have it recode it as UDP, which is a pain.

oh ok, I knew that, I was just a bit dense when I read you first post I responded to, my problem... I just have alot on my plate these last several days.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I'm with BJ on the simplicity of playing content over a home network. I've played DVD movies on my AZ that were still on the DVDs and used the DVD drive on my computer to do that. If you have your computers DVD drive shared on the network you can navigate back to it from the AZ and play a DVD from your computer to the AZ without ripping it from the original DVD.

Some other things I've done is to use a DVD ripper to convert DVDs to MPEG then uploaded them to the AZ HDD. I recently got a full set of Boston Legal and I ripped those and uploaded them to the AZ HDD so I wouldn't have to have the computer on while watching those episodes.

And on another note, it might not be a bad idea to have backup copies of stuff on different HDDs in case you have a drive failure. With those files on both your computer and your AZ HDD (if you have one) you do have them backed up.

But yeah, theres a bunch of ways to play movies/music, etc across a home network on your AZ IF you have file sharing enabled, which can be a whole new can of worms with Windows Vista and 7.

 

[tommy-b]

Some other things I've done is to use a DVD ripper to convert DVDs to MPEG then uploaded them to the AZ HDD.

That's the route I would take. A high quality AVI rip is roughly 1/4 the size of an average DVD, mpeg even smaller. Even though these days hard drives are bigger, no need to fill them up sooner

I use DVD Fab for my DVD backups. It and ConvertXtoDVD are 2 of the best software purchases I have ever made and handle all of my DVD creation/manipulation needs. DVD Fab also lets you strip out anything you want, all the way to just the movie. I've used it to make many high quality rips and videos for my phone.

 

[Lone Gunman]

That's the route I would take. A high quality AVI rip is roughly 1/4 the size of an average DVD, mpeg even smaller. Even though these days hard drives are bigger, no need to fill them up sooner

I use DVD Fab for my DVD backups. It and ConvertXtoDVD are 2 of the best software purchases I have ever made and handle all of my DVD creation/manipulation needs. DVD Fab also lets you strip out anything you want, all the way to just the movie. I've used it to make many high quality rips and videos for my phone.

FYI, I had problems with my AZ playing back AVI files that were 2GB or larger, ie, it wouldn't do it? THAT is the reason I use MPEG now. I also DO NOT have a HD TV so the quality of the MPEG format is as good as I need. Oh, and I use WIN X DVD Ripper Platinum and it also works great.

But yeah, sounds like you've got a handle on that home network stuff also! Man, I just love this technology stuff, don't you!

 

[AcWxRadar]

CREATING FOLDERS FOR DIFF MOVIE GENRES ON YOUR HDD

Keeping in line with transferring DVD titles to your AZBox HDD: If you create separate folders for the genre of the movies you transfer to your AZBox HDD - like WESTERNS - COMEDIES - ACTION/ADVENTURE - WAR - DRAMA - HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY - HORROR - SCIFI etc. You will find a neat perk for playback.

When you select the MOVIES-04 option from the HOME menu, select the MOVIE folder and you will see the individual folders for each of these genres.

If you highlight any one of the genre folders (outline it in blue) and press OK, you will see all the individual titles that you stored there. From here, you can select to play any one movie title by using the check button (the paperclip) on your remote and pressing OK.

Here is the unique perk: When you have the display showing all the genre folders, if you use the check button on the remote to check mark one single entire genre folder, and press OK, it will play all the movie titles within that folder. It is not random, but it will not play according to the alphabetical listing of the movies. It seems to playback according to the FIFO system (first recorded, first played back). I rather wish it would playback in random order, but it is still handy.

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

I must alter my impression here... It does play in random order. If you quit and restart it the same day, it replays the same schedule, but a few days later, it will begin anew with a new starting movie and the subsequent movie order will be unique. So, yes it does replay at random, but seems to reorder the random order at specific intervals. I t seems to replay the same movies if you stop the sequence within a couple of hours from the start. If you wait a day or two, then it does change.

I imagine that only specific people with specific purposes in mind will find this information useful to them, but... It is all information that each should keep in mind. Wether you use it or not, it is just another piece of information concerning the operation of the AZBox that we can understand and follow.

This is going to work very well for me and my "Drive-In Theater" idea! Here, I can just pick a "theme" or a genre and let it roll!

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

HOW TO MAKE MULTI-DISC DVD SETS APPEAR AS ONE CONTINUOUS MOVIE ON AZBOX HDD

If you have a multi-disc set for a long length movie or a mini-series and would like to play this as a continuous feature (no breaks to move to the next disc or file) from your HDD on the AZBox (or your computer for that matter), here is a method to do it.

You will need SlySoft AnyDVD and SlySoft CloneDVD2 and DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink is freeware, but some download locations are attempting to charge for it. Try another one that is truly free. The SlySoft products are not free, but they are relatively inexpensive. If you have something similar already, you may try that.

Start by creating three new folders in MY DOCUMENTS > MY VIDEOS. “MOVIE TITLE disk 1”, “MOVIE TITLE disk 2” and “MOVIE TITLE both”.

Insert disc #1, allow AnyDVD to scan it. Open CloneDVD and use the COPY feature (NOT CLONE) to make a copy of the main title. Select to save this copy as a DVD file named “MOVIE TITLE disk 1” in MY DOCUMENTS > MY VIDEOS.

Insert disc #2, allow AnyDVD to scan it. Open CloneDVD and use the COPY feature (NOT CLONE) to make a copy of the main title. Select to save this copy as a DVD file named “MOVIE TITLE disk 2” in MY DOCUMENTS > MY VIDEOS.

Open DVD Shrink, and click on Re-Author. Open “My Computer” in the browser panel of DVD Shrink and browse MY MOVIES folder for “MOVIE TITLE disk 1”. Open the folder and under the header MAIN MOVIE find: title 1. Click on it and allow DVD Shrink to analyze it. When finished, the title will appear in the far left panel named “compilation”.

Return to the browser panel of DVD Shrink and browse MY MOVIES folder for “MOVIE TITLE disk 2”. Open the folder and under the header MAIN MOVIE find: title 1. Click on it and allow DVD Shrink to analyze it. When finished, the title will appear in the far left panel named “compilation”.

You now have two titles in the compilation panel on the left.

Highlight the DVD line above both titles in the compilation panel and click on “BACKUP” in the toolbar. Select backup target as: HARD DISK FOLDER. Select target folder for DVD output files as: C:\Documents and Settings\my computer name\My Documents\My Videos\ MOVIE TITLE both.

Check the box for: Create VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS sub folders. Then press OK.

The encoding process will proceed. When completed, you may go to the destination folder and locate the VIDEO_TS file and FTP it to your AZBox HDD using MaZEdit or FileZilla, then rename the title to the actual movie title (after it is transferred).

You may now watch that movie in its full duration without having separate files. You may do this for even longer disc sets, but I do not know what the actual limit is if one exists.

If the file is properly sized, you may also use a DVD maker program (such as Nero) to burn this VIDEO_TS file to a dual layer disc to avoid the need to change to disc 2 in the middle of the movie. DVD Shrink actually compresses the files and may allow a two disc set to be made into a single disc in the right circumstances.

RADAR