Issues with playing ripped blue rays from hard drive

I have ripped several blue rays to my media pc which is running vista everything.

Playback video freezes for a split second periodically (like once/min). The audio continues to run without interuption and the video hops forward to stay in sync. I have no probs playing regular dvd's that are ripped.

What do you think is the most likely issue? Do I need more ram? I have 4gigs. Is it the hard drive? Too small of a buffer? The cpu is running at about 60% while watching a movie so I don't think the cpu is falling behind. When it isn't doing the little freeze job it is a beautiful picture.

Obviously I know that this description can not allow for a certain diagnosis, however, I was hoping someone familiar with the issue could say "It is almost always the blah blah blah".

What software did you use to rip them? AnyDVD HD?

Dan (electron) said:

What software did you use to rip them? AnyDVD HD?

Click to expand...

Is anyDVD HD considered the standard for this? I'm finally getting serious about ripping my stuff to a server.

Winx blue ray decrypter. Movies end up around 25 gigs or so. But I don't feel like this is the issue. If you watch the movie multiple times, the freezes don't happen at the same spot as though the data were bad.

Are they straight rips (.mts files) or you encoding (mkv)?

What program/codecs are you using for playback?

MyMovies + AnyDVD HD is the best combo i've found. AnyDVD HD will also allow you to play encrypted discs in things like XBMC What player are you using? I use TMT5 and also XBMC (sometimes).

If you are using a player that can play encrypted discs (Like TMT or WinDVD), it might help you rule out things, since that wouldn't rely on hard drive or the decrypter. You can probably download one as a free trial.

It could be hardware, your video card, possibly hard drive. I think you have plenty of memory. But first I would look for running processes that might be kicking off periodically and taking up resources, you can watch taskman and/or shutdown all processes/apps, etc. You should also probably update your video driver if you haven't already. Lastly, a lot of players have an option to show the video bitrate, you can see if this is dropping and if it something like the player just can't keep up due to not getting enough data buffered.

ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card with latest firmware.
Blue Rays play fine directly from the disk.
Using VNC media player
m2ts file format

Does VLC support encrypted playback? I would try some different rippers/players and ask on the VLC forum. If your system is playing the same disc back encrypted then that seems to indicate your system can handle it and if it is using the same player then that would point towards the ripping process. You could try ripping to something instead of folders like ISO/MKV. I assume since you said hard drive that you aren't playing over the network...

These stuttering issues can be frustrating, i've had them but mostly with network playback (Windows QOS settings, crappy switches, Boxee bugs, Windows Updates, bad rips). Once you get it working be careful about updates....

the winx program only rips to m2ts file format. I downloaded the trial of anydvd hd and will try ripping with that to see if it is any different. Playing the m2ts format was not easy, I had to hunt around a bit before locating an add on for vnc that let it play.

I go with .mkv for a container format. I make uncomressed full rips with http://makemkv.com .

Give it a try. It also removes encrytipon so Anydvd isnt needed.

Here is what I do, it is not the free route by any means.

Ripping MyMovies + AnyDVD HD to ISO (it will do folder as well)
Playback/Viewing XBMC + TMT5, BoxeeBox on another TV

XBMC Eden/11 also supports unencrypted bluray playback but no menus or HD audio at this time. I use TMT5 as an external player for XBMC, so I select a movie in XBMC and if it is bluray it launches TMT5. TMT5 also works with Windows media center as does MyMovies.

TroyMT said:

I go with .mkv for a container format. I make uncomressed full rips with http://makemkv.com .

Give it a try. It also removes encrytipon so Anydvd isnt needed.

Click to expand...

i'll give it a try along with anydvd.

I've been using AnyDVD HD experimenting for a few months now - and most recently, started using handbrake to convert to h.264 so I can play via plex on an eeepc and on my roku. I hate the additional work of the handbrake step as previously everything was in true .ISO, but on the other hand I do like skipping straight past all the menus and being right in the movie. Quality looks great too - not 100% original if you're picky, but works just fine and the bluray rips look awesome. For many movies I'm just keeping the ISO's separate so I always have them; soon I'll dump them to a 3TB external drive.

I did notice certain bluray rips were really pushing the limits of the eeepc - if the file is local and there's nothing else going on, it'll just play through clean with no stuttering... but it can't stream over the wireless and keep up with the video. My Macbook on the other hand can play just about anything right over wifi. Also noticed different results depending on the BD disk - I think the frame rate was higher or something in one of them because it struggles, while others play just fine anywhere.

I'd say keep experimenting - maybe try different discs, and make sure there's nothing unnecessary running on the computer. Also, be careful of virus scanners - they like to prescan files which could really cause issues on a several-gig file. Try testing with any virus scanners disabled; if it works, maybe exclude your movie file types.

So, I just ripped my first blue ray using anydvd. Like my other program, it ripped to m2ts file and playback has the same issue of freezing the video for a split second every 10 or 20 seconds.

I am trying to rip to an iso file and see how that works.

The ram is a little light for a vista box that is now asked to pump out a 25 gig video file. Is the box running Vista 64bit? If so buy more ram as It is dirt cheap.

Check the hard drive.

You also mentioned VNC player... I assume that was a typo and you meant VLC. What version are you running? They just released 2.0; upgrade to that version and see if that helps.

Lastly the HD3200 is a little light for playing full BR rips. Go with something like AMD/ATI 5450 fanless series or higher (DTS audio support etc) and the card is cheap ($30 - $50). I am using a 2 year old 5450 and can play LOTR full uncompressed rips which are close to 40G per disc without issue.