How to Launch VIDEO_TS folder in VLC

pmoto · Post by **pmoto** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:57 am

I am in the process of linking my DVDpedia entries to the associated VIDEO_TS folders containing the contents of DVDs I have backed-up to my hard drive. This works fine except the movies launch in DVD Player rather than in VLC which is my preferred video player. How do I get DVDpedia to launch the movie in VLC?

I assume there must be a way to change my default DVD/video player from DVD Player to VLC, but I am fairly new to the Mac and am unsure how to do this.

I would like DVDpedia to launch directly to the main movie menu.

Any assistance anyone may be able to provide will be greatly appreciated.

Post by **Conor** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:53 pm

To launch Video_TS folders with VLC you have to turn on an expert preference by running this command in the terminal application:

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defaults write com.bruji.dvdpedia "VLC for VIDEO_TS" -bool YES

Launch Terminal.app, copy paste the above command, hit return and restart DVDpedia if it was running.

VLC has limited support for AppleScript so there is no way for DVDpedia to tell it to go to the main menu as it does with Apple's DVD Player.

This is a recent change that is not offical yet so you might have to re-download DVDpedia if you downloaded it a few days ago.

TonyH · Post by **TonyH** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:18 am

I believe that the following code will set DVDpedia back to its normal state of using DVD Player as its viewer.

Code:
defaults write com.bruji.dvdpedia "VLC for VIDEO_TS" -bool NO

Worked on my version anyway.

Tony

pmoto · Post by **pmoto** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:01 pm

Thanks for the replies. I have been playing around with using DVD Player instead of VLC and now have it working close to what I want. However, there are a couple minor issues I am hoping someone might be able to help me with.

When I launch a movie file from fullscreen DVDpedia (linked to the movie's VIDEO_TS folder) the Mac desktop is displayed momentarily showing a non-fullscreen window for DVD Player. It then switches into fullscreen mode. Is there a way to eliminate this brief display of the desktop? I have set DVD Player to start in Fullscreen mode but it still shows the non-fullscreen window very briefly when it launches before switching to fullscreen.

Also, when the DVD Player launches I get a DVD Player warning message stating "Not Permitted" before the movie appears. It is only displayed briefly and everything works after the message fades out. What is causing this warning message and is there a way to eliminate it?

Finally what is the best method to send control back to DVDpedia after watching either the complete movie, or just a part of a movie in DVD Player? Currently, I am using Remote Buddy to control DVDpedia as well as DVD Player. I have the remote configured to issue a Command-Q in DVD Player when I press and hold the Play/Pause button. This quits DVD Player and returns me to the fullscreen view of DVDpedia. Is this the best way to reactivate DVDpedia? I thought perhaps leaving DVD Player open in fullscreen mode might be a solution, but am unsure how I would stop the movie and reactivate DVDpedia without quiting from DVD Player.

Thanks in advance for any assistance anyone might be able to provide.

Post by **Conor** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:05 am

You should not see the desktop in the new version of DVDpedia (3.4.4) as now the full screen stays and lets DVD Player come forward above DVDpedia. You might see the dock for a second unless you hide it with (command-option-d).

To keep DVD Player running, map remote buddy to the space key, to pause the movie, and then command-tab to switch to DVDpedia. If Remote Buddy allows AppleScript you can do "do shell script "open -a DVDpedia"", in order to avoid the application switcher bar showing.)

DVDpedia tries to go to the main menu of the movie, this is where the "Not Permitted" comes from as certain discs don't let you skip past the beginning.

I have updated DVDpedia (you will need to download DVDpedia again) and exposed the AppleScript used to launch DVD Player. You can go in and change it to avoid the "Not permitted" message. The script is located in: DVDpedia.app/Contents/Frameworks/Pediabase.framework/Resources/DVDPlayer.applescript. Open it and remove the "go to main menu" line.

As part of exposing the script I also changed it to activate DVD Player after the screen has been set to full screen. This might help in your situation where DVD Player shows the window for a second.

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For those that want more control over VLC I have also included the VLC script (commented out) so that you can replace the DVD player script instead of using the "VLC for VIDEO_TS" preference.

pmoto · Post by **pmoto** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:22 pm

Thanks for the assistance. I now have everything working perfectly. Great product and look forward to future enhancements!

alacrity77 · Post by **alacrity77** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 3:18 pm

forgive the mac101 question but how do I get to the scripts?? "DVDpedia.app/Contents/Frameworks/Pediabase.framework/Resources/DVDPlayer.applescript"

I am ripping just the main feature of each of my DVD's and can't get the DVD Player to move pass "not permitted"

Post by **Conor** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 4:01 pm

Ctrl-click (this is right click if you have a right click) on DVDpedia.app the application and select "Show Package Contents". From the resulting window you can navigate the folders as usual starting at the "Contents" part of the path.

Could be that the lack if menus in your ripped version are confusing DVD Player, so remove the "go to menu" line from the script as mentioned above.

alacrity77 · Post by **alacrity77** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:24 pm

thanks for the quick response, did as you directed and restarted DVDpedia but still the same issue. I have ripped a full DVD rather than the main feature and that works just fine (great looking app by the way). I was hoping to be able to jump straight into the main feature and save some disk space at the same time.

Post by **Conor** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:04 am

The issue seems to be with the AppleScript and DVD Player. Try removing almost all the lines from the script but:

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open VIDEO_TS (POSIX file FILE_PATH as file specification)
set viewer full screen to true
activate

If DVD Player still can't handle the partially ripped DVD you can link the main feature .vob file directly. (Doing so will make DVDpedia pass the file to the Finder to open, it will open with your preferred player for .vob files, which can be set with the get info command on the file in the Finder.) You will have to use a ripping program that creates one single .vob file; DVD Player will play it but it won't move on to the next one if the main features is broken into several files. If you really want to save space you can encode the file and use VLC or QuickTime instead.

A third option is to use VLC to play the partially ripped Video_TS folder. Replace the DVD Player AppleScript with the VLC script; the VLC script is included in the AppleScript but is commented out; un-comment the VLC part and comment the DVD Player part by placing it within (*...*).

alacrity77 · Post by **alacrity77** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:57 pm

tried as you suggested but with no luck, will backup a full copy of each disc and use that way.

michaelm · Post by **michaelm** » Fri May 04, 2007 3:14 pm

I just purchased a Mac Mini and downloaded dvdpedia as well as remote buddy. I've got my system hooked up to my 70" Sony through an HDMI adapter and I've backed up my DVD's to a hard drive connected to this system.

I'm wondering if there is a "How To" already posted detailing how to make dvdpedia and remote buddy work seamlessly for this media server application. These are both great products that seem to be well supported and it looks like others have already done this work. This is my first Mac and I'm unfamiliar with the tools at my disposal so I could really benefit from those that have already gone through this.

Thanks,
Mike.

Post by **Conor** » Fri May 04, 2007 3:31 pm

DVDpedia works with the Apple remote but Remote Buddy will intercept these commands and they will not reach DVDpedia. So map your Remote Buddy commands for DVDpedia to the keyboard commands. The 4 arrow keys and leaving and entering fullscreen are obvious, the obscure one is playing a movie, the shortcut would be option-p.

Forum member 209 also wrote a more detailed post on using Remote Buddy. User kseiferlin also wrote a whole script for SailingClicker.

If you have two computers have a look at MacDVDOnDemand on our extras page. It's a plug-in for DVDpedia created by a user that launches movies in DVDpedia from any other computer and reads them off a server based on title or UPC; i.e. select a movie on your laptop and launch it on a Mac Mini connected to a TV.

applepunks · Post by **applepunks** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:43 pm

Ok awesome is there a way to make VLC start up fullscreen and to skip the menu and start the movie right away?

Post by **Conor** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:14 am

VLC should go fullscreen when launching the movie, unfortunately they don't have an AppleScript command for going to the menu section.

If you have a particularly slow computer and VLC takes a while to start you might need to increase the delay in the script that waits before issuing the fullscreen command. The script is located in: DVDpedia.app/Contents/Frameworks/Pediabase.framework/Resources/DVDPlayer.applescript. If you used the terminal defaults for switching to VLC you need to switch it back to DVD Player and then change the script instead. Comment out the DVD Player script and uncomment the VLC section, so that you can modify it.

Bruji

How to Launch VIDEO_TS folder in VLC

How to Launch VIDEO_TS folder in VLC

To set things back to normal