DVD/Menu Support on AppleTV 4???

[f1d094]

I just saw MrMC in the Apple App store with "supports DVDs with DVD menu support". I am pleased, but skeptical when I see this. Can someone help answer the following questions? We are mostly interested for Apple TV, but we'd also like to run on our iPads/iPhones if possible.

1) What are the requirements (server/client) to make this work smoothly?
2) From what I understand the Apple TVs do not support MPEG1/2, so how is the conversion happening?
3) How does this affect menu navigation? Can you still see highlighted items, etc?

We have our DVDs backed up as VIDEO_TS folder structures. Currently we use MythTV for organizing and playback. The backend is Linux, running on an Intel 2600k w/8GB RAM. I'd be happy to setup any other server system such as Emby to enhance performance, as long as it runs on Linux. We have an equally large collection of .m2ts files and .mkvs which we stream/organize via Plex. I am not interested in any solution that involves transcoding these DVDs in any fashion. They were left in DVD format for very good reasons.

Thanks in advance. I am excited at the idea of finally having an option to access all our DVDs via our i-devices!

[amet]

I just saw MrMC in the Apple App store with "supports DVDs with DVD menu support". I am pleased, but skeptical when I see this. Can someone help answer the following questions? We are mostly interested for Apple TV, but we'd also like to run on our iPads/iPhones if possible.

Note that AppleTV and iPhone/Ipad applications are not the same, ATV one is called MrMC and iPhone/iPad is called MrMC Touch. Both are a separate purchases.

1) What are the requirements (server/client) to make this work smoothly?

All you need is a good network and SMB/NFS server to share the files. Point MrMC to a folder and play, thats all.

2) From what I understand the Apple TVs do not support MPEG1/2, so how is the conversion happening?

ffmpeg is used for it, everything except h264 is done using ffmpeg to render video.

3) How does this affect menu navigation? Can you still see highlighted items, etc?

Yes, full menu navigation , all is working as you would have on a standard DVD player except CSS, discs need to be decrypted.

We have our DVDs backed up as VIDEO_TS folder structures. Currently we use MythTV for organizing and playback. The backend is Linux, running on an Intel 2600k w/8GB RAM. I'd be happy to setup any other server system such as Emby to enhance performance, as long as it runs on Linux. We have an equally large collection of .m2ts files and .mkvs which we stream/organize via Plex. I am not interested in any solution that involves transcoding these DVDs in any fashion. They were left in DVD format for very good reasons.

Thanks in advance. I am excited at the idea of finally having an option to access all our DVDs via our i-devices!

We also have integrated Plex client for your Plex Media which you can play via direct play, no forced transcoding like on the Plex app.

Hope it helps
amet

[f1d094]

Amet,

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. No problem on paying for two different apps. If it works for my needs I think it is a bargain at twice the price.

As far as movie navigation via SMB: Will MrMC(Or touch) maintain a catalog of some sort, or does it rebuild and re-lookup posters and descriptions?

I have almost 900 DVDs backed up currently and they are all visible in one giant directory via LVM. How well would the app handle this? Would I have to break them down into smaller directories to be digestible?

[amet]

If DVDs are comercial movies that you backed up, best way woudl be to sort them out in folders

some_path/Movies/
------------------------Avatar (2009)/
-----------------------------------------/VIDEO_TS
-----------------------------------------/AUDIO_TS

then set source for that folder to Movies, choose "Movies are in separate folders...." and choose Universal Movie Scraper(or any other that strikes you fancy). MrMC will load data for all those movies it finds into a library and next time it will just access the movie without physically listing the entire folder of 900 subfolders.

if not specifically set, MrMC will use internal sqlite database, since it sounds like you will use it on more than one device I would suggest you look into MySQL database setup, enter details for database and user/pass you have setup in Settings-> Services -> MySQL Client ... its easy and it syncs library and watched/unwatched status across all devices.

[f1d094]

Amet,

Just a bit more clarification. First, let's make certain I understand correctly:
1) If no MySQL database is created, each deivce will scan the SMB mount once connected and build their own sqlite database local to the device. This prevents tracking watched/unwatched status across all devices
2) If MySQL is setup and used. The first device to be setup will scan the SMB mount and populate this database with details of the movies found. Then that device and any subsequent devices (assuming they are setup with the correct MySQL creds, etc) will then only pull data from the database and all will access/update the same status flags

My question is as follows:
What is the performance impact? I am curious what level of caching happens in this setup. For me, I am much more interested in having my library load quickly than knowing if one device thinks I've watched a move and another does not. I know what I've seen...I don't really care if my device knows or not. So...strictly speaking from a performance standpoint, if I have a range of devices and they all build their own sqlite databases, will they see a significant performance increase in loading the video list/library?

Thanks again!

[eazytv]

Your summary is totally accurate.

I have been using MrMC on an ATV4 without using an external SQL database. This been totally fine since MrMC hit the shelf. However, I set up a NAS 2 weeks ago and I am now using a SQL database for my several devices. I will not go back to individual device databases ever again. Trust me, there is no performance impact.

What specific set-up are you aiming at?

[amet]

Hi,

1 and 2 are correct.

My movie database is around 1000 items, all in one folder on qnap. Library load time is in 100’s of milliseconds. Granted, local database will be faster but we are talking 100-200 millisecond faster than having it on MySQL.

[f1d094]

Thank you both for the precise answers. The ATV4s will be connected via ethernet, so clearly the MySQL db is optimal for them.

One final question then before I start reconfiguring our media nirvana: I use my media remotely quite often via openvpn, usually with iPads and/or iPhones. Our bandwidth is pretty good at 75/25 down/up...can you see any advantage to sticking with local sqlite DBs for the devices that would typically be over VPN?

Thanks again.

[f1d094]

What specific set-up are you aiming at?

I have a very robust MythTV setup that I've used for 15 years or so...with a few revisions of hardware. It looks as clunky as it always has, especially when compared to the slick interface of MrMC and/or PLEX. Right now we use a few re-flashed ASUS chromeboxes as clients for the TV, and Roku3s for PLEX. Now that PLEX has added DVR support, and Roku has gone to complete crap (latest firmware has made many apps horrible to use, and the Netflix Auto-Preview crap drives me insane) I am looking to drop Roku altogether and migrate away from MythTV. It looks like we can do this by jumping to AppleTV, which will provide all of the features/apps we want (as soon as Amazon Video drops) and even add a few features like Apple Video and fancy screensavers. The biggest and only unsurmounted hurdle was our massive DVD collection, which I have always had supported through MythTV. It appears that MrMC will bridge this gap for us and offers some other features that may enhance our overall experience.

All in all I am pretty excited at the prospects. I will be able to reduce our footprint by 3x boxes and move everything into a single, slick, unified interface with a few apps. It looks like it is only a matter of tuning. Granted we will have some pains with things like commskip and scheduling issues with the DVR under plex I'm sure...but that is OT for this forum.

Now I just have to decide if I want to wait for the Gen5 ATV to release before pulling the trigger.

Thanks again to all. I'll be happy to share my experiences once we are further along.

[Looxoor]

Thank you both for the precise answers. The ATV4s will be connected via ethernet, so clearly the MySQL db is optimal for them.

...

Thanks again.

I think you'll be thoroughly pleased with the setup, but I'd just like to recommend that (if you have a 802.11ac router) you use wifi instead of the 100 Mbit/s ethernet of the ATV4, if you in the future will be watching maybe Blu-ray rips or anything else more bandwidth craving than DVD:s.
The consensus of this forum is that you'll see great performance increases that way.

Over and out.