How To - PVD, Kroozbox and ISO or VIDEO_TS Files

[Banta67]

Hello All,

I was having a hard time getting my combination of PVD, Kroozbox and NMT to play nice together to display and actually play my DVD rips with full DVD menu functionality. All of my files are ripped to my hard drive in either the VIDEO_TS folder structure or ISO files. I had read several topics/replies on this matter. It seems that others are also experiencing difficulties trying to get this combination working. There are several explanations on how to get this working but, I couldn't get it to work following the instructions given.

The Good News.  I think I have cracked this nut!
The Bad News. I am probably going to be long-winded in my explanation. I want to do this in small steps, as I would have liked to find this. I ask the advanced users to forgive me.

To be honest, it is actually very easy. I hope this will help others. So, if interested, read on.

I start with a fresh copy of Kroozbox v2. Your current version of will most likely work. I have upgraded to the latest beta 0.9.9.5 at the present time. Not important for this "How-To" but, will become important for the next one.  I hesitate to call these "How-To's" tutorials because, I could be totally wrong in my instructions. Anyway, let's get to it!

We will be working with the High Definition Template files located in folder ...
templates\PVDTemplate-HD

Step 1)...
Open the file ...
kroozbox.properties
and change the parameter and value..
dbName = ./PVDMovieSample/KROOZMOVIES.PVD
to wherever your PVD database is located. The default is in your document and settings folder as such..
dbName = C:/Documents and Settings/Banta67/My Documents/Personal Video Database/MOVIES.PVD

For my set-up, D:/Video/ is the name of the shared drive and folder where I will store all my ISO and VIDEO_TS files. You will use your path in place of mine as appropriate.

Step 2)...
Next change the Parameter and Value..
#dbaseMediaRoot = c:/
to
dbaseMediaRoot = D:/Video/

and

#localMediaRoot = m:/
to
localMediaRoot = D:/Video/

Save and close the file kroozbox.properties

Step 3)...
Open the file ...
globalParam.properties
and change the parameter and value..

MyShare = Put the name of your PCH share here if needed (for ISO files)
to
MyShare = DVDs 01

DVDs 01 is the NAME of the SHARE (SHARE NAME) I gave my share in the NMT (Not the smb://path). You will use your Share Name in place of mine as appropriate.

Finally, if you would like, you can alter the way the MOVIE LINK looks. In this example, I just added the word "PLAY" in bold so that the link to play the movie read "PLAY - I Am Legend"

Step 4)...

Around line 114, like so..
PVD-MediaLinkEndForISO = " zcd="2" TVID="Play" name="nextlink" vod><img src="images/PlaySmall.png" onfocussrc="images/PlaySmallHi.png" style="vertical-align:middle;" align="middle">&nbsp;&nbsp;<B>PLAY - &nbsp;<!--TITLE-S--><!--KROOZCOUNTERCONDITIONAL--></B></a></td></tr>

Save and close file globalParam.properties

At this point you're really done. But, in the spirit of being long-winded, I must continue with a little more explanation.


Edit the file you want to test in PVD. You want to change the path to the files. In this example our files are located on a shared drive (D) on our local machine. On that drive, we have a folder called "Video" where we are storing all of our video files. We have specified a LOCAL share name of VideoStorage, but the LOCAL share name is really only important when establishing the NETWORK SHARE in the NMT. After that, and for the purposes of this tutorial, the Share Name we gave the local folder that is holding our files will not be referenced again. It is important to remember that the Share Name for the local folder is different than the Share Name given in the NMT.
To break it down, a share on the NMT is set up by going to  SETUP/NETWORK SHARE and then BROWSE. You will then find the location of the folder you shared with the network and your files live there. In our case the URL became smb://my-machine-name/VideoStorage and the Share Name in the NMT settings became DVDs 01. It is DVDs 01 that you will specify the as the MyShare Value in Step 1.
Confused enough yet? Well, if you can wrap your head around that, you're home free because you're just about ready to test.

Anyway, change the value File Path in PVD. In this example we will use "I Am Legend", which again, is located in the local drive D:/Video/.
Originally, selecting the VIDEO_TS folder for this rip produced...
D:\Video\I Am Legend\|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_5.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_6.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_0.IFO|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_1.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_03_0.IFO|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_03_1.VOB|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_0.IFO|D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_1.VOB
We want it to simply be..
D:\Video\I Am Legend\
and nothing else. It could also be...
D:\Video\I Am Legend\VIDEO_TS\
Both will work.
Save your Movie Entry in PVD. Kroozbox should adjust for the change in PVD within a few seconds but, just to be certain restart Kroozbox.
I need an explanation on why Kroozbox will sometimes update changed made in PVD automatically and sometimes Kroozbox needs to be re-started? Anyone?

Now, navigate to Kroozbox using a web browser like this...
http://IP ADDRESS OF MACHINE RUNNING KROOZBOX:9008 (similar to this >>> http://192.168.1.122:9008)
Navigate to the "I Am Legend" (or whatever movie you updated) and you should notice that there is only one link to play the movie and, it is named the same as the movie itself.
Mouse over the link, it should read in the Status Bar as follows...
file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/[MyShare]/My Video Name
or specifically in the example given
file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/DVDs%2001/I%20Am%20Legend/
Just FYI spaces are replaced with the characters "%20".
If your links look similar and you set up your shared properly, your good to go!

The above example is for a bunch of .VOB in a VIDEO_TS folder. If you want to us an .ISO file instead, everything is the same except you specify the path in PVD to be..
D:\Video\I Am Legend\I_AM_LEGEND.ISO or whatever the path to your ISO file is. then your link would look like..
file:///opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives/NETWORK_SHARE/DVDs%2001/I%20Am%20Legend/I_AM_LEGEND.ISO
Selecting a folder in File Path: that contains an ISO file should automatically select the ISO file.

That's it. You should now be able to play your ISO and VIDEO_TS rips through your NMT using Kroozbox in combination with PVD ( what a GREAT couple of Programs! )  And FREE? WOW. Thank you to the developers on both of these programs. You rock!

I hope I got this right and that this post will help someone. Please let me know if I forgot a step or am totally wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

Next How-To....
Trailer Files !

Banta67