Bluray dvd drive via USB... will it work ?

[ehowland]

I am working on option a. I am new to Xbian. I have the original 256 Pi Model B. I am running Xbian 1.0a5. I have the MP2 codec installed but not the WVC1 codec. I have a 1 amp power connector.

I have a mouse plugged into one USB and a self powered external DVD drive in the other USB port, with the HDMI output going to a computer monitor. I can also connect to xbian using the Web interface and using ssh.

I have attached an external DVD player to the USB port. When I go to Video -> files I see the title of the DVD. If I hover over the title the large icon in the lower right shows a green DVD player. Interestingly if I use the Web remote and push the OK button or use the mouse on the Pi to left click on this title it takes me to the file browser in the root of the file system. (.., bin, boot, dev, etc, home, and so on). If I then from the file browser click on .. surprisingly it takes me back to the listing where the I see the title of the video and add Add Videos... items. The .. seems to act like the back button.

In order to try to play the video I right click on the title of the DVD then the title lettering turns orange and I get the pop up which says Play, Add to favorites, Play disc, Eject/Load, Add source. I do not know how to get here using the Web remote.

If I select Play Xbian freezes. If I select Play disc, nothing happens. So I am pretty close but not all the way.

Is this the USB problem? Should this work better? Am I missing something obvious?

The only way I have been able to get video to play is to transcode a video to MP4 and then use airplay from iTunes on my Mac. Unfortunately I have not gotten VLC or the Mac Movie player, both of which can play a DVD to use airplay. Do other people set up NAS boxes or something else?

I doubt this is the right part but in my log I have many repetitions of this.

23:06:20 T:2886460480 DEBUG: webserver: request received for /jsonrpc?Player.GetActivePlayers
23:06:20 T:2886460480 DEBUG: JSONRPC: Incoming request: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"Player.GetActivePlayers","id":1}
23:06:20 T:2886460480 DEBUG: JSONRPC: Calling player.getactiveplayers
23:06:20 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - << Recorder 1 (1) -> TV (0): POLL
23:06:20 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - << 10
23:06:21 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - command 'POLL' was not acked by the controller
23:06:21 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - << 10
23:06:21 T:2886460480 DEBUG: webserver: request received for /jsonrpc?Player.GetActivePlayers
23:06:21 T:2886460480 DEBUG: JSONRPC: Incoming request: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"Player.GetActivePlayers","id":1}
23:06:21 T:2886460480 DEBUG: JSONRPC: Calling player.getactiveplayers
23:06:21 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - command 'POLL' was not acked by the controller
23:06:21 T:2958615616 DEBUG: CecLogMessage - >> POLL not sent
(END)