A New HTPC person needing input....

[Hiller]

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Try checking out this thread. I don't use ZP to play my movies but it appears you need to make sure it's in DVD mode.

When not using XLobby can you double click on an ifo and have the move start playing in ZP?

[Bubblegum Bandit]

thanks for the link...looks like I will have to purchase ZP

[jowaldo]

thanks for the link...looks like I will have to purchase ZP

yeah the pro version of zp is worth the $20

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Ok, I'm a little closer now. I got ZP Pro and now when I tell the xlobby movie database to play a movie I get "you must first setup DVD playback so that it would work properly on your system." So I went in there and associated the proper filetypes. Tried it again and got the same thing. I went to ZP FAQ and it said maybe I needed to enable DVD mode? But, I can't figure out where to enable it. Can anyone navigate me through that real quick.

[hjackson]

When you click on ZP then click the right mouse button you get a 2 column menu. Near the bottom of the left column is where the "media mode" selection is. Near the bottom of the right column is where the "DVD mode" selection is. Only one choice is visible at a time (ie. if it is already in DVD mode then you will only see the "media mode" choice and vice versa).
Also:
Have you tried playing a movie straight from ZP without XLobby yet?
What type of video files are you playing? The actual DVD? IFO files? ISO files? If you are using ISO files have you set up a virtual drive with Daemon tools?

hjackson

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Ok,I launched ZP, went to the bottom where it says load files, loaded up a file from my movies section....VTS_01_1.VOB. (Ripped with DVD Shrink) and when I opened ZP the menu bar on the bottom said...DVD Mode. So I'm assuming that part is set up right. So, I guess my problem lies in the initiation of the files within XLobby.....

so.....I'm guess I'm not setting up the parameter in the movie DB right? Either that or my link to file types isn't right...here is what I have:

Example Italian Job

DB section:
Parameter:
H:\Movies\Italian Job\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO

My choices of files in this folder are:
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_(1-5).VOF
VTS_01_0.BUP

File Types:

zplayer.exe = Programs
ifo,avi,iso = Extensions
/f%playlist% = Switches
movies:show offline message = Offline
movies:load playlist = Start
goto:goto movies = End
(nothing here...ie blank) = Category
my path to zp.exe = Path

Ok, I'm noticing here that I don't have ZP configured to play vof extensions in xlobby....so I may have answered my own question here....but if you know more than I and that is not my problem, by all means post up a suggestion.

Thanks for your help so far guys.....I'm getting it a little better now.

*Edit: Ok, I got it to load and start playing from xlobby when I specified vof in the file types and told the parameter to start on the VTS_01_1.VOF file....however, now I check the playlist and its only showing the 1st VOF file that is actually playing and has a play time of 24 minutes....will it automatically go to the next vof file, or do I somehow have to get a playlist loaded with all five files?

[grumpy]

Using Zoom Player and Xlobby I have been able to start movies with a DIR choice or a file choice of VIDEO_TS.IFO.
As a new user I too have found it difficult to find the right answers without a lot of trial and error!

Good Luck

[Bubblegum Bandit]

Yeah, thanks grumpy, I feel your pain.

I got it working finally.....for some reason zp wasn't recognizing the ifo files. I was getting ready to rerip the DVDs to see if there was some trouble when I noticed that instead of the "unknown" type icon next to the ifo files, there was a zp icon next to them this time. So, I reinitialized xlobby, went to my movies and viola', everything worked just fine. I didn't really do anything different. weird. I'm still haveing one rip that studders and freezes and skips around though when I play it in zp, but works fine if I run it from PowerDVD from the desktop. I assume its a bad rip or something, so I'ma try and rip it again. Anyone else have problems like this.