Ok, I've just started playing around with streaming videos and mp3 from my PC to my X3i. I'm using Windows Media Encoder and it works fine with files. So I thought let me try and do it with a DVD movie.

So what I did was in Windows Media Encoder is set the video source as a Screen Capture, and then set WME to capture eith Power DVD, Windows Media Player, and I even tried just setting a portion of the screen myself but none of it works.

I set it to output to a PPC, just as I would with files. Now when I try and capture from Power DVD it doesn't work, I get an error message. When I try and capture from Windows Media Player all I get is black on my X3. I'm not sure why it's not working. I don't even see any video with ine Windows Media Encoder.

Is it that I just can't stream a DVD movie straight from the DVD itself, like would I have to rip it to a file and then stream the file? Does overlay or anything play a role in this? I remember when I tried to output to my tv I had trouble getting Windows Media Player to show up, it would also just show black.

Any ideas, I followed BigDs Pocket PC Video Guides Streaming TV on PPC as a reference.

Good question, I'll have to look into this thing. But I really kind of dought if it can be done, has anybody else tried this out there?

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I have no problem streaming files, I was just streaming a divx file and it was running great.

Could it be a copyright thing built into the DVD or WMP? I actually tried doing a screen capture stream with a divx movie in both Windows Media Player and DivX Player and I also just got black.

Somthing else I would like to know. If I've setup a bunch of sources in Windows Media Encoder like videos or mp3s, is there any way that I could be able to control those files from my X3? I would really like ot be able to pause or even just skip to the next track (source) in my list. This would be very helpful when listening to music. Can you set this up in WME, and if so how?

Thanks.

OK, I just finished ripping Final Flight of the Osiris from my Animatrix DVD. I first ripped it using DVD Shrink 2 and then converted the VOB file to DivX 5 using Auto GK. I got an avi that was 720 x 480 res and 240mb in size. So I tried streaming it using Windows Media Encoder. I didn't use the defaul PPC settings, I made them a little bit higher and it played perfectly. The video wasn't exactly as clear as the source but the adio wa perfect. But the point is that it played fine so I don't think that it's that the X3 can't handle the workload, I thin it's somehting else. Either some copy pretection built into the DVD or a setting I'm not doing right fro screen capturing in WME.

Oh well, I don't mind ripping and converting files onto my hard drive, doesn't take too long, although I haven't tried a full movie yet!

When streaming a DVD are you looking to stream the DVD straight from the DVD disk or encode the DVD first and then stream the file?

My thoughts were to stream directly from the disc. They way I wanted to do this was use Windows Media Encoder do a screen capture of Windows Media Player playing the DVD. So WME would encodee the video to the regular settings I use for streaming files that I can see on my X3.

The thing is when I do this I can see Windows Media Player on my X3, it's just WMP is black. I can even see me moving my mouse around so the Screen capturing is working, I'm just not seeing the DVD playing. Power DVD gives me even more trouble.

I mean I could always just rip the DVD to my hard drive and convert it to an avi and stream the avi file, this way I could keep the quality high but that sort of take more time, it's not like I could pop in a DVD and go watch it in my room.

Honestly, I don't know how many times I would want to watch a DVD on my X3 but I kind of just want to know that I can, I mainly just want to solve this problem for the heck of it.

I was thinking along the same lines. I have also tried this last week but didn't get very far with it. I am going to eventually figure it out.

Well I've not gotten any further then you have jb, I think it might be an Overlay problem also, I dont know. I've tried everything I can think of so good luck and I hope you guys can figure it out.

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Works for me, but my set-up might be a little different then most. I was one of the few that purchased by 'puter with a hw DVD decoder card (Ravisent). I select that as the input to my video capture card (happauge WinTV) (hard-wired) and use that as the source for Windows Media Encoder. It's all old equipment (3 years), but seems to be the combination to make it happen.

The rest is cake - connect to the session over wireless with Windows media player.

I think that when you play a DVD on your PC you are actually setting an image on top of the desktop... so a screen capture will not work. Its not quite the same as an associated file.

I think that without having a hardware solution like Harley you are going to have a problem.

Of course I have limited knowledge of how Windows coverts and plays DVD ... so take my words with more or less a grain of salt!


If you do get it working Id love to see at tutorial like the coversion to AVI here on this site.

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I think it is an overlay issue since I can see Windows Media Player itself and my cursor and any menus I open on my PC shows up on the X3.

Oh well, it would have been cool to just pop in a movie and watch it on my X3. Although I'm not sure if the X3 has a long enough battery to supprt wi-fi being on while playing a movie at full screen.

If you are fortunate enough to have a DVD decoder card then it will work. I have a Margi DVD-to-go card for my laptop and I know that I can use that. Windows Media Encoder should recognize it as a video device and it will use it to capture video. It is a little different if you don't have a DVD decoder. I am still doing some testing without it and I am very close. I will post my results when I get it working.

Well I have not had any success yet. I am also experiencing the same issue where I capture the DVD windows but the video is blank.

Using the screen capture method won't work I'm afraid, as someone mentioned above - video playing overlays the pictures on top of the desktop, so you won't be able to see the video.

Yeah, it still does not work for me. However I was able to get it working using my Margi DVD-to-Go card on my laptop. Without using a hardware DVD decoder, I am not sure yet how to get it to work.