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General => Installation issues => Topic started by: twodogs on March 20, 2011, 09:47:41 PM

Title: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: twodogs on March 20, 2011, 09:47:41 PM
I'll start with an apology. I think that forum etiquette requires member to give as much as they get, and I'm in negative numbers at the moment. All I can say is that my ultimate goal is to have a working system, contribute to the wiki, and take on some development responsibilities.
Now that my remote is working, I'd like to be able to play a DVD. I've installed libdvdcss2 and I can play a DVD in my basement using the drive installed in my hybrid core. However, my main TV is on the second floor. Next to my TV, I have a USB DVD drive connected to a hub, connected to a USB extender, connected to the core. Some might doubt that such a scheme could work, but it worked great a few weeks ago. I could use the menu overlay to pick "manage disk drives" and I would see the DVD on the core, and also the USB drive. I could insert and watch a movie using either drives. Now all I see is the drive installed in my core.
I looked in the wiki manual to see how I could fix it and found "Normally everything is setup for you automatically. If you're experiencing problems, go to Wizard > Devices > Media Directors and be sure the appropriate media players are checked and a disk drive is checked." I did this and looked for a place to put a checkmark, but there was no such option.

http://(http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1788/snapshot1sd.th.png) (http://img28.imageshack.us/i/snapshot1sd.png/)

(http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/250/snapshot2x.th.png) (http://img64.imageshack.us/i/snapshot2x.png/)

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Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: tschak909 on March 20, 2011, 10:36:19 PM
as long as there is a Disk Drive device in the device tree, it will do the right thing. Yes, USB optical drives work just fine.

Make sure, if it fails for some reason, that:

(1) the Disk Drive device is registered
(2) the Block device devicedata for the Disk Drive matches the /dev/srX entry for your DVD drive.

-Thom
Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: twodogs on March 20, 2011, 11:30:00 PM
I entered admin and clicked the device tree at bottom on the left pane. There is a disk drive device (but only one). It has a checkmark next to "registered" (see screenshot). Not too sure how to confirm your second item.
As a new user, I don't know the expected behavior of the system. A few weeks ago there were two entries when I clicked on "manage disk drives". If I had put movie in the drives, the titles would display. I could click eject on either one to open the door. Now I'm only seeing one drive.

(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7788/snapshot3si.th.png) (http://img402.imageshack.us/i/snapshot3si.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6093/snapshot4s.th.png) (http://img695.imageshack.us/i/snapshot4s.png/)

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John
Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: ardirtbiker on March 21, 2011, 12:42:23 AM
another silly question...

is your main tv connected to the core as well?   or on a diskless Media Director?

if the latter, did you also install libdvdcss2 on that as well?


Dennis
Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: twodogs on March 21, 2011, 01:48:41 AM
Just the one hybrid core so far with everything connected directly. I'm starting small and expanding features one at a time. Once we've finished renovating our first floor I'll add a media director. Until then, my upcoming projects are:

Fix Gyration remote - (done) thanks Dennis
Fix the USB DVD
Get Hulu working
Get Insteon lighting to work
Get 1-wire temp sensing to work
Maybe buy Hauppauge Colossus and integrate DirecTV

It has been slow going so far, but things are getting slightly easier as I continue to learn the system. I'd love to help organize the wiki to make info easier to find. I really hate crying to the forums.

John
Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: ardirtbiker on March 21, 2011, 03:23:21 AM
I hear ya... I'll be learning for years!

I dont think i have the smarts to help with your DVD issue though.


Dennis
Title: Re: Connecting A USB DVD Drive
Post by: twodogs on March 22, 2011, 04:59:19 AM
I reinstalled using the latest snapshot and now both DVD drives appear. I consider this the LMCE version of throwing a maiden into a volcano to make the crops grow.

I entered admin and looked at the disk device to see what was different from my last installation where only one DVD worked. There was no difference.