Help with setting up Shield to watch DVD files

by ChiliSub

Hi, I would appreciate anyone's help. I know very little about Android TV but I'm excited to learn about my Nvidia Shield I received yesterday.

Here's my setup: I have a theater room with a projector and 7.1 sound. We use it mainly to watch DVD's on. I have 2 kids who like to watch the same DVD's over and over, so I ripped some of them and placed ISO files on an external hard drive.I had been using a Windows 7 PC connected to the projector to play them, but the computer started flaking out - I think it had a bad power supply, but I'm not sure. I thought it would be easier to get a new Shield and use it to play the movies than spend the time and money trying to troubleshoot my piece of junk computer.

I'm trying to get the best and easiest experience for my family. Right now, I'm just concerned about playing DVD files, we don't do a lot of streaming. I started by installing SPMC. It seems to play the movies well, but I do have a few questions about it

1)It takes a few more clicks than I would like. I would like some way for my shield to just boot up with my list of movies already displayed. I'm trying to make this as easy as possible for my kids. Now, when it boots, I have to select the SPMC program, then go to video, then files, the select my external hard drive, then pick my movies folder. It's no big deal for me to do, but its a little daunting for my 8 year old. Is there some way to boot directly to my list of movies in SPMC. If not, is there some other movie playing program that could do this that would be easier for the kids to maneuver thru? I don't need anything fancy with a lot of options.

2)On my PC, I was using PowerDVD. When I first started it, it automatically downloaded DVD cover art for my movies. It didn't detect them all, but I was manually able to download the art and display it when I pulled up my list of movies. Is there someway to either manually or automatically download cover art for my DVD's and display it when I view my movie list. I've selected thumbnail view, but there's no art associated with any of my movies.

My wife and kids would greatly appreciate any help you could provide on simplifying their movie watching experience. Thanks!

pawdog

Check this out. https://youtu.be/mr6GJ1SPw30

Delumine

Are they in VOB format or MPEG-2?

Andrroid

Now, when it boots, I have to select the SPMC program, then go to video, then files, the select my external hard drive, then pick my movies folder.

You shouldnt have to go through this many steps once you have set up the file source for SPMC. You should be able to just click "movies" and then be presented with all your movies.

ChiliSub

Thanks for the help. I tried this last night and it worked for the most part. Most of my videos showed up in the Movie tab, but probably 20 percent didn't. I guess these are the files that the database didn't recognize. Most of these are TV show compilation discs which I assume aren't in the database. Some are recent movies, however, and I have no idea why they wouldn't be in the database. Is there any way to manually place them into the Movie section? These movies show up and play fine when I navigate through the Videos/Files/External Hard Drive/Movies path like I mentioned in the original post.