What is Playlist Obfuscation?

[BlueCat57]

OK. I've ripped a Blu Ray of Harry Potter. I now have a lot of files in the folder I ripped it to.

I successfully played the movie by selecting ALL of the files and hitting the return key. The movie opened in Windows Media Player and played just fine.

Now I'm looking at the folder and discover that it is over 100GB in size. There are 3 files that are about the same size, aprox. 20 GB each. And a bunch of other much smaller files.

I'm guessing I don't need to keep all of those files to play the movie. So which ones do I get rid of?

In searching that question I found out about Playlist Obfuscation. After reading about that I'm about ready to say screw it and just buy a Blu Ray Player. But of course the cheap Blu Ray Player I buy today will be obsolete in a year or two when I upgrade to 4K HDR Dolby whatever, since the cheap ones now don't support those features. Or I could breakdown and buy PowerDVD 17. Yes, 18 is the newest but 17 is half the price and will do the job right now.

So, how many of the files do I need to keep? I don't want a specific answer about Harry Potter, just a more general answer like "Keep ONE of the 20 GB files and delete the rest."

If I just need to keep one file then I'll just double click until the version of the movie I want plays and trash the rest. Wait a minute. If I want English closed captioning do I need to keep additional files? I don't care about bonus features.

Is it that simple?

[Woodstock]

This is not playlist obfuscation, in the "normal" sense. PO will have dozens or even hundreds of "about the right size" files, only one of which will be correct.

The Potter movies are just different cuts of the same film. And yes, most of them have a TON of extras

[BlueCat57]

OK. So all those files are not meant to obfuscate the playlist.

So which one or ones do I need to keep?

Again, not specifically for Harry Potter. I want to learn how to fish, not just cook the fish I have.

I just want to watch the movie in English with Closed Captioning.

[d00zah]

Not to step on Woodstock, but if all you are looking for is a way to cut down titles...

Under 'Preferences > Video' is a setting 'Minimum title length (seconds)' which, when set to something > than the '0' default, will eliminate all the smaller titles from being evaluated. I use '1500', which eliminates most but the main feature (my preference).

Now, when presented with 1-3 non-PO titles, I consult IMDB, which provides runtimes for the various versions (for the most part) to select the desired version.

Does this help?

[BDestroyer8418]

It been awhile but I believe alot of the Potter films had the Picture-in-Picture video commentary. Make sure you keep the right file or files theatrical cut or director's cut or keep both if they have them.