DVD server

[NobleLord]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum for such a question, but I need a bit of general guidance.

I want to setup some sort of system to stream by DVD collection from a hard disc device to my TV. There seem to be a whole raft of options for this, but I don't want to spend a huge amount on it unnecessarily. At the moment I have:

A large HD plasma TV
A Sky+ box (soon to be Sky+HD
Amp and home cinema system
A BT Home Hub wireless network
An Apple Mac G5 and a couple of laptops

The only person I know with such a system used Kaleidoscope, but it cost a small fortune and is all plumbed in through Crestron, which cost a huge fortune!

So, what do I need, where do I start and how do I get it to all work properly?

Thanks,
NL

[Tycho]

You could rip them to a PC/Mac and then stream them to a PS3 or 360 wirelessly.

[Funk]

Do you have the time and patience to convert them all to AVI?

If so, you could have them all on a large hard drive (or two) and use a media server (even a PS3 will do that). You can choose the quality settings you desire and it makes searching through stuff an absolute doddle.

[NobleLord]

Tycho said:

You could rip them to a PC/Mac and then stream them to a PS3 or 360 wirelessly.

Ah, now I do have a PS3 So, if I connect a huge external drive to my Mac and rip all the DVD's onto that, how do I get it to talk to the PS3 and view the movies? Does the PS3 have some sort of menu for viewing and selecting the movies? What format do I need to rip the DVD's to... avi?

Thanks,
NL

[vonhosen]

Suppose you could use a large hard drive & some free sofware like this to manage the collection.

http://www.griffith.cc/

Edited by vonhosen on Thursday 1st January 20:26

[Tycho]

NobleLord said:

Tycho said:

You could rip them to a PC/Mac and then stream them to a PS3 or 360 wirelessly.

Ah, now I do have a PS3 So, if I connect a huge external drive to my Mac and rip all the DVD's onto that, how do I get it to talk to the PS3 and view the movies? Does the PS3 have some sort of menu for viewing and selecting the movies? What format do I need to rip the DVD's to... avi?

Thanks,
NL

I know that if you have media sharing enabled on an XP/Vista pc then you can enable "media server" discovery in the XMB settings menu (forget where) and then browse the files on the server. Depending on how many DVDs you have and the quality you want, you could also attach a FAT32 formatted HDD via USB to the PS3 and stream them from that.

[ukwill]

Popcorn Hour. Job done.

[Rich-UK]

Rip them to a NAS (or PC) using DVD Decrypter then use a Popcorn Hour to play them back.

http://www.popcornhour.com/

[tvrforever]

http://www.ripcaster.co.uk/

[Plotloss]

There are many professional options other than Kaleidescape/Crestron out there.

[DaveL485]

I Do similar.....

I Have my home network set up so the desktop is hardwired and two laptops wireless, then I also have a chipped xbox (the first one!) with a whole bunch of media codecs installed, hardwired to the router as well.
I Can stream from any PC to and from the xbox which has a large capacity hard drive in it using FlashFXP, transfers are done upwards of 11MBPS so it takes seconds for anything other than complete seasons.

After the transfer the stuff sits on the HDD till I wanna watch it, then I just turn the xbox on and....well....watch it. It also plays any formats from DVD or CD disc too, be it AVI, MP4, WMV, DVD, VCD and so on. I Know the xbox360 wont do a lot of this cos of the inbuilt mods to reduce piracy!!

[tvrforever]

<slight tangent> Anybody know where I can get a UK Roku M1001 from at all?

[peterh2]

Do you not lose some of the quality by ripping the discs to AVI?

I have a 50" plasma, DD 5.1 surround system a Xbox 360. One of my mates popped round over xmas with a .avi (I think) on a USB memory stick. We put it in the Xbox 360 and it played it but I wasn't very impressed with the picture quality and the sound only seemed to be stereo not DD 5.1 even though my Xbox 360 is connected via optical to my receiver.

When I play DVD's in the 360 I get full 5.1 and the picture quality seems better.

Is it not possible to rip the full DVD to an external hard drive and then get the Xbox 360 to play it from a USB hard drive? That way you would get the full quality and DD 5.1? Obviously it would require a bit more storage?

[Tycho]

peterh2 said:

Do you not lose some of the quality by ripping the discs to AVI?

I have a 50" plasma, DD 5.1 surround system a Xbox 360. One of my mates popped round over xmas with a .avi (I think) on a USB memory stick. We put it in the Xbox 360 and it played it but I wasn't very impressed with the picture quality and the sound only seemed to be stereo not DD 5.1 even though my Xbox 360 is connected via optical to my receiver.

When I play DVD's in the 360 I get full 5.1 and the picture quality seems better.

Is it not possible to rip the full DVD to an external hard drive and then get the Xbox 360 to play it from a USB hard drive? That way you would get the full quality and DD 5.1? Obviously it would require a bit more storage?

It all depends on bit rates and other options in the encoding software app. A lot of them have presets to allow you to get different qualities. You can get full quality but just remove multiple languages and the crappy extras that most discs come with.

[gazza_3]

How does one rip a dvd, I've tried but it said it had some sort of Dvd copy right thing?

[Tycho]

gazza_3 said:

How does one rip a dvd, I've tried but it said it had some sort of Dvd copy right thing?

Google DVD Decrypter. There are quite a few out there.

[NDA]

I use one of these and store films on a Freecom flash drive. Works fine.


http://www.netgear.co.uk/digital_media_player_eva8...

[samuelellis]

there is something called xmbc - xbox media project as it started life on the old xbox but did not support hi-def as the xbox was not quick enough

The new version of it can run on a pc though - this means you can rip a dvd to a.iso file (basically a snapshot of the dvd - menus the lot) to your PC/NAS device and then play them back through a PC attatched to your tv


http://xbmc.org/

may be worth double checking it can read .iso files though

[Bee_Jay]

You can rip DVDs with the 5.1 intact - look and sound great.

I put mine on a QNAP TS-209 NAS with 2x1TB drives mirrored connected over Ethernet to my PS3 which then plays out via HDMI to TV and Optical to 5.1 system.

Short answer, buy NAS drive with uPnP support, rip DVDs and store on that then play on your PS3.

Probably going to do same for rex in his new house but streaming to several PS3s...

[XJSJohn]

anyone recomend any good freeware dvd ripping software then mine is a bit old and clunky and there seems to be a lot of snake oil in this area these days!