Rip DVD to HDD and stream to TV

[John W]

I would like to Rip my DVD collection to a NAS storage, it is DLNA compliant (Buffalo 750 ), and be able to play them back at any TV that I have. Obviously I need a set top box for that but that isn't a problem as long as the price is reasonable. Might as well be able to stream mp3's from it too but thats not necessary. It would be nice to compress the DVD as much as possible but again, not necessary. I would like a nice way to organize and search for the DVD's, kinda like the Escients interface.

I have tried using xbox 360's interface with MCE but am not overly impressed with it.

I can't rip my dvd's until I know how I will play them (format). maybe even Blu Ray or HDDVD would be nice.

I have searched all over the net and found ways to rip, appliances to use etc. but I don't find anything with the whole picture.

Any ideas anyone? I know that I am not the only one who thought about this.

 

[diogen]

How many DVDs do you wanna rip?
How many TVs do you want to serve from your NAS? What are those TVs?
Do you have wired or wireless networking at home? To each TV?
Have you ever run an HTPC? Have you ever done any compression: DivX/XviD/WMV etc.?

Diogen.

 

[VinceT3]

media center isn't the greatest interface but it's not all that bad.. you go into my videos add a directory .. pick the film and play.. only issues it has is FF & REW, but the skip ahead and back work..

 

[John W]

I have about 600 DVD's going to 3 LCD / Plasma flat panel tv's. I have at least 3 more TV's that are regular tube sets but I would like to but it is not totally necessary to stream to those. I have two networks in my house. One is a wireless N and the other is G. I have most rooms wired for internet also, those that aren't can easily be wired. The NAS runs on 1000 base - T so there should be plenty of bandwidth.

I have never run an HTPC but have plenty of computers that I can set up one for - would like to keep it simple for the WAF and I dont want a computer at each TV. That is why I bought the Buffalo Linkstation Live 750 GB and I can always add more: Buffalo Technology - Products - LinkStation Live™
Buffalo has a network media player but I am not sure how the interface works: Buffalo Technology - Products - LinkTheater™ Wireless A&G Network Media Player

I do have experience with compression. I use VideoHelp.com to find the tools for whatever project I am doing, of course I like the free tools if I can find one that fits my needs. Quite often the free tools are a lot better and not Mickey Moused up for ease of use.

Biggest thing for me is to find the appliance that will work and keep it under $300 per unit. I also need a nice interface to sort through my DVD's.. of course most of these appliances include the play of MP3's so that would be nice also.

Thanks,

 

[VinceT3]

ah, I use my xbox to play them from my pc.. all the software I used was freely available on the net..

If I wanted more tv's they sell media extenders for about 100 bux or so..

 

[dfergie]

PowerDvd works pretty good to watch them with...

 

[diogen]

John Walsh,-

The first thing to keep in mind when thinking about audio/video streaming through the house is DRM.
Any legally sold in NA Media Extender will refuse to play back a DVD (or a copy of a DVD, from optical media or hard drive).
There is one exception in the form of Kaleidescape, but I don't think it fits your budget.

To be accurate: the extender will show a DVD that is played - and streamed - on the host computer, but won't play itself a DVD copy from NAS.

There are some changes afoot in this department, but it won't happen tomorrow.
Download-to-DVD now an option for Apple, CinemaNow, others

Hence, you need DVD copies free of all protection: CSS, Region and Macrovision. Studios will hate you but you can show them the finger...

Ripping.

With the exception of some DVDs released in 06-07, there are free tools to make this happen (go to doom9 and you will learn more than you ever wanted to).
Sony is very busy lately in this field: first, they stopped development of 2 ripping programs (DVDDecryptor and RipIt4Me) by sending Cease-and-Desist letters to its developers; second, they employ ArcCos protection that old version can't tackle. Remember, there is always AnyDVD: Cayman Island based company (with half the team in Germany) that can't be shut down and does it all. Including HD DVD and BD. But you have to buy it. Worth it if you are serious about it.

You can rip the DVDs as-is (complete copy sans DRM) or only rip the movie (no menus, extras, multiple audio tracks, etc.) Which one of the options you use depends on what your extender is able to catalog and play.

Compression.

DVDs are 480i MPEG-2.
There are miriad ways to compress them, I'd look into three: XviD, x264 and WMV.
- XviD: Every DivX labelled player for $25 will play it (as long as you don't use QPel, GMC and variable bitrate MP3 while encoding);
- x264: the best quality for a given size you can get. Plays only on PCs.
- WMV: easy, efficient, plays on 360.

I believe just the movie can be compressed to 1GB/hour without losing quality.

I don't have experience with extenders, have nothing to say.

Diogen.

 

[mastermesh]

I didn't get anything near as complicated as what you are talking about... but I think what I'm doing is sort of similar to what you are wanting to do, but much, much cheaper and versatile...

I have an ati-all-in-wonder card in the computer... and it has both a tv in and tv out. TV out is going to an a/b switch that swaps from this signal coming from the ati to a signal coming from the outside antenna... What this does is let me watch my computer (in a bedroom converted in to computer room) on my television in the living room.... very nice for watching stuff like the online shows on nbc's website, listening to internet radio, etc... if I didn't also have a dvd player, this setup would, in theory, let me play dvds on computer and watch them on tv. Sure, I can't change the computer with this setup, unless I manually go to the computer and change things, but that's ok with me.

For sound, I use an old audigy soundblaster external usb card thingy... Mainly got it for it's power to be a stand alone dolby digital converter thing... but it has a nice side effect that I can pump sound out from computer's soundcard to it via line in... so even if I don't actually want to watch tv, I can listen to internet radio on the speakers that are setup to the tv... just have to put internet radio on computer, plug in the line in on the audigy, and off we go to internet radio channels that I can hear in both the computer, the speakers near the tv, and on another floor with some speaker wire that goes through a hole I drilled in the floor to get to speakers down there! ...