Dvd's On The Hard Drive

[kdf]

Hello gang,

I am interested in putting my extensive dvd collection on hard drive in a manner that I can view it on my hd lcd from computer or some media server.

I have media center xp, Nero, divx, a usb port on my Samsung tv and about 400 gb available space and a willing ness to buy more.

I have heard good things re Apple TV, but do not see a way to enter my existing DVD's.

Any ideas?

kdf

[Rice_King]

Would something like this Media Player Hard Drive Enclosure or this Hard Disk Enclosure Media Player be suitable for your application? They sell them at Panthip and numerous computer stores here in Chiang Mai for (I think) around 2-3,000 baht.

[basjke]

Take look at this topic.I think it's a nice gadget for your media collection.mediabox

Edited June 3, 2008 by basjke

[dave_boo]

Whatever you decide to go with, can I recommend getting a model that plays h.264. You're than going to want to rip all your dvds using that (quite a long process, but with h.264 you get the same quality at have the bit-rate compared to Xvid/DivX). I'd also recommend going with something that plays your files directly, this will keep energy consumption down.

[bkk_mike]

There's two basic ways of doing it...

One is to have a full copy of the DVD on the hard drive - gives you all the menus, special features, etc., but takes up a lot of space.

(Getting it on there - it's things like DVD Decrypter, which admittedly hasn't been updated in a while, or Handbrake on the Mac, or things you have to pay for, like CloneDVD).

The alternative is to convert the video file to an AVI/MOV/WMV. etc, which will take up a lot less disk space, but you'd only have the one soundtrack, and effectively hard-code your subtitles.

You can do this using codecs such as XVid (i.e. using AutoGK), or H.264 (using something like Handbrake).

Apple TV will play H.264, other media extenders tend to prefer Divx compatible (inc. Xvid if you're careful with the settings).

The only issue doing this with free software is that DVD Decrypter can't handle more recent copyrighted disks since they stopped updating it. For problem discs, there is other software, but you usually have to pay for it.

[kdf]

Hello Rice King,

Those devices might help, but what I am looking for is a method to code or copy my DVD's at FULL resolution (or very close to it) and then play them back from the hard drive storage device with or without computer.

Apple TV will do this with videos obtained through itunes, but I do not think resolution is great nor can I figure how to get my DVD's onto the Apple tv. Also at a max of 160mg the Apple TV will be too small. So I keep looking.

thanks

kdf

[dave_boo]

kdf said:

Hello Rice King,

Those devices might help, but what I am looking for is a method to code or copy my DVD's at FULL resolution (or very close to it) and then play them back from the hard drive storage device with or without computer.

Apple TV will do this with videos obtained through itunes, but I do not think resolution is great nor can I figure how to get my DVD's onto the Apple tv. Also at a max of 160mg the Apple TV will be too small. So I keep looking.

thanks

kdf

You can use Handbrake to transcode your videos at 720x480 (I understand that is NTSC....but hey, I'm an American and that's what I'm used to!). But the question is why? If you reduce the resolution 25%, you get a lot more detail per pixel (at 720x480 you have to process 345 600 pixels, at 540x360 you only have to process 194 400 pixels).

[Jiu-Jitsu]

You can use Alcohol 120 to create and play images using your HDD.

[LivinLOS]

dave_boo said:

kdf said:

Hello Rice King,

Those devices might help, but what I am looking for is a method to code or copy my DVD's at FULL resolution (or very close to it) and then play them back from the hard drive storage device with or without computer.

Apple TV will do this with videos obtained through itunes, but I do not think resolution is great nor can I figure how to get my DVD's onto the Apple tv. Also at a max of 160mg the Apple TV will be too small. So I keep looking.

thanks

kdf

You can use Handbrake to transcode your videos at 720x480 (I understand that is NTSC....but hey, I'm an American and that's what I'm used to!). But the question is why? If you reduce the resolution 25%, you get a lot more detail per pixel (at 720x480 you have to process 345 600 pixels, at 540x360 you only have to process 194 400 pixels).

You do not get 'more detail per pixel'..

A pixel is by its very definition the smallest single point of the encoded final output.

By reducing the resolution you encode to you discard data. Far better to save space is to use more complex encoding algorithms.. The H264 advice above is one I would personally follow.

[sjaak327]

I have done this using vista's media centre as the preferred player. I used DVD Decrypter to ripp the DVD's to the Harddrive, as noted above, sometimes this PGM will not work on the newest DVD's, in those cases I used DVDfab HD decrypter, then I used auto gordian knot to convert the full size dvd into xvid. I'm very happy with the end result. I have to say, it is a lenghty process, count on 1,5 hours for a 2 hour movie. (I used two pc's for a fulll week to do the conversions. (180 dvd's).

[esprit]

I tried this, copied a few DVD's to my Linksys 200 media server. Problem is when I playback to TV it stops at each chapter even though I copied it to hard disk using exactly the same software etc ( 1 click DVD pro + AnyDVD ) as I would use copying a DVD to disk. Anybody had this problem ?

Other than that and depending on your pc. it took about 50 minutes for an exact copy per DVD.

Edited June 10, 2008 by esprit

[jeffer]

If you've got hundreds of DVDs then this probably won't be of much value but for my notebook what I've done is to make iso copies of DVDs I want to take with me for entertainment when I travel and then mount them as virtual drives using Magic Disc. Doesn't cost anything and saves having to carry DVDs. Might even save battery life by using a virtual drive instead of the DVD player.

[dave_boo]

LivinLOS said:

dave_boo said:

kdf said:

Hello Rice King,

Those devices might help, but what I am looking for is a method to code or copy my DVD's at FULL resolution (or very close to it) and then play them back from the hard drive storage device with or without computer.

Apple TV will do this with videos obtained through itunes, but I do not think resolution is great nor can I figure how to get my DVD's onto the Apple tv. Also at a max of 160mg the Apple TV will be too small. So I keep looking.

thanks

kdf

You can use Handbrake to transcode your videos at 720x480 (I understand that is NTSC....but hey, I'm an American and that's what I'm used to!). But the question is why? If you reduce the resolution 25%, you get a lot more detail per pixel (at 720x480 you have to process 345 600 pixels, at 540x360 you only have to process 194 400 pixels).

You do not get 'more detail per pixel'..

A pixel is by its very definition the smallest single point of the encoded final output.

By reducing the resolution you encode to you discard data. Far better to save space is to use more complex encoding algorithms.. The H264 advice above is one I would personally follow.

Au Contaire. I recommended using h.264 based on my understanding of transcoding videos. While it would seem like it's a better idea to have a higher resolution, at a given file size, each a higher resolution means more pixels need to be processed. Also, while it's a simplistic view to see pixels as the smallest single point, you can just judge them based on that. Not only do you have to have your RGB value, but you also have to have information encode needed to encode color depth, luminance, chrominance, etc. The more pixels you try and encode, the less information each will have. If you don't believe me, try and encode a video at a give file size, and than encode it again zoomed in. Blow both up to your monitor and see which one looks better.

If you want to see what zooming in will do for you, check this link. Play around with the resolutions.

[kdf]

Well I have a lot to look at. Thanks. I have tried the decrypter to hd and play by win media center, but it does not always work. I also have and have used the fab platinum version with the same results.

I will look further into the h.264 methods.

Thanks one and all

kdf