RE: What are people using for DVD media servers?

["Graham Howe" <graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Front end : myHTPC
Ripping to HD : DVDDecrypter
Playback : Various (I use ZoomPlayer and DVDPro)

Also use DVDRegionFree to allow DVDDecrypter to rip quickly for all
regions, otherwise it has to use 'brute force' to crack region during
ripping which is slower. During the ripping process remove the region
encoding so that playback is possible on all clients.

There are two main ways of storing ripped DVD on HD, either as a single
ISO file (disk image) or multiple IFO and VOB files. There is no
difference in quality, but ISO files need to be mounted before playing
so that they appear as a DVD.

If you got the Xcard with the sweetspot, then note that it requires a
bit of work to get it to playback IFO and VOB files, Phil Harris has
done this.

My advice, get a few DVDs ripped, get the playback and front end
software installed and then play around until you are totally happy with
the user interaction. I am totally happy with DVD playback quality but
have still not got what I consider to be a totally intuitve front end
(something that the whole family and visitors can use) so have not
continued to buy massive amounts of server disk space or spend time
ripping lots of dvds.

Main sticking points for me are reliable IR control (the IRAssistant
software I used with the IR receiver built in to my HTPC case crashes
every 3 days) and getting the right case (mine looks great and is full
size for easy expansion, but it is still audible so I will probably
change to something from Linitx soon).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Andrews [mailto:groups@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 23 June 2004 06:46
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] What are people using for DVD media servers?
>
> Hi Group!
>
> Now I have my sweetspot running well, I was thinking of going
> down the "DVD Media server" route. i.e. ripping all my DVD's
> to hard disk and using a software menu to run them.
>
> I know there are people on this list who do this, what is the
> best front end software to do this? (DVD list menus, playing
> a whole DVD including special features etc?) and also what is
> the best way to get DVD's onto my hard disk?
>
> I would also like the software top level menu to have the
> option of driling down for the DVD's or invoking dscaler
>
> I would apreciate any advice you can give me.
>
> Cheers
>
> J
>
>
>
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