Re: Video Server and Distribution

["E. Lee Dickinson" <lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"E. Lee Dickinson" <lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

> Curently, I'm leaning towards ripping the collection to my Windows Media
> Center machine, and then using a media center extender in the other areas
> to access those files.  They will need to be ripped as wither WMA or MPG,
> though, and I am worried about aspect rations, video quality, and surround
> sound. And HDD space, but that's less of a concern.

Here's what I ended up doing, and it's working a treat.

On the day I went to buy some Media Center extenders, they all of a sudden
were pulled from the shelves, everywhere. Apparently there's a version 2
rolling out "someday," I imagine on a simliar time schedule to Windows
Vista.

For about three days, I planned on waiting for them to come out. The problem
is, if you wait for the next announced technology, you're always waiting.

I ended up buying some $150 D-Link DSM-320 network media players.  I don't
have access to my MCE plugins like weather and email on every screen, but I
DO have access to my entire video library.

DVDs are ripped to HDD as one VOB per chapter. This allows me to create a
playlist of files for each movie, and skip forward and back through chapters
at the media players. FF/RW doesn't work, and these things don't read .ifo
files to know where the chapters are.

Splitting into individual files has a negative side effect -- about a .75
second lag between chapters.  Time will tell if it would be more annoying to
me to live with that lag, or to not be able to skip through chapters.
Typically I sit and watch a movie, start to finish. So it may prove that I
prefer one single large VOB.

The server software that came with the DSM-320 is, by all accounts, useless.
I didn't even install it, opting for the free TVersity media server.  This
thing is maybe the best app out there for media serving. It does a nice job
of creating libraries, deals with simple playlist files and, most
importantly, will transcode anything on the fly to a format your chosen
media renderer can play.  I've got some TV shows recorded in DVR-MS format
on my media center machine. TVersity transcodes them perfectly. The quality
of the transcode is, I'd say, just under VHS quality. Fine for me with
recorded shows.

Movie quality is excellent. I haven't tried it on one of the HD screens
yet... there is actually an HD version of the DSM out, I think I'll order
one of those, even though I don't have any HD content to display.

Anyway, long story short:  A GUI in each room which gives me access to all
of my media files, including DVDS ripped to hard drive. It works, it works
well, and it's awesome.