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Suggestions for a DVD Video on Demand System?
An anonymous reader asks: "I was paid, with about 1000 DVD movies, by a video rental store that owed me money and then subsequently went out of business. I'd like to rip a couple hundred of them to a 1 TB disk array, and serve them up to my big screen, via a video on demand system. However, all the systems I can find for interfacing computer network to the plasma display only serve up the basic MPEG files, and not the entire ripped DVDs with their menus, etc. What systems would Slashdot readers suggest that could manage the ripped DVD files as a complete disk, and serve them up?"
The more I think of this situation, the more I think that the solutions are worse than the problem at this point. If he's got a plasma screen, he's not going to want to give up any video quality, so recompression really isn't an option.
/. We like doing things the hard way...
Maybe the best idea is to find him a high-quality DVD player and nice storage rack so that he can organize his 1000 DVD collection and show it off.
Oh, wait, this is
I was paid, with about 1000 DVD movies, by a video rental store that owed me money and then subsequently went out of business.
A likely story.
I would start with MythTV. They have a section on working with DVDs for their PVR software.
libertarianswag.com
I need to start applying to crappy video stores that look like they're going to go out of business (but have a well stocked selection... :)
Human slavery is where it's at.
Ask me about The Shocker!
And as a plus, it also runs MAME and Unixware.
Wouldn't you have to circumvent CSS encryption and violate the DMCA to do this?
However, all the systems I can find for interfacing computer network to the plasma display only serve up the basic MPEG files, and not the entire ripped DVDs with their menus, etc.
I don't think any off the shelf product is ever going to recognize the possiblity that there's a full menus-including DVD on an HD somewhere, because that means you ripped it and you know how Hollywood doesn't appove of that... therefore, this project will always be stuck in homebrew land.
The DMCA stands in the way between yet another great idea and consumers...
What about building a robotic, 1000 disc changer? Like a jukebox sort of setup only for DVD's?
Buy a cheap computer with a TV Output and rip the DVD's to dual 250GB hard drives
"Ripping" these DVD's is a violation of the DMCA and could result in criminal charges. You'll simply need to build a 1000 disc DVD changer as that appears to be your only legal choice.
Sell all of the discs that you don't want/like on ebay, that should be able to get you enough to buy a decent dvd jukebox.
If he's got a plasma screen, he's not going to want to give up any video quality, so recompression really isn't an option.
.VOB files? If he's planning on using the original DVD navigation, I'd think they'd try to access those files anyway.
Who says he has to recompress? Maybe there's a solution that will use the original
BTW-- damn, I wish I had 1000 DVDs. He should open up his own store, then "black out" certain ones while they are rented so he can't watch them at the same time.
mod an xbox, you can map the external drives to the xbox and stream the full dvd stream to your tv set.
http://www.linksys.com/press/press.asp?prid=142&cy ear=2004
Rip to your hearts' content and play away, either that or get a HTPC that's networked to your 1TB array.
dont rip em, put em in a disc changer,.. something like sonys 400 disc dvd changer... http://www.downtownaudio.com/sodv400didvd.html im sure theres some out there that can hold even more
Oh boy.. :)
BTW, MPAA might know how to manage ripped DVDs
http://www.xlobby.com/ Also be sure and check out the AVS Fourms HTPC section. http://www.avsforum.com Tons of stuff in there about the hardware and software.
Use a disc imaging software such as Alcohol 120% to create direct DVD images. Then mount the disc's in a virtual drive, and hit play. At ~9 gigs a disc, you'll need 9 TB's.
The disadvantage is that it is a) not cheap (starting at $27k) and b) not f/oss.
but then again, it is exactly what you are looking for
You can link multiple DVD disc changers together. It might not be the most romantic idea but it will be reliable. I think Sony makes a few models with this capability.
If you want to keep the movies in tact with menus and mpeg2 format, you're gonna need more than 1 gig per disc. You're looking at 2-4 gigs per dvd. With 1000 dvds, one terabyte won't even get you halfway there. . .
The only way you'd be able to serve all that content would be to get a video card with TV output, and a soundcard that could do some sort of component audio output to your sound system, rip everything to your PC, then get some remote control setup (like with WinDVD Platinum) to control the computer, which in turn outputs audio and video to your home theater system.
It's a messy solution, however the best you're probably likely to get in a long time.
Just a Google search for "DVD Jukebox", but here you go.
Maybe you ought to do yourself a nice thing and start reading the story. That's what he says did, in the story. His question is: What's next? Which software to use once he has a TB of DVDs ripped and a TV-Out ready?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
1 crestron MC2W-
1 crestron STX-1700
1 kaledascape video service
That would provide complete control over the complete collection(stored on a hard drive), the x1700 would display the collection, the control to the mc2w and kaliedascape would be through rs232
The Programming Lang would be simplwindows, VTPROE
Cable companies will be deploying this feature soon :) that have "On Demand" and I believe SeaChange software.
DVD Backup, a program for Mac OS X.
Then just do playback with the Apple DVD player.
Won't this do exactly what you require?
Read the HTPC topic on the AVS Forum. You can learn all about this topic, in exhaustive detail.
The mPod(TM)...
1000 Movies in Your Pocket..
Ooo.. and the domain is available!
I haven't tried it, but it looks like an off-the-shelf product that does what you want for $35.00.
First, I would recommend transcoding the DVDs to XviD or DivX with a high bitrate (2Mb/s). You won't notice the quality loss and you'll save a whole lot of disk space. This route also gives you a lot more options, as you can use software like Winamp or BSPlayer to play the videos.
Second, are you any good with programming? What I've done is rig up a simple fullscreen frontend with Java. When you select a movie, the player starts fullscreen. I've got a simple IRman interface, a remote control, and Girder to translate keypresses on the remote into keystrokes that the Java app recognizes. Works great, and it's customizable to my preferences. I can understand if you don't have the time or skill to write a frontend, and I'm sure other posters will point out pre-made frontends.
The best part about Girder: you can translate keys like FF, REW, STOP, etc. into commands the player understands.
If you put the DVD's on a rotisimat, and you hack a jukebox to automagically select and handle the discs then all you'd need would be a sourceforge project to make a piece of software that would make your whole rotisimat-jukebox setup obsolete!
Keep the faith, share the code
There's a program (somebody help me with the name) that will let you mount an ISO in a *nix system and manipulate it as if it were a CD/DVD in the drive. You should be able to write an easy script to rip the DVD using the dd command. Then you'll have your entire DVD library intact. You could even use the ISOs to make more DVDs if you were so inclined ;)
Good luck!
I guaran-damn-tee you that after The Good, The Bad and The Ugly you'll never see anything better anyway. Watch that one and save yourself some time.
Video rental copies are licensed for rental. I wonder what the legality of them giving them to you is.
I don't know, I'm just posing quiestions which I refuse to try to answer.
How about them yankees?
clifgriffin > blog
Rip all the dvd's to iso on the server
have video out and audio out (to plasma and sound system) and control computer via wireless mouse and or keyboard. Really not that complicated just use software player (windvd,linux) and any old operating system and daemontools which allows you to mount the dvd's as drives. OR you can rip to folders and use dvd software that plays movies in folders (powerdvd does it)
In a similar sort of situation, I ripped all my DVD's to a HD, then converted them into ISO files; I then mounted these with Daemon Tools. The result is that the OS doesn't know the difference from there being an actual DVD in your drive.
Of course, this assumes you're using Windows...but maybe a similar approach could be used on other operating systems.
a "Beowulf Cluster" without batting an eyelid.
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
I think you'd just have 1000 iso's and a virtual drive/mount point for them. You'd probably want software to give you a menu and a script to mount the proper dvd image. Should this problem be so unusual or difficult that some software doesn't exist? It doesn't seem as if it would have to be terribly complicated.
You could try this: www.kaleidescape.com It's pricey though. It holds up to 3.6 TB though
check out alcohol %52, it lets you play cd and dvd images off your hard drive like you were playing the actual disc Alcohol %52
Not that hard. Build an HTPC with Xlobby.
It even has built in client/server support.
See screen shots here
I know there's a player that will open .iso image vcd files from the HDD. If you could use something like CloneDVD to make an image of the entire disk, you'd be able to use the player to read the image like a disk.
A lot of people seem to have missed the all important requirement that he can still use the DVD menus. I'm guessing the solution will have to involve ripping the complete DVD image (not transcoding) and mounting the images as filesystems on demand.
Just rip them as images and mount the image as a virtual drive. Then any traditional DVD playback software should do the trick.
I also reply below your current threshold.
Check doom9.net for details on this approach... use DVDDecrypter to rip the DVDs as an ISO image, then use Daemon Tools to mount the ISO in a virtual DVD drive. Works perfectly.
I recommend ripping all the DVD's to your hard drive, then mounting whatever movie you want with a virtual DVDRom like this one: Daemon Tools You get to keep all your menus, extras, etc with no loss of video quality. Play them with PowerDVD or WinDVD and use a TV out from the computer to your plasma screen.
Under windows there are several virtual cd/dvd-rom software vendors. VirtualDrive Pro by Farstone works well. I am sure you have something simular under Linux. The only problem is that it does not compress so you will need between 4.7-9.4 gigs (9.4 for a dual layer, right?) per movie. 1 TB would be enough for over 100 movies. This way you get the full dvd experiance since it is just like popping in the disc. All extras and features.
Here is a website detailing a great Mac-based home theater PC with 1 TB of storage:
http://www2.enights.net:5505/htpc.html
assuming windows:
rip them with dvdshrink. be sure you have nero installed. you can set dvdshrink to 100% quality and have it automatically burn to nero's image writer once done. you can then put the images on your storage array and mount them with software like alcohol 120% of daemon tools (i recommend the former, although the latter is free). attach the computer to the plasma and use some software dvd player. (and before someone complains, i do this to dvds i bought and paid for so i can watch them on my laptop without bringing the disks with me).
dvdshrink will preserve all the menus and whatnot and if you set it to 100% quality and use nero's diskwriter plugin it more or less just rips the dvd to a full image minus the css.
assuming linux:
i use linux alot but honestly i have never played a dvd movie nor ripped a dvd movie under linux. someone suggested the mythtv site, i would advise going there. that said im sure it would be rather easy to to basically the same or similar thing on a linux box as i suggested for a windows box. a small amount of shell scripting and you could write the interface for choosing the movie.
Buy 5 powerfile jukeboxes. I use mine (only one) with MythVideo and some homebrew perl scripts. But If you get five of them you would just have to write a script to change disks and call mplayer or xine on the disc itself. You can get them on eBay for $400-$700 or buy them new for $1500-$2000.
If you don't mind compressing the movies then You can get 4, 640x480 resolution divx4 br:1800 movies per disc. And if you understood all the above you are well on your way.
Hmm, I haven't tried this and may be talking out of my ass, but couldn't you use use something like dd to copy the raw bits of the drive to a large file and mount it using loopback as a virtual drive? You may need some twiddling in mplayer / xine / whatever to recognize the file as a dvd device. You may also need to use something other than dd to decrypt the vob files during the rip process (not sure if you need some uncopyable bits from the actual disc for DeCSS to work). Just a guess...
Dan
Use a DVD Emulator to rip the entire disk to hard drive, then use an emulator to mount the image as a real DVD. The only issue is finding an emulator that can be automated easily. After this point I can't really help you as I haven't tried anything like this, though I do use a similar process for CD Images and that works ok.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Damn. That's a lot of movies. I don't see anything wrong with watching them on a Plasma screen though. Plasma TVs, with their 16 by 9 HDTV ratio are great for watching high-quality DVDs on. As long as everything is the best quality you can possibly find, it works out.
As far as backing up some DVDs.. it's going to take a lot of money if you want to do it quickly. I hear they sell Terabyte harddrives for $1300 now (not sure who sells them) -- you could start by ripping and decrypting them to the harddrive... then either splitting them into two parts and burning on seperate disks or compress it as much as possible (lessening the quality horribly; defeating the purpose of the DVD) and burn to a single DVD. I'm saying this because it gets it ready for the user to download (2 parts would be faster than one big part). Also, it'll save you a lot of space on your server.
None the less, this is going to take a lot of time. Have fun!
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Use windows with tv out
copy the vob files to hdd,
create an iso and throw vob files into it.
then use a program like daemon tools to mount the iso as a drive letter
i know there's a limit to the number of drive letters, but thats where batch files are a beautiful thing, daemon tools can be run from the command line and unmount/mount blocks of dvd drive letters
i don't know if it still works but i remember power dvd software used to let you copy vob files to hdd and play them
from there you're stuck with creating a frontend
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Gonna get modded as a troll for this one... but here goes...
Funny how already I see at least half a dozen posts about the legality of breaking CSS in order to rip those legally owned DVDs.
And yet the irony is so many people still buying DVDs and giving the MPAA and the CSS consortium their money.
Maybe I'm fooling myself by not buying DVDs and not going to movies. Should I just give in? Is anyone here actually still voting with their dollars by withholding it?
(\(\
(^.^)
(")")
*beware the cute-bunny virus
supports up to 3.6 TB and you can cluster it. If you wanna hack up a system yourself that supports full DVDs then just make ISOs and use a virtual drive. Only problem is each ISO will be between 4 and 9 gigs. At most you are going to be able to fit 100-120 movies in a 1 TB array. Perhaps you can have the images compressed in RAR files and decompress and mount the one you want on the fly. If your server has lots of power and memory this could be done with a "load time" of only a minute or two, before the disc is mounted and ready to go.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
"Suggestions for a DVD Video on Demand System?"
I demand it, Kazaa provides it?
Oh, a video on demand system for you - nevermind.
Hang on, someone's banging on my door...
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Why not just get a DVD Jukebox?
j sp?productTypeId=25&sortBy=price&productId=782"><K enwood DV-5900M> looks interesting.
The <href="http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.
"You can't have everything. Where would you keep it?" -- Steven Wright
myHTPC combined with a plugin for it called simpleVideo is the frontend you are looking for.
Some kind of raw image ripping program (CloneCD, BlindRead, etc.) combined with DAEMON Tools and DaemonUI .DUI scripting language
Mount the images and run the DVD player using DaemonUI's
Obviously this is a Windows solution. This can also be done easily with linux, although I don't know the specifics of mounting disc images.
Now as to the storage, an average DVD has 7 to 9 GB of data. 1000 DVDs will take up nearly 10 TB. The MPEG2 data cannot be compressed any further losslessly.
If you don't mind a quality loss (and spending a HUGE amount of time re-encoding the video and converting the menus) you can convert to your favorite MPEG4 derivative (Divx, Xvid, Quicktime MPEG4, etc.)
This will be a hugely expensive project, with the cheapest hard disk based solution costing over $30,000 (3x Xserve RAID 3.5 TB) plus the client machine to attach to the fibre channel switch (and that's not cheap either) to read from all the Xserves.
My suggestion: Just like with legal adivce, this is not the time to ask slashdot. With the kind of money involved, hiring a professional is the best option.
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
My Sony unit holds 400 DVDs, of which I have 84. No need for a geeky solution. This one just works, and it works well.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
"Human slavery is where it's at."
Just imagine a Beowolf cluster of those...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
myHTPC does that... I guess the trick is to find the right PC card to ouptut to the plasma... Would that need to be upscaled? I wonder if that upscaling could be done on the fly.
*Shrug* good luck... although if you have an extra terrabyte raid laying around and a plasma tv, you probably can afford whatever solutions are out there to solve this problem without cobbling something together yourself (but that's half the fun!)
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
DVDShrink to copy DVD to hd, and "DVD Media Classic Player" to play movie from hd - recognizes menu, languages, etc. Both programs are more or less dummy proof, press one key solution.
Just choose the "Play files from hard disk" option.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
1. Get a TV with 1002 inputs. You'll still want one input for your tuner or cable box and one input for a VHS machine.
2. Stack 1000 DVD players.
3. Connect each player to the TV.
4. Get a universal remote that can control all 1000 players + your TV + your tuner + your VHS recorder.
5. Sit back and enjoy.
...buy one of the Sony changers which allows you to put all of the discs in the changers. You don't have to do anything with them. Then you have cool devices such as Escient's Fireball which connects to the Sony changer and you can use that to play the various DVDs.
It doesn't get any cooler than that.
http://www.cinemaronline.com/dvdlobbypro.html
If you can't afford a Kaleidescape, you might try building an HTPC with DVD Lobby.
I believe than VLC and VLS can stream MPEG2 files from files or directly from the DVD drive. www.videolan.org Luc.
I wouldn't bother ripping the special DVD widescreen edition of "ishtar", ditto for "eye of the beholder" and "Battlefield Earth" that'll save you a few gigs =P
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I know I've seen 300+ DVD changers. I'm sure there are larger ones too. At 1000+ DVDs, it'll be much cheaper/easier to go this way, and you get to keep the quality and menues that you want.
You could just rip them to DivX. A good DivX rip should be sweet. A guy at my work rip my LOTR DVD to DivX and I could not tell the difference between them. Or there is OGM that is a pretty good format. I know that this does not answer that question but it gives you ideas
"The most dangerous creation of any society is that man who has nothing to lose." - James Baldwin, American author
Using ripper software, you can rip all the discs the the RAID system. you will need to deCSS the discs thogh, but google for the software to do that. Connect your RAID to your computer using firewire or fibre if you feel like it and use Apple's built in DVD software. It has support for playing VIDEO_TS folders off a hard drive.
If your plasma has computer input, even better.
Scan lines may be a problem, since Apple's player doesn't deinterlace at all. A good deinterlacer with advanced scan line detection may compensate. (High end Faroudja or Pixelworks chipsets should work)
Alternately, if you rip to Vob, mplayer should be able to play them.
With a thousand DVDs however, it will take you a year just to rip them all unless you have a fast system (G5 and up).
I have done this on a much smaller scale and it works alright. If I had the cash to blow, this is how I would do it though.
Both PowerDVD and WinDVD can play DVD's from the hard drive. Make your own front-end or use something like Showshifter or other HTPC software.
If you can get it to work with ffdshow and zoomplayer you can do some advanced picture quality adjustments.
Can I have one? :D
Lego Mindstorms!
Seriously. Use a regular dvd player, make a mindstorms kit to load a DVD from a rack and put it in the player!
Yeah, right....
Why go for a homegrown solution, which will end up costing a bit in both cash and headaches, when something already exists?
Out of the 1000 movies, realistically, how many are you going to watch more than once? I own about 350 DVDs, and seriously, I've maybe watched 200 twice, and less than 40 I watch more often.
Now, what you want to get your hands on is one or 2 of these babies. Sony 400 DVD Jukebox. Even 2 would probably end up cheaper than just the storage you'd need to rip all those DVDs (not to mention the time... and headaches.... Save yourself the trouble, and some cash.
It's better to burn out than to fade away
1) Load browser
... Are you getting what you paid for?
2) Navigate to www.google.com
3) Type "Play DVD from hard disk" in pretty little box
4) Hit Enter
5) Click first link
Or just click here
Is this really a problem for Slashdot? If I think about half of the shit I've submitted that got rejected, it's enough to make me not submit anything again. Sure, my submissions didn't have cool buzzwords like "video on demand", "terrabyte", and I don't own a plasma display, but they were articles whose answer wasn't the first darn response on a Google search. Subscribers
You didn't mention whether you were looking to run Linux or Windows or OS X, but I think the principles are the same.
This is a good Windows-only setup using mostly freeware tools:
DVD Decrypter to rip the DVDs to macrovision-free/region-free ISO images
Daemon Tools to mount the isos as virtual drives on demand
MyHTPC as a TV-friendly filesystem shell (in combination with some simple batch scripts to control Daemon Tools, several of which can be found in the MyHTPC forums)
Zoom Player to play the DVDs (it's fast, full-featured, and you can turn off the GUI entirely which is nice on a TV.
You will also want WinDVD: not to play the DVDs, because the interface is so bulky and slow, but because you will need good MPEG-2 codecs and I don't know of any free ones as good as the filters that come with WinDVD. Zoom Player has a feature that automatically finds the codecs and registers them for you. (AC3Filter is a free AC3 audio codec that is comparable to InterVideo's.)
There are loads of ways to do it in OS X and Linux. Somebody who knows better than me is sure to post them.
you could easily mount the dvds with a program like clone-dvd, alcahol, or other disc imaging and mounting program. you would only need a computer with tv out and a dvd playing program.
the only problem would be that it would take the entire hugeness of the dvd to be able to do that... you would need a few terrabyte setups... fyi, lacie makes a 1 gb usb drive now, or you could stick tons on hdds in one computer by adding ide controller cards in there... just make sure you get a big power supply that can handle it
Kaleidescape has developed several patent-pending technologies. The company's products are manufactured under license from the DVD Format Logo Licensing Corporation, DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., Macrovision, Inc., Dolby Laboratories, Inc., and others.
321 Studios should use this info in their DVD X Copy appeal. Obviously, the DVD CCA is willing to let some companies sell fair use products, but not others. It is probable that Kaleidscape system DVD reader has a legit player key so as to not need to circumvent the DCMA, but that establishes a double standard where fair use products can only be developed by companies willing to pony up cash the the DVD groups.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
You'd end up with a complex, high-end system that could end up being a real headache. That means you'd have four 250 GB hard disks with a hot standby. What you're describing sounds like something with industrial strength and not something you'd likely see on the consumer end of things. But if you want to go through with it, I'd recommend a quad-Xeon system with hyperthreading and 4GB of RAM (at least). The only reason I say that is because of the size of the dvd files that would be moving and the rate that they would be moving. This is especially true if you want to browse a bunch of dvd's in real time. I might be overshooting it a bit, though.
You've got roughly 2000 hours of movies ... You plan on watching 3 movies a day for the next year?
find a cheap cd jukebox on ebay and swap out the drive for a dvd drive. I'm guessing it would be cheaper than a dvd jukebox.
-green is the color of the rainbow
almost any dvd player software can read an IFO/VOB set and display menus. The problem is they dont serve the video up in any way. It can be done and rather simply, but someone will need to write the program. and the typical dvd is actually MUCH more tha 4.7gig pre movie. Commercial releases are dual layer and even occasionally double sided. You are generally looking at 6-8gig of data on a typical commercial release DVD with menus and extra features. The movie itself can be condensed quite a bit and easily server without the menu system, so me thinks you will have to forgo the luxury of menus if you want a hundred films available on demand in your house. Mostly this sounds like a HUGE waste of time and resources, but hey.....
The Mac OS X DVD Player (versions 3.11 and above I believe) will run a DVD from any unencrypted VIDEO_TS folder. :( ), and then whip up a quick gui in AppleScript Studio to help you manage the library and run the DVD player against the VIDEO_TS folders on your disk.
If this works as I think it does (menus and all), you should be able to rip all your DVD's to disk (no extra compression though
There might be other DVD players on other platforms which allow you to open a DVD directory structure that's on a HD.
The XBMC native Xbox application is a lot more functional than anything I've seen for linux, and a whole lot faster on the Xbox. It is a customized version of mplayer built specifically to run on the Xbox - no underlying-RAM-hogging operating system needed. I'm fairly certain XBMC can play VOBs off a network drive, and using the Advanced A/V pack from Microsoft the progessive scan modes look very nice on an HDTV set.
This site has Tons of information on anything do with DVD's, VCD's, Video etc.
Firstly, if you intend to keep the DVD's data intact, as in not re-encoded, there'll be a more difficult issue with CSS-encrypted DVDs. Even the libre software that decrypts is bound to the hardware device, AFAIK... please correct me on this!!
.iso images. The directory or directories of disk images are browsable, and can be made to appear such that each is its own disc in a platform-independent manner. I bet you could do the same for DVD's... and with a little work on existing projects, it'd become very popular. ( =
I think you might want to consider using Samba to share the drive images, in any case. I think it was the Linux Journal, which had an article about using it as a CD jukebox, using
(oh, you can do nfs simultaneously if'n you like)
Was it a bat I saw? Racecar. Stack cats. A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal--Panama!
Why don't you just use Google?
Too many Ask Slashdots are just the result of someone too lazy to do a quick web search. Trust me, you'll get much better results if you 'Ask Jeeves' (so to speak) instead.
I think you are looking the wrong way my friend. Why go through all the pain/legal questions/hardware... Just plunk down a few bucks and by a mega changer.
Here is one that holds 400 DVDs from Sony for like $400 400 Disc Progressive DVD/SACD Player DVP-CX985V
Sometimes a dedicated device has its place.
1. Huge number of movies
2. Rip them
3. ????
4. Profit!!!
This isn't meant as flamebait but...why on earth would you want a video on demand system that uses the horrible bastard of an interface on most modern DVDs? Do you enjoy subjecting yourself to the mind-numbingly stupid Memento menus? Or the Ghostbuster DVD that repeats the same Ghostbuster riff ever five seconds?
To be truly authentic, should this theoretical system also implement the "no fast forward" option during the FBI warning? How about the Coke commercials?
Let's also have to select our audio settings each and every time we change to a new movie. Ignore the fact that your audio system probably changes configuration every two years if you are lucky, let's go ahead and have to choose Dolby 5.1 with English subs every time you pop in Cowboy BeBop.
To me this is a problem in search of another problem. To do what you want is painfully simple. Save the DVDs to hard disk as images, then load in in Daemon Tools/Nero ImageDrive. Poof. Get a cheap PC and use one of the many thousand media management programs as a point and click interface. Have the icons load CUE files for the movies. For a bonus, using multiple virtual drives to load collections like Aliens Quadrilogy etc and then have a playlist to play them all one drive after another.
Or...
Rip them all to a nice quality XviD with AC3 audio, multiple audio tracks if there's a reason (Ebert commentary etc) and subtitle files. Store at least 4 times as many movies with barely any loss in quality, and then have make playlists that play the movie with settings optimized for your sound system and then play deleted scenes and other extras.
Sorry if this seems like a rant, but if you want 1000 DVDs online, make images? Am I overlooking some obvious reason why this won't work?
- JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
DVD Decrypter Is a great program for ripping it (or so I have heard). It will also let you create an ISO of the Disk on your hard drive. You can then mount the ISO as a virtual DVD-ROM using a program like NERO (again, so I have heard) and play them that way. All you need to be able to do is figureout how to select them.
Alternatively, Cyberling lets you play VOB files off the hard drive (decrypted of course). You should be able to select the disk IFO file and play that.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I noticed today on techbargains.com a particular hard drive (pretty sure it was a Western Digital, but I'm too lazy to check at the moment ;)) selling (after rebate) for $150 -- a 250GB model, 8MB cache. Yes, there are larger drives available, but this is the best price I've noticed. A $150/250GB drive means
... now, a nice time machine to sell that resulting system in 1991 or so ;)
a) that theoretically (and yes, ignoring the One Rebate Per Household clause I'm sure is in the fine print) one TB can now be had for roughly $600,
b) in a total of four reasonably purchasable (not outlandishly expensive) hard drives, which means they can all fit in one case with two normal IDE controllers,
c) which means a full computer (think $200 Lindows box from Walmart) with a gig of ram and a TB of storage can be had for something close to and on the nice side of $1000. If you can find a gig of RAM for $100 (which I think is easily possible these days), a cheap flat panel would put the price at $1200 or so
I'd prefer my storage be in external units (say, firewire enclosures) which would bump that price up a bit, but still.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Sooo.. you worked for a Video Rental Store you wernt paid and you own a plasma TV and a 1 TB worth of HDD's
gee.. whats wrong with THIS picture?
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
I don't want to say don't do it, but...
:). It will even connect to the internet and catalog your DVDs. It's very nice, and, more importantly, hassle free.
Buy yourself a couple of Sony DVP-CX777ES 400 disc DVD changers and connect them to an Escient DVD-M100 DVD manager. This is what I use for ~450 DVDs in my theater (110" DLP front projection
Some rough numbers off the top of my head: 3x changers @ $700 each + 1 manager @ $1800 = $3900. More expensive than 4x250GB drives + computer, but you'll be able to store all of your DVDs and not spend a ton of time ripping them and figuring out how to manage/play them.
You can check out the Escient manager at www.escient.com.
get nemulator
I use DVD Shrink for all my backups. You can keep the whole DVD, with menu's and everything, or you can just rip the movie, etc.
It will remove all prohibited user ops (PUO's) and remove copy protection etc. I too ejoy watching my freshley ripped DVD's from my HD, using a software dvd player, after ripping with DVD shrink.
http://www.dvdshrink.org/
Oh my gawd, they killed kenny's mod points!!!!
How is it that you have that many DVDs from a video store that used them for compensation in lieu of cash (presuming you worked there and this was some weird severance package), in addition to a 1 TB array, and a wide screen television? So, what you're saying is that the 1 TB array and TV don't have serial numbers and the DVDs' titles are written on the discs with a Sharpie?
SiO2
I use DVD Backup to copy a DVD to my iBook when I take a trip but do not want to take my original DVD with me. For a thousand DVDs you will need more than a terabyte of storage, but you should be able to setup a machine to serve that over nfs maybe with a few mounts. Hook-up a mac to your plasma screen and use the DVD Player included with MacOS X to play your movies. DVD Player has a menu item 'File -> Open VIDEO_TS Folder..." that does the trick. Plus you can script DVD Player with applescript, so you can quickly hack something together that lets you choose the movie you wish to play. Then you can navigate the usual DVD menus as you wish. You can get a wireless keyboard and mouse to make navigation from your couch easier.
This AMX multimedia server true AV-nerd quality equipment... but insanly expensive.
Xbox Media Player and a samba server with Xvids encoded at a high bitrate.
Use the software mod on an xbox you buy used for $110, then get the remote control.
You have convenience, GUI, and 1337ness all roled into 1!
That's right, I said don't rip the DVDs. While this solution would be slower and more difficult to setup, this is Slashdot. Geek factor counts.
Buy some LEGO blocks and an RCX set. Build a tower to hold the dvds and a crawler to traverse the rack, pick off the right dvd, open, close, load and unload the drive. Actual implementation is left as an exercise for the reader.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
Yes, rent them. You're an instant video rental business - with over $20,000 worth of stock.
Or you could sell them on E-bay for $10,000 (assuming a $10 used price).
Or get Blockbuster or Netflix / other major DVD rental place wanting more stock to buy them.
There are nearly endless business oportunities that you're passing up here...
hire a butler to service your dvd collection.
thousand dvds.....terabyte.....plaaasssssmaaaaa teleeeevision.....
(drool)
I watch a lot of tv and the best way I can think of is by downloading two programs one for backing up the disc to your computer DVD Decryptor then shrinking the dvd with DVD shrink then using some sort of card to get sound and video to your tv then ATI's Remote Wonderto control the the computer stream. Then that should work reasonbly well for what you want to do.
Sorry guys, hate to do it but I have no choice. Mod me down if you wish but I need help.
My employer seeks an experienced web developer to assist us with the completion of a botched project. This website has been in development for over a year and has had numerous changes...... Some were minor but most were major. We are at the point where we are unable to handle the requested changes in the amount of time they are requesting and need additional help. The selected person should have experience with PHP, MySQL, HTML and Graphic Design. The length of this contract will depend on performance and quality (There are additional modules we are planning to have developed once the site is live). This position is onsite, no exceptions. For those interested in this opportunity and are local to Southern California, please email me at nospam@vscene.com.
Molino Networks announced the Media Mogul at DEMO last week. The small unit can store 50 DVDs is $995 and the large unit with 1TB can store 200 DVDs is $2,995.
You might wanna encrypt the terabyte hard drive with all them dvds knocking around on it. Cos if they are all rentals it might raise a few heads you probably wouldnt want to have risen.
/my/dvd/iso/directory | cat -n | sed 's/\t/##/' | sed 's/ //g' >someindex
:-). Just dont index your porn stash.
And yeah, you can use dd in linux to image a dvd then play it through a normal dvd player on linux, I have never looked into it but there is probably a way to use X to configure another video card (with a TV out) as being a seperate monitor. In fact, that sounds almost a definite yes.
And further up mentioned the program Girder looks like a method your looking for too.
What would be a really fun idea (my idea of fun is probably twisted but what the hey) is to get the covers for every film, scan them in and store them in some kind of intranet website. Get a good enough remote control, have the website load up in some sleek (i.e bloat free) web browser that supports full screen (normally F11 on most browsers) to load up on a button press of a remote. Select the film you want through the pic, then somehow, but as I am no website expert whatsoever launch your dvd iso using some easy enough bash script and the dvd iso as an argument. Might be able to do that using perl maybe.
And if you want to impress your friends index the whole collection with:
ls
You can use the index to assign a number to a dvd file name. Once this is done its pretty simple to chalk up a bash/perl script to find and parse a specific number, then launch the iso associated with it.
You can impress your friends with a cron daily / weekends / weekly schedule to launch a randomly chosen movie at a specific time / date.
Telling your mates some movies on at six might earn you brownie points
I saw an infomercial for it. They put them in the parking lots of places like McDonalds.
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
So clearly you are an uncultured slob who gets a hardon watching previews for The Matrix part 9000.
Look at the time of release (1966), world events at the time (Vietnam War), and see if you can see the deeper message - bet you $50,000 you can't, even with those clues and having allegedly recently watched it.
Look at the industry it spawned - obviously some people liked it, and thats where - what you consider to be - the over-rating comes from.
For mine, its one of the best films made in the mid 1960's.
True - theres plenty of shiiiiit Westerns that were made, but this is one of the best. Easily.
I pity you.
-The Man With No Name.
Try three of these, room for all the dvd's you have plus room to grow. Sony 400 DVD Jukebox
250gig for $100! where were you when circuitcity was selling 120gb for $20. it even paid some guys for taking the harddisks :P
When a post becomes too insightful, it often becomes funny.
I guess nobody wins when you get slashdotted.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
that's not true for dvds, you are thinking of vhs. i know a guy who owns a dvd rental shop, and i asked him how much he pays for it? he replied-- "same as you, maybe a bit cheaper...i was quite surprised
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
VirtualCD works great for CDs, and supposedly does DVD's too (although haven't tried it).
The product works great, but isn't free. Although given you other equipment costs and the number of movies involved, I figure the cost would be negligable.
videolan supports playing the raw vob files from a HD and the client runs on many many platforms. If you had a storage array big enough to hold all of these movies*, they could be streamed over a network to whatever you want. At this point mythtv and a DVI connection to a plasma screen with spdif audio would make the viewing a dream. Even if you do compress the VOBs, vls (video lan server) will play them on demand and in multicast.
* my current dream disk array:
- (3) lacie 1TB external hard drive
- dualie opteron with 64bit pci firewire 800
- linux two-point-six and a gig-e-switch
I had a very nice Sony DVD player that racked 200 DVDs. But, I now have 400 DVDs (and about 1000 CDs). While I could have continued buying these units, I elected to rip my movies and place it on a Linux server with VideoLan. Works great for a distributed system whereas the other approach works great for a single high-end approach. Keep in mind, that if you rip the movies, then you can set aside the DVDs and when disk gets cheap, simply copy them to VOB.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I assume you of course have claimed this as income?! That's about $10,000-$20,000 value. Maybe the DARPA TIA project will link your Slashdot account to your IP address to your online banking account to your SSN and notify the IRS for you.
THROW OUT THE SHITTY ONES Then it'll be cheaper! Goes for any collection.
isnt this the obvious solution?
create images of the dvds, then load them up in a virtual drive such as daemon tools?
Downmix - The Artscene News Source!
Rip to hard drive in folders.. (SmartRipper) Select the stream for only the vid/audio track you want...(this can reduce movie sizes significantly) you'll end of with an m2v and ac3 file. Use SpruceItUp (I don't think this is commercially available any longer) to import the files into the authoring program (it handles 5.1 channel ac3). Repeat process and import to same saved spruce file - this will get huge at some point). Create Menus by categories, to other menus that lead to the movies. When its time to burn, choose write to hard drive - select folder and compile.
When all is done, you'll need to use IFOEdit to convert the screen formats back to 16x9 for wide screen (don't know why this is broken).
At this point, simply use PowerDVD to open the main IFO file and you are in business... 16x9 and DD to boot (for all movies). Granted this is a lengthy process, but it beats having to switch DVDs in and out....
My 2 cents..
"Intellectual property" is so ludicrous. So then you must have a system for disabling your own viewing when someone rents a copy?
-I am an elective eunuch.
Whatever you decide to do, be sure to invite me over to you place as soon as you have it up and running!
I say watch out for the MPAA coming over to your place with search warrant in hand, FBI to enforce it, and taking away all your equipment...
Hire me? ;-)
160 virtual slots $5,217
2150 slots $68,210
with a connection to your mass storage on your network.
cheap and easy.
Why not just buy a 400 DVD changer? It supports MP3's on dvd as well ,_ ______
Cut and paste from sonys site
___________________________________________
400 Disc Progressive DVD/SACD Player
DVP-CX985V
Bring home Sony's DVP-CX985V 400-Disc Progressive DVD/SACD Player... Featuring DVD-RW/-R (VR and Video Mode) DVD+RW/+R Playback, SACD Multi-Channel / MP3/CD-R/CD-RW Playback*, 480P Output Type: Precision Cinema Progressive, and a 12 Bit Video DAC with 108MHz Processing with NSV, this 400 Disc DVD/CD/SACD Mega Changer allows you to organize your CDs so you can listen to what you want when you want....
Free Shipping on Home Audio/Video!
$ 399.95
1. Use DVD Decrypter in File mode to rip movies to hard drive/storage area in separate folders. Remove UPOs at same time for convenience.
2. Create a web page on your server which links to each starting VOB in that folder with the name of the movie. Customise as necessary into Genre etc if desired.
3. Associate VOB files with your choice of DVD player software. Set player software to go into fullscreen mode and disable screen sleep.
4. Use remote mouse or whatever with video interface to computer to choose appropriate movie and voila!
Visceral Psyche Films
it's not like he needs a increadibly fast disk system to playback movies, even if they are DVD quality. just stick with cheap old IDE and you can build a TB@ about a grand a TB, $30k? 30 TB. the way you like to blow money, I would guess you are from CA
You can also just copy them to their own directory... and use whatever that dos command is which creates a drive with its root as another directory... good software dvd playes will then just play off the drive
Ah yes i remember, it was called subst, and it maps a virtual drive to a directory somewhere else.
Get yourself a DVD player and some Legos and build a _big_ jukebox.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
High quality DivX/Xvid or a 400 Disc DVD changer.
Bound to a hardware device? Not really sure what you mean by that. All of the DVD decoders I've seen will produce fully unencrypted VOB's that most software DVD players can play driectly from the HD - menus and all.
Really I don't understand why this guy has a problem. All you need do is rip each DVD to its own directory and munge together some simple front end menu to launch the player with a given one.
Was it only 100 Pr0n movies out of the 1000 or only 100 non-Pr0n movies out of the 1000?
Oh, digressing slightly, with DVD pr0n movies are they taking advantage of the format? You know, multi camera angles, different soundtracks, making of documentaries?
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
I would smiply dd the dvds to hdd and write some app or other to get a nice menu system for mounting the disk images and playing them via Xine.
Afaik TV-out works nicely with most radeons under linux, so do some decent mpeg2 cards.
For remote support I can recommend the irman (evation.com) with good support for xine via lirc.
create a named pipe of some sort that is in reality a netcat to suck the info from the main computer.
click n enjoy....
eh???
http://www.farstone.com/home/en/shtml/vdpoverview. shtml
hmm, well ditch the menus, xml db of dvd is good. with a kiss-dv508. would be good. ethernet dvd players are good.
but plazma displays cannot display enough colors yet. they are worthless still.
my tv, with a lower resloutin has better color blending, and seperation. i hate seeing the textured black, and bad hair.
Build a custom quiet PC with a video card with onboard mpeg2 decoding and component out. Connect it to a gigabit over copper LAN (very affordable) and play the disks using PowerDVD by browsing to the network VIDEO_TS folder. To control the PC I use my laptop and PCAnywhere.
I looked into using one of Kiss tech's players (http://www.kiss-technology.com/) but they do not yet support streaming of ripped DVD's. Their tech support suggested ripping to mpeg4, apparently DVD streaming may be supported in a future firmware release.
The ideal solution would be an audiotron like device for video, Kiss seems the closest yet, but for now a custom solution is the best. The PC I spec'd out will run about $1400.
1 used xbox: $150
1 cheapmod: $10
-or-
rented copy of "mech assault" or "007 agent under fire" plus memory card: $20
1 copy of xbox media center (visit #xbins on efnet to obtain this): priceless! (and free too!)
XBox Media Center (XBMC) will play VOB files across the network from machines sharing the files via SMB (regular windows networking) or 2 other xbox-only streaming protocols. XBMC also plays divx, xvid, mpeg, quicktime, realmedia, ogm, and other video codecs. throw in mp3/ogg support, streaming internet radio from shoutcast, a picutre viewer for your digital pics, and even weather updates from the weather channel.com and you have yourself a pretty cheap playback system.
oh yeah and it can play xbox games too.
xbox media center website
information on hacking the xbox (news, tutorials, and forums)
reliable source of cheap chips in the us
Get a LaCie Bigger disk, and use MyHTPC (http://myhtpc.net/)as a front end. (It's free) It has established methods for downloading metadata and managing hundreds of DVDs. Command line calls to the VIDEO_TS folders created by any DVD ripping program launch external players of your choice.
Ideally, I would suggest a mid-range AMD in a cool case (check dvine.) Definite cool points for a smart display on the coffee table, and a DVI out (from the server) to your plasma.
HyHTPC is totally customizable, and it's methods for getting metadata from the DVD into the program only requires the UPC, everything else is automatic. (although 2 other freeware programs are required to get the data into the right format).
This is _exactly_ what I want to do with my 300+ DVD collection.
I am planning on picking up an xBox, modding it, and running EvoX on it. I get the hardware for approximately $200 (soon to be less) including the remote and you get a spare S controller with the xBox. Add in a few dollars for the mod chip and you are set.
Besides being cheap, EvoX looks good and the xBox itself is small and the case is easily modded. It also starts up quickly which is nice. EvoX will read DVD files off the network as well as a few other file formats.
-sirket
Rather than ripping 1000 DVD's (who's got the time??), I'd go with a pair of Sony's DVP-CX985V 400-disc DVD jukeboxes ($399). It does progressive scan and handles CD's, MP3 CD's, SACD's and DVD's. This is the ultimate weapon for those with huge DVD/CD collections... not to mention getting all that shelf space back!
I have one of the 300-CD changers and it's worked extremely well. I'm considering upgrading to one of these to merge my CD and DVD collections into a single unit.
It has a big brother too - the DVP-CX777ES which is the same size but has various additional features.
If you figure out a solution, Kindly post your IP.
Im sure there has got to be a few titles that I would be interested it...
Get yourself an Escient FireBall DVDM-100 "DVD and Music Manger" along with three 400 disk Sony Changers (DVP-CX777ES)...1 00.html
http://escient.com/fireballdvdm
Easy (in Windows, probably Linux as well).
:-)
1) Use DVDXCopy to create the intermediate files on HD for copying.
2) Copy the files to wherever want.
3) Play with Roxio DVDMax.
I'm listening to a DVD of the best rock musician of our time, Chrissy Hynde on the "Pretenders Loose in L.A." DVD.
"Support our musicians -- drive your neighbors nuts by ROCKING OUT legally."
-- opps, gotta go, best part coming up -- gotta crank the volume....
Cant you get something like a vrtual drive and then rip all of the DVD's to ISO and then drag and drop them to something like PowerDVD, I guess that's not automated enough - but I can imagine tht there has to be a DVD player virtual Drive combo system out there.
Seriously. Case mod a CD jukebox.
Come on freak boy it isn't like everyone gets paid in 1000's of DVDs for jobs leaving the world with hundreds of people in the same boat you are in. How about this seeing as your probably one of maybe a handful of people in your situation try writting your own.
I'd hate to see a video rental store that didn't offer that.
Mod "Overrated" instead of replying "I disagree with you," you coward.
this space intentionally left blank
--Nick
I do this already with my own DVD collection (mainly so I can rewatch large numbers of Star Trek and SG-1 episodes without the interruption of changing DVDs). I don't bother with the menus though, I just play each movie as a .vob and have a simple script that lets me select between them with a remote.
Why bother with the menus? I find them annoying for the most part.
Let's see -- you need 10 TB, low bandwidth. The last 250GB drive I bought was $100. That would be $4,000 for 40 drives. If you can buy 10 old (400 MHz-ish) desktop computers for $100 each (should be easy enough -- there's alot of them about), hosting 4 drives per machine, along with a 10-port hub (100 Mbps ethernet) for, say, $100 (probably much less), then that comes to a little over $5,000.
A bit unweildy, perhaps...
Sheesh, I'm I the only one here that knows about this?!?!?
Rip the complete content with smart ripper and shuffle them with Daemon tools to simulate a DVD drive. Then just use some DVD playback software like PowerDVD.
Get you head out of your ass.
I know that powerDVD XP supports opening a folder with vob/ifo files and play it like a regular DVD, so I'm sure other dvd player programs (mainly on Linux) will do the same.
Hello mister Gates! No need to make up story about store going out of business. We, average people would not feel bad because you purchased 1000 movies and want to digitize them so you can watch any of them without lifting your back from the coach to change CD.
Rip the DVDs to some sort of bin/cue or iso files, and then write a script that will mount the DVD that you want, when you want it. On Linux, use any DVD player software to use that directory as your DVD source, and you should have access to the DVD exactly as if you placed it in the DVD drive.
I do this every time I rent a DVD I like. On Linux, or most any *nix system:
dd if=/dev/dvd of=/movies/filename.img
You can watch them with ogle
Only problem is, DVDs are 3-5G each so extract them as mpegs with transcode
Don't forget to share them on gnutella
Don't worry about the RIAA. Tell 'em you share your wireless bandwidth, must have been someone else. Or maybe someone spoofed your IP address. They can go and fuck themselves.
There's a little program I've been using for years called Virtual CD. More recent incarnations include DVD support. Basically, it rips it all to disk and plays them in a pseudo drive. So go dual head to your plasma, and have your DVD player software open up the VCD/VDVD in full screen to your plasma.
I did a lot of work for an online video retailer that went out of business a couple of years ago, and the only "compensation" I got was to keep the 2000 DVD's and 600 VHS tapes they sent me to scan, catalog, and review for their site.
Unfortunately, it was all porn. Worse, it was all gay male porn and so much of it that it nearly filled a whole room of my house. I didn't have anything against it, but it's kinda embarassing when your mom comes to visit and wants to know who Cole Tucker is and starts grilling me on why I haven't met a girl yet.
I don't want to throw them out, not sure about trying to sell them on Ebay, but my friends already think I'm a freak (well, okay, they know I'm a freak) but it's hard to get a girl to date you when you've got a house full of Jeff Stryker and Joe Gage videos. Kansas City Trucking Company anybody?
I wonder why they went out of business
Just as the subject says. If you make an iso of it you can just mount it with the above command in linux and you will see it just like the dvd... You could then setup a small mysql database with all the different info like, title, genre, length, rating, ranking, path to mount point, etc., and then write up a little front end program (be it a website with php, or a java app), which allows you to sort/view/select the movie, and then calls the appropriate software dvd player to play the cooresponding dvd. Shouldn't be that hard, just time consuming to create the iso's and input the info into the database (well, not too time consuming if you only have stuff like title, and mount point, in the database table).
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Hey,
Check out the AV Science forums. They have one dedicated to just this. There are lots of pointers and lots of people who will help.
AVS Home Theater PC(HTPC) Forum
kiwi
Sony sells a 400-DVD carousel player (dvp-cx777es) for about $700.
d -p layers_1991342851
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p_sony-dvp-cx777es_dv
Should tide you over until the ripping technology becomes mainstream enough to be cheap & reliable.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
I wish you would not be so quick with insults and flame. One piece builds on the other, and good things come out of it all. Sure, you might think it's funny to poke at people but it reflects badly on you. Why do you want to discrouage people who are having fun and might be learning something?
You may have not grasped the whole free software concept. All things are made in little pieces. Curious and energetic people do this for fun, others because they have to. Most of the time the pieces go nowhere and reward them with nothing but the fun of the project. Other times, when the piece is free, someone else crams it into something that works well. The free world is so large now that most things are already done and can be put together like tiner toys. Ohter times, when you make those pieces under a NDA in exchange for money, the pieces are turned into a single dinky program, with total duplication of effort or the purchase of eXPensive software.
Some software examples? Witness KDE and Gnome, two desktop enviornments that are better than comercial software in all ways. How about gphoto2 and gtkam, which now works cameras you thought died with windoze 95 and does it all through a single interface. Compare that to the hideous fragmented video world of Windoze, where every device demands a seperate program, viewers vie for "market share" and sabotage each other and all is hell. Each of the drivers for gphoto2 came from people who put a lot of time into something you would consider worthless because cameras are cheap. A programmer, such as yourself, should know this.
Ideas only grow when they are shared and worked on. Practical insights are often gained while working on silly projects, and serious projects are often boon-dogles. Anyone who's done things realizes this.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
try looking at www.AVSforum.com under home theatre PC (HTPC) - there is a lot of info on this - most people use dvdshrink to rip the DVDs, but there are other that make acomplete image of the DVD and mount it on the fly when playing. There is also a dedicated linux group there
I saw a DVD playing on a Plasma display and it was terrible. You can clearly make out the compression artifacts. If you're putting together a home theater you'd be better off using something less crisp to blend the artifacts better. I actually prefer watching DVDs on a regular CRT tv set.
For the not rich:
Personally I'm building an LCD projector out of an overhead and LCD monitor. Not the PC kind. The TV kind like available for the latest game consoles. You can get Overhead LCD panels prebuilt but they're quite pricey. A decent 5" panel can be had for $100-$150 if you buy something like the GameCube screen and a decent overhead can be had for $150-$200. computergeeks.com has a 4" panel for $60. So for $200-$300 you have a nice LCD projector vs $1600 minimum for a "real" LCD projector. Overhead bulbs are $20 vs $200-$300 for an LCD projector bulb.
If you're feeling bold and daring you can take a PC LCD monitor apart and place it over the overhead for a full 15"-17" panel which will project to about 10' diag at only 10' back from the wall. That'll run you hundreds just for the panel but you're still hundreds ahead of a prebuild LCD projector and you're saving 90% on bulbs.
I don't get rich people. I'd rather build these things from parts than just open up a box.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
*sigh* Wish I'd seen this earlier.
.iso of each disk, compress them with gzip -9, write a simple little front end that lets you select which disk image you want to watch, have it decompress on demand and mount the .iso to a loopback device, and then launch your DVD player program. If you configure your player to read from the loopback mount point, you'll never even know the difference.
Make an
Once the player exits, have the front-end delete the decompressed image. Granted, you'll be lucky to get more than a couple hundred DVDs in a single terabyte, but with gzip you should be able to squeeze a couple extra on there.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Kenwood makes two 400+3 DVD changers, model numbers DV-5900M & DV-5050M; you can daisy chain up to 3 of them for access to 1209 DVDs for a list price between $2850 & $4200.
That's true. In fact, just pointing to a DeCSS scheme violates the DMCA. Three days after the shutdown of 321 Studios, that should be perfectly clear. The discussion here itself violates DMCA. I'd like to see that worthless unAmerican law crushed because some moron decides to shut down this conversation.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
In reference to your "munge together" bit, check these out:
The LJ article I mentioned
A similar article
Was it a bat I saw? Racecar. Stack cats. A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal--Panama!
I tried to get around the expense for a standalone dvd player and used my xbox for watching dvds for a while. A couple of problems though: some DVDs would not play at all (e.g. Harry Potter). Some would have bad video skipping (LOTR FOTR). In addition, the remote sucks a$$.
Now these problems might be related to my particular xbox, but I would strongly suggest you take some of your favourite DVDs to a store and demand to play them on an xbox there. Don't know wether these problems might be fixable byb using Xbmp (xbox media player) instead... good luck.
I asked for a refund - and got my monkey back.
A 1 terabyte disk will store between 100 and 200 discs. That's not a high percentage of your collection.
Pioneer has the DV F727, which holds 300 dvds and costs about $550. Sony has the VPCX875P which also holds 300 and costs under $400. I know it doesn't really answer the question, but it might solve the problem. This has got to be cheaper and easier than putting together a pc and big disk array, and it should hold more discs.
1 TB, which is 1024 gigs, isn't enough for 1000 movies. A DVD can take up to 9 gigs, with the average being 3-6. If you rip your DVDs to seperate folders, you can use the subst command at the Windows command prompt to turn a folder into a drive. Some, if not all, DVD playing applications will see the drive as a DVD, and play it off of the hard drive.
http://linux.warcry.com
You can do exactly what you want with PCs. In windows you need daemon tools to mount an ISO image. You will need a player, I would suggest Zoom Player. You'll want to try a few different codecs and find which you like the best. I like myHTPC to browse the collection and launch the player.
If you prefer to go with Linux, checkout video lan. Linux should be able to mount the ISOs without any additional software. I believe Video Lan will take care of playing them for you. I'm not sure of a good way to organize your collection though.
You can find just about any information you need in this regard at www.avsforum.com in the Home Theater Computers and HTPC Linux Chat forums.
If a video store owes you enough cash to buy 1k dvds, I'm assuming you got some money to burn. If so, check out Escient.com and look at the Fireball line. I realize that this is DVD changer solution, but imho, HTPC really isn't ready for primetime. I've been playing w/ this stuff since I bought a Gateway Destination and I can honestly say that there is nothing worse than having a software meltdown in the middle of your favorite flick.
Get a 200 or 300 disc changer or something.. unless you need to stream multiple video streams at once.
As for playing "From HD".. yeah, shouldn't be a problem. At very worst, you can use image files to trick out the computer.
In the United States, we have at least one well-known court case from the '80s that establishes that video stores don't have to pay any kind of extra fee to rent material. Fair use and whatnot.
er... but SVCD's image quality is much worse than DVD. It's also worse than DivX/Xvid.
And, I'd assume that you can't mix in an AC3 or DTS track either?
Or even a couple...for $400-$800, you could have almost every dvd online, without all the hassle. Sony sells a nice progressive scan 400 disc DVD/SACD changer for $400. But yeah, if you want to do things the hard way, ignore this post :)
y /eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-S tart;sid=OWV6mr22cTZ6nv2KDJdwkfKmDD9FvH0ghqQ=?Cate goryName=hav_DVD_DVDPlayers&ProductSKU=DVPCX985V&D ept=hav
URL: http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinit
My HDTV set has a DVI input, I would assume that your expensive plasma TV does also. Just plug in your plasma TV to a computer with a DVI output capable of displaying a full resulution picture for your screen (1920x1080 for 1080i, though DVDs are only 480p). Plug that computer into your network, and you're golden. It should be the same quality as if you were playing from a normal DVD player (which can also be found in varieties with a DVI out).
If your set doesn't have a DVI input (so sad) you ought to be able to get an adapter that will give you a component video signal from your computer to put into the TV.
There should be no loss of quality over a DVD player.
-Ben
SVCD's image quality is much worse than DVD
AFAIK the SVCD standard is the exact same video (mpeg 2) as DVD. So I don't see how it could be worse, let alone *much* worse. And worse than DivX/Xvid? Heh. That's funny. You do realize that those are basically compressed mpeg 2, right?
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Instead rip straight to image files.
Then use Daemon Tools to mount those image files dynamically.
Windows sees Daemon Tools drives as a real DVD-ROM, so it'll autoplay that DVD with your dvd player of choice.
When you're done, simply Eject and it unmounts.
The nice thing is, since you have no intention of burning those images to DVDR, you can rip the WHOLE disc, straight to an image of whatever size, and Daemon Tools will mount it as if it was a real disc.
With a little scripting (maybe even active-x controls w/VB) you can even automate the whole process.
- JD
Wait for the new version of freevo to come out, or grab the cvs version.
They just added support for this a few days ago.
Not as cool but Best Buy has 400 disc DVD changes for $400. Three of those and you're set. Cheap and out of the box. If you want to get fancy, feed them into video capture and stream across the network.
DVDs have a fairly complicated structure involving multiple files and multiple file types and containing numerous indexes and references. If you mirror them with vobcopy, you can then point some of the free DVD players at the ripped directory structure and get the menus and everything else. So, if you export the mirrored directories via some network file system, you should be able to play them over the network. It is possible that one or the other network file system has some glitch that causes problems (e.g., unexpected latencies for certain operations), but then just try another one or fiddle with the parameters for that file system.
A cheap PC with a ATI Radeon 9800 AIW wouldn't be a bad idea. They have HD out support.
The easiest way to store thesse dvd's without compressing or ripping the dvd is to use a program called Virtual Drive 3. This program takes an exact image of the entire dvd and behaves as a new drive on your pc. Once all these dvd have been imaged iot is a simple matter of going through the list and selecting on which movie you want to watch.
This shouldn't be all that hard really. The best lossless way that I can think of involves extracting isos from the dvd's. You lose no quality at all. Then use a program like daemon tools that lets you use an iso as a virtual dvd-rom. With very simple programming, one could make an interface, and have the interface swap the iso in the drive and hit play. Static
SVCD's are 480x480 in resolution (yes, that is a square - the DVD player stretches the picture out to get the proper 4:3 aspect ratio).
:)
The standard maximum bitrate for an SVCD is 2,520 kb/sec, but sometime you can get away with more. (depends on the player).
I know with software players (PowerDVD, etc) and having the files on your hard drive, you can exceed that, but you're violating all of the standards to do it.
Contrast that with a DVD, who's resolution is 720x480, with a maximum bitrate of 9,000kb/sec that INCLUDES the audio stream as well.
So basically you're cutting the horizontal resolution of your picture in half, then saying you have a quarter of the bandwidth available to compress it with.
It's true that SVCD's are very useful - especially for anime and the like (since it compresses so well).
SVCD's are indeed compressed using MPEG2, that's about the only thing you got right.
Checkout http://www.vcdhelp.com - That should teach you some things you didn't already know.
- Joel
dvd decryptor can make disk images that are identical to the orinal disks with the difference that they are decrypted.
Put thos images on some server (samba?)
A dvd drive emulator (demeamon tools) kan be used to mount the images
windvd can be used to play the disks
Just get 5 powerfile DVD changers off of E-Bay.
They are 200 disk firewire changers. They can be integrated into a computer switching system (http://www.avsforums.com) and you can have seamless nearly instant on for all 1000 DVDs with no messing with DeCSS or recoding.
Power DVD XP can play ripped DVD's with all the features eg. menues etc. That's what I use
Good news: You just recieved 1000 DVDs Bad news: They are all copies of Kazaam No wonder that video shop went out of business.
Last weekend, i received a leaflet from VideoLAN at FOSDEM, Brussels.
It reads:"Lastly, VLC has a really flexible stream output feature, which lets it redirect its video and audio output to the network OR TO A FILE. VLC can thus also be used to stream DVDs, VCDs or files on your harddisk."
I don't find this feature back on their homepage with that many words, but I guess it is hidden in the tables that describe its features. At least, VLC should do the trick.
...or use the RCA DVD player codes. The Xbox DVD kit and remote is actually a modified RCA one.
This device might do the trick you need
Yeah, SVCD is a little rougher than DVD, but it's approximate to VHS. Perhaps better if you consider degradation after multiple viewings. And it's totally random access when you have all your movies on one hard drive in an APEX dvd player. So, this doesn't truly address the interest of the original post, but it is a related solution I thought I'd throw on the table for everyone.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Then check out the MAX Multimedia Server from
http://www.amx.com comes in a couple of sizes and rips DVD's with no loss of quality. Only trouble is I think the smalleat is about $28,000.. ouch.
xbox is the bestest cheapest option... You can control it form a laptop via wireless, IR controller etc.. and with a good set of cables the quality is brilliant.
mod parent funnnnnnyyyyyyyyy!! that actually happened to my cousin!
sony makes a GREAT 200 disk DVD jukebox. you can get them on ebay starting at about $130 used. buy 5 of them and save yourself TONS of time and money over trying to put these on a terabyte array.
*** I suffer from a colorful array of psychological problems
The Kiss DP-500 DivX DVD player with ethernet/PC-link support. It rocks.
There is a sourceforge project to write a PC-link host for linux as well.
It plays Ogg files as well as all the other crazy stuff it does.
http://www.divx.com/hardware/detail.php?id=55
They can hold up to 400 DVD's now. I have a 200 version and works quite nicely, with menu catalogues etc...
Cheers
Just to make sure you've done the job properly, let me know your IP and whether the drive is shared via donkey, bt or gnutella
Theres actually a few players on the market that can stream the video from a machine on a network. This would allow you to copy the DVDs to your hard disc, then point these network players at the rips. One advantage is that the players dont have a fan in them, and if you get a network player they are very small. Kiss: http://www.kiss-technology.com/ (Watch out though, the 508 is crippled with bugs. Check their forums before you get one) Neuston: http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500.asp
1) You can either already have svideo/video outs on your box or get one of them svga - teevee adaptor things.
2) Insted of "Ripping" them or whatever, just make disk images. Make sure they're uncompressed and whatnot.
The rest is simple: set up the plasma display as your monitor, mount the disk image, use the DVD player software.
I've done this on a PowerBook g4/1ghz with good results.
For better quality, and using straight up svga with no adaptors, sell the plasma and buy a video projector. You could have enough ca$h left over to buy a UPS for the projector (blackouts are hell for the bulbs) and a drink fridge for the beers.
Believe me, the're nothing like the projector for movies and smiting your foes in halo or bf1942.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
Wow! Starting from 27 000 (that's twenty seven thousand) dollars, you can own a GPL infringing set of linux machines with one that has a number of discs on a hot swapable array. I was only speculating there. But seriously. I certainly WONT pay my yearly salary (BEFORE taxes!) to have a nice looking dvd ripping machine. I'm satisfied with my trusty p2 running samba with a 160 gb drive filled. nonetheless, i'm sure there could be a couple interesting hacks done with that system.
After you've ripped the couple hundred movies that you like, you can keep those DVDs for backup and sell the other 7-800 on EBay. Sweet!
Posting anonymously ... for some pretty obvious reasons.
u cts&subname=products_media&subname1= )
You're tying to do exactly what I'm doing right now.
Input:
- Netflix DVD Rental Subscription
- WalMart DVD Rental Subscription
- DVD Empire (Adult) DVD Rental Subscription (and who doesn't want porn on demand, either?)
Processing:
- iMac (though any Mac will do)
- osex (to rip the DVDs to unencrypted/ regionless VOBs)
- ffmpegX to convert to 3ivx AVI
Storage:
- Lacie 1Tb External Firewire Disk Array
Output:
- (3) Elgato EyeHome Appliances ($249) (which is a customized version of this box: http://www.syabas.com/syabas/syabas.jsp?name=prod
- (3) TVs ranging from 25" - HD Projection
The EyeHome really ties everything together by taking all my existing AVIs, MPGs, and more and presenting them in a nice, searchable (!), menu.
I've got 400Gb so far of AVIs from DVD rentals and I have no qualms about buying another terabyte array if need be.
But, please note, there ain't no way in hell that I'd share these movies with anyone. This is for my own personal use.
I think KISS makes a similar device to the Elgato and Syabas versions so you should be able to do this similar with that, too.
Also note, I was going to go down the route of building an HTPC to do all this stiff in, but let me tell you - the EyeHome is about the same size as a hard cover novel, (and weighs about 1/3 the weight), has no moving parts, includes a built-in web browser and lets me listen to internet radio stations or stream my own iTunes, iMovies, and iPhotos with ease.
I could buy two EyeHomes for the same cost of building my own HTPC and I might be lucky to get component video & SDIF if I did so.
OK. So I don't have the hardware or proof of concept experience to give a hands down solution to this problem but the very nature of VLC's design is to address this concept. It is a Video Lan Client designed to handle streaming video media and it handles DVD menus just like totem, mplayer, and xine. (In fact totem might be a player here too as it taps gstreamer). I don't recall enough about how VLC cleaves the client/server split to comment on the efficacy of DVD menu browsing over a network, but if you (presumably) want to seggregate the video archive from the box that's going to handle the display it's a no-brainer. What really needs to be looked at is what can be used as a wrapper around browsing the whole collection the way one might hack up something with lirc, links/lynx, and mserv, etc... Pardon, the ramble. I make it a point to get trashed on Tuesdays. But, yeah. Hack up a way to browse the library with a remote and the rest is cake.
This is what I would do: 1) Rip all the DVD's that I just wanted as films to an mpeg4 compressing (DivX/Xvid/...) 2) Store all the riped films on a file server attached to a hub and runing jlink. 3) Connect the Kiss player to the network and to the Plasma screen. You can then play all the mpeg4 stuff you want, streamed off your file server. If you want menus, then just stick the DVD into the kiss player and view it that way. Simple to do and you can do it straight away.. sorry for not making this more difficult... Johnny.
Assuming you are using Linux this is probably easy.
/mnt/dvdloop (say) using the loopback device. It will look like a DVD filing system, in other words, like a DVD drive.
How about this...
dd if=/dev/dvdrom of=/some/file/somewhere.dvd
Then mount the raw file on
Then point ogle or whatever other DVD viewing software there instead of the real DVD drive, and you're laughing. Menus and everything, but from the HD.
(This is more or less what I did with Masters of Orion II so I could play it under WINE without having to have the game CD in the drive.)
-- What do you need?
-- Gnus. Lots of Gnus.
Find DVD player software that can play from hard disc.
The one with OS X does that (since 10.2 I believe).
You will have to remove the css however.
> That's a few bucks short of making our money back. But in the long run, you usually break even due to the sheer volume of what you move.
Brilliant. So what you are saying is you lose money on each one, but you make it up in volume?
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Slashdot Poll :
How jealous are you of the guy with the 1TB array ?
1) Wouldn't that make a lot of noise ?
2) I want one, but where would I put it ?
3) Trying to convince spouse we don't need a kitchen
4) Taking out a loan right now
5) Broke into his house already, he was a liar
6) I'm not jealous, I have a few of these things already
7) I get my TB from CowboyNeal
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
[1TB array server+gigabit ethernet card]---[PC with DVD player software+gigabit ethernet card]
Save the Ripped DVD's in directories on server.
Open a film and play the damn thing on the PC.
Where's the problem ?
Rip the DVDs into ISO images. Store them on the big array on the server. Export the array over NFS/Samba, and mount it on the displaying machine.
:-)
:-)
Mount the relevant ISO image using loopback.
Use your favourite DVD player program to watch it (XMMS, MPlayer).
Obviously, this is a somewhat Linux centric solution, but this is slashdot, after all.
Enjoy!
Look at VIDEOLAN at www.videolan.org.
It can stream ripped unconverted DVD's from a hard drive.
Is it just me, or is does this whole thing sound like a big black-market-dvd-copying-operation looking for tips?
OK, it may be disguised well, but a few answers regarding digitally copying large quantities of DVDs without loss of quality would probably help the man.
His name wouldnt be 'Big Don' by any chance?
If you need to display them easily from hardrive without having disks inserted, use a program thart will rip an exact image of each DVD and emulate using daemon tools or something similar.
That way the DVD's should be showed as origional including menu's etc.
Apples DVD Player app will directly play stuff inside a video_ts folder. It does not need to be DeCss'd.
Add 1 part Mac OS X, I part apple scripting + Viola!
DvD decrypter will rip the DVD nicely, menus and all to your harddrive.
Most software media players will not recognize DVD menus, but one called ZOOM Player will, and just happens to be a nice player to boot.
After you have those it is simple a question of hardrive space. Most movies run between 5-8gb so 1000 DVD's going to require something in the neighboorhood of 5-8tb. Most of the newer high end mother boards will hold up to 10 devices (CD/DVD/hardrives). You biggest problem is going to be one of heat, noise, and enough power connectors. You might want to think about is having multiple servers, with one connected to the TV with the absolute minimum required to run in order to keep it quiet, but enough to fullfill any recording you'll want to do. You then would have one or more servers tucked away on a home network where they won't bother you, with their hardrives mapped to your main server at the TV.
Don't forget you'll want to use to use your machine as an MP3 jukebox as well as a video recorder (TV shows).
While it's not a computer solution Sony does make 200+ DVD carasel players. A friend of mine uses two of them to hold his collection, and has them set up to be controlled by his palm top. He has an older machine connected in as well for the mp3 and video recording functions.
AFAIK are not the menus of a DVD in XML? Then what you could do is have a Master Menu in XML that would handle getting the "real" dvd menus. Possibly patching the "ripped menus with a link back to your master menu. Most likely a remote key not a graphical menu link.
IF this could work, then you could have each ripped DVD in a dir on you array and the master menu could be accessed via a media player. Could be pretty seemless, if you get the DVD's to loop back to the master.
Good luck
Oh, digressing slightly, with DVD pr0n movies are they taking advantage of the format? You know, multi camera angles, different soundtracks
Different soundtracks? Most porn is bad enough to start off with, but why the hell they bother with that incredibly shit dubbing is beyond me.
"Mmm... Mmmm... [sucking fingers]... Oh yes..."
"Uh... Uh...."
Well, I'm convinced.
Gimme one decent soundtrack over 10 shitty ones- I normally turn the sound down... anyway, I'd rather see (and listen to) two decently attractive people f*****g etc. and actually enjoying it than watch some big-haired chick with blatantly fake (and horrible) looking fake breasts fail miserably at the high-class-hooker/slut hybrid while some two sleazy weirdos with shaved balls do her.
Which isn't to say I don't like porn... just the bad stuff (i.e. most of it).
I'm surprised they haven't done porn in the "choose-your-own-adventure"-book style yet (i.e. watch a scene, choose what happens next...)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I have a couple of terabytes of video stripped from DVDs on disk over a couple of servers. I also have a gigbit ethernet running. I can play any of the videos on any of the other machines wih one of the standard players that accepts input from a video_ts folder. PowerDVD does this on a PC, the standard DVD player does this on a Mac. (And yes the network is hetrogenous wrt machines). You get the menus etc at the machine playing the movie. Since most DVD content is encoded at around 10 megabits/sec or less, pushing that across a gigbit network at full speed is trivial. Even 100Base-T works well enough for all of that.
About the only thing that you have to get concerned with is managing the access to the titles using shortcuts/alias on the machine playing the movie.
Again, I do not see where the problem is. I do what this guy is talking about (sans plasma display) on a daily basis already.
(admittedly, if there is CSS, you have to rip with something that gets rid of it to get the titles to play from the video_ts folders. but you had to do that to play from the mpg files too...)
Why not just leave all the files in the
K
I've owned a Prismiq for a couple of months now- and this will do just about anything you need it to in this area- put the VOB files out there, run their MediaManager software (or the GPL'd Linux version from prismiq.org), and you're all set- S-Video and AC3 out, box costs around $200 (it's a little flash Linux Busybox machine itself). Good luck.
Rip them as iso's then use videolan.
DVDLobby would allow you to access your array of ripped movies from a full-screen interface on any PC. It's the slickest one out there. DVDLobby Pro It can control DVD changers, PCs, everything...
DVD Decryptor (in ISO mode) + Daemon Tools + Win32. I would be surprised if there isn't a similar linux solution available also.
Rob
double click .iso file.
Assuming he doesn't mind running Windows:
:)
Buy the XCard - it will playback divx and mpg, but it does it in hardware so even a slow computer can serve movies(Specifically it plays Plays DVD-Video, Superbit DVD, Super VideoCD (SVCD), and VideoCD (VCD) 1.x, 2.0, DivX , MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 files, Play NTSC titles on PAL televisions, PAL titles on NTSC televisions )
Composite, s-video, scart rgb, s/Pdif outputs.
Then you should buy JovePlayer - this is a player dedicated to work with the Xcard. Your basic "Home Theater Software", it displays its menu interface on the TV screen (and is skinnable btw, so if you want it to look like StarTreks LCARS, you probably could) - if you have a faster machine it offers the ablity to reencode video formats that the XCard doesn't support nativly (such as RealAudio, Windows media - and straight from web pages if you like).
Then you just fit your "home theater" machine, with harddrives with your content, pop in CD's, or mount network shares and navigate with JovePlayer (and the remote) to the desired folder and click on the relevant IFO file. It will play back as a normal DVD, (because in essense it is a normal DVD, you might just have relocated it) -via the remote you can navigate the DVD Menus, change soundtracks, page through subtitles etc. You can bookmark specific places and make playlists as well
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I use Mac the Ripper and Panther's DVD Player... I also process the entire DVD w/ DVD Requantisizer down to 4.1 gigs for the average movie. Quality is totally your decision; higher quality takes longer to re-master, but as an example the newly remastered Indiana Jones titles ripped gave me a 7.2 gig packet. Remastered at highest quality setting w/ DVD Requantisizer it took about 2 hours to get it down to 4.1 gigs. Pumped through s-video to my widescreen TV it's indistinguishable from the original DVD when the DVD is pumped through an s-video cable... of course component is preferable, but from my current media server it's not an option. My approach to ripping my DVDs has been similar to my approach to ripping my music collection... most movies are perfectly fine to have ripped to a HD, but just like some LPs are better left to listen to on vinyl, some DVDs are better left to view from the original discs. The Indiana Jones DVDs were my benchmark, but when it's time to watch them, I always go back to the original discs. The programs are out there, and they're cheap shareware titles or freeware in most instances. What I really want is an iTunes type front end for movie files, complete with artwork, genres, and ratings...
while we are on this subject, why hasn't anyone manufactured a personal dvd player? What I mean by that is a personal walkman cd player that you can store mp3 files on dvds and play them with it. I would buy one up in an instant instead of dealin with the ipod crap.
Sure you own them legally, and sure its for private use, but does the M P A A (LORD OF ALL VIDEO) know about this? Each day MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are lost due to Piracy, but I estimate more in the TRILLIANS! Are you sure the MPAA Shouldn't get a cut of this endevar?!
Where in the heck do you live where the new releases are available for rent before they're available for sale? Up here in Canada, movies show up for sale and rental simultaneously. Either you live someplace very strange, or you're just plain talking out your ass.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Several people have suggested ripping the DVDs and making ISO images, then mounting the image as another drive. This apparently lets you play using any DVD player software. Doesn't this illustrate that CSS is NOT copy protection? You can readily copy all the data on a DVD without circumventing CSS. And now apparently you can still play the data back on approved players after you've done so. Is this the case, or do you have to DeCSS the data before making the ISO?
It has all of the information to rip and make a PVR system. As awell as conver all of your VHS over to it as well.
myHTPC (runs on windows)
MythTV (runs on linux)
Both are free.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
Use DVD Decrypter to rip to ISOs, removing Macrovision as you do so. Then get Daemon Tools to mount the images. There are a number of good third-party automounting tools with menus, and if you're a programmer you can get the API from the DT developers to make your own. You will, of course, need to install a DVD player app if you don't already have one.
It'll be time-consuming to set this all up, as just the DVD ISOing itself will be a bit long.
I have not really tried the video streaming aspect, but my new DVD player, GoVideo D2730 is networked, and supports video streaming from a PC.
The PC component is a streaming server (runs on Windows) that can do MPEG, MP3, WMA, and JPEGs. No direct support for DVD, but you could certainly store the DVD files as MPEGs.
There are limits though, and I do not think you will get DVD quality (3Mb/sec max is what they advertize). Its low cost, I never said its the best.
Incidentally, when I bought it I thought it would be cool for the video streaming aspect, but the best so far has been that I can now access my entire MP3 collection with my TV remote in the lounge.
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use - Mark Twain
If you're not terribly worried about price (which I'd assume you aren't, since you're willing to invest in 1TB worth of storage just for movies), I may have a solution. The Sigma Designs Xcard is an MPEG decoder card that A) delivers superb picture quality over compsite, component, and S-Video B) can decode MPEG4 video such as Divx and Xvid in hardware and C) With the help of a piece of software called JovePlayer it can playback DVD image files, and can also act as a PVR system.
Get yerself an XServe Raid from Apple to store the images you make using DVDBackup... Use Disk Utility to create images of the disks (so each movie is its own single file).
Get yerself a nifty VGA extender from Gefen (a simple little box that converts VGA (or any variant thereof) to travel up to 300 ft over ethernet, emerging on the far end in another Gefen box with a VGA out port.
Then get yerself an X10 remote control for the whole setup.
when you double click on any Disk Image you made, it will automatically mount, and DVD Player will automatically start playing it. No hacking, no muss, no fuss... it just works!
Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
What do you mean exactly by "1 terabyte disk array" and "serve up to my plasma display"? What hardware do you actually have? Are we talking a single PC with 4 250G hard drives inside, or a storage area network?
In any case, if you're running the whole thing on windows, you should be able to use nero 6.0 to copy the DVDs to image files, and then use imagedrive (also part of nero) to mount them as if they were in a DVD drive. Then use any win DVD player (nero includes one of those too - showtime) to play the DVD.
For the actual hookup of your PC to your plasma display, any HTPC howto will tell you how to get good component output from you PC to your display that will likely look better than any standalone DVD player. AVSforum is a great resource.
I've done exactly what you are trying to do. I have even installed VOD in 600+ room hotels. For both I used Main lobby and it's add on DVD lobby though heavily customized for the hotels. This is by far the coolest and slickest software out there. http://www.cinemaronline.com/mainlobby.html I've also worked a lot with Mario and Dan (the owners) and they will answer all your questions. To add a movie you only have enter the UPC code or you can create your own menu system - my preferred method. If you want to save some money on software and want to build it yourself there are a number of linux based solutions. The two best, IMHO, are MythTV and MyHTPC. Both are very powerful and flexible but require a lot of work to set up. http://www.mythtv.org/ http://myhtpc.net/ Two other windows based platforms are Microsoft's Media Center 2004 (that should go over great with /.ers) and a program called SnapStream from a company with the same name.
Lastly you should familiarize yourself with Girder. It's a program that lets you program your remote anyway you want to. It very powerful and you can add logical programming to the remote so it acts differently in different situations or apps. It was free until a couple of months ago but now it's shareware. You can still find the 3.2.9 version(free)and it works great. http://www.girder.nl/
As for remotes I have a lot of success with the StreamZap remote. You can find it in many computer stores such as CompUSA.
Lastly you can find most of this info and anything else you could ever want to know at
http://www.avsforum.com/
This is a hot new field and new things are coming out everyday. Good luck building your HTPC. It'll most likely take at least a week to get it the way you want it but it will be worth it and you will be using it for a lot more than just watching movies!
Use a program like DVD decryptor to rip the entire DVD and then use dvd shrink to convert them to an image file. Use a program like Alcohol 120% or Nero drive image to mount the iso on a virtual drive and your DVD viewing software will treat the virtual drive like a DVD rom. You'll have the menus, special features, everything...
DVD Shrink also lets you rip out the other language tracks/subtitles that you don't want and you can save some disk space.
Yoho
OK, is it me or are these solutions REALLY bloody complex? Although I like the sticks and mud and will begin research soon..... So, buy an ENORMOUS rack you can stow in a closet somewhere in the house, load it up with a server, drive arrays and get it running. Next, get a digital video card set up between said rack and your TV...... or TVs. Find a friend with no life and lots of time on hand and coerce him into loading/ripping all the DVDs to the disk array. Next, realize that all of your hard work, well his, now allows you to run through your library with ease and with a little extra Cat5 allows you to have your movies anywhere on earth you can find a connection and without paying for HBO. Then, invite Slashdot users over to "ooh and ahh" ~j -At first I thought my computer had become a smoker..... then the caffeine returned to me and I realized I was about to be reduced to a smoldering pile of MotherBoard pieces.
okay, this is just my humnle opinion on this matter, and may or may not be taken seriously :)
/*This includes all the stuff such as subtitles and so on (in case you perhaps are going to have an exchange student living with you, who knows ?)*/
:)"; //when that`s done, let`s do some 'magic'_ web_interface(); //voila! ;P
function build array(){
print "include at least 2 nics.";
}
function rip_dvd_as_iso(){
while ($x1000){
rip_2_iso;
$x++;
}
}
function build_web_interface(){
print "Make some sort of database over all the recorded dvds, categories, actors and so on and son on, then make a web interface offering links to the isos (with a nice info page with each iso)";
}
function make_client(){
print "This may be some kind of mini-ITX box, a barebone system or something similar, make a nice UI (a full screen browser such as mozilla perhaps, scripted in such a way that when you click the specialy crafted urls of the server, it downloads the iso file to a temp drive on the client, mounts the iso and fires up mplayer - woila, menues, subtitles and all the extras on the dvds right under your fingertips
}
build_array();
rip_dvd_as_iso();
build
make_client();
seriously, it`s my opinion that it`s smart to temporarily download the isos to the client, and then play it, or perhaps make a samba network between the clients and mount it so, but some sort of indexing, such as a web interface are a great help if you are dealing with such numbers of dvds. You may make it as simple as copying and pasting movie info from imdb.com.
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
Both DVD Decryptor and DVD Shrink are free by the way.
RAID 0 at least makes sense; that way the multiple drives involved are treated as a single drive.
The LaCie Bigger Disk is fairly affordable if you need the drive size-- 1TB per drive at about $1200 . The 1000 DVDs = 10 TB implies you need about 10 of these drives for a RAID 0 set. The "marginal" cost of converting 10 drives from a RAID 0 (no redundancy) solution to a RAID 5 (redundant striped set) solution would be proabably about 10%, assuming you can find firewire RAID 5 software. Of course, since you're about to drop $13K at LaCie, I suspect they would be happy to discuss Firewire 800 RAID 5 packages with you. =)
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Major benefits to my solution:
Uses Divx+AC3 files for great compression with minimal loss of picture quality.
Scales Divx video up to 720p for remarkable picture quality, which in many cases looks better than the original DVD. The PQ approaches HD in many cases.
Allows Dolby 5.1 AC3 optical pass-thru for true surround sound with no recompression of audio streams. The sound you hear is the sound on the original DVD.
Each compressed DVD movie is just over 1GB in size.
Compressed movies can be delivered to wireless clients anywhere in the home with standard 802.11b, with seamless playback.
Head-end server can be located in the basement or a closet to keep computer and fan noise away from your home theatre.
Also stores and catalogs your entire MP3 music library for listening to music from any client.
Outputs stereo audio sources (such as standard MP3 files) to both front and rear stereo channels in a surround setup, giving you output from all speakers in your surround setup, even if you're only listening to a stereo source.
Listen to Internet radio from any client.
The only disadvantage to my setup:
Not enough disk space to rip entire movies including menus in a lossless format. My setup can fully support reading .VOB files from the server, provided you have enough space to store them all.
Actually, I think it's pretty good. This is the hardware I had lying around to work with, most donated by my work:
1 Sun Ultra 5 360 mhz. workstation w/ 256 MB RAM and 9GB HD. (about $190 on eBay).
1 dual-channel differential PCI SCSI card, (about $20 on eBay).
1 Sun StorEdge D1000 with 10x 18GB SCSI hard drives, (about $130 for the array itself on eBay, then buy some Sun spud drive brackets and load up with your own SCSI drives).
1 Xbox, modded, with DVD remote kit, for each client.
You could get a much cheaper server for storage and all that by just building a PC clone and throwing a few 250 GB hard drives in it, but this hardware was free (except for the Xbox), so I used what I have.
Here are the installation steps:
1. Install Solaris 9 on the Ultra 5.
2. Use Solstice Disksuite to setup a RAID 5 metadevice spanning across all 10 18GB SCSI drives. Newfs the metadevice, end up with about 150 GB of space mounted under /bigdisk.
3. Setup Samba on the Ultra 5 and share out the /bigdisk partition in read-only to everyone and read-write to your ripping workstation.
4. Rip your DVDs in Divx format with AC3 audio (don't recompress the audio stream, because AC3 is already compressed and you want 5.1 surround, right?)
5. Save your .avi video files to the Samba server.
6. Mod your Xbox (use the 007 agent under fire savegame hack to avoid buying a modchip and cracking the case). If you want instructions on how to do this, check out the Tutorials section on this site.
7. Install XboxMediaCenter on your Xbox and set it up as the main dashboard.
8. Configure XBoxMediaCenter to point to your Video server using smb://username:password@servername/bigdisk or whatever you decided to name it.
9. Enjoy movie watching madness from any TV in your house.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
I just setup this solution for myself that covers the issues he had. The ShowCenter can play VOBs, MPGs, Divx/Xvid, plus a few more. Its a nice set top solution that looks nice and is quiet. If you don't to use windows as the back-end server, there are two open source Apache/PHP projects that will replace their Windows back-end application.
Pinnacle ShowCenter
OpenShowCenter
OXYL-BOX
Supported File formats:
Music:
- MP3
- PCM
- All incompatible audio files (E.G. WMA) will be converted to MP3 at 128kb/s
Video:
- MPEG-1
- MPEG-2
- DivX AVI
- Xvid AVI
- All incompatible video files (WMV, DV) will be converted to a ShowCenter compatible format as set by the user.
Image:
- JPEG
- BMP
- PNG and GIF files are converted. All "Portrait" oriented image files are rotated by 90 degrees in the ShowCenter database and scaled to PAL or NTSC video resolution. The pictures are optimized for being displayed on a TV screen and stored as a copy in JPEG format, while preserving the original image file.
Video standards for A/V outputs:
- PAL 25fps full D1 720 x 576 interlaced
- NTSC 29.97fps full DV 720 x 480 interlaced
Inputs and outputs:
The ShowCenter box provides all audio and video outputs for delivering the optimum sound and video quality no matter what A/V equipment is connected. The A/V connectivity is equivalent to a premium quality DVD-player and consists of:
a) SCART 21-pin connector (Europe-only, also known as Peritel connector or Euroconnector) with composite, Y/C, RGB, stereo audio
b) Component video output ("YPrPb", 3 x RCA)
c) Composite video output (1 x RCA)
d) Y/C ("S-Video") video output (1 x Hosiden)
e) Stereo audio outputs ("Line-Out") (2 x RCA)
f) Additional stereo audio output (for separate connection to stereo system) (2 x RCA)
g) Digital audio outputs, both optical (1 x Toslink) and electrical (S/PDIF 1 x RCA)
Further inputs and outputs:
a) Ethernet 100baseT (1 x RJ45) with associated connection/data LEDs
b) PCMCIA slot for Pinnacle-approved wireless network card
c) Power cable connector
d) IR receiver
Just get up off the couch; pig!
If you're serving .iso files to Certain Versions of Windows, make sure you keep the files below about 1.5 GB in size, or it will not work. Then you get to deal with the joy of all the undocumented multi-file image formats that daemon tools supports -- making it very difficult to craft your own. (You'd be fine if you were ripping on Windows and just using Samba for storage, but if you've got an 8 gig .iso on Linux and you want to mount it on Windows 98... well, it's going to hurt.)
Alternately, get Windows NT 5.0 oops I mean 2000 or later and don't worry about it.
That being said, once you've dealt with the large file issue (either by using a version of Windows which handles large files on SMB, or by setting up the right magic file for daemon tools), mounting a virtual drive from Samba works nicely.
"If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one."
Sounds fair to him. I wonder how many of Cheerio encrusted Finding Nemo DVDs, he's found stuck to the back seat floor of his wife's minivan. Oh! That's right, the chauffeur would take care of that!
translation: Let them eat cake
One of the nicest things about Macs is what can save you here. There are multiple proggies out there for making disk images and DVD images, and some even strip the region and CSS encoding for you. Just copy the images using one of those programs, save the disc images to a disk array (or load up an old G4 with a big ole set of 250 GB drives raided)... use a wireless mouse system to menu the DVD player on the Mac, and viola... DVD on demand.. heck, I may end up doign that on mine.... oh, and the menu system works since it's the DVD image...
;-)
Damn linux folks, expand your horizons!
If you rip your collection as VIDEO_TS folders, then you can add them to the Video Lan Client playlist and then you have your complete system, with find as you type search support. Just double click the title of the DVD you want to watch and you get your DVD menu and in the last version of VLC there's beta support for DTS audio (it works quite well for me).
You can run VLC on Linux, Windows or MacOS X.
giandrea
It looks like this little wonder should take care of the streams. And it even runs on Linux to boot
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
This would be a good time to invest in the power company. Every time I come up with a cool solution to a problem in the computer age...my power bill goes up $15 a month.
On the flip side -- I have not had to heat the basement all winter.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Sometimes people refer to 'raw' images as ISO images and even tag them with an ISO extension, which is wrong. To get a raw image, you need a program to use the special device ioctls to read subchannel/ECC data, for example cdrdao does this. The resulting image is a 2352 bytes/sector image and cannot be loop mounted as an ISO filesystem.
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
-1 Redundant.
/. groupthink are more damaging to the signal/noise ratio than the trolls are. Begin the stand here please.
Do we really need another post on Slashdot saying open source is really, really cool(!). No, we don't.
Poster is also a well known karma-whoring sycophant. Despite arguments to the contrary, I think sycophants/victims of
Last time I was in The Good Guys (high end home theatre store) I saw a DVD/CD jukebox that held 300 (or was it 400?) disks and cost about the same in dollars. I think it was by Sony. So the simplest solution would be to buy three or four of those.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
Assuming he's talking about ripping w/o recompression, let's say the average DVD is 6 GB (a lowball figure). The minimum for "a couple hundred" would be 200. So 200 x 6 gives us 1200, or 1.2 terabytes. It's close, but still over by a significant amount, and that's using bare minimum figures. Of course, if his average DVD is 5 GB (not likely), he can get away with it, but just barely.
If you have your DVDs ripped, then just create some sort of program that will automatically unmount, and mount virtual DVDs on your computer, then use any DVD playing software to watch DVDs on your plasma screen, simple as that.
I just recently got something similiar to this working. What I do is use DVD Decryptor to decode the VOB files and dump them to disk. This is a complete backup of the original DVD, without the encryption. I've got an ATI AIW 9600 Pro card that can output the video to my TV. I currently use SVideo out because I have an older TV. The card can output using DVI though, which should give you a digital link to your plasma screen. You can then turn on Theater Mode in the ATI MMC software which will cause any video app to automatically output full screen to your TV. If you have a good sound card, you can then use the optical out on your card to output the DD or DTS signal to your AV receiver. You should be good to go at that point. You will need a lot of drive space though if you are going to store the DVD's, since most current DVD's are dual layered and average around 8.8gb each.
Aych tea tea pea colon slash slash slash dot dot org slash
This is what you are really asking.. remember you cant decode anything due to the DMCA. Regardless if you own the media or not....
Your only legal choice would be to rip into vob, with encryption in place.. ( and even that may not be legal anymore with how things are going )
I also question if they had the right to give you 'rental copies' (which are licensed differently from the MPAA then 'sale copies' ) was even legal..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
As the post says, I only plan to rip 200 of the 1,000 disks to HD... so 1TB is enough.
I will also decrypt and reauthor them selectively, removing PUOs and crapola I don't want. For complicated reauthors, I'll edit the IFO files to eliminate menu options for stuff I don't rip.
Sure there are plenty of software players... that isn't what I need. Only a couple of people realized I need *management* of the movies... not just a player. Also, a remote control is mandatory. On-screen menus, sorting, thumbnails and view the cover art, play trailer. I am the only tech savvy person in my gene pool here.... I can't get the people in the house to even use the Pronto T1000 -- they would rather hunt down the dedicated remotes for 6 systems!
An ethernet connected stand-alone DVD player is what I really need. The Molino Media Mogul is close to what I want, but it doesn't play the movies from an external ethernet connected source.
Anyone got a nice cookbook for ripping a DVD to DivX while maintaining menus for programs like Xine, Ogle, etc?
That's what I originally set out to do with the JoyPort(TM) w w w . j o y f a k t o r y . c o m
Check out One Firmware For All aka OFFA. With OFFA I can connect an IDE hard drive to my DVD player and I can play anything I desire, including DVD video files with menus.
:l /
However there may be a 150Gig max limit on the hard drive but I'm not certain???
I use OFFA 1.5 on a Norcent DP-300 DVD player with a 20Gig hard drive, I use it as a music jukebox and have ~5,000 mp3. I have ripped entire DVD's to the hard drive using DVDXCOPY and they play great with menus.
Learn more about OFFA here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OneFirmwareForAl
Good Luck
Just get 1000 DVD players or about 200 5-disc changer DVD players and use a remote controlled multiplex swtich. What is this fuss all about?
I'm not just talking out my ass about how theoretically Freevo or MythTV will do what you want, if you can figure out how to install it.
./configure
Ya, I know its a real brain buster.
urpmi mythtv
or
apt-get install mythtv
Yawn. or
emerge mythtv
If your still thinking you need to
tar -xjf mythtv-0.14.tar.bz2
cd mythtv
qmake mythtv.pro
make
You should probably update your distribution. Ripping DVD's works great on my system (as does video watching, music archiving, picture galleries and all the other good stuff). I built myth from source *exactly* once (because I didn't know binaries where available) and its a pain. You don't have to though and if you chose to after updating your system (by installing the binary and letting it add all the required files) its pretty much a snap too.
Quack, quack.
Well, let's see what hardware RAID options are out there right now...
There's the Apple Xserve: http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/
where 1TB costs $5,999.00
RAIDzone also makes reasonably affordable NAS and SAN RAID systems: http://www.raidzone.com/
(although it looks like you have to call for pricing now).
Most of the 'big boys' of storage cost slightly more.
You could also try to roll your own, but your mileage would definately vary.
I would use an xbox.. progressive output, constant innovation in the way of XBMC and XBMP, and the ability to stream a dvd from a network server. Cheap xbox, modchip, NAS and you're done.
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
There's a simple little command-line tool for Linux that decrypts and clones a DVD's data structure straight onto your hard drive. It can be found at http://dvd.chevelless230.com/dvdbackup.html.
You can then use Xine to play the cloned DVD as if it were still on disk by using "xine dvd://home/user/THE_DVD/", replacing the directories as appropriate, of course.
How fast can the fastest DVD drive read? I'd estimate, that a software RAID's write performance -- 10-16 Mb/sec seems quite achievable on modern hardware -- will never be saturated by the paltry input from the DVD reader.
I'd rather have the other processor available for other tasks, when I'm not writing to the RAID. For the price difference of Infotrend vs. software RAID I can buy a dual vs. a single CPU machine with more memory. The second processor will handle the load of the software RAID and have plenty of cycles left to be useful for other things.
Time and time again resource sharing is demonstrated to be more cost efficient than resource dedication, only to have someone state that the opposite is "generally recommended". It is not.
It only makes sense when you wish to maximise performance -- at any price, and your particular specialized application will not be able to take advantage of the extra resources in any other way. Such as, for example, a database server, which are notoriously hard to scale "sideways", so you try to improve them "vertically".
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
www.mythtv.org Have anyone of you not heard of Myth TV, with a PVR-250 tuner card and a good frontend probably EPIA VIA system that lan boots (no harddrive) and a Array on a backend he can rip the dvd's and play them back on any frontend system in his house.....add a ati wonder remote and he has remote control by plugging the reciever into his frontend system......
Well maybe an idea here is to say 1000 dvd's at an average of 9 gb each that be 9 terabytes...ooh this is gonna take up alot of space. Well what you then do is make images of each dvd and just mount them manually with daemon tools. Of course they would have to be copied all over using dvd decryptor or something similiar like that. Then just select the drve that daemon tools uses to mount the images, make it the default in cyberlink's powerdvd. Now if you have some kind of remote that works with powerdvd you have a way to control the dvd image that is currently mounted. Now as for mounting the dvd images, Im sure daemon tools could help you out their using one of their third party plugins. I think one of them allows you to control it using a web browser. Well thats my idea anyways.
My Gawd WTF...
Daemon Tools has a limit of four virtual drives ;(
A friend recently pointed out this new drive from Lacie, 1TB priced at about $1200. As others have pointed out this probably wouldn't be enough for *tons* of uncompressed DVDs, since many are dual-layered and HUGE, but it sure ought to hold plenty of MPEG4s. I know it doesn't solve the whole UI problem, but it seems like a nice place to start on the storage problem... http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118
whats a good method for building the iso image of the DVD under linux??? thanks, Devan
Before I get started here, Sony, Pioneer and others make a 300 disc DVD carousel. You could always buy a couple of these.
Look, transferring a zillion DVDs to a hard drive each into their own directory is a no brainer. So it takes 4TB instead of 1TB uncompressed, no big deal. Time consuming - yes, difficult - no. A PC that can display them on a TV, monitor, HDTV, an off the shelf item.
Here are the drawbacks:
1)
Insulating the drive array from producing excessive noise and ruining the experience. Your choices are either build a sound-proof cage for it or network it from another room via gigabit or if you USB or 1394 if you trust them. Downside is wires through your house.
2)
The interface to 1000 titles. A directory window won't cut it. You want software that can fly through your list by categories etc. the way a good MP3 player will let you browse your music collection. I don't know of one yet, I could be wrong but you might end up writing this yourself.
In my modest setup, I use a networked PC with dual display, one going to a small 15" LCD on a coffee table and the other to the HDTV. Dual monitors are easier because the desktop and some software is happier on a standard sized screen vs. 960x540 etc.
One last note, don't use a Shuttle mini thinking it will work because it's small and cute and may match your decor. The have the noisiest fans I have ever come accross and are louder than a standard medium tower PC with 5. There are some other very low profile ones that are very quiet. I've also notice Western Digital's drives are much quiter than Maxtor's which seem to have a regular audible click (both with 8MB buffer) very noticable during a movie.
Have you thought of using the excess heat to run a popcorn popper for your home cinema?
That works if you have unencoded source material. He has DVDs that are already encoded at MPEG2. Encoding again with a lossy codec is just going to lose more quality, no matter what the possible encoding quality is.
Without reading the whole tree to see if somebody already suggested this, the simplest thing I can think of is to rip the DVDs as .bin images (like with CDRWin, for example) and mount the images on a virtual device using Daemon Tools or the like. Good luck.
Dear poster,
I have been using SmartRipper 2.41 on WinXP for several years. You rip as BACKUP (not as Movie or Files). You save the contents to a folder named after the movie. Then use PowerDVD for playback and simply select the Video_TS ifo file (title screen)... this will give you playback using original VOB files, subtitles, language options, bonus content, etc. Also these days, hard drive space is cheap so you can easily make a 1TB array with 4 x 250GB hard drives at around $280 each (see Maxtor drives on www.mwave.com).
Hope this helps...
- Anonymous Coward
There's already a box made for this, and having tested it in a previous life, I gurantee it will work. This will hold 200 DVD's, and w/Fire Get yourself a PowerFile R200, DVD-jukebox system: http://www.powerfile.com/ This same jukebox is built-in to high-end systems form Escient, including DVD management systems that allow you to have three jukeboxes running at once: http://www.escient.com/fireballdvdm100.html If you want to be really trick, get yourself a transcoder form Laird Telemedia: http://www.lairdtelemedia.com/products/firewire.ht ml
Or maybe you can just store the disk images using DVD Xcopy, into your own tera/petabyte array. But you'd better get your copy now!
JK
-- Jimtown Kelly
http://www.molino.com
Looks cool,
-Scott