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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?"
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.
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
Who modded this insightful?
Almost every DVD playback software can play DVD disc layouts from a folder (I know PowerDVD and WinDVD can both do it, to name a few off-the-shelf products, as well as Xine and Ogle), complete with all menus and original features. How do you think people who author DVD content test their menus, etc. before committing to disc?
Of course if the disc was encrypted, you need DeCSS to get the disc contents onto your HD, and that's legally iffy right now (fair use says yes if you own the original disc, DMCA says no). But there's absolutely no problem supporting menus, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, multi-angle, etc etc. from content in a HD folder...
Yes, Sony has a car player with a HDD, and auto ripping capability. Model # Sony MEX-1HDP rodView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=62700&I=158MEX1HD&o=m&a=0&cc =01&avf=N
Here is a link to crutchfield:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bpdQMmcLqTX/cgi-bin/
Videolan is realy cool! Expecialy if you want to stream video across your lan. The only problem is it doesn't really do much as far as managing the content for you.
MythTV on the other hand has nice menus for browsing the movie collection and a lot of nice features including remote control support (for instance the one that comes with a haupag 350).
MythTV is something your wife, parents, or kids could use with very little difficulty, as long as the setup is already done.
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!
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
Wouldn't you have to circumvent CSS encryption and violate the DMCA to do this?
He probably failed to mention that this was a porno video store. As far as I know (and in my experience), pornos don't use CSS encryption. Just copy over the VOB files and you are done.
Also, Bollywood (Indian movies) and probably other foreign film makers don't use CSS encryption. I think its only those Hollywood jackasses that pull that crap.
Zoot!
How we home automation integrators handle starts with being able to spell, write an understandable sentence, and formulate a logical sequence of steps.
Crestron is http://www.crestron.com/ (the best home automation controllers)
HumaneInterface.com is http://www.humaneinterface.com (the leading program/design firm)
http://www.kaleidescape.com/ (the referenced DVD server system)
http://www.request.com/ (makes a DVD changer controller that interfaces to the excellent Audio Request music server)
aem
-a.e.mossberg