Slashdot Mirror
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... :)
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?
Buy a cheap computer with a TV Output and rip the DVD's to dual 250GB hard drives
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.
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.
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.
Is the apple DVD player considered "off the shelf?"
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.
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!
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.
RTFA... uh, wait, there isn't even an article to skip here. ...I'd like to rip a couple hundred of them to a 1 TB disk array...
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!
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.
not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe worth looking at?
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...
Most of the rental stores I have seen end up selling off the older rental dvds. The local blockbuster has several racks of 'pre-viewed' ones for sale.
I would assume that if there was an issue here that blockbuster would be a big enough target that the MPAA would have stopped it long ago.
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.
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
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
"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."
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.
Just choose the "Play files from hard disk" option.
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.
Well, based on the Judges decision, if he were in the U.S. he would have the legal right to do it; just not the right to buy the software to do it.
No problem. Just download from somewhere outside the U.S.
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, &
Instead of just "jukebox sort of setup", why not just convert an actual jukebox? That may be what you were getting at though. One of the CD ones obviously. But it seems like a perfect match. It's meant to hold discs, and read those discs based on selection. In theory, if you could replace the reading device with that of a DVD player and get audio AND video out of it... Sounds like one hell of a case mode project if you ask me... But damn that would be so cool.
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.
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)
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!
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.
There's a list here which includes some Hollywood movies (but it's no longer being updated).
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
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 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.
Nope, you're absolutely right in what you're doing. The problem is that there simply aren't enough people doing it to make the MPAA sit up and take notice. People are selfish. The average person isn't going to get involved and deprive themselves of pleasure just to help "society" if they derrive no immediate return from it.
One solution you might want to try however is the same thing I'm doing with music and dvd's: I never buy them new. Go to a used media store and you can buy the latest stuff (I mean less than weeks old) at incredibly discounted prices. Add to that the fact that the RIAA (music) and the MPAA (movies) don't get a penny for these sales and it just sweetens the pot. That way, you can enjoy the stuff but rest easy in the knowledge that you aren't contributing to the problems.
Anthony Papillion
Advanced Data Concepts, Inc.
"Quality Custom Software and IT Services"
The ruling in the DVD X Copy case didn't state that ALL DVD ripping software is illegal. They only found that in this specific case, the software's primary purpose was copyright infringement, and it didn't have sufficient non-infringing use to support continued sale of the product.
Its possible that other DeCSS products will not be tested in court, or will be found to have sufficient non-infringing (ie fair use) use to justify their existence.
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.
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
For the DeCSS software I recommend SmartRipper. I use it, it works. And it works well with the aformentioned players (I use PowerDVD (Windows) and Xine (FreeBSD)).
You'll also need far more than 1TB if you plan to rip all those DVDs. Your average DVD hold 4GB of data; any fool can tell you 4GB * 1000 > 1TB
I have a 0.5TB array for DVD storage, I can only hold around 100 DVDs (some are much bigger than others, LOTR-FOTR is like 8+)
FreeBSD: The Power to Serve!
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!
"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.
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
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
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.
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/)
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...
That is incorrect. DeCSS is for getting at the underlying mpeg stream. If you are going to be ripping complete images, you can keep them in encrypted form. Your player software will legally decrypt the data for you.
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
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
Seriously. Case mod a CD jukebox.
this space intentionally left blank
--Nick
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...
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.
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?
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
*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
You'll also need far more than 1TB if you plan to rip all those DVDs. Your average DVD hold 4GB of data; any fool can tell you 4GB * 1000 > 1TB
Did you read the posters question, and perhaps miss this part:
I'd like to rip a couple hundred of them to a 1 TB disk array, and serve them up to my big screen...
You yourself said that a 1/2 TB can store 100 DVD's, and so I would assume that 1 TB would be able to store a couple (IE 2) hundred DVD's.
Also your math is all wrong, most video dvd's are the 9 GB capacity...
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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...
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!
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
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 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
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.