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Suggestions for a DVD Video on Demand System?

Posted by Cliff on from the serving-it-up-when-you-want-it dept.

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?"

26 of 651 comments (clear)

  1. If he's got plasma... by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    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 /. We like doing things the hard way...

    1. Re:If he's got plasma... by timeOday · · Score: 5, Interesting
      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.

      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

      It's digital data, the whole point is you can copy it losslessly! I realize DRM is supposed to wreck everything, but that's what we have tools like mencoder for, to break down the barriers.

      As for doing things the hard way, I suggest he set up an automated system that rips when you pop in a disk. Then, instead of ripping all 1000 dvds, just rip a show when you want to watch it. This way, you invest no more effort than it would take to place the dvd into a player to watch it on the first viewing, and subsequently it's already on line for you.

      Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for a car CD player which will automatically archive all the CD's I play through it. Is there such a thing?

    2. Re:If he's got plasma... by proub · · Score: 5, Funny
      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.

      Step 2: Acquire and train a monkey. This step may take some time.

      You now have a voice-activated, on-demand DVD swapper.

      Suggestion: omit Planet of the Apes from the collection.

      --
      "Irony is so September 10th"
      Matt Miller, alt.fan.spinnwebe
    3. Re:If he's got plasma... by NachoDaddy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, Sony has a car player with a HDD, and auto ripping capability. Model # Sony MEX-1HD
      Here is a link to crutchfield:
      http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bpdQMmcLqTX/cgi-bin/P rodView.asp?s=0&c=3&g=62700&I=158MEX1HD&o=m&a=0&cc =01&avf=N

    4. Re:If he's got plasma... by Martin+Blank · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but a DVD changer doesn't get the geek chicks.

      Him: Hey, I've got a 300-disc DVD changer!
      Her: So you have a DVD jukebox?
      Him: Well, yeah...
      Her: That is SO 90's. I'm outta here.

      Whereas for an array:

      Him: Hey, I've got a terabyte array!
      Her: Really? That's SO cool!
      Him: Yeah! You can't imagine how much pr0n that is!
      Her: I'm outta here.

      Hmmm... I guess the array doesn't do much, either...

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
    5. Re:If he's got plasma... by dekashizl · · Score: 5, Funny
      That's nothing. The box I'm currently hacking on costs a cool $22K or thereabouts. Basically it's a Supermicro MB with 2 Xeons and two 8 disk arrays and a 80GB boot drive. It's also got 2 HotLink II cards in it for good measure.
      Big deal. I just gave one of those to my gardener because it was too slow. I'm installing Slackware right now on a $800M supercomputer that I built out of leaves and mud, and it's colocated in space.
    6. Re:If he's got plasma... by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Big deal. I just gave one of those to my gardener because it was too slow. I'm installing Slackware right now on a $800M supercomputer that I built out of leaves and mud, and it's colocated in space.

      "That's no moon!"
      "Oh my God, is it a Death-Star?"
      "Umm... no... it looks like a supercomputer built out of leaves and mud..."

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  2. yeah, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  3. 1000 DVDs? by ack154 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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... :)

  4. Legality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldn't you have to circumvent CSS encryption and violate the DMCA to do this?

    1. Re:Legality? by momerath2003 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wouldn't you have to care?

      --
      I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    2. Re:Legality? by zootread · · Score: 5, Informative

      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!
    3. Re:Legality? by Monx · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Wouldn't you have to circumvent CSS encryption and violate the DMCA to do this?

      Nope.

      The DVD playing software will legally decrypt the ripped images. No illegality there. I do that with my DVDs so that I don't have to carry them with my laptop. I can leave them at home on the shelf. This also means that I don't have to find my DVDs when I forget to put them back on the shelf.

      The whole problem is easily solved:

      Get a cheap PC.
      Get a video card with tv-out.
      Get lots of HD space.
      Get a usb infrared receiver.
      Get a remote with directional controls.
      Make the computer treat the remote as a keyboard.

      Rip the DVDs to disk images.
      Run a file manager

      Now just select the file you want with the remote and press enter. The image mounts and the dvd software starts up.

      If you don't like the interface, get another file manager and try again.

      Done.

  5. why recompress? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    Who says he has to recompress? Maybe there's a solution that will use the original .VOB files? If he's planning on using the original DVD navigation, I'd think they'd try to access those files anyway.

    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.

  6. the Kaleidescap System by segfaultcoredump · · Score: 5, Informative
    Check out www.kaleidescape.com

    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

  7. Re:MythTV by Captain_Loser · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just got mythtv working for myself, I only have 3 or 4 dvds, but this is a slick program that I stongly recommend. And hey, it has a web browser, pvr capabilities, music/media player, dvdplayer, and will tell you the weather. That way you can trick people into actually thinking that you went outside, becuase once you have this set up with many many dvds, you won't ever see the sun again.

    --
    -=You might be a geek if your computer is worth more than your car=-
  8. Re:Hollywood is never gonna help this... by jettoblack · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...

  9. Suggestions for a DVD Video on Demand System? by Loki_1929 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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."
  10. Re:What about by ack154 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  11. He found slashdot, but hasn't found Google? by telstar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1) Load browser
    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 ... Are you getting what you paid for?

    1. Re:He found slashdot, but hasn't found Google? by System.out.println() · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's already on another thread, but since it seems to need it over here:
      "What systems would Slashdot readers suggest that could manage the ripped DVD files as a complete disk, and serve them up?"
      I have seen maybe one response on this story that answers the question that actually got asked.

      --
      I've got more mod points and GMail invi
  12. Re:MythTV by aashenfe · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  13. Re:How good are you with programming? by dasmegabyte · · Score: 5, Funny

    And still have no menus. I love slashdot nonsolutions..."do more work for less value just to say you did it." I wish I could get that patriotic about technology.

    "Hey guy! Why not put all the DVDs onto a massive reel of MiniDV tape, and then just play that in a continuous loop! It'd be like an homage to the great days of 8 track tape man those things were cool!"

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  14. Re: MythTV (and samba) by IDkrysez · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!!

    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 .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. ( =

    (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!
  15. Too complicated -- use DVD changers instead by ...+James+... · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't want to say don't do it, but...

    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 :). It will even connect to the internet and catalog your DVDs. It's very nice, and, more importantly, hassle free.

    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
  16. Re:HOW WE AV PROGRAMMERS HANDLE IT by inicom · · Score: 5, Informative

    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