Newbie question streaming video

[mgfredy]

Really simple question I hope unfortunately I know about audio but not about video
All my music is on a nas drive a very simple wd world book 1tb this is connected to sonos and streams music to my amplifier
Was thinking of backing up all my DVD and perhaps blu ray so I can do same thing with video. But have not a clue I was looking at popcorn but not sure how it works.
I only have an iPad no pc I also have a Sony blu ray no idea how best to rip DVD what to store them on or how to stream to tv. All my tv and sky goes through av reciever and video sent to tv via hdmi from av reciever . Hope that makes since any help you can give would be appreciated cheers

 

[next010]

In order to rip DVD/BDs you need a DVD/Blu-ray reader for a computer, USB readers are very cheap these days if you have access to a laptop.

After that you have a choice to make do you want just the main movie (no extras) or do you want everything same as putting disc in player with full menu support ?

 

[mgfredy]

Thanks I have a mac book pro was looking for all extras how and what do I rip it on to would my existing nas work and how do I get it of nas on to tv. Could u recommend a reader. Also nas connected using cat5e cabling in room next door is this good enough for hd cheers

 

[next010]

If your on a Mac you will need the DVDFab software software in order to rip DVD's and Blu-ray's as .iso images same as original disc. MakeMKV also has OSX version and is free but only rips the main movie.

For a reader the Plextor PX-B120 should do the job, you may find faster elsewhere.

So it's basically putting the disc into the drive, starting the software and telling to to rip to .iso images. Once that is done you then transfer the movie.iso files over to the NAS.

In terms of media players there are only a small number with full Blu-ray menu support.
* The Popcornhour C300 and A300.
* HDI Dune player, the Smart D1 may be suitable.
* Netgear NeoTV550.

As to which one to buy, the HDI Dune is the most stable/reliable choice. The Netger is the cheapest but not that well supported and the Popcornhours are most user friendly UI wise, online media support, easy to setup jukebox, but the 300 series is very new and they can be expensive.

 

[mgfredy]

Thank you do much would the DVD be ok to rip on to the wd nas I have also how longs it take to rip a DVD sorry abou all these questions only looking for blu ray capability to make it more future proof cheers

 

[mgfredy]

Just a thought my mac reads DVD so all I would need would be the software if only looking to rip DVD for time being is that correct?

 

[next010]

Thank you do much would the DVD be ok to rip on to the wd nas I have also how longs it take to rip a DVD sorry abou all these questions only looking for blu ray capability to make it more future proof cheers

Depends on how fast the drive is, usually laptop drives are speed locked so may take 10-20 minutes.

Just a thought my mac reads DVD so all I would need would be the software if only looking to rip DVD for time being is that correct?

Yes that is correct also there are cheaper players that can play DVD .iso images with menus and still play Blu-ray (main movie only) but no menus.

You might want to consider the Boxee Box for a very easy to setup player with lots of online media support and quick access to NAS shortcuts plus an automatic jukebox built in that scans files names and downloads info for you. Even cheaper players WDTV Live, DuneTV are also worth a look.

Lastly I made a mistake there with Pavtube they don't support BD ripping to .iso on the Mac version but do on the Windows one?? anyway, use DVDFab for Mac instead, try the demo it should have rip to iso.

 

[mgfredy]

Thanks for that is there Anyone one machine that does it all burns stores and plays the disc I know there is equipment ou can use for doing this with CDs last question I hope

 

[next010]

Yes there are all in ones but they costs thousands of pounds as they are niche AV systems like Kalidescape & Theatron, there a bunch of others out there too but they are all very expensive systems.

 

[mgfredy]

The boxes sounds like a good idea will it be able to play blu ray also will I be able to pull up all the stars on each DVD sorry for so many questions

 

[next010]

Yes they will play Blu-ray, by stars I guess you mean ratings on the movies, the Theatron ones do as they are running a special version of Windows media centre embedded the Kalidescape ones I've no idea, I would have a look at their PR material.

You would be spending a small fortune getting those systems, for £160 you would have the same end result just manually ripping on your Mac and getting a Boxee Box.

 

[mgfredy]

Sorry I meant extras not stars sorry I have had a look around on the me and came across the dune had max do u know anything about this I like fact it ha a blue ray in it also I have read that boxe struggles with hd audio

 

[MarkE19]

I've got an older Dune media player similar to the HD Max and highly recommend their players. The Max is fairly expensive at around £370 but it should do all you want and more.
http://www.my-htpc.co.uk/shop/artic...-ray-Player.html?shop_param=cid=7&aid=66-001&

Mark.

 

[mgfredy]

Think I might going shopping tomorrow will I be able to store many DVD on a one tb wd world book nas

 

[MarkE19]

A full DVD ISO rip would average around 7Gb and 1Tb = 1024Gb
1024/7=146.2857142

So you would get approx. 146 DVD's per 1Tb of storage.

Mark.

 

[mgfredy]

Well I have not got that man so still of to the ships thanks guys

 

[mgfredy]

Must check spelling before sending damn auto correct!!!!

 

[Great Fandango]

I urge you to re-think your strategy regarding the extras. Do you really need them? Will you actually watch/use them?

I started off ripping everything to .iso before realising I'm only really interested in the main feature. Spent months converting my .iso to just main feature .MKV only.

I'd also think about expanding your NAS capacity. Can sometimes pick up the older 4 bay Netgear NV+ 'ReadyNAS' for under £180 with drives fitted.

 

[mgfredy]

Does it make that much difference only having the main feature?

 

[next010]

Does it make that much difference only having the main feature?

Well that's something only you can decide, personally I rarely ever watch the extras on anything at all and despise the industry's forced insertion of trailers and other crap before I can even watch the movie.

 

[graham.myers]

I started ripping my 1500+ collection as MKVs with the reasoning that if I wanted to watch the extras I would reach for the disk. However in reality I never did . So I have now re-ripped everything as ISO and I force myself to watch the extras! I paid a premium to get the best versions, it would be rude not to watch the content I paid a premium for

Its taken many hours to watch the bluray star trek film box set although I have yet to watch with the commentary tracks

 

[Passingbat]

I've just started looking into this area and I'm planning to get a HTPC at some stage, when I've figured out what spec level I need.

I've just started ripping DVDs to use on my current PC and laptop using the free DVDFab HD Decrypter. Full DVD rips produce Video_TS & Audio_TS files. How do these differ from ISO files and will the Video_TS & Audio_TS show up in media browsers such as My Shows or xbmc? (for when I do get an HTPC).

Thanks.

 

[next010]

I've just started looking into this area and I'm planning to get a HTPC at some stage, when I've figured out what spec level I need.

I've just started ripping DVDs to use on my current PC and laptop using the free DVDFab HD Decrypter. Full DVD rips produce Video_TS & Audio_TS files. How do these differ from ISO files and will the Video_TS & Audio_TS show up in media browsers such as My Shows or xbmc? (for when I do get an HTPC).

Thanks.

Wrong place to ask, future queries should be in HTPC forum which is over here, this is for network media player set top boxes.

But to your question, video_ts is a folder not a file, a media player has to guess that the contents of video_ts is a DVD movie to play it whereas an .iso image it knows is a DVD movie. An .iso is more reliably played back then video_ts folder if the player doesn't correctly guess that its a DVD structure but XBMC is generally pretty good at detecting this so you should be okay.

 

[Passingbat]

Wrong place to ask, future queries should be in HTPC forum which is over here, this is for network media player set top boxes.

But to your question, video_ts is a folder not a file, a media player has to guess that the contents of video_ts is a DVD movie to play it whereas an .iso image it knows is a DVD movie. An .iso is more reliably played back then video_ts folder if the player doesn't correctly guess that its a DVD structure but XBMC is generally pretty good at detecting this so you should be okay.

Thanks for the reply next010.

I realise this is not the HTPP forum (maybe I should have left out the preamble), but I assumed the question is still relevant, as presumably it doesn't matter if you're streaming to a media player or HTPC that has some sort of media browser if you want the DVD cover art and details to show up in? Though I'm pretty sure I'm going the HTPC route, I haven't completely dismissed getting a streamer as an interim solution.

So given that I'm better with iso, is it easy to convert my current video TS files to .iso and which is the best software to rip directly to .iso

Thanks