1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

I Have Too Many DVD's!

Discussion in 'Home Theater PC' started by wrkactjob, Feb 6, 2008.

  1. wrkactjob

    wrkactjob Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I'm a small time movie buff with 500+ DVD's.

    But they take up too much room, so my idea is to compress them and store them all on some form of multi-media hard drive that can be attached to my TV.

    Has anyone else done this?....can you recommend a reliable storage device I guess in the 1tb region?

    Also my idea is that when I go on holiday or a business trip I want to use my iPod or Archos device to transport say 10-20 films of my choice...is it possible to drag and drop them from the multimedia hard drive onto my device?....I do not want to use space on my laptop to store these films, thus the seperate harddrive, but I'm guessing I can not transfer from the HD to my mobile device without going back through the PC?

    No hardware has been bought yet, I'm about to splurge! but any recommendations/warnings/ideas would be appreciated.
     
  2. iluvendo

    iluvendo Active member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2005
    Messages:
    3,118
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Hi and google Kaleidescope
     
  3. wrkactjob

    wrkactjob Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2006
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
  4. Bigsauce

    Bigsauce Member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2005
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    This is the company he is talking about

    Funny I should stumble upon this topic since I myself was looking to do the same thing. This company, which is obviously expensive because they don't list any prices (that I can find) on their website, was featured on 50 Cent's (the rapper) home theater episode of Cribs. Very nice system but prolly out of the range of us. With Terabyte drive prices being what they are one would think there would be a better option. I'm gonna make the jump to Blu-Ray / HD-DVD soon and instead of investing in just a player maybe I thought I would put a PC out there instead. A slim boy with 2 Terabytes (at least) of Data so I can play the DVD's right off the drive. But software is a problem to start. Obviously, I'm no slouch. I know how to get them onto my Hard Drives in VOB but organizing them like this company? No wai. I haven't messed around with Media Center enough to see if they have this kinda capability yet. Can't wait to see what I dig up.
     
  5. jmonday

    jmonday Member

    Joined:
    Oct 3, 2004
    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I'm in the same boat as both of you. I have build a computer w 6 terabytes to house plenty of dvd's. I purchased 2 D-link dsm-510 wireless media router to plug into the back of the tele's and get rid of the dvd players and all of my dvds. I got the system set up and my tele receives the signal I'm having trouble getting past this because I'm no software genius. I would be happy to share any info to help you get where I'm at if you would like. I'm looking for a guide to storing dvds to the hard drive and using this d-link media lounge to play them on any tv in the house.
     
  6. ducnow

    ducnow Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2008
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    Hello, New here I think I can help. "I wrote this for another thread but I think a PC with lots of storage, XP Media Center and the following software you would in good shape. I have this set up aready. I have a server "XP pro peer server" in my basement nothing great P4 3.4 with 2T of storage... & a media center PC conected to my TV that can stream ISO's or VOB files accross the network using the following software. If you know how to rip your content already that's great. You will need the following programs to make this work. ** 1 "My Movies 2 program" found on the "green button" Media Center website. It's a movie collection software that monitors your collection & associates it’s self with the media center interface to make all of your movies accessible in spot with a neat and clean look. You can manage your content behind the scene through it’s own interface or “Movie Management”. It uses a number of websites to download front & rear covers, give you the entire cast, run time, director… You get the point! The coolest thing is that it can either mount or play just about any format. **2 whatever format you decide to create your media too VOB, ISO you need some software to mount or read it. Hence “My Movies 2” can mount ISO’s with the help of daemon tools. You associate daemon tools to through the My Movies 2 settings. So when in the Media Center/My Movies interface say you want to watch Dracula “you click on the front cover then click watch & it would automatically mount the ISO using Daemon tools in the background. Quality depends on the rip & it is capable of doing HD stuff as long as you have the HDD space and the software or hardware to decode it. It can also be used to manage a media server too with a server & client installs. It uses SQL server light to manage the severs database. However if using only one machine you only need the sever side. Hope this helps! Like I said prior the software IS GREAT it’s a curve to get everything the way you want it but it pays off. PS sorry for the long post.
     
  7. djkrishna

    djkrishna Regular member

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2007
    Messages:
    280
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    dsm510 dlink media lounge comes with softy with updateable patces

    all u have to do get the movies files as ONE VOB (4.00-5.00GB)
    dlink able to play but before dlink streaming

    u have set ur link as wirelss or wired just like we do with the router by the way uneed router too and stream thru ur softy
    and there are some third party softy's to stream with dlink they work fine too

     
  8. tommyd13

    tommyd13 Regular member

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2006
    Messages:
    205
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    this is exactly what i've been looking into doing!!!! i'm no pc buff though, so if someone could tell me exactly what i would need to hold atleast 200 movies right now and have a database; that would be great. Also, my plan has been to incorporate a touchscreen setup like the touchscreen jukebox you'd see in a bar....
    If someone has done a setup like this and can walk me thru it; please let me know and i'll give you my e-mail.
    BTW-i did find this database program-http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

    This will be a great project! I love the idea of being able to watch i on any tv in the house also, but for now i just wanna be able to pack away the dvd's and run this setup on my homemade projector.
     
  9. tommyd13

    tommyd13 Regular member

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2006
    Messages:
    205
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    1tb isn't that expansive anymore, is it?
     
  10. Nopornpls

    Nopornpls Member

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2008
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    What I am doing for a temporary solution is ripping my DVDs to ISO and using Alcohol / Dameon tools command line to mount them to a virtual drive.

    Then I am using a web interface to open a .lnk file which mounts the movie and the HTPC thinks you inserted a disc.

    Again this is a temporary solution that appears to work very well.
     
  11. tommyd13

    tommyd13 Regular member

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2006
    Messages:
    205
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    Ha! I'm not pc expert, so what you just said was mind boggling-lol
     
  12. brobrite

    brobrite Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2007
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    hi,i nave nero6 and it will not let me get 5.1 surround sound is there a software that will or codecs???
     
  13. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2005
    Messages:
    27,900
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    96
  14. ugc

    ugc Regular member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2005
    Messages:
    464
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    I have had good luck with the Tvix media player.

    http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/
     
  15. anzerman

    anzerman Member

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2008
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I have the same issue here. Too many DVD's and no where to stack them.
    I am using media portal software to store all my dvds there is more info at http://www.team-mediaportal.com/ if you wanna check it out.
    :D certainly worked for me!
     
  16. KniRider

    KniRider Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2008
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I have been thinking of doing this myself. I have over 600 dvd sets now, with almost 1000 physical dvds (tv series take quite a few discs)

    I hate the thought of converting the dvds to xvid and playing them on a 50" plasma! I would like to keep everything in dvd format, but the size requirements are staggering!

    I was hoping someone would know of a dvd jukebox that could be hooked up to a computer and be used through one of these programs you all have been talking about.

    Mike

    Maybe I should start my own thread :/
     
  17. 66gsx

    66gsx Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2008
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I'm in the process of doing a similar set up right now and I using a trial version of invelos dvd profiler with the load dvd pluggin. So far I'm very happy with it, but I was wondering if there was any advantage to ripping your movies to iso as apposed to vob files or is it just personal preference?

    Mark
     
  18. tommyd13

    tommyd13 Regular member

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2006
    Messages:
    205
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    26
    good question 66gsx. I don't know if there is a size difference or quality difference myself. As i always say, i'm not a pc guru(though i wish i was-i hate these things ;) ) I'd like to know the answer.

    I too wonder about the jukebox idea. That's exactly what i want to do. Hmmm....why couldn't you just use the music jukebox? Oh, well, i guess it's because you can fit a ton of mp3's but not so if you were doing a movie format.
     
  19. KniRider

    KniRider Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2008
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    My thought on the iso vs vob story is this.... ISO's are ONE file, whereas VOB's are multiple. You could rip everything to ISO, name the ISO for the DVD and keep everything in the same directory AND be able to find what you need. If you tried that with VOB's it wouldnt work. You would need a different folder for each dvd.

    Just my take on the subject :) Size difference would be negligable on most since video can not be compressed much, if any.

    Mike

    Saw Sony makes a 400 dvd carousel, trying to figure if it would be cheaper to buy them or to buy enough hard drives for everything - I think the carousel is cheaper right now, due to the cost of 1TB drives.
     
  20. ThyPiGuy

    ThyPiGuy Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    A basic Kaleidescape system will run you at least $8k, probably more.

    Best cheap option is going to be ripping them one by one unfortunately or getting a DVD carousel.
     

Share This Page