Suggestions for a DVD jukebox HTPC

I know I'm in the minortiy among this crowd, but I also know you guys have the knowlege I'm after. From reading the forum a little this is the place to find my answers.

What I'm after is not a full blown Porche HTPC. What I'm after is a PC to store DVD rips on so I don't have to swap disks. I have a tivo and I'm perfectly pleased with it. I have a projector that can do 720, but not 1080 yet so I don't care about an HDTV focus.

While many HTPC projects focus on the tuner card and recording multiple live HDTV streams and time shifting software, and all that, all I need is a PC that will be able to rip, store, and play DVD rip files so they output with full component resolution and digital sound just like the original DVD. I don't even need to transcode them to mpgs or anything, space is no issue, so if it's easier to rip the VOB files and just mount them to play then so be it.

My perfect dvd jukebox pc would be remote control driven, operating Windows Media Center or some other front end for easy remote navigation. I would be able to come home, slap in a DVD, use the remote to title and catagorize it, then start the rip. 15-30 min later I could then use the remote to browse through my movie collection and push play to watch the movie.

I'm entirely new to this whole process so any insight would be great. I routinely copy DVDs with clonedvd2 and dvd shrink, but the target is of course another physical DVD, not a file to play from.

Thanks in advance!

 

I use Media Center PC with external hard drives storing files burned with Dvd Decrypter. To improve quality, I also use Theatertek Dvd Player which is enabled by loading MyMOvies in Media Center. Get a Media Center Remote, and voila. Oh, and a cheap sound card that does digital out.

 

I have been looking into this myself. I have had several people recommend going with a modded XBOX running XBOX Media Center (XBMC) If you do a search on it you will find tons of information about it. I think this is the direction I am going to go. Using a 400 gig HDD and a good set of cables, you can get a hell of a media center for a lot less than a typical pc set up would cost.

 

Sorry, double post.

 

OK, are you saying an original XBOX? Not a 360? Because those are going for $100-$150.

I just want to confirm that, as well as make sure that the XBOX has component out and digital audio out.

Sorry for the ignorance, but I'm not a console guy.

Lastly, to do this setup, do I have to use MPG files or does the XBMC read ISOs? I'd prefer to just rip to ISO to preserve the entire DVD if possible and not have to do an MPG conversion.

Thank you for your input, if this works, it just may be the perfect solution.

 

I've since found those answers. Yes the XBOX has component out, digital audio out, and XBMC will play ISOs.

I'm all set. I just need to track down a modded XBOX and get XBMC on it so I can rock and roll.

Thank you for that suggestion, it's perfect for my purpose.

 

Sorry for the late response. Looks like you are well on your way. The XBOX is a great little machine for using as a Media Center. Good bang for the buck.

 

I don't know if anyone will read this post... but there it goes.
I got to this forun due to a search @ google, and I can tell you guys that I've assemble a very cool media center system @home using a old Xbox + a Linux Server used as storage. I now have about 1,5Tb of Sata harddisks exported trough samba and beeing accessed by the XMBC media center trough LAN.
It has been working perfectly since last year...

Now I'm at the next step... Getting something like a DVD jukebox that can automount the DVD's trough samba upon request.... (any Ideas?)

Sorry for my English...

 

I am interest in setting up a network like you have. I don't know much about networks. Are you running a pci controller and several sata hard drives? That was my original plan, but wasn't sure if it would work. Can you link the xbox to the pc using wireless cards, or do you need a router? I don't need to have it connect to the internet.
Any info would be great.
Thanks............

 

Hi
I'm glad to help... I got a ASUS K8N-E Deluxe with 6 Sata onboard + a Addonics 4 Sata PCI controller(10 sata total), so your original plan will work. Then I bought 2 x Sata 4Bays box and assembled all togheter. The Operating System is the Fedora Core 5 acting as a Samba server exporting the harddisks to all my network (NAS).
Yes, my Xbox is connected via wireless using the wireless game adapter from Linksys WGA54G to the wireless router @54mbit and works perfectly. But if you don't have a wired router or a wireless router buy a crossover UTP cable and connect it PC - XBOX ... that's it.
Anyway, the best solution is always to have a router...

Step 1 (Best solution):
- Assemble the linux with the disks and configure samba to export them to the network. For safety reassons I would prefer you to configure samba as a PDC Domain Controller.
Step 1 (alternative Assemble all disks in your Windows PC and share.
Step 2: Get a wired router or wireless router.
Step 3: Configure XMBC Xbox's IP on the same subnet, if you don't want the Xbox to access the internet don't give it a default gateway.

If you understand Portuguese you can look @ www.mataporkoz.com it's my personal website, there I have some of my configuration for the NAS. My Linux acts as webserver, NAS, dhcpserver, pop3/imap mail server, PDC, and so on...

 

Anyway....
I came across with this piece of equipment... Take a look:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290054193433&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:US:1

 

Well, You have got my interest that is for sure. I am downloading the Fedora 6 as I type this. I went ahead and opted for the complete DVD, looks like a 7 hour download. I do not know anything at all about Linux, but have always been interested in learning. Looks like this will be a good project to learn on. I do not know anything on networking either. What is the Samba?
I have an old P3 machine that I am going to be using for this project. It runs @650 and has 448m of ram in it. Will this work well enough?
I checked out your site, and can't read a damn thing. Your English is very good for it being your second language.

Thanks a bunch.

 

Hi )
Sorry for the late reply, I've been drunk the hole weekend...

Well, samba is a Open Source freeware that provides file and print services. In other words, with this piece of software, you will be able to share your harddisk's space with other Operating Systems including MS Windows Clients )))) .
Now, regarding your old PIII @650 with 448mb RAM. It will be enough...
Make sure you have a good, powerfull and silent Power Suply, Enough free Slots for the harddisks, a good case for airflow and a PCI slot for your SATA controller.
Always consider the consuption of your hardisks regarding the Power Suply, they will be sucking the life out of it.
I have a 550W Power Suply(Be quiet!Straight Power series), the Case is a AeroCool Black 10Bay. At the moment I only have 6 Sata harddiks(5x250Gb + 1x320Gb), + 2x120Gb(mirror) for the Linux.

Hope it helps...

 

Now...

Installing Linux won't be a problem. Configure and understanding it might become exausting. My incursion to *UNIX world was not a pacific one. There's a lot of foruns, tutorials and webpages covering most of the issues you might find...

My advice: Establish steps when configuring Linux, don't rest until you get that step done...
Step1 - Installing Linux.
Step2 - Configure TCP/Ip networking/lan card
Step3 - Install hardisks and configure them
Step4 - Configure Samba.

 

OK this seems to be something I am intersted too. I found a device by D-Link called a DSM-320RD. It looks like it might do the job but I havent tried it yet. If it worked i would gladly pay the money.

 

I am new to the forum (as of today). Saw the content regarding using XBOX as a Media Center and think this is what I'm looking for but want to make sure. I want to store my DVDs on a pc (or XBOX)and be able to view on my home theater. It seems that I simply need to connect the XBOX component cables to my tv (I don't use my A/V receiver for switching) and then connect digital audio to my A/V receiver. If I have this right, does anyone have further details on how I to proceed?

 

Got the D-Link DSM-520 ... i stored my movies to a hard drive then use the media lounge to connect with my network and watch them. It does music, ohotos, videos, and ts, vob's. Basically i shrink the movies and it streeams it to my tv... worked with no problems. Fry's sells a dsm-320rd for $150 and the 520 is about $200 at bestbuy. Been watching movies all weekend also connects to the internet for music and stuff.

 

Everything I'm finding says the D-Link devices won't play VOBs or ISOs of DVDs. Are you actually using it for that?

And even so, it still requires a MCE PC running things in the background. All that device does is act as a remote client for your MCE PC server behind the scenes. Why not just run the MCE PC by itself?

I guess if your focus was multiple TVs in different rooms, or simply not liking the astetic of a PC in the front room it seems like a good idea if it actually plays DVD rips somehow.

 

I didn't fully read the comments...

If the point is to use the XBOX as your client (the part connected to the TV), then here is some info.

An XBOX 360 contains the Media Center Extender capability so it can connect to a Media Center PC and stream content to your TV. That's built into the 360. However, it does not stream DVDs or rips of them. Only MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, and AVI content. There are some exceptions, but not without their own glitches.

For an original XBOX with XBOX Media Center installed, I don't know about it's full support of DVD rips, however getting it to connect to a data source for your movies/content is not as easy as it sounds sometimes. And that is to say that it will require a couple hours for someone fluent in linux.

The extender device mentioned replaces the XBOX in the front room, but has the same limitations of not being able to stream ISOs or VOBs as far as I can find so far. I have found some success stories, but most have headaches.

Honestly, I started my idea with using an original XBOX, but my issue is getting content onto the device because I do not want to deal with setting up the samba part and my point for my setup was to have one box, one place, all in one device to pop a DVD into, rip, store, and play. All with a remote.

If that's what you're after, then like me, you'll probably end up with simply building a full PC running media center and with the 'my movies' third party addon to index, mount, and play ISOs of ripped DVDs.

There may be more 'sexy' ways of doing it, but my point is to end up with a single point of storage and use. And all the other options end up with multiple pieces. They do add the flexability to have multiple client TVs, but I don't need that.

 

D-Link isnt too clear in their info but i am using it to play VOB files I shrunk with Shrink. It doesnt play some AVI files but does play most everything i have including Mpeg, wmv etc. Language selection is a problem so be sure and delete all unnecessary languages and directors cut but that seems to be it so far. I am using it with software it came with and Tversity running on Windows XP pro x64. Its literally been perfect for me. The menus could be better but it plays movies great - also has internet radio and media streams.