DVD to hard drive, then watch from hard drive

[Flinkly]

hey guys,

this community always seemed smart about computing, so i need some help on saving my dvds.  at the moment i'm trying to save my futurama discs since they have started to show the use they get.  i'm looking to copy them straight accross to my computer and play them off a standalone computer hooked to my tv.  i'm not worried about the computer setup to act as my dvd archive, but more along the lines of how to copy and play straight from the hard drive.  i'd also like to get it set up easily, like a front end, so people can search for what they want and play it from there.

i'd also love to be able to cut out menu's and extra's, i'm only after the episodes or movies, and i'm not looking to save space, so full dvd quality.  thanks guys.

as far as legality, i'm not looking to share or copy, and at the moment i'm only looking to save some of my series.  if someone really wants the movies i have, they only have to look to find them, aka p2p and torrents.

[spacies]

***Modified***

I just follwed the DivX instruction below and now I am hooked!



Good luck!

[crashwg]

With todays new advances in copywrite protection, namely ARCCOS from sony, you might want to look into RipIt4Me and/or DVDFab Decrypter.  I'd suggest DVDFab for the newb...

Go here http://www.doom9.org/

[Flinkly]

is there any frontend style programs that you can open on startup that would allow you to search your folder of movies and play what you chose without having to manipulate programs?  in order to make a "dvd player" computer archive that you could keep plugged into your computer?  i guess after building an arcade, i like to simplify things.

[shmokes]

I wouldn't rip them into ISO's as mentioned above.  You could be looking at up to 5 or 6 GB for a single movie, more even with all the extras (not sure if you can strip those out ripping an ISO like that).  I'd rip those DVD's into DivX or Xvid if I were you.  That's the DVD equivalent of ripping a CD into MP3 files.  It significantly compresses it, but you can get really good quality too. 

The easiest program I've used to do this is #1 DVD Ripper.  Stupid name, but incredibly simple to use.  It handles everything from decrypting and ripping, to encoding into Divx.  My newest Maximum PC recommends another program and it sounds great, but I haven't tried it yet and can't seem to find the magazine at the moment.

As far as the front end is concerned, it sounds like you want something like Windows XP Media Center edition.  If that isn't an option because you're already running XP Home or Pro and don't want to get another version there are some other programs out there that will give you Media Center functionality.  People rave about Beyond TV from SnapStream.  Programs like this also give you TIVO-like functionality if you've got a TV Tuner card.  I'd guess there are others too, even free ones, but I don't know.  Personally, I use a modified Xbox to stream media from my computer to my TV and I'll be damned if there's anything out there that works better than that.  For me Xbox Media Center is basically the front-end you're talking about.

[AtomSmasher]

I wouldn't rip them into ISO's as mentioned above.  You could be looking at up to 5 or 6 GB for a single movie, more even with all the extras (not sure if you can strip those out ripping an ISO like that).  I'd rip those DVD's into DivX or Xvid if I were you.  That's the DVD equivalent of ripping a CD into MP3 files.  It significantly compresses it, but you can get really good quality too. 

Seconded.  Compressing the movies is definately the way to go.

[shmokes]

***Modified***

I just follwed the DivX instruction below and now I am hooked!



Good luck!

   That's awesome.

[Flinkly]

i'm ok with giving up 5 gigs for a movie, and i've heard of programs that can trim the fat from dvd's too, although i can't find them again.

it's just so hard to search and get meaningful information, can anyone recommend a good forum site for all this?  cause i can search for info, i just have to narrow down my search from the whole internet.

[shardian]

i'm ok with giving up 5 gigs for a movie, and i've heard of programs that can trim the fat from dvd's too, although i can't find them again.

DVD Shrink will let you get rid of special features, menus, and commentary/additional languages

[Ed_McCarron]

I'll second Xbox Media Center.  I'm hooked.  Set up a server and stream away.

[nostrebor]

i'm ok with giving up 5 gigs for a movie, and i've heard of programs that can trim the fat from dvd's too, although i can't find them again.

it's just so hard to search and get meaningful information, can anyone recommend a good forum site for all this?  cause i can search for info, i just have to narrow down my search from the whole internet.

try this:

http://www.dvd-guides.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

[shmokes]

If you don't mind giving up the space (you will regret this decision -- I promise you ), I agree with Shardian.  DVD Shink is perfect.  It's as user friendly as you could possibly ask for, it's powerful, and it's very stable.  Oh yeah . . . and free.

[severdhed]

as for your frontend, MALA will work for this.

get mala installed, go to setup other emulators.

create one for Windows Media player

for the emulator executable, point to
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe

for the roms folder, point to where your divx files are saved

then on the execution tab, in the command box
/play /close /fullscreen "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

save it, generate your gamelist.

all of your movies will show up as roms, when you hit 1 to launch them, mediaplayer will open full screen and play your movie, when the movie finishes, it will exit and go back to the list.

you can also use boxart or screenshots, named to match the movie file names and save them in a directory, and point the snaps directory to there and it will show the artwork when you select the movie.

[Flinkly]

if you have them in divx format.  i've got iso's currently, and looking for a better way to store dvd quality video so i don't have to mount them.  i could always go through daemon tools in a front end...

[shmokes]

Mount them, then rip them to Divx

By the way, even after trimming the fat off a DVD the main feature alone is often up to 6 GB.  When I use DVD Shrink to copy DVDs I always strip out extra features rather than resort to compression and just with the main feature alone it often will not fit on a single-sided DVD+r (4.5 GB) without some compression.

[boykster]

I rip and store movies exclusively in IFO/VOB format after processing with DVDShrink. Newer titles may require work before I can use shrink (see www.doom9.org) but that's my preferred format.  I remove all extras, and leave the primary digital soundtrack and subtitles and do not transcode (lower the quality) of the feature.  I have 2 dedicated network storage servers with about 4Tb of storage for archiving my collection.

I run MainLobby/DVDLobby as my interface, zoomplayer (with some network based control) to render the movies, and I project them onto an ~85" screen in my theater.  I have a 720p Panasonic HDTV projector.

I used to encode to DiVX when I was only using a 36" HD CRT screen, and the problem with compression artifacts wasn't a big issue, but on a larger screen the artifacts are more apparent.  I know the codecs have gotten better,but for me the time required to optimize the settings and encode the movies wasn't worth it, and hard drives are pretty darn cheap these days.

 

[ChadTower]

I've been using DVD Shrink for years very happily.  I'm not a signal purity person, though.  The loss of quality between straight DVD level compression and getting the main feature down to ~4.5g is usually small and I don't notice it.

[boykster]

The loss of quality between straight DVD level compression and getting the main feature down to ~4.5g is usually small and I don't notice it.

Very true, archiving to a single layer dvd usually doesn't do anything to compromise the quality, and if it does, you might only be able to see it with a direct A->B comparison.  Compressing a 5gig feature down to 1gig using DivX or H.264 on the other hand, I can always pick the compressed one without help.

The transcode algorithm in shrink is actually pretty good for compression % below about 15-20%

[ChadTower]

I usually didn't copy things to DVDR myself... had a batch of about 20 DVDRWs that I would copy stuff to, watch it, then reuse the disc.  Very few movies I got were ever worth the trouble of actually keeping.  The copy was as much a function of turning discs around faster than anything else.

[fredster]

Why would you use a modified Xbox to stream video? How does that work? Do you download to the Xbox and then it does the feed while you do other stuff on the computer?

How is it modified?

[ChadTower]

Modchip allows you to install applications on it.  Install Xbox Media Center and you can stream things TO it and watch them on the TV. 

[DrumAnBass]

The Xbox Media Center is AMAZING... Cannot stress enough how much it rocks! Not the easiest thingto configure, but once you get it going it is great. Also streams from a shared iTunes library.

[ChadTower]

The hub that runs to my upstairs is only 10mpbs... any idea how well XBMC functions with that bandwidth?  Not a hard thing to do to upgrade that hub but I'd rather know it is a limitation ahead of time.

[DrumAnBass]

Well I use it with a cheap (Motorola) wireless adaptor - and my main computer is an old G4 running OS-X with a Linksys WRT54G router. The Xbox cannot handle streaming video from my Mac. So I just FTP ripped DiVX movies to the upgraded 200gb drive I installed in my Xbox. Music streams perfectly.

However I have heard that you should be able to succesfully stream video from a PC using Samba sharing. The best place for info on this stuff are the forums @ http://xbox-scene.com

[severdhed]

another vote for xbmc.

i stream divx movies from my PCs over 100mb network and it works fine, i've never tried over 10mb.  you can pick up a 10/100 switch for like $15 at newegg.com

[J_K_M_A_N]

I believe the connection on the Xbox is a 10mb connection so I don't think it matters.

I also use xbmc. It is a killer app. I need to make a video server to make it complete though.

J_K_M_A_N

[shmokes]

The Xbox NIC does 10/100 Mb.

[richms]

I find that dvd shrink always leaves visable artifacts, whereas xvid at a target size of 2.25 gigs is pretty good. That lets me get 2 movies on one disc normally, and IMO is better then dvd shrunk mpeg2 (but isnt watchable on a standard dvd player)

In either case, I also strip all the audio except the english 5.1 in whichever the best it has is.

Be aware that a dvd with only a dts soundtrack is technically non standards compliant. But I dont really care since everything I have is ok with dts.

[J_K_M_A_N]

The Xbox NIC does 10/100 Mb.

Why does it seem so slow then?!? I don't think I can get anywhere near 100mb.

J_K_M_A_N

[shmokes]

Probably cos FTP is slow and has quite a bit of overhead.  If you FTP games over using Qwix on your PC and Avalaunch on the Xbox you will saturate the entire 100 Mb bandwidth.  Those programs use a non-standard burst mode that isn't part of the normal FTP protocol.

Another thing that makes network performance seem slow to people is that the speeds are measured in megabits per second, not megabytes.  So people see Mb/sec and don't notice the lowercase b, so they expect the network speed to be eight times as fast as it is.  So if you're transfering stuff over at anything faster than about 1.2 megabytes per second you're already beyond the speed of a 10mb connection.  You may already know all this, but I thought it might possibly be the cause of the confusion.

[J_K_M_A_N]

Actually, I don't know ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!

I hate the whole bit-byte crap. I always miss that. I will try that Qwix though and see if I can get better speed.

J_K_M_A_N

[boykster]

I find that dvd shrink always leaves visable artifacts <rest of post removed because I totally agree with it>

I find that DVDShrink does a good job when compressing no more that 10-15% or so.  If you're trying to compress to 50% then use a better codec.  When using DVDShrink in no compression mode, it doesn't introduce any artifacts.

[richms]

I find that DVDShrink does a good job when compressing no more that 10-15% or so.  If you're trying to compress to 50% then use a better codec.  When using DVDShrink in no compression mode, it doesn't introduce any artifacts.

For things like cartoons it does great, but my donnie darko that was shrunk to fit 4.5 gigs with just 2 channel audio as well has major blocking in dark scenes that was noway near as bad on the original disc (which wasnt too hot on its own) - an xvid of the same pretty much looks the same as the orig dvd did.

[boykster]

The main advantage of DVDShrink is that it's brain dead easy to use, and it's an all in one solution (for dvd's it works on).

I agree that Xvid is a better encoder if compression is needed.  I just solve that problem by not compressing anything

[shmokes]

I will try that Qwix though and see if I can get better speed.

Quix is a fantasitc program.  Really really easy to use.  You've gotta be using Avalaunch as the dashboard to take advantage of the speed, though.  I use Xbox Media Center as my dash, but keep Avalaunch on the Xbox solely for transferring games.  Also, it's not a full-fledged FTP client.  You can't browse through directories and transfer individual files back and forth.  It's made specifically for locating an ISO on your PC and transferring (and expanding) it to a folder of your choice on your Xbox.  There is no faster or easier way to get games on your Xbox's hard drive aside from putting a disc in the Xbox drive and ripping it directly.

[daywane]

I do use dvd shrink to burn dvd's ( this is a must have)
but for my best movies on hard drive
I use Im too dvd ripper
rips my shrink files to 1 gig or less in xvid format
better than vcr quality less than DVD but works all the time, on dvd I have to wait for a up date on DVDfab or rip it for me programs ( no more update on decryptor but rip it for me update take care of decryptor)
Atomic can also play your Xvid movie's
I think I should add.... I never had a problem with VCR quality so if I get that kind of picture and under 1 gig I am HAPPY

I did have green mile on TV a few month ago and my mother and I was going on how nice the picture was and sound was great.
19 year old daughter just walks in and right off said "Man This Picture Sucks"
I have a PC at the lake with nothing but Xvid movies.... I can take 3 to 4  movies on a DVD rw put it on the hard drive and clear the DVD for next trip
perfect for me

I like it so well I am setting up a PC in living room and master bed room at the main house

( crap after re reading the stuff above I sound rich 
not by a long shot ...$43,000 a year and thats my best year  )

[shmokes]

I can't even imagine setting up two more PCs when something like Xbox Media Center exists.  Save your money and run a single media server that will stream to inexpensive streaming boxes.  I can't stress enough how amazingly amazing Xbox Media Center is.  It works so incredibly well that anybody with even a passing interest in home theater should be running it. 

[daywane]

Its not like I am going out and buying these PC's ( our work keeps having auctions of there old PC's)
I keep getting them for $10 to $20 dollars each
17 inch monitors, mouse, keybord. the works.... even OS ( Last one had Micro Soft works disk in it with key code 
I do not own a Xbox
want one but no rush. so for now might as well use what I have

[ChadTower]

I still need to order a chip and mod my Xbox.  I just don't have time.