Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

what to do?

  • 04-09-2007 2:27pm
    #1
    mr kr0nik
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 755 ✭✭✭


    I'm looking for some help on the best way to record, store and access my DVD collection.

    Recording - What is the best format to save DVDs (VOB, MPEG, DIVX etc.) bearing in mind that I may want to purhchase a media player/streamer in the future.

    Storing - What is the best way to store the files bearing in mind that they should be accessible around the house on TV or PC. I was looking at the apple airport extreme that allows USB hard drives to be shared out.

    Access - What is the best way to access the DVD's - should I be looking at media players (EVA700, Buffalo, HAUPAGE etc.)

    What I have:
    Upstairs
    XP MCE PC with 2G RAM, Dual Core RADEON X1300
    Spare Pentium PC (622MHz with 750M RAM) with NVIDIA FX 5200

    Ideally what I need to figure out is the best format to be saving DVDs, how to store them and the ebst way of accessing them using PCs and TVs.


Comments

  • #2
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    The method of storage depends on
    * The player and what it supports
    * Amount of HD space available

    DVD's on average even ripped of extras to a movie.mpg (rename .vob to .mpg) will still be on average 6-7GB so thats a lot of data and with a large collection will need a lot of space.

    For full DVD's menus/extras even more space is needed, the best format is ISO as the TViX M5100/4100 and NetGear EVA8000 support those.

    If compressing the best compression tech is H.264 video but requires a decent PC to encode, if you do not have a good PC then XviD will suffice.

    If you have a games console like Xbox 360/PS3 it is also possible to transfer to .MPG without a need to re-encode (not totally sure on the PS3 side). Both those console also play H.264 but do not support XviD.

    Best option would be the TViX or Netgear EVA8000 as they have very versatile media support, another option would be the cheapest Xbox 360 as it can act as an extender to MCE which is on your PC and you could play .MPG's through it main movie only of course the pro's in it's favour are a very slick UI and games but the con's are codec support is restricted MPEG1/2/WMV through the MCE extender and H.264 added on but only through the Xbox 360's own UI.


  • #3
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    the "best format" is very debatable.

    It depends on.....

    How much storage you want to spend money on.
    What quality you want.
    How long you want it to take to compress it.
    Weather you want to retain the menu structure of the DVD or not.

    x264 is generally the compression of choice.

    Players, you can use the old PC for a start. Theres the Xbox, Xbox360 and of course dedicated media players. Have a search of the board and read some reviews to find out what you think will work best for your home.

    Be forwarned that its REALLY messy to put the RecordedTV from MCE on a separate shared drive.

    Personally, Id go with x264 compression and an Xbox360 along with runtime360 which will transcode the video into a format that the XB360 likes.

    If you go with an XB360, you can have almost seamless integration with you MCE PC, including the TV interface. Somthing which third party solutions cannot provide yet.

    Depending on the amount of DVD's you have, a dedicated multi-drive NAS is probably the best way to go to store your music, videos and DVDs, while leaving recordedTV on the MCE computer for the sake of simplicity.


  • #4
    subway
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,131 ✭✭✭subway


    SouperComputer wrote:
    Be forwarned that its REALLY messy to put the RecordedTV from MCE on a separate shared drive.
    depends on what you mean..
    i have my recorded tv on a separte shared drive
    here is the setup.
    record tv to hard drive in pc
    this utility runs as a service - http://www.brettrobichaud.us/Professional/Software.aspx
    add the shared drive as a wathed folder in mce and thats it :)


Advertisement