Got any tips for archiving / streaming DVDs?
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 12th 2008 5:54AM
posted Jul 12th 2008 5:54AM
posted Jul 12th 2008 5:54AM
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For a Mac there is no better than Media Link. http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink
Only problem i have had is that it sometimes reverts the version to a previous one. But that seems to have been sorted with an update.
For PC many say Tversity is great.
Actually TwonkyMedia works far better on mac for me...
i actually tried tversity the other day and it only worked for a couple hours now my ps3 cant find the server but my other computers on my home network can find it just fine
Last time I tried with the PS3 (using Tversity and a few other products), I just couldn't make it work reliably (or with the quality that I wanted - 5.1 AC3 sound, etc). I really wanted it to work, but I finally gave up and purchased a Popcorn Hour. It worked much better by allowing me to directly connect to the shared drive on a remote computer and play my backed up/ripped DVD's (.VOB) movies directly. If the PS3 would do this, I would have used it.
Personally I Rip using DVD Decryptor, bung the files on my NAS and then stream to my TV using an Xbox with Xbox media Centre. This works really well for SD material.
Archiving DVD's - 3 options:
1. Full Rip
2. Film only
3. Film only compressed
1. Just use DVD Decrypter in ISO Mode
2. Rip Just the Movie using DVD Decrypter then run VOB2MPG on the results
3. Rip and then use AutoGK to compress to Xvid
Storage - 3 options:
1. On your PC
2. On your NAS
3. On the player
1. Storage on the PC is ok but it does mean you need the PC on. Also if the front end player doesn;t support SMB then you will need to run a Upnp or DLNA server.
2. NAS storage is expensive but works well can be vast and uses less power. The Synology D207+ is quite nice as a two disk solution.
3. A lot of play back devices have HDD's in them and with 1tb drives getting cheaper its a lot of media in a small space.
Playback: Too many options :-)
1. Media Centre PC
2. XBOX Media Centre
3. SD Network media player
4. HD Network media player
1. Expensive but can be a very nice experience.
2. Cheap but a hassle as you need to softmod the xbox. Also getting HD output can be a right pain and can brick the box (Trust me).
3. Cheap and cheerful, based on older chips these devices can be had for $60 (£40). Interfaces are not great but they work well enough (don;t play well with ISO's a lot of the time)
4. The Popcorn Hour or the EGreat M31A are fantastic but can be pricy. based on a standard firmware (NMT).
5. PS3 ... Not tried it, can it do ISO playback and Xvid?
My ideal set up would be:
Ripping
DVD -> DVD Decryptor -> AutoGK
Playback
NAS -> EGreat -> HDTV
Perhaps you misread, it's PS3, not Xbox...
"streaming it via a DLNA server (you know, like the PlayStation 3)"
Perhaps YOU should read the story more carefully. XBMC is quite capable as a DLNA/uPnP client.
Chris has it 100% correct.
Ripping
DVD -> DVD Decryptor in IFO mode -> AutoGK
AutoGK has so many options for your preference of quality.
1. Rip DVDs using Handbrake's Apple TV preset (2500Kbps)
2. Tag them and add artwork using MetaX
3. Drop them into iTunes so they will stream to my Apple TV
Rip using DVD Decrypter in "IFO Mode", with the file splitting option set to "None".
The VOB can then be directly streamed to the PS3 usig TwonkyMedia.
Why make it any more complicated than that???
If you want, you can rip it to H.264/AVC using Handbrake, and again, TwonkyMedia will stream that perectly too...
Should I use IFO or ISO mode on DVD Dycrpter?
I just want the movie, not the extras, on one file that I can play.
Copy them to a PC with DVD Decrypter. Then you can either stream the vobs or encode them through either Handbrake or Nero Recode to encode with ASP (DIVX) or AVC high profile. Nero is more reliable, but Handbrake is a free front end. Always choose two-pass encoding even though it takes ages because the results are *much* better. Don't bother with ASP encoding at all unless you want to watch the movies on DIVX devices. I wouldn't bother storing raw DVD content unless you have masses of space.
Streaming options are plentiful and depend greatly on the streaming server. But its easy to copy movies to the PS3's HDD either through DNLA or the web browser or from a USB storage device or from a memory card. Playing it from external memory or USB storage is also easy. I believe there are some situations where streaming is better - I am 80% certain there is some hard limit to movie file sizes where streaming would be a better option, although really streaming would be best through giga ethernet. Fortunately the PS3 offers lots of ways of playing back content so you can mix and match.
DrXym, you are smoking crack. Streaming is perfectly fine on 10/100 LAN. You don't need gigabit ethernet to stream video or audio. Now if only the PS3 acted like my XBOX/XBMC easily, without the server overhead.
You think 10Mbs is sufficient? Many HD titles may be running at 20-30Mbps. This is rules out 10Mbps networks and may not even work at 100Mbps depending on contention. But I dont know why you think this is an either / or situation. Try what's best for you. If your content streams in your local network then stream it. Personally I hate having two devices turned on just to play a movie. The beauty of the PS3 is you can stream if you want to, or play from HDD if you prefer. Either solution has its uses.
You said nothing in your original post about HD content. It is true that HD is between 20-30Mbps. This should still be alright over a 10/100Mbps network (which most all modern devices will operate at 100Mbps). The kicker with HD content is that the receiving device has enough CPU and RAM to handle the stream properly.
DVD Shrink to copy it over then i use a Buffalo Wireless HD Link Theater to send them to my TV. Streams full HD w/o glitching. Pwns.
Handbrake has always worked for me for ps3, 360, ipod, etc., at least in terms of video quality. However, I can't seem to get 5.1 channel sound from ripped dvd's. Any ideas?
Here is what I have...
DLNA Servers
3 Cisco Linksys NAS200 NAS devices (2 with 250GB of RAID 1 storage, 1 with 500GB of RAID 1 storage)
For DLNA Clients
1 XBOX 360 Premium
1 XBOX 360 HDMI Halo 3 (Ghetto) Edition (I couldn't find an Elite, Premium or Arcade after Xmas)
1 Sony Playstation 360
The Linksys uses TwonkyMedia as its MediaServer.
For DVD's, I am decrypting and compressing them with Handbreak with the iPod High-Res Profile, downconverting the AC audio to a 160K Dolby Pro Logic II compatible AAC file. (160k audio, 1554k video). This generates about a 1GB AVC/H.264 file on average per movie.
For HD-DVDs and Blu-Rays, I am decrypting with AnyDVD HD using a LG GGC-H20L SATA drive in a USB2 enclosure. Once decrypted depending on content, I sometimes need to remux to a new M2TS container with just the video and audio file I need. Once remuxed, I compress the audio from Dolby Digital 5.1 to a 256K AAC file compatible again with Dolby Pro Logic II, video is converted to 1280x720 for 720p/1080p content and 1280x1080i for 1080i content. For compatibility with the XBOX 360, I keep the average video bitrate at 3mbps while allowing peaks to 10mbps. Otherwise, you get stuttering on high action scenes on the XBOX 360. So far I have been happy with the results for both SD and HD material and the conversion / compression methods I am using provides the most compatibility with the wide range of equipment I use. HD ripping is really time consuming and there are no single tool to handle everything but all the tools are available. The filesizes for HD is about 3GB AVC/H.264 on average.
I don't copy the whole (HD)DVD or Blu-Ray as this is really for convenience and if I want the full HD experience I will get the original media and use the players on the main system downstairs. Same thing if I want to hear commentary.
Handbrake runs on Mac OS X, AnyDVD HD and related tools runs on a VMware virtual machine running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 also under Mac OS X. My machine is a 8-core MacPro with 4GB of RAM. The machine is powerful enough to encode both a High def disc on the Vista VM while using Handbreak to do a DVD on the Mac side with CPU to spare.
NOTE: If you want to use a PS3, be aware that Sony has a nasty habit of breaking DLNA streaming with every major release. I have not been able to stream my SD or HD AVC/H.264 files since 2.40, the files worked fine before the update and the files will still stream on the XBOX 360.
"1 Sony Playstation 360"
I have to get me one of those.
Make sure your TwonkyMedia Clients list is correct. Seems 2.40 they changed the ID string, and TwonkyMedia is not recognising it as a PS3.
I would also add is that you need to be sure file sizes are under 4GB for both the XBOX 360 and the PS3.
People are smoking dope. MediaLink is pure junk. I get nothing but DNLA errors when streaming SONGS, much less movies. MediaLink offers ZERO support. Left them VM, email, and soon, hate mail. Maybe PS3 wireless is to blame : but I doubt it. I bought a 50ft ethernet cable and ran gigabit from my mac to my PS3 and still got cut-outs, DNLA errors, and spotty audio. I encode everything using handbrake in AppleTV format. Tried a few test rips in PS3 auto setting in HB and got worse results.
MediaLink is junk as far as I'm concerned.
Returned my stupid 50ft cable, bought an AppleTV, and now everything just works. Movies (HD or SD), music, photos, etc...
AppleTV. FTW. PS3 - FU.
I use handbrake on my mac and ripping it on the PS3 setting and changing the audio to 6 channel for the surround. I then put it on a hard drive plugged into the ps3. I have the folders on the external hard drive set up via genre (action, comedy, animation, drama, horror, music video). I currently have about 200 movies on it and love it.
I use handbrake on my mac and ripping it on the PS3 setting and changing the audio to 6 channel for the surround. I then put it on a hard drive plugged into the ps3. I have the folders on the external hard drive set up via genre (action, comedy, animation, drama, horror, music video). I currently have about 200 movies on it and love it.
I use a single process : DVD Shrink, to rip to a single VOB which I rename to MPG for streaming to my XBox360.
Wouldn't it be cool if PS3 had SAMBA network support so it could see my archived HD media? We're talking large files here and many of them so it's not v practical to transfer onto portable drive all the time. Can anyone think of a clever way to get PS3 to see windows file shares over network (I don't want to use DLNA streaming)? Or how about a USB network sumhow connected to my shares?