Home entertainment system

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 16:04:23 Post Subject: Home entertainment system

I had an idea that came to me today and wanted to see what experiences people have that can either say "do this" or at least point me in the right direction.

Here's the problem I have. KIDS. Do I need to say more? Laughing

OK OK. So my kids keep finger f Censored

ing all of our DVD's and getting them smudged and scratched. ACK! My plan was to start making backup copies of them all and have them use that while the original sits tucked away safe.

However... this is a pain in the a$$. So what I'm thinking of doing is building a HTPC system, "ripping" all the DVD's to a server and the through hopefully some sort of menu system play the DVD's over the network that way (I can run either wireless, 100, or 1GB connections to the system so bandwidth won't be an issue).

Any suggestions of software? Was probably leaning towards some sort of WinMCE integration, but this isn't a hard requirement.

Thanks!

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 19:06:51 Post Subject:

Wow. that sounds so familiar to http://www.bigbruin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9504

Ye be warned: It's my idea based on Linux...not Windows). And one other thing I remembered when setting up the DVD server was that Samba only supports file up to 2GB. Since the DVDs are 4 or 8GB, it's a problem...I haven't worked on this lately (school), but NFS (Network File System) should work with the extra large files, but not sure.

And those new Seagate 750GB 7900.10 series are looking great for this!

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 19:28:44 Post Subject:

Yea, sorta. But I'm not looking into any OS, just general looking.

Odd's are it will be served from a W2003 Server though. Laughing

And I'd love to get some of those 750GB drives. But.. the cost is a bit much.

I could get 3 750GB drives in RAID-5 for $1500 or I can get 4 500GB drives in RAID-5 for $1100, both have 1.5TB of storage.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 19:43:14 Post Subject:

Well, as far as ripping them, do you have a format chosen that you're going to use? AVI? MPEG? I don't know all the video codecs and junk...I just used the ISOs because it's extremely simple to do and works very well with what I'm using on my desktop at th moment (as far as the program knows, the ISO image is the DVD-ROM, so no extra modifications Smile

)

As for the program, Windows or Linux, the same general concept can be done on both - use a database or flat file to store the ripped DVD info, parse it, and there's what's listed with any extras. Select it and it opens that file into whatever program you use in full screen. The hard part would be the programming of that little list thing. I can do it in basic Linux Bourne Again Shell (Bash), but to make a neat looking GUI for Linux or Windows is beyond me.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 21:21:14 Post Subject:

See.. your missing the big point...

KIDS DVD's. Menu's, hopefully with pictures.

Not PLANNING on converting, but if that's the best option I would.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sun, 07 May 2006 21:41:33 Post Subject:

That's also sort of what I mean....a GUI program with whatever you want (pictures, names, naked women, whatever it is you want on there). It'd still generally work the same way, but I know jack about programming on that scale, and even less so with windows, although it's surely possible.

tomato · Rated NC-17 Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 107

Another possibility is purchasing "CD/DVD Skins", which are basically just a thin layer that you apply to the desired CD/DVD to protect it from damage.... I've seen them in Wal-Mart, but I'm not sure about their effectiveness.... price point was decent if I remember correctly as well.

thePMG · Rated XXX Joined: 24 Apr 2004 Posts: 393 Location: Germany

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 19 May 2006 16:53:47 Post Subject:

I tried Knoppmyth. It was cool, but I wanted more than just a TV/Video operating system.

Iit did install easily and looked pretty cool... just a bit limited. For a set top box only, it would be fine.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Fri, 19 May 2006 22:15:31 Post Subject: