Digitizing DVD collection - UI

Idiophreak

Hi All,

So I've decided that I'd quite like to digitize my DVD collection for

a) improved accessibility (I really am so lazy that I won't get off my bum and walk to the shelves to get a different disk)

b) waffle removal - I hate menus, trailers, extra features...just clicking "start" and having the thing play would be amazing.

c) space saving!

I've got around 800 discs in total to do, I think - which is going to take a while, I know!

I'm relatively comfortable with the process of how to get the things onto the computer, generally...and have a bunch that I've done already just shoved in folders that I navigate to in Windows Explorer or using a little media player gadget...but I was wondering if anyone had any more specific guidance with respect to

a) I'd really like to have a slick GUI to all the content on the TV - preferably showing all the DVD cases on screen, so it looks a bit like the iPod album interfaces, but with DVDs...I'd also like to be able to categorise by genre, release date and so on....but not sure how that would work...I assume video files have the equivalent of ID3 tag info?

b) Player - In addition to the media player, which just isn't up to the task, I've got a 360, blu ray player (half decent sony, with a lot of apps, youtube etc beat in - can give model number if needed) and foxsat under the TV - would any of these give a decent interface, or would buying something else be better?

c) Storage - I'm assuming that some kinda raid box is the way forward..I guess, compressed, I'm not looking at needing more than 1TB, but a little more may be future proofing. Any recommendations?

I'd prefer not to rip the whole disks, just the bits I actually want to watch (as above) but am open to either if there's a compelling reason to use ISOs...

And I'm open to suggestions on the budget - Obviously less is more, but I'm interested in having the right solution, not the cheapest. And I'm interested in the tech that's available as much as I actually want to do this for myself....

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions...If anyone's got any screen grabs of their own system in use, that would be ideal

[Deleted User]

Well, i've got a NAS drive (1TB, cost £100) with lots (few hundred) of my DVDs ripped onto it. This is plugged into my Smart TV, which is DLNA compatible

It's not quite as whizzy an interface as say, Apple TV, but it does let you sort by various factors. I store my in 'genre' folders so it's easier to find stuff.

I believe the XBox 360 also supports DLNA... so, setup a server on your PC and try it out

Have a look here: http://www.plexapp.com/

Idiophreak

Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff with DLNA...but I've never quite worked out what it's for...but looking at that Plex site, seems it may be just what I need!

Del_Griffith

XBMC is for me far and away the best media front end out there. I built myself a HTPC over the summer running it and I can't imagine what I did without it. There seems to be some exciting work with new little Android boxes that can run the software on the horizon, plus obviously a Raspberry Pi seems to be able to do the trick as well. You can download it (free) toa Windows setup, so you coudl have a play around with it on your PC to get a feel for it.

Server wise I bought a HP Microserver - they are forever doing cashback of £100 so it comes out at around £120 which is a steal. You have to populate it with your own hard drives but it's customisable and able to expand etc.

Prepare yourself for a world of pain regarding the digitising. I started ripping my DVDs October of last year and only finally finished completely around easter time (PC running 24/7 for a lot of that as well). I opted for MKV files in the end to save on storage - nigh on indistinguishable from source material, and approx 1-2g per film as opposed to 4-7 for an uncompressed ISO.

tonyh66

the windows media center interface is pretty good, you need to go have a look on AVforums there is loads of advice and stuff on doing this over there. I was using a cheap PC as a media centre it worked great.

tonyh66

Del_Griffith wrote: »

XBMC is for me far and away the best media front end out there. I built myself a HTPC over the summer running it and I can't imagine what I did without it. There seems to be some exciting work with new little Android boxes that can run the software on the horizon, plus obviously a Raspberry Pi seems to be able to do the trick as well. You can download it (free) toa Windows setup, so you coudl have a play around with it on your PC to get a feel for it.

Server wise I bought a HP Microserver - they are forever doing cashback of £100 so it comes out at around £120 which is a steal. You have to populate it with your own hard drives but it's customisable and able to expand etc.

Prepare yourself for a world of pain regarding the digitising. I started ripping my DVDs October of last year and only finally finished completely around easter time (PC running 24/7 for a lot of that as well). I opted for MKV files in the end to save on storage - nigh on indistinguishable from source material, and approx 1-2g per film as opposed to 4-7 for an uncompressed ISO.

yep that sounds about right, I got fed up of having to digitize and gave up in the end:rotfl:

Idiophreak

Thanks for the input all.

I thought of something else looking at that plex site - it would be cool to be able to do stuff on the TV in the bedroom too...I think that puts plex slightly ahead of XBMC in my head at the mo - as I could get a little roku box for the bedroom...or is there anything small that uses XBMC?

Doing a bit of reading, it seems that ripping everything first, then queuing them all up to transcode 24/7 is the quickest way of getting the thing done...May have to think about upgrading my PC a little for the latter job, although I'm not really in a rush to get this done...or I may see if there's any way of "borrowing" a couple of servers from work to do some crunching for me

closed

life's too short, how often are you likely to watch them all?

[Deleted User]

Idiophreak - As someone else mentioned, you can install XBMC on a Raspberry Pi (which is actually quite easy to do) and it's tiny.

However, for the price you're better off getting a cheap Roku box - the biggest problem i've found with the Pi is no remote control.

I've found NAS + Smart TV is a really simple solution - I bet your Sony bluray can do DLNA also

Idiophreak

closed wrote: »

life's too short, how often are you likely to watch them all?

Depends. Some of them, not very often. Some of them, quite a lot.

I think the point is that I'm much more likely to watch any of them if they were more easily available...

On the "life's too short" attitude...I have found a couple of places that would do the whole thing for me...But I spend plenty of time sitting and watching TV (as you'd expect ), so just sticking a disk in every 10 minutes wouldn't kill me....

tonyh66

Idiophreak wrote: »

Depends. Some of them, not very often. Some of them, quite a lot.

I think the point is that I'm much more likely to watch any of them if they were more easily available...

On the "life's too short" attitude...I have found a couple of places that would do the whole thing for me...But I spend plenty of time sitting and watching TV (as you'd expect ), so just sticking a disk in every 10 minutes wouldn't kill me....

or until the drive burns out which happened in my case....