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The Digital Home!!

Odd

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Hi! :)

I'm wondering if AnyDVD/CloneDVD is the tools for me...

My "vision" is that I want to rip all my DVD's (and eventually CD's) and have them on a external harddisc in my living room.

I've thought about one of Western Digitals "My Book", either just USB connection or maybe the one with gigabit ethernet connection.

Then I'd connect my notebook to the external harddisc and to my flatscreen TV, so I can play my ripped DVD's this way.


Can AnyDVD/CloneDVD rip my DVD's in a way, so I have each DVD as >>>1<<< file, so I can have them all in one folder and just choose a movie from the list, click on it and then it starts playing, with the DVD menu available...?? :confused:


Hope this makes sense and you can provide me with some feedback! :agree:
 
Hi! :)

I'm wondering if AnyDVD/CloneDVD is the tools for me...

My "vision" is that I want to rip all my DVD's (and eventually CD's) and have them on a external harddisc in my living room.

I've thought about one of Western Digitals "My Book", either just USB connection or maybe the one with gigabit ethernet connection.

Then I'd connect my notebook to the external harddisc and to my flatscreen TV, so I can play my ripped DVD's this way.


Can AnyDVD/CloneDVD rip my DVD's in a way, so I have each DVD as >>>1<<< file, so I can have them all in one folder and just choose a movie from the list, click on it and then it starts playing, with the DVD menu available...?? :confused:


Hope this makes sense and you can provide me with some feedback! :agree:

Yes. You need AnyDVD and CloneDVD (I would also recommend CloneCD for 1:1 copies) to create images and Virtual CloneDrive to mount the images.
 
Thanks for the reply! :agree:

Ok, so if I get this right:

1) AnyDVD removes any copy-protection...

2) CloneDVD makes a copy of the DVD, with whatever compression and features (sub's and languages), into ONE .iso file!?

3) Virtual CloneDrive can play these .iso files when I click on a file from my (soon to come) movie library, without many clicks and tweaks after that to get it playing...!?
 
...without many clicks and tweaks after that to get it playing...!?

This is a experience I've had with Demon Tools... took quite some work to get it to do something near what I'd hoped, but still didn't live up to my expectations(?)...!!!
 
Thanks for the reply! :agree:

Ok, so if I get this right:

1) AnyDVD removes any copy-protection...

2) CloneDVD makes a copy of the DVD, with whatever compression and features (sub's and languages), into ONE .iso file!?

3) Virtual CloneDrive can play these .iso files when I click on a file from my (soon to come) movie library, without many clicks and tweaks after that to get it playing...!?

Yes, yes and yes.
 
I hope you don't have alot of movies, because even a 1TB MyBook Pro will get full faster then you think. I am always having to delete movies from my MyBook (500GB).
 
What is the average size of a ripped DVD?

I currently have around 70-80 DVD's! :)
 
a iso of a single layer movie (older dvds) will be 4.7 gb+
(images like isos are usually a little bigger than the source).
double layer movies (almost all the new ones) will be around 8.5 gb.
 
a iso of a single layer movie (older dvds) will be 4.7 gb+
(images like isos are usually a little bigger than the source).
double layer movies (almost all the new ones) will be around 8.5 gb.

You can use CloneDVD to strip down unwanted crap, so I would say you'll end up with 5-6 GB average per disc.
 
3) Virtual CloneDrive can play these .iso files when I click on a file from my (soon to come) movie library, without many clicks and tweaks after that to get it playing...!?

I do not think that saving DVDs as single ISO files is a good idea.

I tested mounting of Blu-ray disc images using Virtual CloneDrive, and I must say that it works in general, but playback is somewhat jerky especially with AVC or VC-1 content. I do not know what is the reason for this, probably it is because of extra processing levels. Playback directly from hard drive was perfect. It was external USB 2.0 hard drive if it matters.

So just copy your DVDs to folders on your hard drive and then navigate to VIDEO_TS.IFO file to play.

Also, there are nice multimedia player devices like "Mediagate" or "Dvico Tvix" which can play DVD Video folders from hard drives or network shares. I'm not sure whether they can handle ISO files.
 
storing the main movie as divx would also be a way to cut back on file size without taking much away quality wise. you can encode a dual layer movie to a divx file that is 1.5-2gb without much quality loss. you will need a player that can play them though.
 
I've also seriously considered a Home Theatre PC, I've played around a bit on my desk top pc just to test the water before committing some cash. My big hold up has been with the remote control/DVD player software - so far the couple remotes I've tried have been kinda clunky.

I've used CyberLink's remote with their Power DVD software and a MCE remote and both were basically the same.

If I remember right, the problem was navigating the files on the hard drive.

Is there a nice, easy to use remote/player software combination?

Thanks!

Bob
 
storing the main movie as divx would also be a way to cut back on file size without taking much away quality wise. you can encode a dual layer movie to a divx file that is 1.5-2gb without much quality loss. you will need a player that can play them though.

That might be a good idea too.
 
I've also seriously considered a Home Theatre PC, I've played around a bit on my desk top pc just to test the water before committing some cash. My big hold up has been with the remote control/DVD player software - so far the couple remotes I've tried have been kinda clunky.

I've used CyberLink's remote with their Power DVD software and a MCE remote and both were basically the same.

If I remember right, the problem was navigating the files on the hard drive.

Is there a nice, easy to use remote/player software combination?

Thanks!

Bob

I use Meedio - it is terrific for organizing/playing a DVD "jukebox". I have several hundred DVDs stored on network attached storage (uncompressed - for me it is easier/quicker to simply buy more storage, which currently totals about 4 TB). Can watch on any TV or computer in the house using my gigabit ethernet. Can watch up to 5 different movies at a time! Firefly remotes work very well. If you don't need a slick interface like meedio, could probably just use Firefly remote to control DVD player software. BTW, Meedio is no longer updated (it was sold to Yahoo), but still an active user community at Meedios.com which creates great plugins.
 
You can use CloneDVD to strip down unwanted crap, so I would say you'll end up with 5-6 GB average per disc.

Ok, so I'll be able to have something like 150-200 DVD's, and still room for my modest amount of music, on the 1TB WD MyBook... well, it's sufficient for now! :agree:

I do not think that saving DVDs as single ISO files is a good idea.

...

So just copy your DVDs to folders on your hard drive and then navigate to VIDEO_TS.IFO file to play.

Now we're at the "too much tweak and twist" part... =(

storing the main movie as divx would also be a way to cut back on file size without taking much away quality wise. you can encode a dual layer movie to a divx file that is 1.5-2gb without much quality loss. you will need a player that can play them though.

Well... it's a possibility! :agree:
Allthough I'd hate to loose the option to choose language/subtitles... on some of the movies that is... yes yes, I'm strange and demanding, I know!! :agree:

I use Meedio - it is terrific for organizing/playing a DVD "jukebox". I have several hundred DVDs stored on network attached storage (uncompressed - for me it is easier/quicker to simply buy more storage, which currently totals about 4 TB). Can watch on any TV or computer in the house using my gigabit ethernet. Can watch up to 5 different movies at a time! Firefly remotes work very well. If you don't need a slick interface like meedio, could probably just use Firefly remote to control DVD player software. BTW, Meedio is no longer updated (it was sold to Yahoo), but still an active user community at Meedios.com which creates great plugins.

Sounds like gigabit ethernet is more than sufficiant for this purpose! :agree:
 
Now we're at the "too much tweak and twist" part... =(

Aha, and constantly mounting and unmounting those single file .iso images is not "too much tweak and twist"? VirtualCloneDrive can mount 8 images simultaneously max. I do not think there is any player which supports playing .iso files without the need to mount them first.

Sounds like gigabit ethernet is more than sufficiant for this purpose!

When I play DVDs from a network share using "Mediagate" player device, "Networking" tab of the Task Manager on a computer I play DVD from shows 25% network utilization of 100Mbit/s connection on average.
 
Aha, and constantly mounting and unmounting those single file .iso images is not "too much tweak and twist"? VirtualCloneDrive can mount 8 images simultaneously max. I do not think there is any player which supports playing .iso files without the need to mount them first.

When I play DVDs from a network share using "Mediagate" player device, "Networking" tab of the Task Manager on a computer I play DVD from shows 25% network utilization of 100Mbit/s connection on average.

Ok... so if it needs to be mounted every time, and not just clicked upon to play, then I'm back to where I ended up with DemonTools(?)... :(

And ok, so gigabit ethernet isn't required, usb 2.0 is sufficiant...
 
What I think you need to do is this:

Get an Xbox (original), buy a cheap, big hard drive to put in the xbox, soft mod the xbox with Media Center. Media Center for the Xbox can play any kind of windows video file, including backed up dvds and can also be accessed via network sharing on your windows computer. So, the easiest way, is just use your computer to back up the dvds to the xbox then play the videos from the xbox (it plays music too.) Put each dvd in it's own folder, and you can use the xbox remote (you can by a dvd player style remote for the xbox really cheap) to just select which movie you want to play. Simple.
 
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