Home Theater Movie Server

[compbuilder00]

I have recently finished doing an i7 build back in December and its been one of the greatest computers I have ever had. I pretty much went a little over board with it and I wont have to upgrade for a few years. The specs are the following.

Core i7 920
Asus Rampage II Extreme
6 Gigs of Corsair Dominator Memory
300 Gig Velociraptor 10,000 RPM Drive - OS
4 - 750 Gig Drives in Raid 5 on 3ware 9560 PCIe RAID Card
nVidia 9800gt 1gb

I want to use the following computer to watch my movies on my T.V. I figure I would have to add more storage but that's fine with me because HD's are getting cheaper. Is there a way I can import an exact copy of a DVD, and use a piece of software to play it on the TV. What hardware am I looking at for this idea. I am looking for any kind of input on this project. What would you do if you were in my shoes.

 

[mcveigh]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=26

I prefer sagetv for my stuff. you might try sagetv server on the server and then a small client box like their hd200 to connect to thetv(s)

of course if you have MS media center you can start with that and see how you like it.

 

[Slugbait]

I usually use DVD Decrypter. I pair it with RipIt4Me for discs that have newer encryption schemes (such as Disney/Pixar). However, neither app is supported any more, and newer encryption schemes (such as The Dark Knight and Wall-E) can't be ripped...in those cases, I use DVDFab5, and just utilize the HD Decrypter. Lots of people use AnyDVD with great results.

0% of people need an exact copy...are you going to listen to the movie in French? You really need Spanish subtitles? Got any use for Dolby Digital when there is a separate DTS track that your sound system supports? Those FBI warnings are scary, and who cares about all those movie previews of "upcoming" releases on DVD? Extras are fun to watch once, maybe twice...what stops you from just popping in the discs for those?

Personally, I'd rip just the movie and then run it thru DVDShrink so that it takes up less than 5 gigs per movie (via DVD9)....but anything that has more than 20% added compression might not look great on an HD screen, I dunno. Play with it.

Vista MCE will playback the movie without a problem. If using XP (whether it's MCE or not), you need a third-party player, such as PowerDVD. If you don't have MCE, then just the standalone player will be fine.

Hardware that you're looking at is various. Start here for info on how to hook your machine to your HT. Since you have nVidia and an Intel chipset, you can't use HDMI for 5.1 surround...so use toslink for the 5.1 audio stream if you can, otherwise you might have to use analog connections for 5.1 (assuming your amp has 5.1 analog inputs).

The wireless remote for MCE works great (mine is almost three years old), but you might consider going with wireless KB/mouse (which I also use).

But I have a feeling most of my suggestions aren't going to work at all for you...

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

OK, so are you wanting to stream the movie from the new computer to another box at the TV? Or do you want to have this computer connected to the TV?

WD Home Theater
It's not streaming, you connect a USB device with the files you want to watch to it.
Fry's has them on sale for $100.

 

[Nizology]

Originally posted by: compbuilder00
Is there a way I can import an exact copy of a DVD, and use a piece of software to play it on the TV. What hardware am I looking at for this idea. I am looking for any kind of input on this project. What would you do if you were in my shoes.

As far as ripping the iso to your hard drive, I would recommend DVD Shrink. This creates excellent copies with only about 60-70% compression.

And with that video card you should be able to just get a dvi-hdmi cable (assuming you have an hdtv with hdmi inputs) and be good to go.

 

[compbuilder00]

I'll be that guy and respond to a thread I posted from 2009. I've been through a few permutations on this endeavor and its resulted in a pretty sweet set up.

Setup One ( 2010 to 2015)
- 4 x 750gb HDs @ Raid 5
- Thecus N4200
- Steamed via DNLA using Twonky Media Server to a PS3

Setup Two ( 2015 to 2017 )
- Same Thecus N4200
- Updated to 4 x 2tb @ Raid 5
- Twonky Media Server DLAN streaming to a Roku for internal streaming

Setup Three ( 2017 to 2023 )
- QNAP 653A
- 6 x 8TB @ RAID 6
- Hosted via SMB to a Chromebox hosting Kodi - Worked well with internal streams, PITA when working across newer encodings like x265

Setup 4 ( 2023 to current )
- QNAP 1288X upgraded to 64gb of memory
- 8 x 20TB @ Raid 6 - Media Volumes
- 4 x 2TB SSD @ Raid 5 - Application Volume
- 2 x 4TB NVMe @ Raid 1 - Hosts Plex and SQLite DBs
- Plex for internal and external streaming
- nVidia 1060 for on the go transcoding

The older QNAP 653A was refurbished with new fans, applied new thermal paste and all that jazz. Added 6X10TB for random space and offloading if needed.

Great little project. Thanks as always!