All in one Rip and media server

[pkeeney]

I would like your software to be an all in one system for storing movies on pc hard drive and streaming to tv. Netflix seem to have it worked out movies play nicely over a wireless network on my ps3 and xbox360. I have tons of movies on dvd witch i would like to box up and put away but Im having problems getting them to play right from pc to ps3 and xbox they play but for some reason the frame rate is slow.


Thanks

[GregiBoy]

You nned to do two things...

Obtain your own DLNA server such as Twonky or TVersity and then do some research on Fab's "DVD to Mobile" function that produces streamable files. My thoughts are in my "Best Practice: DVD to Mobile" thread. Link in my signature below.

I know of no plans of Fab to produce a DLNA server and I personally would not wast the development resources as the marketplace already has plenty of mature products.

PS: You are kidding yourself if you think you can stream high quality files over wireless. This is from years of bitter experience.

[AlienX69]

PS: You are kidding yourself if you think you can stream high quality files over wireless. This is from years of bitter experience.

Greg have you had a chance to use NetFlix's "Watch Instantly", not sure cuz you're downunder ? I used it twice, mostly just to preview a particular title. It streamed pretty good over wi-fi, the features are a little weak, i.e. no next/back, and other DVD player functions. The picture quality was good, but I was only viewing on a 22" monitor and only on about a qtr of the screen. I was assuming that you were streaming over wi-fi. So you need Cat cables at each viewing location ?

While I have your attention, another ? about file sizes ? I'm guessing from what little I read on the forum, help me out. I'm assuming you are getting about 200 titles per terabyte (1000Gb / 5Gb = 200). Plus I'm assuming you are running RAID as a backup as to not lose all the work you have done converting these titles to your personal liking ?

Regards,
AX

[pkeeney]

Sreaming

I watch NetFlix hd movies over wireless and it works fine. I got a 52 inch tv and Video quality is great.Im using a D-link Gamer Lounge wireless station. Doing my research on the net I found lots of people wanting to stream there videos from pc to tv. If some one came out with a one click solution i think it would be a big seller.
Just to let you know out of all the dvd ripping software out there I found DVDFab to be the best and easiest to use. I'm planing to buy it soon.

I dont know how Netflix dose it but it would be nice to use there setup for my own dvds and have it steam the same way.

[Complication]

The difference is that the streams from Netflix use an encoding optimized for web playback that gracefully falls back to poorer quality if there are connection problems (platform is called Silverlight). Video encoded for DVD and Blu-Ray is designed to handle scratches and errors but requires a minimum bandwidth. DVDFab is designed to re-encode for disc or mobile devices which again are designed to have consistent bandwidth to the file.

You have a further issue of WIFI, like the Internet in general, being inconsistent from moment to moment due to interference and the poor quality of some receivers and transmitters. If you are forced into WIFI then you will likely want to keep your bitrate low (start with ~1000) and use H264/DIVX/XVID.

[pkeeney]

Streaming

Thanks, that pointed me to the right direction.

[AlienX69]

Great post Complication, I even learned ....

EDIT: Comp, am I correct in my assumption on file sizes in Post # 3 ? Do you do a lot of mobile as well, I know GregiBoy doesn't make DVD's ?

[Complication]

Comp, am I correct in my assumption on file sizes in Post # 3 ? Do you do a lot of mobile as well, I know GregiBoy doesn't make DVD's ?

5GB is a good rule of thumb for VOB Passthrough. Using H264/XVID will allow storage of 2-4 times a much depending on the bitrate you select.

I stick to VOB Passthrough for DVD for speed and quality. As I get into Blu-Ray I'm looking more at H264. I'm just playing with Blu-Ray mostly. I don't think they are worth the price.

[AlienX69]

I don't think they are worth the price.

Exactly ... that's my stance as well, too costly at this point in time.

EDIT: I don't even watch BR yet, at 12-15 ft from a 52" LCD, DVD's looks real good to me ....

Regards,

[pkeeney]

Streaming

The problem with Silverlight it is owned by Microsoft so to play movies on a Sony system using Silverlight wouldn't be possible.
I guess I will have to work with what is available at this time.

I wonder if there is a way to break the movie into 5 minute chunks as the first 5 is playing the next chunk is being uploaded to an temp folder on the devise your using to streaming videos to.

[GregiBoy]

That is exactly what any good streaming server such as Twonky does already. It buffers the content for smooth playback.

In answer to AX's question, I generally use a H264 audiocopy profile thru Twonky running on 2 x Linksys NAS200's under Linux (Hacked, not Linksys version, and mirrored) direct to my Samsung 52" TV (Profile is posted in the "New Profiles" thread and it has it's own player in the firmware which recognises the Twonky server) resulting usually in a file just over 1Gb.

The problem with Silverlight it is owned by Microsoft so to play movies on a Sony system using Silverlight wouldn't be possible.
I guess I will have to work with what is available at this time.

I wonder if there is a way to break the movie into 5 minute chunks as the first 5 is playing the next chunk is being uploaded to an temp folder on the devise your using to streaming videos to.

[jdbower]

NetFlix is pretty adaptive over WiFi and local loop Internet connections (Internet "middle mile" log jams aren't an issue since it uses Akamai's EdgeSuite CDN for delivery), but I wouldn't call it "high quality" - certainly not 5GB per file high quality. My WMV rips for the XBox 360 are about 1GB each (more or less) but I hardwired by XBox rather than use wireless since wireless is pretty bad for streaming anything - especially with multiple PCs. I use PlayOn's DLNA server as of now since I use it for Hulu, but TVersity and even the MS WIndows Media Player support in XP was fine as well when I tried.

[AlienX69]

resulting usually in a file just over 1Gb.

Well that is a lot smaller than what I was expecting. From the few posts I read I thought the size was in the 4gb range.

Greg, when you make these mobile files are you doing the full disk (minus junk), i.e. movie, menus, bonus features ...... does Twony handle the norm DVD structure, program chain (PGC) ..... or .... is it the case that it only serves up Movie ONLY files ... I'm in the dark regarding Twonky

[Complication]

Everything DVD to Mobile is movie only.

[AlienX69]

Hey Comp, thanks for the quick reply ....

How are subpic's handled, can Twonky turn off/on ?

I see that the DVDFab Check Boxes act like radio buttons, they only allow the selection of one subpic. And we have the "Display only forced subpic" check box

I use subpic's very often (flipping on/off @ remote) if I could not understand what is being spoken, i.e. slang, softspoken, background action, etc. I actually hate when subpic's are NOT provided on a DVD.