High End Theater

[drewski300]

It's been years since I've been on this forum and frankly forgot most of what I knew. I'm trying to replace a failing Kaleidescape movie server with a home server setup. It's critical to maintain the highest quality video for this setup. What is the best ripping format to accomplish that today? Basically, what settings would you use? I've used Plex before and was planning on using that for playback but I'm also open to other options.

Along with that, can the higher file size videos be accessible outside the home if the upload speed is sufficient?

Sorry for the basic questions!

[Dead Eye]

Here is one idea among many out there...A home based NAS that has remote access, mapping that resource to any app as needed and authenticate your credentials as required.

[tbrown25]

I use a NAS running Emby (similar to PLEX). I tend to rip my movies to MKV without re-encoding (passthru), so the mkv file is the same quality as the source. MKV format seems to work best for me as it preserves chapters and any audio/subtitie tracks I care to include in the file

If you have a reasonable good NAS (one that supports hardware encoding), both EMBY and PLEX can encode the videos on the fly accounting for limitations of the playback hardware or slow INTERENET download speeds. I have one user with extremely slow download who can watch any file I have without pauses. The NAS will encode it down to a level which can be transmitted on their slow link with some sacrifice in quality. Note that the TV on their end then up-scales the video, so it really doesn't look bad.

For local (in home) playback, I use a zidoo media streamer and completely bypass the EMBY system. The unit produce outstanding video from pretty much any source.

[drewski300]

With that suggestion, I could also use a replication service by Synology to push the data to a remote NAS. That way all streaming would be accessible to the additional location(s) with best results.

I am able to stream my content using Plex outside the home on various devices without issue. But my files are mp4 and aren't more than 6gb. I haven't tested file sizes higher.

[Dead Eye]

My nephew runs a plex server in Dayton OH, I'm in Columbus and have no problems on any of my mobile devices. My HTPC gear is all copper based connections and are networked to an X8 Nighthawk router.

A setup like tbrown25 has is the way to go IMHO.

[drewski300]

Thanks guys!