Media Streamer / Media Server solution for watching ripped dvd's on my TV

Question

I'm new to the concept of media streaming. What I want to do, is backup my DVD's to a central network attached storage unit, and then have these viewed on a unit, which is connected to my tv.

What are good devices for this?

Also, how should I encode my DVD collection to best view them on these units? I've been playing around with Handbrake, however there is not DIVX option, and I was under the impression most of these media streamers used this?

Answer 1

why ripping them? storage is cheap (a 2 TB drive will hold over 400 DVDs), save the DVDs as ISO, mount the images over your network on the HTPC connected to the TV and enjoy your DVDs in full quality.

as for the hardware. i hear good things about Acer Apire Revo series, if it's just DVDs you want to watch, these are something you should have a look at, although they're HD capable,

Answer 2

I played with the open source Myth TV a year or two ago (actually, the MythDora Distro) and IIRC it supported mounting ISO images. Here is a site about building such a system.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for you.

The Popcorn Hour player seems to meet your requirements but I've heard a lot of gripes about them being only for the seasoned computer person.

WD Live almost go it but the fools left off .ISO support and DVD Menu support. Since that's something that can be resolved by a firmware update I would keep an eye on them.

Netgear has a couple of offerings, the discussion I've read on-line isn't too favorable.

I believe the Mvix Ultio does what you want but again what I read on-line isn't too good.

(Note that all of these units play a lot more than DVDs.)

Answer 4

I would try using AVIDemux instead of Handbrake.

What you do is use DVDDecryptor to decrypt the disk. DVDDecryptor has a setting in it that allows you to merge all the .VOB files into a single .VOB. Then you can use handbrake or AVIDemux to rip the movie to h.264 mp4 or to mpeg4 avi . Then you can use TVersity media streamer to stream from the source machine as long as the client machine, connected to your computer can read and play the stream on your TV.