Noob Questions

[twitami]

Ok, I have a few questions if anyone can help:

1. What format/program are you using for ripping your DVDs to the unRaid?

 

2. What programs/frontends are people using to playback movies? Does it show DVD Box Art?

 

3. If I buy the pre-made unit, how does it connect to my PC?

 

4. Are SATA or IDE drives better for this, or does it matter?

 

5. Can I stream the movies from my connected PC to my XBOX 360 when it is set up as a media center extender?

 

Thanks SO much for the help!

[limetech]

For 3 - unRAID Server uses a GigEthernet connection to your local network & storage appears as "shares", just as you would enabling sharing on a Windows PC.  GigE is backward compatible with 100MBit, just slower.

 

For 4 - Looks like overall performance is better with SATA - still a slightly higher cost in general for SATA drives - though I guess these days it's negligable.

 

I'm sure others will chime in & you can go to the AVS HTPC Forum for more info.

[twitami]

Thanks for the quick response! I will admit, after stumbling onto the thread on AVS about your product, and then reading the website I was excited! However, the thread about 'The Mutiny' had me worried, and not sure if this was something I wanted to get into. I seems that was a temp. problem though, and I admire the fact that you left the thread up. Pretty sure I will be ordering a unit, once I am sure it will do a few things.

 

Thanks!

 

[dschur]

1. What format/program are you using for ripping your DVDs to the unRaid?

 

    Sorry, I think just answering that question is a violation of the DCMA. Google is your friend ;-)

 

2. What programs/frontends are people using to playback movies? Does it show DVD Box Art?

 

  I use Media Center with My Movies (http://www.mymovies.name), and XBMC. Both are execellent and show box shots. Based on your questions, I would look into My Movies, as it works very well with xbox extenders, but you'll need the Media Center on one of your PC's

 

3. If I buy the pre-made unit, how does it connect to my PC?

 

  Ethernet

 

4. Are SATA or IDE drives better for this, or does it matter?

 

  Doesn't matter. I use both.

 

5. Can I stream the movies from my connected PC to my XBOX 360 when it is set up as a media center extender?

 

  Yes, if the connected PC is a Media Center PC. Keep in mind the Xbox 360 only supports mpeg 2 and WMV natively. It does not support Divx/Xvid. To do this, you would need to use Transcode 360.

 

I steam HD .TS transport streams (8-15 mbps) at 1080i from unraid, vie the media center, to an xbox 360, and it all works just flawless. I still use XBMC for music and SD video as it's the best interface for those.

[twitami]

Ok, does XBMC work on the 360 also? And why do you need it? Doesn't the XBOX 360 already playback files thru the dashboard? Also, since you mentioned what formats will work with the XBOX (which I have played around with), theoritically if you were to backup your own DVD, what format would you personally use? And what program, hypothetically, do you think is best at this? (Any hints will help, I have looked at a lot of them, but have no idea what works well). I imagine that the format you would save it in would effect which program you would use.

 

Thanks for the Help,

Brian

[teamhood]

For ripping DVDs that I edit onto DVD  I like to use a program called Dvd Decrypter. I have found it to be very accurate and I have not had a problem. I believe there are only 2 options how to save the files that are ripped off the DVD which is VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders or a .ISO.  For the 360 as a Media Center extender you would want to rip DVDs with the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS option. Sometimes the DVDs that I burned were on DL media and I like to compress them down using DVD Shrink.

 

I am about to run some cat5e cable down to my 360 and see how unRAID works with the MCE2005 and the 360. I am just waiting on my cat5e cable to come in!!

[PGPfan]

Ok, does XBMC work on the 360 also? And why do you need it? Doesn't the XBOX 360 already playback files thru the dashboard? Also, since you mentioned what formats will work with the XBOX (which I have played around with), theoritically if you were to backup your own DVD, what format would you personally use? And what program, hypothetically, do you think is best at this? (Any hints will help, I have looked at a lot of them, but have no idea what works well). I imagine that the format you would save it in would effect which program you would use.

 

Thanks for the Help,

Brian

 

For copying my personal DVD's to my server there is no question (to me, at least) that the best s/w to use is AnyDVD. Totally transparent to Windows and makes copying truly a 'drag and drop' activity. Always updated (for free!), and does far more than what you might think it could do. Go to www.slysoft.com for more details.

 

-PGPfan

[BLKMGK]

I use AnyDVD in conjunction with DVDShrink, I shrink menus only and leave the movie full sized in anticipation that at some point I may want to post process the resulting video. I save everything as Video.ts etc. folders and not an ISO. I leave off the alternate languages and whatnot as I don't need them but I do keep extras and director's comments blah blah. I do need to figure out a way to compress video down for my PSP, I've used FFMPEG in the past but only when working form a single VOB and not from multiples etc.

 

As for displaying - I am using XBMC now but I also have MCE setup with the MyMovies plug-in but it's not as "friendly" IMO. However the old XBOX will not do HD, not enough powwa'! I'm currently waiting for the X360 to be whacked for homebrew software and will switch when that occurs since it appears to be more powerful. <shrug> I've got a UPNP enabled DVD player from Buffalo (Linktheater) however it's interface isn't so hot IMO and linkiing the Linkstation up with the unRAID has been a PITA.

 

Anyway, that's where I'm at with this right now. Always open for alterative front-end software. If I could get Myth working I'd try it too!

[twitami]

For ripping DVDs that I edit onto DVD  I like to use a program called Dvd Decrypter. I have found it to be very accurate and I have not had a problem. I believe there are only 2 options how to save the files that are ripped off the DVD which is VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders or a .ISO.  For the 360 as a Media Center extender you would want to rip DVDs with the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS option. Sometimes the DVDs that I burned were on DL media and I like to compress them down using DVD Shrink.

 

I am about to run some cat5e cable down to my 360 and see how unRAID works with the MCE2005 and the 360. I am just waiting on my cat5e cable to come in!!

 

 

 

Hmm, I did not think you could stream Vidoe TS thru the XBOX360...is there a way?

[TCIII]

twitami,

 

People are doing it.

 

Checkout the XBMC/XBOX thread on www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=39.

 

Do a search for xbox360/.ts

 

Regards,

TCIII

[BLKMGK]

One thing to be aware of with DVD Decryptor - not all DVDs can be ripped with it. That software was boight out and development ceased. Since then the movie companies have continued screwing aorund with the on disk structures and whatnot in an attempt to screw up programs like that one - this is partly why Slysoft updates so often. I have already encountered one disk that wouldn't decrypt with that software even with AnyDVD running - I was forced to use an older version. The ONLY think I use DVDDecryptor for is creating single VOB files for compression by FFMPEG for my PSP. It's NOt bad software and it's free but you could very well find that you have more work to do if you use it for many disks. There are apparently files that can be downloaded to "repair" disk images or setup Decryptor to work with the problem ones but I found it easier to just give SlySoft the pittance that they wanted <shrug> YMMV...