DVD/Blu-ray Media Server?

bofa

bofa

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I was thinking about this the other day but am not sure of the most efficient way to do this... we have a few hundred DVDs and BRDs, all of which have been relegated to multiple binders and are a mess to organize. I'd like to store digital copies that can then be accessed throughout the house.

I'm already planning to install a decent VPN router in the basement to hardwire our internet connection to a few specific rooms. I can buy one with more ports if I need to use it for file-sharing as well. All rooms have been wired with Cat-6 and actually each room that I'm considering has 2 or more hardwired connections (originally the builder included cat-5, but when I added some cat-6 connections, they wired everything with it). It would be awesome to load all of these movies digitally and be able to access them from any TV.

Any suggestions or experience?
 
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plex media server is one.

the one I use is serviio since it integrates with my WHS v1 server.

another I tried that works with WHS and my TiVo is streambaby but I had issues that was probably due using WHS v1.

I know that the new synology NAS you can download and install into the NAS plex media server.
 
Plex looks interesting and the price is right. I assume with that it would be best to run dedicated a system?
 
depends on your load. I bought a dedicated middle of the road computer to serve as a dvr/tv computer. I use my windows home server to run my serviio service to stream movies and to serve as a file server.

here is my potential stream load (mind you outside of my 2 computers, everything else is wifi running netgear ac 1900 nighthawk)

daughter : ipad, laptop
son : ipad, desktop
wife : ipad, laptop, Samsung tv with a TiVo (this is the warden's dedicated entertainment setup, it keeps her happy recording all her shows and has 4 tuners in it)
me : dedicated tv/dvr/movie desktop

I run a ceton 4 tv tuner in a win 7 media center. I got this specifically for the last summer Olympics so I could record all the coverage on cable tv. I use a multi stream cable card that I rent for $4 month instead of wasting money on a another dvr or TiVo.
 
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NoDak said:
depends on your load. I bought a dedicated middle of the road computer to serve as a dvr/tv computer. I use my windows home server to run my serviio service to stream movies and to serve as a file server.

here is my potential stream load (mind you outside of my 2 computers, everything else is wifi running netgear ac 1900 nighthawk)

daughter : ipad, laptop
son : ipad, desktop
wife : ipad, laptop, Samsung tv with a TiVo (this is the warden's dedicated entertainment setup, it keeps her happy recording all her shows and has 4 tuners in it)
me : dedicated tv/dvr/movie desktop

I run a ceton 4 tv tuner in a win 7 media center. I got this specifically for the last summer Olympics so I could record all the coverage on cable tv. I use a multi stream cable card that I rent for $4 month instead of wasting money on a another dvr or TiVo.
Click to expand...

Nice! Most of what we watch is broadcast or from Prime, Hulu, or on disc. I'm just looking for a good way to distribute to different rooms and better cataloging. For that purpose, I may just use it as an excuse to put a decent cheap build together and let it manage the network as well.

Sounds like a Summer project!
 
edit :


with prime, hulu, Netflix, I would use a Smart TV to install (prime, hulu, Netflix) app and stream them via wifi/Ethernet.

use a old win 7 desktop to stream your dvd movies via DLNA (just look for the DLNA logo if its not a smart tv)

that would probably be the cheapest foot in the door scenario.
 
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NoDak said:
with prime, hulu, Netflix, I would use a Smart TV.

use a old win 7 desktop to stream your dvd movies via DLNA.

that would probably be the cheapest foot in the door scenario.
Click to expand...

Well, the TVs are all wifi-enabled and have their own native apps. Plus the main tv is connected to a PS3 (PS4 soon) and I can run all of these through that system as well. My biggest goal was getting all of the media organized and distributed. Toting around books of discs seems so archaic this day and age.
 
hold up ....

Plex media server - I just started reading up on it - is a software package that will allow you stream your ripped DVDs or BluRays. It isn't a server at all but rather a App you install on the Roku which will allow the Roku to act like a Western Digital Media player --- or something to that effect.

You still have to rip and re-encode all the movies first before you can watch them this way. I highly doubt you have the time, CPU power, and general patience to do this for 300+ movies / BluRays.

You would need to re-encode each movie and this could take hours to days and it isn't a simple click and be done type of thing.

If you are serious about it I would suggest you buy software from SlySoft as they make a very decent+ quality software product.

A standard BluRay movie contains around 40 - 50 GB of data. If you exclude the menus it is still often 40 GB. Say you compress that down to 15 GB you will still probably see some kind of a quality loss (unless you are a highly skilled ripper).


SYNOLOGY is cool as well. Again ... be prepared to have to rip your entire collection to data files because all Synology does is act as a giant hard drive to the video playing device (aka the Roko or player I mention below)

My setup .... I have done this type of thing. I have over 300+ movies, a majority in HD 1080p, spanning about 3 TB of data.

I don't use a media server because of the expense and hassle. Instead I have a simple dual bay 3.5" USB hard drive enclosure with two 2TB Western Digital Red Hard Drives, no RAID. The redundancy is my home PC and offsite copy I update every 6 months.

In my living room sits the TV, USB Hard Drive Enclosure, and a KD Links HD700 USB media player. It will play any file direct connected with a USB drive or connected over LAN to a NAS (for example Synology)

The cost is much cheaper this way and you get nearly the same service for watching TV. USB Dual Bay Enclosure about $100. 2TB WD Red HDDs about $100 each. So $300 including the Hard Drives.

Now the question again is do you have 6-8 months free time (assuming you work a day job) to convert 300+ movies and many times reconvert them because the audio was off slightly or something like that .?


:cool:
 
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Most of what we watch is broadcast or from Prime, Hulu, or on disc. I'm just looking for a good way to distribute to different rooms and better cataloging. For that purpose, I may just use it as an excuse to put a decent cheap build together and let it manage the network as well.
Click to expand...


So do you simply want to be able to stream a DVD / BluRay to multiple rooms of a house at once?

That is interesting but again I don't see how the Synology will be a part of that unless you already ripped the disc to .mkv.

Here is the link to the company I mentioned. I think this would be the easiest way to do it if you are interested and will to go through with it.

SlySoft Products | Backup Movie DVDs with AnyDVD and CloneDVD

:popcorn:
 
BrianSD_42 said:
hold up ....

Plex media server - I just started reading up on it - is a software package that will allow you stream your ripped DVDs or BluRays. It isn't a server at all but rather a App you install on the Roku which will allow the Roku to act like a Western Digital Media player --- or something to that effect.

You still have to rip and re-encode all the movies first before you can watch them this way. I highly doubt you have the time, CPU power, and general patience to do this for 300+ movies / BluRays.

You would need to re-encode each movie and this could take hours to days and it isn't a simple click and be done type of thing.

If you are serious about it I would suggest you buy software from SlySoft as they make a very decent+ quality software product.

A standard BluRay movie contains around 40 - 50 GB of data. If you exclude the menus it is still often 40 GB. Say you compress that down to 15 GB you will still probably see some kind of a quality loss (unless you are a highly skilled ripper).


SYNOLOGY is cool as well. Again ... be prepared to have to rip your entire collection to data files because all Synology does is act as a giant hard drive to the video playing device (aka the Roko or player I mention below)

My setup .... I have done this type of thing. I have over 300+ movies, a majority in HD 1080p, spanning about 3 TB of data.

I don't use a media server because of the expense and hassle. Instead I have a simple dual bay 3.5" USB hard drive enclosure with two 2TB Western Digital Red Hard Drives, no RAID. The redundancy is my home PC and offsite copy I update every 6 months.

In my living room sits the TV, USB Hard Drive Enclosure, and a KD Links HD700 USB media player. It will play any file direct connected with a USB drive or connected over LAN to a NAS (for example Synology)

The cost is much cheaper this way and you get nearly the same service for watching TV. USB Dual Bay Enclosure about $100. 2TB WD Red HDDs about $100 each. So $300 including the Hard Drives.

Now the question again is do you have 6-8 months free time (assuming you work a day job) to convert 300+ movies and many times reconvert them because the audio was off slightly or something like that .?


:cool:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I knew I would have to rip and encode them. Some of the more recent software can handle a blu-ray in about 90 minutes. I do own licenses for Slysoft's full suite but I can't remember if that was on my Mac or PC. I used that and a dedicated writer a lot back when I uh... backed up my movies.

I like the simplicity of the USB enclosure in the living room, however that doesn't solve for my ability to play them in any room (without moving the hard drives of course). I suppose I could do this and maybe split off holiday movies and chickflicks for the Mrs, as those are the most likely to be played in the other rooms.

BrianSD_42 said:
So do you simply want to be able to stream a DVD / BluRay to multiple rooms of a house at once?

That is interesting but again I don't see how the Synology will be a part of that unless you already ripped the disc to .mkv.

Here is the link to the company I mentioned. I think this would be the easiest way to do it if you are interested and will to go through with it.

SlySoft Products | Backup Movie DVDs with AnyDVD and CloneDVD

:popcorn:
Click to expand...

Yes, stream would be preferred and I figured a NAS setup would make the most of the wiring set up. I'll have to do some more research and compare my options.

I do have the time to rip and encode though... one of the perks of working from home. :D
 
I'd highly suggest you try re-encoding a bluray first.

Ripping with 0 compression is one thing. That will leave you with a 40 GB file.

Streaming a file that big will be challenging.

Most guys who do this re-encode down to 15-20 GB.

If you have to re-encode you won't be talking 45 mins but likely a whole day even with an i7.

That's the dilemma. Try it out for sure. Let us know.

BTW the type of Synology that can stream a 40Gb file will be the $800 and higher (dual atom i believe) model and it might not even be able to do it. And that is without disks. A local USB player might be able to play a file that big, I don't know. My largest file is 20 GB.
 
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All good things to consider. I definitely had my work cut out for me to figure out what will work. I was reading something earlier where a guy was loading everything to external drives and using itunes and apple tv devices to accomplish this same thing.
 
i use dvdfab to rip dvd's. is uses your video card to drop the rip process down a lot.

dvd main movie only takes about 10-13 mins top @ 1:1 rip.

Blu-ray should take about 40-60 mins per disc using BD25 format to compress from 41gb down to about 20gb.
 
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