storing dvd images from discs on massive hard drives

[derekcf]

Hi

Not sure if anyone other than me has theorised on doing this, but surely now that massive hard drives (500GB being the best example price wise) are relatively cheap, does anyone think it is possible technically to actually archive a dvd collection onto a big hard drive/s, obviously having a backup drive for eacg would be essential, especially given hard drives don't last forever, and ripping the collection again would be a nightmare.

My reason for asking this is that I'm fed up of the space the discs are taking up in my living room, and for years I've been playing mp3's across the network to my Kiss Player via ethernet, so I never go near the original cds, which languish in the loft, the convenience of network access to the files is a great way to go, and surely the best approach until affordable on-demand of every thing is available in the future via the net.

Presumably there would be 2 ways
1) convert everything to Divx / avi, but lose all the menus, special features etc, and spend a lot of time doing the ripping!
2) make a DVD image file - kept as an exact copy, on a drive, but presumably you'd need a pc in the living room connected to your TV for this one, as you'd have to use something like Daemon tools to mount each image you want to watch.

Anyone else got any ideas on the best approach for this, hardware or software wise? Is this even feasable? Obviously the Kiss DP500 could see the mounted image if configured using pc-link, and presumbly the player can't access vobs etc in folders and treat it as an actual dvd automatically playing the menu, even though its not in the local dvd-rom drive in the player.

Derek

[MOVIEGEEK]

3)Use a transmitter:
http://www.x10.com/entertainment/vk57a_s_ps49.html

[derekcf]

Playback on the TV from the PC/NAS isnt really the problem I'm trying to address here, But thanks for the suggestion MovieGeek I suppose there are loads of options, the transmitter approach as you suggest, the network based player (e.g. xbox or kiss ethernet dvd player, freecom media player), or go the whole hog and use a TV out on a standard PC or buy a swanky media centre PC.

I realise the transmitter way is probably the cheapest method...
but is operating VLCMedia Player feasable with the remote they supply on that kit? Have you tried what I'm suggesting?

Since making my original posting, I've done some research, and it seems there are two options, one using a PC to playback the .IFO file so the menus operate. Whilst the Kiss players now seem to open .VOB files, as anyone can appreciate often these are inconvenient to playback. The Freecom 35 media player does actually open the .IFO files reportedly, and enable playback of the menu properly but I havent discovered if it actually plays back the dvd files stored on a hard drive across the network. As reports of this talk about if the Freecom kit has its own hard drive installed into the device itself (inside the enclosure), apparently the files are playable from that (e.g. a 500gb 3.5" drive).

I've done a few tests, and VLC seems to be able to open the menus correctly on ripped files, but only if the VIDEO_TS folder is dragged and dropped onto the player, so I guess a mouse and pc in the living room, is probably going to be essential for that!

But I want to know if:
a) anyone has one of these Freecom media players, and actually tried accessing menus from the contents of a ripped VIDEO_TS folder across the ethernet connection from their PC to the player

b) Also it would be handy if anyone can share their honest opinion over wether the remote control method that was suggested is fairly practical with VLC.

c) Anyone got an old xbox and tried this? can the old xbox access the menus across the network to achieve the same result?

[redwudz]

I use two methods for my stored videos. The full DVD discs are on two 400 disc Sony DVD changers. The rest of my videos, which are mixed Xvid, Divx, RM, WMV MKV and a few other formats, are stored on a video server computer in a back room. It has 2TB of disc space and I access it from a HTPC in the front room. I use VLC and Zoom player, both on the HTPC. There are no programs on the server except XP. I use a Gigabit LAN for access. But when I used a 10/100 LAN, it worked as well. It just took longer to initially load the files from the HTPC to the server.

For me, it would be a waste of time to transfer all the DVDs to the server. The changers aren't as fast for access, but a lot easier to set up. If I were to transfer the DVD videos, I would probably convert them to 1500MB Xvids first. But that would take forever. I don't really care about menus, so that's not a problem.

A lot of this would depend on how many DVDs you are talking about. If you figure an average DVD is 7GB, even with 2TBs, I could only get 280 DVDs. I have 400 on just one changer. But for a 700MB Xvid, that number goes to about 2800. Of course there is no quality comparison.

If I want to access a regular DVD file with VLC, I use the 'Open Directory' under 'File' and direct it to the folder the DVD file is in. Or just right click on the folder and select 'Play with VLC media player' from the drop down menu.

[RabidDog]

And when you start doing this with HD? 2tb has to become 10-20tb .. maybe possible with new holographic drives. Coverting to xvid becomes easier and quicker all the time, with new processors. Of course with HD all the requirements increase 5x 10x