Dedicated PC for storing/playing movies - possible?

[winrz]

Is this feasible? taking a PC - adding about 300 GB to it, adding a wireless card to talk to the PC in the other room that will be doing the DVD ripping, adding a wireless keyboard and mouse, and adding a nice TV-out video card.

I am envisioning (possibly incorrectly) sitting on the couch, scrolling through all of the movies of the harddrives on the dedicated PC. While I am dreaming, I would also like to keep the movies uncompressed or slightly compressed so that if you wanted a physical back-up of the movie - you could burn a copy (ie Instant Copy or something) without losing too much quality. I dont know if Divx is quite what I want - it would allow nice compression from what I read, it would lose some quality, but you would not be able to burn back to DVDs if you wanted to (quality). I figure 300 GB would only hold about 37 movies uncompressed, thats not enough. I assume you cant Winzip these movies on the HD. With DVDshrink or Instant Copy I might be able to double the movie storage and still be able to burn if i want. But I want to store more than that.

Anyone do anything like this before- any suggestions? should I wake up?

[secretagent]

very easily done just as you described. you might find this article interesting:

Microsoft Reveals Plans for XP Media Center

Upcoming version of Windows will transform the PC into a digital entertainment hub, complete with a remote control.

Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service
Tuesday, July 16, 2002

Microsoft released details on Windows XP's upcoming media trappings Tuesday, revealing the company's plans to make the PC an all-in-one digital media center, replete with video, photos, music, and TV programming.
The Windows XP Media Center Edition, formerly code-named "Freestyle," is set to ship to original equipment manufacturers in time for the end-of-the-year holiday shopping season in the U.S., Canada, and South Korea, the company says.

It will be available in Japan in the first half of next year.
All-in-One

The media center will allow consumers to listen to, store, and organize digital music, watch DVDs, and access and browse personal digital video files.

Users will also be able to watch TV on their PCs as well as pause, rewind, and play back live TV programming with the Media Center's included personal video recorder. A remote control is included, allowing users to use their PCs like a TV.

The product will also be tailored for storing, sorting through, and viewing digital photos. Users will also be able to produce digital slide shows, with music added, the company says.

Microsoft has already announced deals with OEMs such as Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and Samsung Electronics to bring the Windows XP Media Center to market.

Consumers will be able to purchase PCs with the software preinstalled and all hardware included by the end of the year, the Redmond, Washington, company says.

[dborel]

I've already done this . . . used Gordian Knot to encode all my movies. I have a 200GB disk on the livingroom PC. I found that the standard 11mbps wireless is not quick enough to transfer the movies. Next upgrade will be wireless-G, that should do it. I've got all my movies ( 40+ ) and most of my music on this PC. Got a wireless keyboard/mouse, so I do exactly as you said, sit on the couch and scroll through my movies. It rocks!!

- Dug

[Don2050]

Maybe this to add to the setup....

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1149312,00.asp

[Donny661]

There's a lot of information on the web about home theater pcs. I've heard bad things about the windows xp media center. The playback isn't that great; it skips and jumps a few times. You can just get software for your computer to do everything the xp media center does and probably cheaper. Here's a neat looking divx, tivo like software http://www.showshifter.com

I think your best bet for storing your videos would be in an mpeg-2 dvd compatible format so when you do want to burn it you a dvd you can just drop it into your authoring program and burn. Plus it would result in no loss of quality because you never have to re-encode from the original dvd. It also isn't as large as uncompressed video.