Can a home theater system have everything plus kitchen sink?

[bereid]

I have a respectable library of DVD/Blu-Ray movies, and am tired of storing, sorting, searching for, and handling disks every time I want to watch a movie (we watch our favorites again and again, more than new material that usually disappoints).

Almost a year ago, I embarked on a plan to rip all my media from optical discs, and store in some form for streaming playback. Though it seems like a simple enough goal, my first attempts have quickly shown me that there's more to it than meets the eye.

I purchased a 2TB NAS box on which to store the files, and invested time to research and money to purchase applications to rip and convert/transcode my DVD and Blu-Ray content. For streaming playback, I purchased a WD HDTV Live Plus, and though it might suffice for some, its limitations have mostly frustrated me and left me wanting a lot more.

So I resumed research, comparing applications like Plex, Windows Media Center, etc., and began to think I knew enough to proceed. I have built a decent HTPC, using a recent ASUS ATX motherboard with PCIe 3.0 capability, Intel Z68 chipset, Core I7 CPU, 8GB DDR3, 600 Watt PSU; I am fairly happy with the hardware, as a framework to start from. I have installed Windows 7 Pro, thinking that I would use Win Media Center, but now that the time has come to decide what format I should use to produce video files that will afford the features I'm hoping for, I'm not sure I am on the right path, or that I know enough to chose a 'right path'.

I have come here to describe what limitations/disappointments I have encountered, and what pie-in-the-sky dreams I have, confident that there are folks in the community who have the experience that I do not, and the generosity/willingness to share that treasure with someone like me, who needs it. With that, here are the things that I have discovered to be important goals to me:

- I have two rooms where I would like to watch movies, or listen to music. The family room serves as the primary point of focus, where I plan to house the main HTPC, while the bedroom will be used mostly to continue watching movies/TV after we have retired from the family room.

- I would prefer not to invest the same money to build HTPCs for both viewing locations, but rather use the family room setup for the duties of ripping/transcoding/viewing material, while the bedroom setup should be simpler/cheaper for viewing/listening only.

- When viewing at EITHER location, the experience should be as complete as if watching the movie from the original disc, the most important features of which are:
- Ability to navigate menus
- Ability to view scene selection with artwork to identify each scene, rather than just minutes/seconds
- Ability to enable/disable subtitles
- Ability to perform fast forward/reverse search
- Ability to view in slow motion
- Ability to pause and advance frame by frame
- Ability to browse available movies by seeing artwork on the screen, rather than just text

My research has left me with these impressions:

- If I use Windows Media Center for the main PC, Xbox 360 is the only choice as an extender at the secondary viewing location (the bedroom), and it may not offer all the viewing options I'm hoping for (from above). If it can do what I'm hoping for, it may only do so if I chose the correct format for ripping/converting my videos, and I'm not sure about what that format should be (what should it be, anyway, depending on which platform I chose?)

- Plex server runs on Windows or Mac OS (but I suspect it probably prefers Mac OS), and the client ONLY runs on Mac OS. Some reviewers have rated other software solutions higher than Plex, but I have no experience with which to judge those conclusions.

- Linux may offer opportunities that I haven't considered, but my prowess with Linux is weaker than with Windows or Mac OS. However, if that platform should prove more promising than the others, I'm certainly willing to invest the time and effort to come up to speed.

I will likely want to add a TV tuner card to my HTPC eventually, to replace the two Tivo boxes I have now; I'm currently a cable subscriber, and each of my two Tivo boxes has two cable cards that allow me to do without any of the lame Motorola DVRs offered by Cox. I have seen a product claiming to accommodate a multi-channel (4 stream) cable card; it is the Ceton InfiniTV4 device, but it appears to require Windows 7, so if one of the other platforms is recommended, I'm not sure what product(s) might replace that one.

One last feature that comes to mind when describing the pie-in-the-sky dream is that we sometimes purchase Amazon video on demand, and chose to download the material to one of the Tivo boxes for later viewing. It would be nice if whatever solution I end up with could accommodate that capability.

I could (perhaps should) have broken this plea into multiple posts, but I'm hoping that its length will be tolerable enough for someone to endure, and offer an informed and helpful response.

My deep and sincere thanks to anyone who might offer advice to help me decide whether to chose Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, and what applications and video format(s) to use for my files in order to realize all (or most) of the features I have described. Should I expect to wait until 2050 to have them all?

Sincerely,
Bruce Reid

[usually_quiet]

I will likely want to add a TV tuner card to my HTPC eventually, to replace the two Tivo boxes I have now; I'm currently a cable subscriber, and each of my two Tivo boxes has two cable cards that allow me to do without any of the lame Motorola DVRs offered by Cox. I have seen a product claiming to accommodate a multi-channel (4 stream) cable card; it is the Ceton InfiniTV4 device, but it appears to require Windows 7, so if one of the other platforms is recommended, I'm not sure what product(s) might replace that one.

You are correct. Windows 7's Media Center is the only software that meets all the Cable Labs requirements for digital cable tuners (PC tuners that accept a CableCARD) when recording encrypted digital cable channels.

In order to be certified for use with digital cable tuners, PVR software must be able to securely encrypt recordings of "copy once" programming in a way that prevents them from being played by any computer other than the one which originally recorded them, but XBox 360s can still be used as media extenders. (Identification of the PC is based on the motherboard.) I think making back-up copies of protected recordings, or moving recordings to a different hard drive may be allowed, but only the original PC can play them back.

The encryption used by Windows Media Center has not been broken, so if you want to make portable copies of encrypted Media Center recordings, there is only one way. Use a screen capture program to re-record them.

There is nothing that will entirely replace a digital cable tuner for recording encrypted digital cable channels using a computer, unless you want to rent cable boxes and record from their component video outputs using an HD capture device, and use clear ATSC/QAM tuners to record your local channels.

[redwudz]

My system does some of that. I use video servers in another room to my PC in the front room over a gigabit LAN connection. It plays most everything. But I only convert my DVDs and BD to the main movie file. No chapters, etc. I have them on the discs if I really want to see them.

I also convert everything to MKV with AC3 sound. I'm working my way though my older files also. I do have a WD Live and I could use that for a second TV/Monitor if needed.

If I have formats like RM or WMV, I just convert them to MKV. I use Handbrake and do batch conversions of most of my older files overnight. I had a lot of ISO DVD files and they're a PITA for playback.

Windows Media Center can play MKV with some add-ons. If you really need to use a remote, then WMC is OK. But I use Zoom player, MPC-HC and VLC most times.

If you decide on the PC route, I would stick with Windows as there are more media programs available.

And welcome to our forums.

I don't think you will ever find any 'box' that will play everything. A PC would come the closest.

[usually_quiet]

ISO images of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs would provide access to everything on the disc, but would require more HDD space than .mkvs containing the main movie. My Movies http://www.mymovies.dk/ allows Windows Media Center to use ISO images. See https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/307040-Blu-Ray-iso-w-MyMovies

I also found this for DVDs http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/11071/automatically-mount-and-view-iso-files-in-windows...-media-center/

I can't say how well either method works. I'm still playing DVDs with a stand-alone DVD player and don't own an HDTV or BD player, so no Blu-Rays yet.

[Bonie81]

i hv invested most expesive TV, stand alone BD player and home theatre system in my bedroom. i hv my favorite collections either on bd or dvd. By the time or before movie or music bd or dvd finishes i am already ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Whenever I discuss with my sweet-n-sour heart over by the breakfast and coffee, about my sweet dreams of setting up media streaming server that can stream every-where including my wash-rooms, i get instant reply "Honey do you call that a sweet dream?. And you, always dream something else, but not me. Anyway your idea of streamimg everywhere is not really bad, but think globaly rather than just streaming every-where inside my house!". I always keep mum, as usual!

[dragonkeeper]

Take a look at media Portal it may be able to do most if not all of what you want. The base application is pretty good but there hundreds of upon hundreds of plugins that have been written to extend its functionality.
I Currently have Media portal set up on one of my HTPC units. And two other PCs, with a 6TB media server (custom built unit using a esata port multiplier and old computer case, chose this because I can as many drives as I need).
I'm able to stream files to other PCs in my house as well as my smart phones.

[usually_quiet]

If a digital cable tuner is left out of the picture, then yes Media Portal will work. I have used Media Portal as well as Windows 7's Media Center. I found Media Portal was more difficult to set up than Windows 7's Media Center , but it was comparable for the things I wanted to do with media. The user interface is skinnable, but the default size used for text needed some tweaking to look right to me. It even included a couple of simple games as plug-ins.

[dragonkeeper]

Yes, the set up of MP can be a bit of a challenge but everything is well documented and the forum members are very helpful. I've not used Media Center since 2005 and found it to be very lacking in terms of a full fledged media center. MP is very extensible, there are plug-ins that will fulfill virtually any need you may have.

define what your basic needs are, then decide on what advance features yo would like to see then take a look at your options, MC, and MP are the applications that seem to be used the most often in a windows environment, boxee and XBMC on Linux. Mac I not sure of, but one thing is for sure you won't have as big of a support network on Mac.