How to make External Hard Drive Full of DVDs, MP4, etc...watch on TV?

[simple times]

I know this has been covered quite a bit but everyone's situation seems to be a different making it hard to figure out what is best for me.

I have a bunch of dvds that I'd like to put on an external HDD and hook it to my TV via HDMI. I also have family videos and mp4 and Windows Media videos.

I've thought about the WD Live TV but not for awhile so not sure what has come out in the last year or two that might be a better alternative. Just seemed like I could rip it into an ISO and everything would be there. What about MP4s or Windows formats?

I would like the menus and chapters

Thank you for the help!

[Cornucopia]

You can only play movies with a "player". Whether it is in software (on PC) or in hardware (in BD/DVD player, in general media/streaming player, or in your TV). Just having a HDD/Flash doesn't automatically allow it to serve up playable clips. The player in question has to have either its own internal storage, a port (USB/FW/Sata) for attached external storage (HDD/SSD/Flash/SDcard), or it needs to accept being a DLNA client for a media file server on your network.

With the exception of BD & DVD, they don't really support menus. Most don't support chapters, either (certain players, with certain properly prepared formats - MKV or MP4 or maybe DivX - may).

MP4s & WMVs can encompass not just a single format, but a FAMILY of formats. Not every member of the family is acceptable to hardware players (of ALL kinds), and even many/most software players. Make note not only of container, and codec, but of level & profile restrictions.

Also, only a very few hardware players and few software players can play media that has been imaged into an ISO file.

There may be some clips that will need to be converted before being playable.

IIWY, I would:
1. Figure out your budget
2. Figure out what subset of clip types you have in your current library (you can use MediaInfo to help with this)
3. Decide which format(s) are compatible with popular boxes within your budget.
4. Buy the box with the most bang for your buck (having the features you prioritize).
5. Put all the compatible clips onto the box (or onto a device that feeds the box)
6. Convert the incompatible clips into compatible formats and put those copies onto the box.

WDTV Live & Roku 3 are still great options.

Scott

[_Al_]

With the exception of BD & DVD, they don't really support menus. Most don't support chapters, either (certain players, with certain properly prepared formats - MKV or MP4 or maybe DivX - may).

Number of media players that support DVD menu or chapters is quite huge. Outside of USA it is one of those must have features. Sure if one can see Apple device for example I doubt it can offer much , it was introduced for close system etc.

But as was said, it is a price choice basically, with $50 product you might always say, darn, it looked good on paper but reality ...

You can have Raspberry Pi 2 B on the cheapest side with lots of readings and making it work, and some expensive HTPC NUC model on the other side, spending hundreds of dollars (or its equivalent in some currency if that's the case)

But whatever you choose, later on you'd need to get something else, because of new 10bit video formats supported by hardware decoders, new HDR introduction, higher frame rates together with UHD etc. , it never ends , so sometimes the economic way is to get cheaper devices, that are just usable , stable and you are good for some couple of years ...

[redwudz]

I just convert all media, Mostly Blu-rays and DVDs to MKV, H.264 and AC3 audio. My cheap Samsung Blu-ray player accepts them from a BD disc or hard drive.
My WD Live accepts them and my HTPC accepts them. Maybe better formats are in our future, but it works for me.

I use RipBot264 for BD>MKV conversions and VidCoder for DVD conversions.

But there are a lot of methods and formats.

[Cornucopia]

With the exception of BD & DVD, they don't really support menus. Most don't support chapters, either (certain players, with certain properly prepared formats - MKV or MP4 or maybe DivX - may).

Number of media players that support DVD menu or chapters is quite huge. Outside of USA it is one of those must have features.

That's why I said those were exceptions! BD & DVD are full-featured, authored consumer-experience video formats, and if you fully support the format you (are supposed to) fully support menus & chapters. No so with other formats, where menus & chapters are afterthoughts.

Scott

[_Al_]

ok, sorry, old story, fast reading and bad comprehension of English, I swapped that meaning.

[cornemuse]

My Dune 30 3D has option of internal/swappable 2.5" hdd & usb 3 connectivity. I did NOT like the WD live, tho it did work. At the time I tried roku, it had limited # of supported formats. I always prefered Argosy players but they've been off the market for a long time.

-c-

[simple times]

Well since I haven't ripped anything so I'm cool going either direction. I guess I'd just like to keep it as simple as possible. If you had say 100 dvds that you simply want moved over to be able to watch on tv without a disc and some MP4s and Windows Media files, what would you do?

[simple times]

Not to sound even dumber but I think my TV runs Roku 3...is that different than a standalone streaming box?

[Krispy Kritter]

Roku 3 is an actual device, not an app on a TV.

I'd keep all of the files on a PC/server/NAS and use Plex with a standalone device like a Roku at each TV.

Although I don't know about full disc rips with menus. No real reason for that type of RIP anyway. If you want to see the extras, load up the disc. Otherwise, all you will likely ever watch more than once is the movie. I only do movie only rips.

[_Al_]

you can just copy VIDEO_TS directories into hardisk (using AnyDVD or other ripping app), BUT better to leave them VIDEO_TS name, so you'd need to put them each into extra directory with proper movie name, because some players might not initiate DVD navigation (menu) if directory is not named VIDEO_TS, assuming it is just bunch of videos in that directory (and play first VOB or something)

WDTV Live player - if you navigate over VIDEO_TS directory and press play, it will play the main movie, if navigating in VIDEO_TS directory and pressing play it will play DVD navigation, menu, just example how it could work, other players sure might behave differently

ISO would be played as well by WDTV Live jumping into DVD navigation, but ISO is not that flexible for playback for other players and scenarios

For playback without conflicts, the best choice is one movie file only, but that means some work
- you can use VOB2mpeg to get one mpeg without re-compression, or something else
- or encode it to something, for example Vidcoder to re-encode main feature to mp4 or mkv, it will recognize main feature, Vidcoder can encode batch, that is a plus and makes auto inverse telecine (IVTC) if applicable, getting 23.976 fps, do not forget to set decomb and detelecine as default if working with NTSC, and leave deinterlace set to off, .... , you might set deinterlace on (only bob and if it is any good in that software, not sure) if video is truly interlace, like concerts or home made movies etc.

but both options take time obviously, and encoding takes time and makes video WORSE, how worse, it depends on settings

[simple times]

Actually, the TV I have has Roku integrated so I don’t think I need a standalone device. Can’t I just plug it in to the USB?

Here’s the TVs that have it. I have a TCL
https://www.roku.com/roku-tv

[simple times]

This is the TV I have. Here is part of one of the reviewers.

http://www.amazon.com/TCL-48FS4610R-48-Inch-1080p-Smart/dp/B00K7NCS8M/ref=cm_cr_pr_pro...ct_top?ie=UTF8

“The next step was to see how well the device handles playing movies off of a hard drive. This can be a real deal breaker for me as I have thousands of movies on a digital library, spread over two hard drives. I was worried that the device would only play mp4s and not mkvs as is the case with most streaming devices with a usb input. This was not the case. Not only did it play mkvs fine, it also handled subtitles perfectly. An added plus was that the interface between the TV and my hard drive is the most sophisticated I have seen yet. The Roku tv will even remember where you left off while watching a digital file (again something I just have never seen).”

[simple times]

So, ASSUMING I can just hook the external HDD to my TV, what would be the recommended way to take a dvd and put the file on the HDD to play with Roku?

VidCoder take care of everything? Basically just convert it to MKV? Does it have to be decrypted first?
Sorry if all this sounds easy to everyone. Just trying to wrap my head around it all.

[Cornucopia]

Yes it always has to be decrypted first.

If the roku player supports playing mpeg2 video and ac3 audio inside the mkv container, that would give you the best quality because it wouldn't have to re-encode, just rewrap from VOB/MPG to mkv.

Scott

[johns0]

The only thing the roku 3 will play is mkv and mp4 with the h264 codec,it will not play any divx or xvid files so keep that in mind.

[lingyi]

AFAIK, no streaming media player or app supports DVD menus*, for that you'll need to use an external media player (I highly recommend the WDTV) and rip your DVDs as .ISO retaining the original structure.

*I generally don't care for DVD / BD menus, but if there are a lot of extras (deleted scenes, making of, interviews) it's a lot easier to navigate through a menu than multiple .mkv files.