CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[BigD1963]

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Hello all,
I just recently found this forum, and it seems to be a good source of info, I have done the home theater PC thing for a while, but, I am moving towards doing it a bit better now. For some time I have just done Handbreak/AutoGK, and a little VDubmod. I have a sizable DVD library and getting bigger on the bluray side.

So far, I have a server, that I will be expanding the data store on, and a desktop PC with a bit of horsepower, so if the software recommended to do what I want is CPU heavy (or GPU via CUDA, as my desktop does well there as well), I am fine with that.

Currently, I am using XBMC for my theater playback software, and I am liking the functionality. I previously used Windows Media Center, and 6 years ago it did the job, but very much not any more.

What I am trying to do:
Overall, make my physical media library all digital.
I want to be able to rip the DVD and Bluray in their entirety onto my RAID array.
I want to be able to access it through XBMC and full access to special features, commentaries, etc.

So what I need it a software solution that will rip the disks completely, retain all of the functionality, so I can use a remote (which XBMC supports) and basically have a virtual disk.

Also, what file format would this need to be in to do this?

Thanks for all the help, sorry if I am rather noobish, but I am learning

Thanks all!

D

[akajester]

I know this is a little late, but I thought I'd reply anyways.

I've been doing this for a while, having been through many different configurations and setups. I'm a pc guy and have been for a long time. Once I got into CRT and built a theater room, I got more into audio and video. I realized a few things over time;

I want the best picture and audio quality possible for my source material. For instance, maybe your display can only do 720p. Some day you'll have a better display and you don't want to have to go through and redo all your source. Get it as good as possible now to save yourself time later.

I don't care about special features, extras, menus, etc. I want to start a movie and have it just play. I want a movie presentation, not a dvd or bluray presentation.

Whatever format I chose needed to be modular. I'm not going to go through and re-encode everything later. The server may change, the storage media may change and that's fine, but the files shouldn't be re-encoded. I want "lossless" audio/video quality!

I want the media to be available to more than one device.

I want a GUI with a ton of configurable features that looks good projected and is HD and that is friendly for my family to use. It also needs to have parental controls.

So, after years of changing things up, this is what I have;

1. HTPC (windows 7) connected to the projector using Media Portal. It accesses the files over the network on the media server. Media Portal has a great user base and an active development base. It has all the features I need. For movies I highly recommend you enable the "Moving Pictures" plugin. For TV shows, the TV Series plugin is great. Other than that my setup is pretty default.

2. The media server is another pc (windows 7) with a PERC5 hardware raid card. It runs Serviio to host the files to DLNA devices in the house. The HTPC accesses windows shares to get to the files it needs. I can turn it on remotely (wake on lan) and download shows, whatever.

3. All video files (tv and movies) are in the MKV format. For dvd's or blurays I create the mkv files with MakeMKV, a free program. It does no re-encoding. It takes the direct audio/video/subtitle streams and puts them into the mkv container file (called a remux). So, I have the highest quality stream possible. I'm sure you can re-encode the files to a smaller file and perhaps you can't tell the different. On a large screen however it makes a difference. Also, what if years down the road I upgrade to a better projector and then the defects are noticeable? Like I said, use the highest quality format available to you RIGHT NOW! Media Portal will also handle iso files, so if you want to keep menus and features intact you can do that. It'll automount iso's using daemon tools and with ANYdvdHD you can decrypt dvd's and blurays on the fly. For my requirements, makemkv is great though.

4. Audio files are in the flac format. I can rip my own cd's with EAC (exact audio copy). Lots of tutorials on the web. I ran into that problem where I encoded everything as mp3's, only to find out years later when I upgraded equipment they suddenly sounded terrible. Just go all out the first time and save yourself the trouble!

I'm sure I didn't think of everything. Ask questions and enjoy the learning adventure.

[akajester]

Oh, and Media Portal installs the LAV audio/video codecs that can pretty much handle anything you throw at it. For most users, no need to install any other codecs then.

[Kurt12]

Hello,

I read your post giving advice to a new HT enthusiast and it was very informative. I will be attending AXPONA this weekend and was wondering if there are any exhipitors I should check out to build a home theater system the right way. Also, are you involved in any clubs that have meetings. I would like to get some sound advice from enthusiasts rather than rely on some salesman that is just trying to make a sale.

Thank You
Kurt12

[ecrabb]