Thinking of buying stuff, running it past you first

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Thinking of buying stuff, running it past you first

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#105105 27-Jun-2012 14:23

Hey HTPC friends,

I have a couple of hundred DVDs that I want to rip and make available for viewing easily on our home TV (by not just myself, but wife and kids). I also have various media files (e.g. h.264 MPEGs, DivX etc) that I'd like to throw on.

The main governing factors are [1] I want to be able to transfer stuff to the device via WiFi, [2] it needs to be easy to use, and [3] I want something I need to spend an absolute minimum of time on setting up (hence not going the build-your-own route) -- see note about having wife and kids (and thus very little spare time!)

To that end, I'm thinking about buying these two things:

Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player Gen 3
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=966788

Western Digital My Passport 2TB
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1181176

I based my choice of the Media Player on information I garnered from teh intarwebs and also GeekZone posts.

Does this seem like a decent choice, given the requirements?

Also, I note the player is USB 2.0, so will a 5400rpm drive (which is itself capable of USB 3, sigh) be good enough for streaming maximum-quality DVD rips?

I remain humbly yours and await any advice or commentary you might have :-)

1 | 2 | 3

68 posts

Master Geek

#647050 27-Jun-2012 15:29

Upon further investigation, it seems that USB 2.0 and a 5,400rpm drive should be sufficient. Still keen to hear whether anyone thinks I should do this differently...

Cheers!

wellygary

8325 posts

Uber Geek

#647052 27-Jun-2012 15:36

Maelstrom: Upon further investigation, it seems that USB 2.0 and a 5,400rpm drive should be sufficient. Still keen to hear whether anyone thinks I should do this differently...

Cheers!

USB 2 is way fast enough,

I can wirelesly stream HD MP4s off a USB2 WD elements drive to an iPad with no problems at all.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647054 27-Jun-2012 15:38

Thanks for that. I've streamed other stuff via USB 2.0 but realized I've only streamed BluRay rips via FW800. Appreciate the advice!

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#647055 27-Jun-2012 15:38

Yip. Seems like the easiest way to do it.

I have a US model WDTV Live, and I can run Netflix and Hulu Plus through it, but you may not be looking to do anything fancy like that.

The WDTV Live will happily play DVDs in their native format (ripped on to a hard drive first, of course) with full DVD menus etc, just like playing the DVD in a regular DVD player.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647058 27-Jun-2012 15:45

Wow, that's an unlooked-for advantage -- I imagined I'd just be ripping to an .mkv file or somesuch. Thanks for the advice!

I subscribe to Witopia (because I often need a US IP address for work) and have wondered about making use of Hulu or Netflix etc. If I were to investigate that further, would this setup be useful? I'd never seriously considered this because the VPN brings me down to around 7mbps from ~13mpbs. Still not sure if that's feasible for streaming from the US at any decent quality (e.g. 720p).

Definitely the transfer of legacy media is my priority though, so anything else is an unlooked-for advantage. Once more, thanks!

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek

#647070 27-Jun-2012 15:59

Here's another post I chimed in on detailing the WDTV Live.
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=99936&page_no=2#606123

Unblock-US works best with the US WDTV Live and Netflix/Hulu Plus as all it requires is a DNS entry change.

You can get a US version from Amazon for around NZ$145 landed.
If you do decide to get one through Amazon, go through this link
http://www.amazon.com/?tag=geekzone-20

And then just search this product code:
B005KOZNBW
It's a Geekzone affiliate link, so will help geekzone.

EDIT: Broken link.

trig42

5813 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#647089 27-Jun-2012 16:26

Maelstrom: Hey HTPC friends,

I have a couple of hundred DVDs that I want to rip and make available for viewing easily on our home TV (by not just myself, but wife and kids). I also have various media files (e.g. h.264 MPEGs, DivX etc) that I'd like to throw on.

The main governing factors are [1] I want to be able to transfer stuff to the device via WiFi, [2] it needs to be easy to use, and [3] I want something I need to spend an absolute minimum of time on setting up (hence not going the build-your-own route) -- see note about having wife and kids (and thus very little spare time!)

To that end, I'm thinking about buying these two things:

Western Digital TV HD Live Media Player Gen 3
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=966788

Western Digital My Passport 2TB
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1181176

I based my choice of the Media Player on information I garnered from teh intarwebs and also GeekZone posts.

Does this seem like a decent choice, given the requirements?

Also, I note the player is USB 2.0, so will a 5400rpm drive (which is itself capable of USB 3, sigh) be good enough for streaming maximum-quality DVD rips?

I remain humbly yours and await any advice or commentary you might have :-)

I do exactly this with a WD TV Live (gen2). It works fine. I load the media wirelessly on to the drive attached to the WDTV Live. MY WDTV is attached by cable to my router, but I transfer the files from a laptop wireless. You will have no issues with a 5400rpm drive and USB2.

I have set mine up to work off a logitech harmony, very very wife friendly.

One thing you may want to do is create folder thumbnails, that way the WDTV will show a picture for each movie while browsing (I put all my movies into their own folder, and download a poster from movieposterdb or similar and name it folder.jpg and put it in the folder).

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647103 27-Jun-2012 16:37

Thanks VERY much for the feedback here. It's really, really good to get confirmation from someone that's doing what I want to do and hearing that it works.

I will read through the other thread and also look at doing an Amazon buy. Always up for helpin' out the GZ through affiliate links!

Thank you to all contributors. It's great to know there's always decent advice available here.

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#647140 27-Jun-2012 17:51

Just so you know, what you want to do (originally) is totally illegal in NZ :|

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#647248 27-Jun-2012 20:55

If you rip them as .ISOs it will keep the menus etc, but the files will be on the large side (usually circa 6-8GB). If you run the ISO through handbrake you can compress the main movie down to around 900MB-1GB with good quality, fitting much more on the disk but losing the menus and extras.

My setup is similar (a 2gen WD Live in the bedroom and a WD Live Hub in the living room, both with wireless dongles). I store my files on a WD My Book instead of a passport drive - costs a bit more, but plugs into the router for wireless streaming, and simultaneously accessible to all devices on the network. Works well for SD, suspect wireless would choke a bit if I tried HD.

I'm very pleased with the setup - all DVDs locked away pristine and scratch free, lets me de-clutter the living room, and I never have to rat through disorganised shelves, empty cases and misfiled disks etc when looking for a film.

wellygary

8325 posts

Uber Geek

#647395 28-Jun-2012 08:51

kyhwana2: Just so you know, what you want to do (originally) is totally illegal in NZ :|

As was loading a CD you had bought on to an ipod until 2008, No one is going to bust down your door and prosecute you for taking a DVD you own and format shifting it for personal use.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647514 28-Jun-2012 11:18

kyhwana2: Just so you know, what you want to do (originally) is totally illegal in NZ :|

You know what, call me naiive but I didn't know this. I knew that years and years ago (like, more than 10) format-switching was technically illegal, but I assumed that this was an outdated and pointless law that would have been revoked. Wow, okay.

So, I guess any conversation to be had here should now be considered 'hypothetical'. And I do appreciate your input, it's actually good information to know.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647517 28-Jun-2012 11:20

JimmyH: If you rip them as .ISOs it will keep the menus etc, but the files will be on the large side (usually circa 6-8GB). If you run the ISO through handbrake you can compress the main movie down to around 900MB-1GB with good quality, fitting much more on the disk but losing the menus and extras.

My setup is similar (a 2gen WD Live in the bedroom and a WD Live Hub in the living room, both with wireless dongles). I store my files on a WD My Book instead of a passport drive - costs a bit more, but plugs into the router for wireless streaming, and simultaneously accessible to all devices on the network. Works well for SD, suspect wireless would choke a bit if I tried HD.

I'm very pleased with the setup - all DVDs locked away pristine and scratch free, lets me de-clutter the living room, and I never have to rat through disorganised shelves, empty cases and misfiled disks etc when looking for a film.

Very, very useful information thank you. I did wonder about the file sizes, actually. So, if you make an ISO, you can directly handbrake the ISO file?

Once more, thanks for this.

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#647629 28-Jun-2012 14:16

Handbrake doesn't need the DVD saved to an ISO first it can decrypt the DVD direct, 90% of the time it's just a case of choosing the track with the longest run time and that will be the main movie, sometimes though the DVD author makes it more interesting to work out which track is the movie (I've a few DVDs that when fed into Handbrake show 99 tracks all the same length .. choose the wrong one and your movie will play with the chapters all jumbled up .. which is a very interesting way to annoy DVD pirates :-)
Way around it is to play the DVD in your DVD player and look to see what title number it plays for the movie .. then rip that one using Handbrake.

Maelstrom

68 posts

Master Geek

#647635 28-Jun-2012 14:24

Mark: Handbrake doesn't need the DVD saved to an ISO first it can decrypt the DVD direct, 90% of the time it's just a case of choosing the track with the longest run time and that will be the main movie, sometimes though the DVD author makes it more interesting to work out which track is the movie (I've a few DVDs that when fed into Handbrake show 99 tracks all the same length .. choose the wrong one and your movie will play with the chapters all jumbled up .. which is a very interesting way to annoy DVD pirates :-)
Way around it is to play the DVD in your DVD player and look to see what title number it plays for the movie .. then rip that one using Handbrake.

Very interesting. Saving me a lot of time here!

Fact is, I've started to see my old DVDs start to deteriorate (bought my first DVD in 1997) so this is something I really need to do. I can't believe it's "illegal". How dumb is that.

Anyhow, thanks again for the advice!

1 | 2 | 3