MCE DVD Jukebox
on 12.26.04, 08:26pm in home theater • comments (9)
[The .NET Guy] That leads me to wonder about how inexpensively you could build a PC with enough storage to have as a DVD jukebox. Standard DVD playback software works like a charm with these backed up files, so your biggest capital expenses are a video card with TV output — not so bad — and big drives.
I had this same epiphany a few weeks back and ended up going ahead with it. I took an old motherboard I had lying around (1.8ghz), plopped in an 80GB boot drive as well as 4 200GB SATA drives connected to a RocketRaid 1640 controller running RAID-5. Just to make the box look cool, I threw the whole thing into a CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case which has a really nice perforated front panel. The whole thing sits on the network in the closet and also powers my house audio system.
I’ve also been using My Movies on Media Center as a front end and so far, the only word to describe it - awesome.
Instead of using DVD Shrink, I’ve been pulling the DVD’s to the hard drive using DVD Decrypter, and then using Nero Recode to re-encode the DVD’s to ISO images. This also allows me to remove the ’special features’ from a DVD that I’m not interested in, which saves a ton of space. With this method a DVD typically takes up only around 2-3GB instead of 5-6GB.
Jay (December 27, 2004 @ 11:09 am)
this is too freakin’ cool. aren’t you afraid the Digital Police will come and git ya?
Steve (December 28, 2004 @ 7:01 am)
Why? I’m not doing anything illegal. I’m just doing it with DVD’s that I own. To me, its no different than what I’ve done to my music CDs and my Ipod.
Mak Thorpe (May 26, 2005 @ 8:37 pm)
Hollywood will sue anybody including those who go to enormous pains to work with them and acquired licenses from them like Kaleidescape- makers of a DVD jukebox (actually, a $27K box with enough HD space to store 160 movies.)
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/dvrs/kaleidescape-sued-by-dvd-cca-027191.php
Joseph (November 17, 2005 @ 8:19 pm)
I use a similar setup but I take it one step further. I use nero to recode to MP4 and still retain the 5.1 surround. Nero finally made a one step process easy.
I can fit a 8GB DVD into 700MB. But I use a Sony HS-20 Widescreen with a DVI cable to watch the movies in 12 foot wide widescreen. So any blockiness from the encoding process is very noticeable. Nero does very well!
The downside: it takes an inordinate amount of time to do this. It usually takes about 16 hours on an AMD 64 2Ghz for one disk. So I add one movie per day to my collection. The other downfall is that I had to point a floorfan at the pc to keep it from melting. Try running your PC at 100% processor for 3/4 of a day and see if it melts.
I would add a faster processor to my setup, or a dual processor so I could do other stuff with the pc while it was ecnoding. If I watch a movie in VLC it does ok, but if I open a movie in any other media player the encoding chokes.
Joseph (November 17, 2005 @ 8:24 pm)
One other comment. I looked at all the media center pc stuff and it seems too clunky menu-to menu to get to my movies. So I use the ObjectDock toolbar (free) and put a shortcut to my movie folders and video players there. And hide all the desktop icons and taskbar. I use webshots wallpaper and only download 16×9 prints (have to pay 30$ per year). Now I have a very esthetic Multimedia center pc. Add the remote controlled mouse and keyboard and BAM!
I just share out the folders on the wireless network to other roommates. Much easier than using Nero’s media server crap or setting up VLC to stream. Forget the remote control and give me my mouse and keyboard back. I did not like dumbing down my computer just so I could call it a multimedia center PC. (although I have an ATI romote with all in wonder to pull in the tv on the bigscreen - BAM!
Dan (November 9, 2006 @ 7:28 am)
Good idea, why don’t you add every single spyware program to your computer Joseph, just so you can get it to look pretty. I’ll stick to media center, at least it’s supported spyware.
Dave (January 7, 2007 @ 6:28 am)
Thanks for the post and the comments.
I am setting up a media centre pc and using my XBOX as an extender to my plasma & bose.
I have used a dual core 2 2.3ghz & 2Gb ram. The mp4 option to rip does not seem to play over the extender - and still took forever (I only have around 300 DVDs but it will still take nearly a year assuming I buy nothing and I can not watch much on teh system during the process - great!). The re-coded ISO image works over the extender and with all the “additional featuers” removed not bad on disc space. I have a 350GB SATA drive which is handling it very well.
THANKS again for the post - you saved me a lot of research and testing!
Erik Curtis (April 24, 2007 @ 3:22 pm)
I’ve used the same setup as you describe. The one limitation I’ve found is that I can stream movies to my XboX360. The only way I’ve found that works for the 360 is to rip the DVDs to a mprg2 of wmv file.
Franky (May 12, 2007 @ 11:49 am)
Best solution out there right now for this is either:
a) use an XBMC — modified xbox.. Plays ISO images straight — only issue is that it isn’t HD.
b) Use WizdXP with a few of the media streamers out there that support it. I’ve got the Helios X3000 running wirelessly in my bedroom (with the XMBC connected to my 61″ HD TV wired) - and it’s a rather perfect set-up..
I am waiting for someone to figure out how to get ISO images to run on the Xbox 360 and I’ll go that route. My cousin is doing it via the xbox 360 after converting the VOBs into MPEG2 files - but that’s a pain in the ass - and I’ve got 400+ movies plus a ton of tv stuff - most in ISO format.