TrailMyx's VOB file Joiner

[formerlyrara]

First all Tommy Boy I want to say great tool there with ANYDVD - i have used it now for 7 years straight and nothing hands down beats its auto update, conversion etc. I use the clone DVD portion to actually rip the dvd off the disk, i currently have 6 teras full of movies and videos and been trying to get them to stream with no luck. My ps3 can see them using another application but alas it sees the VOB files but doesnt name them according to their folders so its just a long stream of names. I would love to sit down with one of you and figure a way to stream using media center or something else to play on my xbox or ps3 or smart tv ( it can see my windows media files ).

V/r
Rara

PS i have over 5k movies total if anyone wants a copy of a movie let me know if i have a show or movie and we can work out way of streaming it to you!. Yes they are all movies not download rip offs etc.

[TrailMyx]

You really should try out XBMC then.  I use "My Movies" that does a pretty good job loading the initial information and cover art.  Then I just tweak it in XBMC.  But I can stream the .VOBs, MP4s, etc effortlessly.  Once you get the database to recognize the movie directly, then searching by actor, director, etc becomes very easy.  Once I get the TV series figured out with it, it will be a flawless way to organize so much information.

BTW, we're still not a warez or pirate site so if you need to talk about sharing that kind of stuff, please do so via PMs.  All we're talking about here is backups of owned media.  I'm still going to have boxes and boxes of these movies gathering dust in my garage. 

[formerlyrara]

Yes Um Sorry my humble apologies - these are all backup movies etc kept in various places around my house, wives garden, etc. Have you tried out movieorganizer for storage of your dvds and lists and such? They use a dune catalogue to play their files ( dont have dune player so never played with it.)

I will try out the XMBC this weekend and see if its to my tastes, i just dont want to screw up the dvds file format or anything so that i can quickly burn a copy off my hard drive when my kids scratch a disk or something and not have to redo formats and such.

[The Ghost]

It the best our there.  I have an old Xbox hock up to every TV.  I love those old model. 

[Khameleon]

have you checked out the back row skin yet?

that looks amazing..

[Khameleon]

I'm gonna ask your opinion on this now...
been burning cd's dvds for years now..... I ran into problems where my dvd's only worked in certain dvd players weather it was dvd+ or dvd- I also used Dvd-DL's since I didn't have to compress the video but that also started to get expensive...
then I got into Digital Media Players! I stopped downloading full 8 gigs of dvds for 2-3 gig MP4 files that claimed to be BR quality... now I'm so excited to hear about Plex and XBMC.. now I feel like I need to crack down and figure out a format and stick with it....

whats the Best format I should be saving my files as? should I follows TM's Route and start saving everything as VOBs files? should I go back to ISO format? or continue to save everything as a AVI/Mp4..

I thought I Avi/mp4/mvk files where great, but I don't seem to be getting that WOW visual or sound effect I thought I should be getting.

[Ultima]

Those are all just containers. Have a look at the Comparison Table of Container Formats. For just Standard DVDs of 8 Gigs or so you should be able to pack close to 400 movies on a 3T..that's not too bad money wise compared to what I'm doing with the Blu Rays.

Hell Transformers BD was over 30 Gigs as was Das Boot Directors Cut close to 35GBs! I just like not having to deal with the Optical disks and it's much nicer just to click a button and you can be anywhere in the movie you want to be.

The only downside of MKV is that it doesn't support menus which are a nice option but I can live without it.

With the ISO when you mount it...it's just going to open up whatever files are already in it be it VOBs or anything else it's holding.

As far as quality goes it depends largely on the transfer. Usual Suspects on BD doesn't look one iota better to me that the DVD version. Reservoir Dogs was also disappointing in BD. Dr.Zhivago on the other hand was friggin' awesome.

There's guys out there who know how to reduce the file size while doing little to harm the video quality using Handbrake or Virtualdub. I've seen a few movies that were just over 1 Gig of very good quality. Not as good as my 20 Gig of the same movie but my 20 Gig wasn't 20x better if you catch my drift.

I haven't messed around with trying to reduce the file size because I don't want to mess with the quality. I'm telling you those HAMR drives are going to hit the market in a few years and god knows what else after that. It's going to get to a point where file size just won't...at least for our current media format. Who knows about the Super Hi Res that's on the horizon.

MVK gets my vote if you can live without the menus.

[Khameleon]

the whole idea for my media center, I want to be able to scroll through a.screen of movie covers quickly instead of reading filenames... My wd live plus works for now, but is limited and slow..

[TrailMyx]

I'm going to modify this program to also create ISO files.  The ones out there seem to be pretty slow.

[Endless Night]

Ive been using XBMC on original xboxs for many years now... Makes for a cheap media player (can pickup an old xbox for $10 at a garage sale, + $2 xbox remote from ebay) - I have 3 of them and point all 3 of them to the same networked storage.   Bit of a pain on first setup... but very stable after that and easy to update if needed.

I'm sure they have their down side but for my usage so far work just fine.  And the value for $$ is pretty nice.

[TrailMyx]

Ya, I'm a total fan of it now.  It handles my movies and TV series flawlessly.  Yes, it is a bit of a pain to setup.  Wouldn't be that bad with a few DVDs, but I'm over 600 disks into this conversion now, so it takes a little while to get everything recognized by the database and organized.  Well worth the effort.

[TrailMyx]

BTW, I uploaded version 1.1 of this.  I fixed the crash problem if the program encountered a disk error.  I also put in a warning to keep you from overwriting an existing file.  Finally I greyed out the file buttons while a conversion is in progress.

[Ultima]

I tried XMBC just to see what it's like. I think I downloaded it, then installed, then deleted it 3 times because the damn GUI was pissing me off and not easy to use.

Finally tinkering around with it again for the 4th time I'm learning my way around. It's great once you get to know how to use the functionality of it but there are different features available through different skins. It'd be nice to have all the options available or plugins to pick and choose what you want. Some of the functions you have to go in and edit some of the XML files. That may be great for you coder guys but that'll put me right to sleep.

The XMBC Default media player blows doors. Not sure what it is...maybe it's Windows Media player but playing Blu Ray or 720P+ and you get a very lousy picture. Seems like there is no quick fix. There should be an option in the GUI to select and browse to your "External Media Player" of choice. That's another one that got me..."External Media Player".

XMBC is growing on me but my first impression as a layman is it's a lousy GUI and there is lots of work to be done to improve it. Many of the optionals available in other skins should be in the stock build. The Menu Bar in the middle of the screen is a prime example. I had to download a skin to get me the option to move the menu toward the bottom. Silly...

Not everyone (like myself) is going to want to tinker with all these options. Then again when it's free that doesn't give me alot of room to complain does it...but I won't let that little fact stop me.

The world according to Ultima...

[TrailMyx]

Yes, the GUI is pretty annoying.  But running on my little HTPC, it's SOOOO much faster that Windows Media Center.  That thing requires a water-cooled CPU to make it useable.

So far I'm only viewing DVDs and MKV files as well as music, so the stock media player is perfectly fine.  In fact, it bypasses region codes much better than WMC.  Quite a few movies are now playable through XMBC that weren't before.

I'm still running with the stock skin, but have been planning on playing with it more.  If you find one that works better for you, lemme know what it is.

Anyhow, I like it so much, they're getting a little donation via paypal.

[Endless Night]

Has any one else messed around with the Raspberry Pi  http://www.raspberrypi.org .  Its a fully operation super low voltage mini computer, bit bigger than a credit card that boots off a SD card.  Amoung other things has a working version of XBMC and can play HDTV.  Pi is produced by a UK non profit that created them as a bare bones system for schools and kids to learn to program.. but encourage other uses...

http://www.howtogeek.com/119924/build-a-35-media-center-with-raspbmc-and-raspberry-pi/   <== is alittle old and for $6 you can get the MPEG-2 licences.  

I just got one havent played with it yet, but i figure i can power it from my Tvs USB slot so it will startup when ever i turn the Tv on, and apparently this new version can be controlled directly from your tv remote.

With the switch of an sd card i can boot it into an eviroment for my kids to learn how to program .. yea right lol..

RaspberryPi costs $35 - So a silent, low wattage PVR XBMC Media center for $35!!!