ScriptUO
Casa de TrailMyx => Hardware Design => Home Entertainment PCs => Topic started by: TrailMyx on July 01, 2012, 09:59:34 PM
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So I've been converting my entire DVD collection over to my windows media PC. There are many disk that have their various chapters spread out across many files, so I wanted to be able to compress selected .VOB files into one contiguous one. There are a couple utilities that do this, but they suck pretty bad.
So I decided to write one myself. If you guys think you have the need, please give this a whirl. It works great for me.
Enjoy!
http://www.scriptuo.com/index.php?action=downloads;cat=5
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Thanks for uploading this TM I'll test it out on a few movies. Most of my Movies are MKV but there are some VOB files for documentaries and older DVDs I have. This joiner could could prove useful.
I'd love to hook up all my movies to Windows Media Center but most of my movies are big files and I could only load up a fraction. I'm waiting for the HAMR HDDs to start hitting the market. They should top out at 60 Terabytes which but it's going to be a few years.
How are you liking Media Center?
Do you have a remote you use? I was looking googling that yesterday....what the best method for controlling your HTPC so you don't have to get up from the couch. Wireless mouse and keyboard or remote control? Hmm...
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Right now I'm using a 6TB array and have only ripped around 320 movies and only used a little over 1TB. I'm a little more than 1/2 done, so I'll be able to easily contain all my DVDs including all my TV series episodes. I won't be able to do many of the bluerays though.
The only strange function I found with this program is if there is a physical defect on the disk, the program will not recover gracefully. So you need to let it crash, clean your disk and try again. My program is about 20% faster than the other ones out there, so at least there is a bit of performance benefit.
I've actually shifted away from Media Center. There are two others I'm playing with that are very interesting. 12X suggested this one: XBMC (http://xbmc.org/). I really like this one. It's got a great interface for cover art. I also am maintaining Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/) because it works for both as a windows media app and my Rokus. Streaming to the Rokus around my house is really awesome. But they both are WAAAAY faster than windows media server. At this point, I'm probably going to adopt XBMC.
Actually I'm using windows media + MyMovies (http://www.mymovies.dk/) to initially create a database and initially download cover-art. After that, I tweek it with XBMC/Plex for general use.
I have a little dedicated home entertainment PC from Zotac (http://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Intel-Barebone-Mini-PC-ZBOX-ID41-U/dp/B004WO8O9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341243463&sr=8-1&keywords=zotac). I purchased several mouse/keyboard combinations until I found one I really like. It's got great range and the battery life seems to be OK. Another great Logitech (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DKZTMG/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00) product. I really like their Unifying (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/promotions/6072) interface.
I'm ripping my movies without compression. Although I think MKV looks pretty good, I wanted the transfer to be lossless so I can store the DVDs in the garage once and for all. I may take my images and further compress them with Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/), and use my drive as the master backup so I can hold more. But at this point, the 6TB drive will more than allow for most of my collection.
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I'm ripping my movies without compression. Although I think MKV looks pretty good, I wanted the transfer to be lossless so I can store the DVDs in the garage once and for all.
I've done the exact same thing. I have around 600 DVDs and currently 81 Blu-Rays. I've been ripping the DVDs for about 5 years now. I would buy it, rip-it and never touch the actual disc again. Pretty handy for keeping kid's DVDs in good shape.
Your program sounds pretty good. I'll have to give it a try.
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I love XBMC... I have been using the softmod version of it since Highschool when I softmodded my original xbox. 360 aint got *bleep* on originals!
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I really wish I would have gotten a Rokus instead of a WD live plus.. its really slow and choppy at times took me forever to figure out how to view the covers instead of file names... concidering making the change... how do you like your rokus TM?
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I started with one and now I have 3. Nuff said. ;) I like it better all the time. I'm even thinking of starting to develop software for it.
Keep an eye on Woot.com. The have refurbs all the time. They're so cheap that you can get one of the cheapies to play with.
I have quite found a way to play my uncompressed DVDs yet. Looks like Plex just doesn't support that yet. However, it plays my MKVs just fine. One push to compress the collection.
Feel free to ask me any specific questions regarding the Roku. I'm getting a better understanding all the time about them. I still love my TiVos though. There's room for both of them in my entertainment regime.
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Hey Tommy Boy, what was your final data usage after that conversion?
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Once you go Blu Ray there is no going back. I really have a hard time watching movies that I know are in Blu on regular old DVD. Granted not all Blu xfers are great some are downright horrible and no better than the actual DVD but by large there is a huge difference. Blu Ray is watching all my favorite movies like they were just released yesterday. The downside is the size he size and the time required. Blu rays I rip can range anywhere from 10-30 GB but it's well worth it. Like I said I'm waiting on those HAMR HDDs.
How does the ROKU UFC channel work? If you select that channel does it show anything or just a "you must subscribe to use this channel?".
Thanks for the input about the HTPC system you have set up. I'll look into the software and remote devices.
We need a dedicated HTPC forum. 8)
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Hey Tommy Boy, what was your final data usage after that conversion?
Well, right now I have 289 uncompressed DVDs on one 2.0 TB RAID1, using just under 1.7TBs of space. I have another 190 uncompressed DVDs on a second 2.0 TB RAID1 and have used just over 1.0 TBs of it's space.
I've ripped them for years using AnyDVDHD & NERO 7, a full version which came with one of my early DVD burners. NERO 8, 9 & 10 all suck.
My media storage is WHS 2011. I'm still using the same drives and RAID controllers I had in my WHSv1 box but I want to upgrade to a better, higher capacity controller and Western Digital RE drives to build a RAID5 or RAID6.
I stream over wired network to a Western Digital TV Live connected via HDMI to my Plasma and optical cable to my Sony receiver. The WDTV Live plays the VOBs perfectly. The UI uses the DVD cover art in the menu.
So far I've only ripped a few of my Blu-Ray discs. I prefer uncompressed video and audio but I end up with 20-30 GBs per disc plus I've yet to invest in a really good ripper for Blu-Rays. I've tried a few of the free options and a trial of NERO 11 Platinum and PowerDVD 11, haven't tried 12 yet. Haven't been really impressed with any of them.
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I use MakeMkv (http://makemkv.com/). Currently I have about 18TB worth and counting of Blu Rays archived that's about 500 Blu Rays. Quality over Quantity any day of the week. It gets costly but I can justify it because I'm not paying for any television so it's a wash. Too bad about the damn floods in Thailand last year and they raised the prices on HDDs.
Lots of Blu Rays not on the market but it's been a good release year. Indiana Jones Trilogy (http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Indiana-Jones-The-Complete-Adventures-Blu-ray/3956/) finally hits Blu this year. Let's hope they do a good job on the transfer.
So many movies I wish they'd put on Blu Ray but the process is slow because people aren't transitioning fast enough from DVD to Blu Ray and the streaming market has filled a large portion of people's access to movie entertainment.
One day I will have my 60TB HAMR drive with a Thunderbolt 4.0 Interface with all my Blu Rays on it. Hard part is getting the Blu Rays and backing them up...that can be a lengthy process.
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Hey, I've read thru this thread and I still can't figure out how this gets me more runic kits in Heartwood. Help?
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did you download the vob converter and tryied to convert a dvd while running the heartwood 2.0 while doing a Jig Dance?
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I'm over 400 disks into my DVD conversion. I haven't started any of my episode disks yet. So that's ST-TNG, Voyager, Breaking Bad, Red Dwarf, Stargate, Monty Python's Flying Circus, etc. Lots of disks there. But it looks like I'll have enough room on this hard drive array to also store my Bluerays. I've yet to try a Blueray with 1-click DVD copy pro yet. Hopefully it'll work OK - been a CHAMP at the DVDs. Only ran into 3 disks with protections sufficient to baffle it.
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I reallly like XBMC now. It's a great way to organize all your media stuffz.
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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.
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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. ;)
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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.
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It the best our there. I have an old Xbox hock up to every TV. I love those old model.
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have you checked out the back row skin yet?
that looks amazing..
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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.
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Those are all just containers. Have a look at the Comparison Table of Container Formats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_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.
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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..
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I'm going to modify this program to also create ISO files. The ones out there seem to be pretty slow.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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Has any one else messed around with the Raspberry Pi http://www.raspberrypi.org (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!!!
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That looks interesting. But I can't really do it because it's not MPEG-2 compatible. :(
I might get one just to fiddle with, though. Good find EN!
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That looks interesting. But I can't really do it because it's not MPEG-2 compatible. :(
I might get one just to fiddle with, though. Good find EN!
It idoes have hardware MPEG-2/VC-1 decode/encode, but you have to buy a $4/$2 license to use it. To keep the price low on the units they didnt include the license fee initially... but due to overwhelming request are now offering it as an add on purchase as so many people have requested it.
http://www.raspberrypi.com/ <== get licenses here.
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Here's a link to where you can actually buy these things:
http://www.newark.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?id=83T1943&Ntt=83T1943&
And after I typed that, I found the MPEG-2 licensing thing. Well worth the extra 2-4 bucks for me.
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Thier working on a low cost add on board that will contain hd video and 5mp camera.
The 3 different setups I;m gonig to initally look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/
http://xbian.org/?page_id=17 <-- includes apple Airplay support for those apple fanatics
http://openelec.tv/home/menu/what-is-openelec <-- the one i will start with i think.
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For sharing across alot of my platforms *even my Samsung Smart TV* i use TVersity http://tversity.com/ (http://tversity.com/). Shares all my music and videos.
Works for me on:
Xbox
Samsung Smart TV
Other Computers