DVD ripping

[brad]

I realized having all my DVDs (some ~250) ripped and available on the network from any computer/TV is very feasible.

I'm using vobcopy with --mirror, no transcoding. Then I can still have bonus features and menus and all that. VideoLAN is cool in that it can play a VIDEO_TS directory directly, as if it were a raw DVD

Comments

[matthew]

you can boot with your OS on a RAID5, but you'll need to leave your kernel/initrd on a RAID1 /boot. 100M is big enough for that though.

Also, if you plan on cramming any more disks in that machine be sure to mount a fan (probably 80mm) in front of them if you can. They tend to get rather toasty if kept too close together.

re: watch from hotel room

[dorkmatt]

isn't this what slingmedia is for, with players that rework the codec/bitrate/frame size for PDAs, etc.

[strand]

I know it may be sacrosanct to suggest, but you could compress your video and get a vast improvement in total capacity. It would make streaming a better possibility as well.

[brad]

Eh, menus and no artifacts are worth it. Disks will just keep getting cheaper. *shrug*

Plus I don't want to slow down the ripping process with all that transcoding! And I don't want to have to regret choosing format X when format Y comes out in 6 months.

[mart]

Strangely enough, I tend to consider the loss of the “menus” to be a benefit of ripping a DVD. Each to his own, I guess! ;)

[way2tired]

I'm with you. its somewhat convenient to rip out all the crap I don't care about... like french/spanish subtitles, "bonus features", etc., and just get the movie to play when put in the player.

[erik]

I'm sure you've posted about this at some point, but what are you using for audio and video output from the PC? I'm assuming component from the video card and optical from the sound card?