I recently bought an HP MediaSmart, and my idea was to make it a server for all my dvd's and blu-rays. I've never ripped a dvd before i took on this project and i have very little knowledge of how all this works. I thought that since MyMovies has a WHS version that that would be all i need, i thought it would be easier lol. i cant seem to find a good tuturial on how to do this, if you know of one please point me towards it, and i may need the "for dummies" version.

I have MyMovies installed on the HP Mediasmart, and I have DVD Shrink on my vista PC, do i need more?
Do i need a slient/server version (not sure what all that means)?
How should i rip the DVD's (which format do I rip to)?
What do i do with the movie file after i create it?
Can i stream to my X-box 360 (that was my main goal in all this)?
Will MyMovies automatically get the movie data for me?

Sorry if these questions have been answered here before, im fairly ignorant to this whole topic.
Thanks for any help you guys can give.

I recently bought an HP MediaSmart, and my idea was to make it a server for all my dvd's and blu-rays. I've never ripped a dvd before i took on this project and i have very little knowledge of how all this works. I thought that since MyMovies has a WHS version that that would be all i need, i thought it would be easier lol. i cant seem to find a good tuturial on how to do this, if you know of one please point me towards it, and i may need the "for dummies" version.
technically, you should of posted this in the HTPC section, I think, but I will try and answer what I can...

I have MyMovies installed on the HP Mediasmart, and I have DVD Shrink on my vista PC, do i need more?
you may need AnyDVD to take care of some of the more annoying copy protections.

Do i need a slient/server version (not sure what all that means)? not sure what you are reffering too, if your planning on using a PC as your playback device, you will want that to be either silent or in a different room, so its noise is not an issue...

How should i rip the DVD's (which format do I rip to)? I just keep them in standard uncompressed (well, left compressed as much as the original MPEG...) dvd format (VIDEO_TS/*.vobs)


What do i do with the movie file after i create it? watch it?

Can i stream to my X-box 360 (that was my main goal in all this)? sure, but the XBox doesn't like DVD's, you'll need to convert your movie to an AVI or something it likes...

Will MyMovies automatically get the movie data for me? yep, and if you use their WHS version, it will also 'auto-rip' for you... ie just put in a disk and come back some time later...

just as a FWIW type thing...
personally, while I love my XBox, I only use it for playing games, and as an actual DVD disk player (rented/netflix/whatever)...

if I was setting up a MediaSmart, I would first load/setup the MyMovies WHS on it, then I would load/setup the SageTV WHS (http://www.sagetv.com/) Server on it (yes I know that sounds a bit redundant, but hey that's what its called... I think...), and then I would put the Sage HD extenders by all my TV's, and then I would hit the kegorator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegerator)and call it a day...

what I would end up with is a whole house PVR & AV solution, stop watching Movie/TV in room One, move to room Two, and pick up exactly where you left off... a truly Total Solution that doesn't feel like a hack job... or break the bank...

but I do think the Kegorator is the most important part...

others may disagree...