I am thinking of setting up a digital media network. Initially I just wanted to rip my CDs to lossless compression and use the SONOS system to get them everywhere in my house.

But now I'm thinking why not do video and pics too.

I am obviously uninformed, but how do you get movies from DVDs onto a hard disk, and in what file format, and how do you play them with a digital media server? Is there a DVD ripping tool? What about digital rights protection? And what about HD? Do you download HD shows and movies, record them directly to your hard disk?You can't rip HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, can you?

What hardware and software do I need?

I apologize for such a broad question. If you could point me to a source of info, or someone who I could hire to set this up, that would be enough.

Thanks in advance.

You're asking a lot of questions. And the questions are very dependent on what device you use (or plan to use). Which leads to more questions.

how do you get movies from DVDs onto a hard disk.
You rip them with software. Try reading through the dvd backup guides at videohelp.com

and in what file format
In whatever format you want in. What format do you want it in?

how do you play them with a digital media server?
It depends on what digital media player you use and if it supports the format you put it in.

Is there a DVD ripping tool?
Yes. See answer to first question.

What about digital rights protection?
What about them? Do you want to use DRM or go around it?

Do you download HD shows and movies, record them directly to your hard disk?
Yes, you can.

You can't rip HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, can you?
Yes, you can.

What hardware and software do I need?
Lots of different software and hardware if you want to do all of the above. Unfortunately, there is no perfect all in one solution for everyone's needs. It would help if you would like to narrow down exactly what you want and how you want to do it. Try browsing this thread area to get ideas of what everyone else is doing.

As one reference point, I can tell you what I am doing that works for my needs.

I rip SD dvds using AnyDVD to deal with digital rights protection, and then using DVDShrink to rip the movie to the hard drive in a single .iso file. This is a single, clean, lossless file and DVDShrink allows me to rip the entire movie including menus, alternate audio tracks, subtitles, etc, or to just grab only the movie and drop everything else.

I store the movies on a 1TB NAS. I can then either watch the movies on any of my PCs hooked up to the network, or my preferred option is to stream them through my Xbox360. In order to stream to the xBox360, I need to convert the movies to a format the xbox will recognize (wmv). To do this, I have Transcode360 running on my media center computer, which transcodes the movies on the fly when I serve them to the Xbox.

Finally, in order to manage my collection, I use MyMovies which integrates into WMC and provides a very nice interface for browsing movies on the xbox. I am looking at getting additional streamers, such as the tvix, for other areas of the home.

I rip my dvds to ISO files with dvdshrink and cd's with WMP (to mp3 format).. It is all stored on a separate pc used strictly for file storage and connected to my network. I play it all on an xbox running xbmc, also connected to the network.. I don't use anything special to manage my files, but I don't have as many as a lot of people so, it is not an issue..

I also use a NAS drive and use a laptop to rip video/audio and then use the Buffalo Linktheater to playback all the content. I also use infrared repeaters and port the video/audio from the linktheater to a Channelplus modulator which adds the video/audio as a cable channel in the house. This setup gives me the option to access the NAS drive from any TV in/out of the house and play it back on any TV. It works quite well but I think the Helios X5000 is a better unit than the Linktheater and I've purchased one but have not received it yet. I use a 1TB Buffalo NAS drive and it works great but I don't have enough room on the 1TB and I'm moving up to the 4 TB Buffalo Live NAS drive.

I have all of my audio ripped in rather high bit rates but I plan on using Flac for my audio because I can hear quite a difference in the audio on my main HT system.

It's a lot of fun and whats really great is just pulling up any video or audio I've ever recorded from anyplace in the house.

Most people are amazed but the software for searching/playing is not quite perfect yet but it's okay.

jongig

p4l

Im about to begin the same project but i want to convert all my stuff to a mp4 file format. Has anyone tried something like this
http://www.cwol.com/ipod-accessories/instant-video-to-go-ads.htm