1500 DVD collection - How/Where to start converting to HTPC? - Page 2

You will for sure watch and enjoy them more if you rip them and then ad the meta data to browse in a slick front end like XBMC or mediabrowser.

Build a cheap server with FLEXRAID- and go for it.

You just had to say that, didn't you? The cost of a FlexRAID combo license ($60) plus a hard drive for the OS ($60, give or take) is about the same as the cost of an unRAID Pro license ($119 to support up to 21 drives plus the cost of a compatible USB flash drive). If you use Windows Home Server with FlexRAID then add another $50 to the cost, making it the more expensive proposition. Ubuntu Linux is probably the least expensive option for using FlexRAID since it's free. The rest of the hardware used is identical in either configuration so that's a complete wash.

Unfortunately, I decided to try FlexRAID a while back with my existing unRAID hardware and it completely choked when I tried using more than about 8 drives. There was some sort of hardware incompatibility that I could not overcome so I switched back to unRAID and everything is hunky dory. That's not to say anyone else can't get FlexRAID to work because they obviously have. My situation was probably an isolated one so don't discount FlexRAID on one bad experience. The program has a lot of potential and some features that unRAID doesn't have, such as the ability to configure multiple parity drives.

OTOH, I've been using unRAID going on about six years now and I love it. I've had a couple of drive failures along the way and was able to restore the lost data from the parity drive every time. I've had one or two drives that liked to somehow declare themselves as disconnected from the array on occasion, causing me to reconfigure the drives and rebuild the data. This turned out to be a hardware issue unrelated to unRAID. I have since replaced the flaky drive(s) and so far the array has been quite stable.
Edited by captain_video - 1/7/13 at 1:31pm

I really don't have a preference either way. I just use FLEXRAID personally and it works very well for exactly what the OP wants to do.

I have used more than 8 drives. I think once your server really gets rolling you need ZFS.

I'm still noob and learning there. For now WHS2011 + FlexRaid works really well for me.

I am at 20TB's now.

Food for thought: I don't think WHS 2011 plays nice with networked storage, and the My Movies auto-ripping feature is only available on WHS 2011. I don't know of any other solution like My Movies', and I couldn't imagine ripping 1500 DVD's manually

Something to think about when choosing between WHS+Flexraid, Nas, Unraid, etc.

Ripping DVDs isn't really much of a time consuming process with today's hardware. You should be able to rip most DVDs in five minutes or less. There are at least a few ripping apps that allow you to rip multiple discs simultaneously and optical drives are available for less than $20 apiece. With three DVD drives in a PC, you should theoretically be able to rip 30-40 DVDs or more in an hour. It can be a tedious process, but it's not as bad as you might think, especially if you just do it in your spare time. If you dedicate just one hour per night and a maybe bit more on the weekends, you'll get through all 1500 DVDs before you know it. I had to rip over 900 DVDs and Blu-Rays and convert them to mkv's a while back and it took me only 2-3 weeks to get them all done. Since you're doing all DVDs and no Blu-Rays, you could probably finish the task in less time than me. If you can set up your ripping PC near your TV you can watch it while doing the rips. All you have to do is swap discs and start the rip with a mouse click or two and then wait for the next disc to finish. The job goes much faster if you have something to do while waiting for the discs to rip.

FWIW, I had all of my Blu-Rays ripped as iso's and my DVDs were in folder format. I decided to give XBMC a try for mkv playback and it turned out to be the best playback app I had used to date that provided absolutely smooth playback with HD audio (I was using a HD audio patch with XBMC at the time). Prior to this, playback of Blu-Rays was inconsistent and sometimes stuttered or froze. This alone prompted me to convert my entire library to mkv's using MakeMKV. I have never regretted spending the time converting them as my entire movie library is now available to any PC in the house.
Edited by captain_video - 1/8/13 at 4:59am

How do you rip BluRay to ISO ?

AnyDVD HD. It allows you to rip to either iso or folders, with or without encryption.

And so what do you use as a player ?

DVDFab or MakeMkv are the free options.

Option 3:
Suggestions?

HTPC with 12TB(9TB) of hard drives.

Option 4:

Media Streamer with NAS/File Server(cheapest, easiest and most limited option).

COST:

*HTPC: $100 - $2000

*File Server: $150 - $2000

**HDD's: 3TB x4 $600
x5 $750
4TB x4 $1240

Media Streamer: $50 - $200

***NAS: 5-bay $350 - $1000

*note: Prices vary significantly from Atom based platforms to high-end desktops.

**note: File Server or NAS must support 3/4TB hdd's

***note: The highest end NAS will potentially perform as good as the lowest end file server...

Hey Captain, does MakeMKV support doing simultaneous rips? I'm curious because it doesn't allow me to name the output file, so will it try to overwrite whichever one finishes first? I would love to rip 2 at a time!

I haven't actually tried it on a single PC yet. I do know that AnyDVD HD allows multiple rips simultaneously. I've only tried multiple rips with MakeMKV on multiple PCs at the same time. If I get a chance I'll check it out with a couple of DVDs this evening and see if it works. I know what you mean about the output file. Some will adopt the name of the disc while others will just come out as "title_01.mkv." I suspect I'll have to point the output to different folders in order for it to work, assuming I can get multiple instances to open on my desktop.

For iso's I'll mount the image using VirtualCloneDrive and then play it with PowerDVD, TMT5, Nero, or any other playback app that works with actual discs. I used to use mikinho's disk image mounting app inside of WMC to automount the image and begin playback in either PDVD or TMT5, depending on which one was installed at the time. For mkv's I use XBMC with the HD audio patch, although the latest beta version includes HD audio capability. I'm actually using the Eden RC2 version with the HD audio patch installed on top of it. I tried the latest beta version and playback stuttered all over the place. I switched back to what's been working for me so now all is well once again.

There was a multi-rip programme posted in the MakeMKV forums, but I could never get it too work - do a search in there it is there.

MakeMKV does allow for output file names for precisely the reason you give.

Make sure the 'title' on the left hand pane is highlighted - then on the right hand pane under properties you should have drop-down option (name - by default, but also filename and metadata language) choose filename, name your file and the output name is whatever you made it. This can be changed for multiple titles should you want more than the main movie, or to output a TV Series.

EDIT

Here's the link to MultiMakeMKV - http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4987 don't know how.or if it works and there is no follow up postings to confirm whether it works - me? I couldn't get the damn thing to work.
Edited by steelman1991 - 1/8/13 at 12:24pm

Definitely subscribe to AG, that's the best $25 I've spent in a while!

I'm not overly familiar with what NAS storage is, but here is what I built a month ago and what it cost:

Four Seagate Barracuda 7200 3 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare x $96.51 each $386.04
Rosewill Challenger case $39.99
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $49.99
Two DVD Burners $19.99 each $39.98
AMD A6-5400K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7540D $74.99 (minus $10 for combo with mobo) $64.99
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $59.99
Crucial Ballistix BLS2KIT4G3D1609DS1S0 Desktop Memory Kit - 8GB (2x 4GB), PC3-12800, DDR3-1600MHz, 240-pin DIMM, 1.5V $27.99
Windows 7 64 bit $79.99
Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 with Built-In Multi-Touch Touchpad $22.99

Total of $771.95

Had I found this forum first, and realized the potential of an HTPC, I think I would have bought a bigger case (to hold more DVD writers and more HDDs), and a motherboard with more SATA ports, or figured out how to do the HDDs separate from the actually HTPC, but we're still AD and moving around a lot, so one case works best for us right now. I only learned about HTPCs about a year ago, but HDD prices are so yucky, I hadn't pursued it. When I caught Amazon's HDDs for less than $100, I bought one, had the husband buy one, and had my mom buy one. (Limit one per account on that deal). One got lost in the mail (my mailman is an idiot), so Amazon sent me another, and then both the original and replacement showed up within the same week. Amazon let me just buy the replacement for the same price.

I consider what I built to be my starter, and I want it to last until the husband retires from the Army. THEN I will look into doing some of the setups these guys have in the pictures thread, and maybe do a server (? I don't know really how they work yet, but when the time comes, i will learn) in a central location and have HTPCs on the different TVs in the house.

Anyway, just babbling, wanted to give you an idea of a budget build.

I'm happy to report that MakeMKV does allow for multiple rips simultaneously. I just double-clicked on the MakeMKV shortcut on my desktop twice and two separate windows opened up. I have two DVDs being ripped at the same time as I'm writing this. I just changed the output folder for the 2nd rip to a different location and started them both up.

Thanks for the info, I wish I had known that when I ripped some of my TV DVD's

I wouldn't bother AMD's APU's. An i3 sucks less power and has more grunt for a general server.

Captain - they can be sent to the same destination folder, if desired, see my post further up. Output name can be preset.

I believe the above build is a htpc and in that case an AMD APU makes a lot of sense.

The OP missed out on a lot of great hdd deals over the holiday season.

I have run multiple instances of MakeMKV without any problems. The same can be said of DVDFab.

captain_video,
Please read a little closer before you start attacking. I was only trying to provide some real world data to someone who is just starting to learn. I never said I ripped all my movies to ISO images, what I stated was "Most of the TV shows were ripped to ISO images". Most of my Blu-Ray movies are ripped to the MKV container and I have stripped out all the extras, menus, commentary, second languages etc. I would say my average Blu-Ray rip in MKV format is around 5 GB in size, but some go as high as 13 GB for Dark Knight Rises. Not all are in the MKV container, some are avi, some are MP4, which are MUCH smaller and ripped when I didn't know better.

I am sorry you don't believe my real world data, I would invite you over to count for yourself, but why bother. Excuse me for trying to help someone learn about this hobby/obsession.

I really don't think captain_video was attacking you. Indeed the numbers you gave were very strange. The OP specifically asked how much storage his library would take up and said that he didn't want to lose any quality. In your original post you make it sound like you just took out the menus and extras. You didn't mention anything about compressing. You even said: "Some people like to use other formats to save space because the rips are smaller. I can notice the difference between a MKV and AVI rip and I wanted to go with the best quality since I only wanted to rip the movies once."

And indeed you did compress the crap out of your blu-rays if you made them 5 GB. That's even smaller than a DVD. At that point I don't even see the point in buying blu-rays.

I'm not attacking anyone. I'm just disputing the figures you presented as being erroneous for uncompressed data. It's simply a matter of doing the math and your numbers don't add up. Your "real world data" is only useful if you provide all of the facts. An uncompressed Blu-Ray ripped and stripped of extras will be a minimum size of around 20 - 25GB on average. If your files are only 5GB then there is some serious compression going on in your ripping/conversion process. I sincerely doubt that your BD discs have 30GB or more of extras on them. I'm guessing you're using Handbrake or similar app for ripping, correct? My uncompressed "Dark Knight Rises" Blu-Ray rip with the extras removed is in excess of 30GB so you are definitely using some form of compression when you convert to mkv. Try your next rip using MakeMKV and then let us know what you end up with. MakeMKV performs zero compression and gives you a 1:1 copy of the original movie with HD audio in an mkv container.

If you are referring to the build I posted, yes, it is an HTPC, not a server. I'm pretty computer part stupid , so I asked on my game forums for a build suggestion, and mostly went with their advice. (They helped me build my gaming PC about a year ago and I'm very happy with it, so I trusted their advice, and unfortunately had not discovered this forum yet. If I had, and had done lots of reading, I probably would have changed a few things, but I am beyond thrilled with what I have for the money I spent at this point.) I would consider it a budget build, though I was told AMD A2 CPUs are great for this type of build (whereas Intel is preferred for my game, apparently, as it's a CPU driven game and not so much GPU intensive)


Steel, in a bit I'm going to make a new thread about this so as to stop hijacking lektern's thread. I am not seeing where I can change the output file name, and I will post screenshots for you, so maybe you can tell me where I am missing it at. (I am having success with writing to different folders, but that's kinda confusing LOL)

Will watch for it