[glenncol]

Hey Guys


I was wondering if you could help me with a little info


I am wanting ot build a DVD juke box and i am looking for software to use.


I would like ot house if possible 40 to 60 DVD's onto a PC and with some sort

of menu system play them on demand via a TV have any of you seen something like

this?


Also I was looking at a HDTV card for the same PC and was wondering what your

thoughts on the quality of these cards and how they compare to a HDTV STB.


Thirdly i was also wanting to be able to record TV programs on this PC.


PC config


Dell GX260 optiplex ,Pent 4 2GHz 1x 120 Gb Hard drive 1 x 80 Gb hard drive, 1Gb

Ram and looking at a Gigabyte 9600XT video card for video out.

As far as sound goes i am open to suggestion on a half decent audio card for

digital out.


Any help at all would be much appreciated

 

[BizarroTerl]

DVDLobby sounds like what you're looking for.

 

[glenncol]

Dude

Talk about nail on head


This is exactly what i am looking for thank you very much


If any of you others guys have any input of the other question i would be very thankful now i have the software side of things out of the way


Quote:

Originally posted by BizarroTerl DVDLobby sounds like what you're looking for.

 

[giza]

Try myHTPC front-end. It works great plus it is free.

 

[Aaron Oz]

I've just set up myHTPC. It's VERY slick, and it is free. I have it un-mounting anything that might be in the virtual drive, mounting up the ISO from the cover art click, and then opening Zoom Player, and starting the movie.


It's the best that I've personally used... granted I haven't seen any 'pay' GUI's work cause I haven't paid for any of them

 

[jmoney99]

You might also want to consider Xlobby. I've been tinkering with it for a little bit after using myHTPC for a while and I think that it might be a tad better because you don't need to set up a batch file for ZoomPlayer's playing of ISOs.


Also, the interface is much more customizable than myHTPC. I'm not sure about stability and otherwise, but its another shot to take. Also, its free too.


Jeff

 

[Karnis]

Another vote for MyHTPC, easy to set up and use, very stable.

And you cant beat the price!

 

[spydyr]

I'm using myHTPC and TheaterTek for my 250+ DVD collection. Works like a charm. I would love to use DVDLobby but I can't see myself paying that much for a piece of software when myHTPC does the same thing for free.


You're probably wondering why I purchased TheaterTek when there's less expensive DVD software. It came down to features. TheaterTek was the only software I could find that had the ability to change Aspect Ratio from your remote. I've got quite a few 4:3 DVDs and I can't stand watching them on my widescreen with those black bars on the side.

 

[glenncol]

Thank you all guys


Looks like i have a heap of research to do

 

[cmcjo]

Just a quick question to the people that tried them all.

If they were all free. XLOBBY, MYHTPC, MAIBLOBBY SUITE,

Which app would you choose as your primary?

 

[glenncol]

I could not get Mainlobby\\DVDlobby to work


I loaded the demo main\\DVD and could not seem to find how ot load the DVD profiler extract

 

[hjackson]

"If they were all free. XLOBBY, MYHTPC, MAIBLOBBY SUITE,

Which app would you choose as your primary?"


Well, since I have all 3 I'll respond. I use myHTPC. Basically, all it ever does is work. Xlobby is the easiest to set up, unfortunately, my setup would not play and noone could figure out why. In the end, I found the screen a bit too busy for my tastes, and overall it didn't have the customixation of myHTPC, but it did have a client/server music jukebox that you could run from your pocketPC... DVDLobby IS the one you show to your friends who blew $15000 on a Crestron system Unfortunately, I found it's setup a bit too "involved". I would have used DVDLobby had I not stumbled upon myHTPC. It's simple but powerful. It's not as easy to set up as XLobby, and who knows, if I had tried XLobby first, I might have been using that instead too, but myHTPC let's me do a lot of other things XLobby doesn't. myHTPC could definitely use more navigational choices for the people with large collections (only 9 DVDs per screen at once). Fortunately, there are a few other DVD plugins that might have better solutions than the stock "media" module but I'm not sure because I haven't played around with them.

Ironically, I use MainLobby as my remote control program for my touchscreens to control my different AV systems (including the myHTPC frontend!) But MainLobby can be quirky, thus DVDLobby is guilty by association.

Soooo, if you need easy setup, XLobby. If you need bells and whistles for your DVDJukebox and are pretty PC savy, DVDLobby. If you want simplicity of use, and are soso PC savy (and/or your a programmer), and want a flexible htpc frontend, myHTPC.

I'll stop now as I could go on and on. Please ask more specific questions so we can advise what will be better for you.


hjackson

 

[galileo2000]

Quote:

Originally posted by cmcjo Just a quick question to the people that tried them all. If they were all free. XLOBBY, MYHTPC, MAIBLOBBY SUITE, Which app would you choose as your primary?

How about "None of the above"?


I don't really see why this front-end is necessary.


Girder /USB-uirt takes care of my A/V stuff (300+1 DVD Jukebox included), Media player takes care of my MP3 stuff, I control DirecTV through dtvcon and my TV card has it's own app as well as accessDTV. I f I need a weather info, i can launch IE....


Am I missing something here?


If so, educate me please...

 

[BizarroTerl]

Does Girder show pics of DVDs that can then be selected from?

 

[galileo2000]

Quote:

Originally posted by BizarroTerl Does Girder show pics of DVDs that can then be selected from?

No, no pictures in Girder But I know my DVD collection well enough, so just the title of the DVD is quite sufficient for me.

 

[BizarroTerl]

That would work for me, but not for my SO. Since she has a lot of say in what I buy I tend to lean towards easy to use interfaces.

 

[hjackson]

"Am I missing something here?


If so, educate me please..."


Yes Mr. Cynic, your method lacks elegance, simplicity, uniformity, and WAF.


hjackson

 

[orbitzboy]

I've played with them all as well.


hjackson gave a good summation, and I agree with his conclusions. I spent the extra time to get mainlobby / dvdlobby working, and am glad I did. The size of my DVD collection is in the thousands and I needed a client / server approach for a multi-zone multi-pc solution The free one's just aren't there yet. I must say however, I am a tweaker by nature, so the HOURS and HOURS I spent getting everything up and running just right is not for the faint of heart. My "second' favorite was myHTPC - it has a great and very helpful user community.


The only other "solution" you might want to look into is mythtv. Yes it's linux, but if this is a dedicated machine and you don't need to play games or use microsoft word, who cares. What makes Myth interesting for you specific requirement is it also has a single-button DVD ripping, storing and cataloging solution built into the front end. Think of it like myHTPC + sagetv + a whole bunch of unique features (MAME frontend, RSS newsreader, DVD player, etc...). I run a copy of MythTV just so I can keep an eye on it's featureset, and get ideas to implement in my whole-house system.

 

[mcascio]

Quote:

Originally posted by glenncol I could not get Mainlobby\\DVDlobby to work I loaded the demo main\\DVD and could not seem to find how ot load the DVD profiler extract

glenncol,


DVDLobby comes with a help file that walks you through step-by-step on how to import DVDProfiler info. Or you can also view the help file from the following url: http://www.cinemaronline.com/dvdlobbypro.html


Then click on the HELP button.

 

[mpestrada74]

Quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Oz I've just set up myHTPC. It's VERY slick, and it is free. I have it un-mounting anything that might be in the virtual drive, mounting up the ISO from the cover art click, and then opening Zoom Player, and starting the movie. It's the best that I've personally used... granted I haven't seen any 'pay' GUI's work cause I haven't paid for any of them

Would you mind sending me one of your .my files and your myOMP.cfg file? I'm assuming you're using myOMP to view the cover art in myHTPC. I have been trying to get something similar to what you are doing but I can't it to work. Would you mind sending me a PM as to what software you are using for everything? myHTPC, myOMP, DVD Decrypter?, mounting software, etc.


Thanks in advance.