SageTV + Ripping DVD

[marley1]

Hey guys, I am a bit confused about Sage and if it would work for what I am trying to do. One of my clients wants to have a central location for his DVD Media. He has a few hundred DVD that he wants to rip and store centrally on a server that he can then view on the 5 TV in his house. I thought of SageTV from reading but I haven't actually used it.

I figured if I build a WHS running SageTV and get some Extenders for him, then all he has to do is put the media onto Sage.

What would be the easiest way for someone to take his DVD collection and rip that to the server so he can see it on SageTV. Do all I have to do is create a shared on his main computer and install a program to rip dvd to it and then Sage will pick that up? Any specific format?

[GKusnick]

Yes, Sage can do that; see Appendix I of the SageTV Manual.

My question for you is this: does your client understand that you've never worked with Sage before and will essentially be using his home as a test lab for learning the technology?

[PLUCKYHD]

There is allot to sage and I wouldn't recomend installing for a client if you don't know it farely well.

Do what I did and use it yourself first

but to answer your question is supports native dvd streaming and I would use hd200 extenders throughout the house.

[marley1]

I am taking care of the networking in the house so I haven't used SageTV but I am not the one taking care of integrating it. I am getting it setup and then my alarm guy and home automation guy will be wiring it to the audio system and programming the remotes.

I was thinking the HD200 for each tv, and a WHS with SageTV for storage.

All he is using it for will be DVD none of the TV features.

[marley1]

He also wants to be able to rip blueray in the future to this. Will HD200 handle all that?

[PLUCKYHD]

Yes

I am telling you as a custom integrator "just playing dvd's" is simple in sage but her will want it to look better than the default and that will take knowing sage.

I gave sage almost 2 months in my house learning the ins and outs before I ever put in a clients house even then I wish I would have waited longer. If he has issues and you are unable to troubleshoot he will not be happy.

[marley1]

Would a Vista Media Center be a better solution? I was thinking Sage because it handles formats easier.

What do you mean making it look better? Wouldn't the quality be just as good as what you ripped it as?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by marley1

What do you mean making it look better? Wouldn't the quality be just as good as what you ripped it as?

He's not talking about playback quality; he's talking about customizing the UI to make it flashier. The SageTV UI is highly customizable, with many plugins and add-ons available, but doing so is not a requirement for a good user experience.

[marley1]

So let me ask you, the client has about 100 DVD right now but wants to get a good size library of both DVD and Bluray.

He wants to put this on a central location so he can watch it on 5 tvs.

Would SageTV on a WHS server and HD200 accomplish this? Then can I use like DVDDecrypter or AnyDVD to rip it from his home machine to the WHS Storage Directory.

Then if he loads up Sage shouldn't that come up?

[marley1]

Also if you have 5 extenders, can TV1 watch DVD1 and can TV2 watch DVD2 that are stored on server?

Can TV1 and TV2 watch the same DVD at different points? Or if one user is watching something from Sage are the rest of hte users left watching the same?

[marley1]

So some searching, looks like their is a program DVD Manger that makes it easy to rip videos to the WHS using AnyDVD.

So I would have:

WHS + DVD Manager + AnyDVD + SageTV

SageTV extenders.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by marley1

Would a Vista Media Center be a better solution? I was thinking Sage because it handles formats easier.

VMC will not do what you want. The extenders do not support VIDEO_TS playback.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by marley1

So some searching, looks like their is a program DVD Manger that makes it easy to rip videos to the WHS using AnyDVD.

So I would have:

WHS + DVD Manager + AnyDVD + SageTV

SageTV extenders.

Honestly ripping on the WHS is not a good idea better to have a client pc to rip and copy directly to WHS IMHO

dvd decrypter or dvd shrink will work fine.

As babg said no true WHS integration with media center and no native dvd or blu ray playback via extenders.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by babgvant

VMC will not do what you want. The extenders do not support VIDEO_TS playback.

http://www.nedmug.com/DVDLibraryonEx...8/Default.aspx

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

http://www.nedmug.com/DVDLibraryonEx...8/Default.aspx

Did you read how that works? If memory serves, that's a hack using symbolic links.

You'd be better off converting to another format, like wmvhd or dvrms.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by babgvant

Did you read how that works? If memory serves, that's a hack using symbolic links.

You'd be better off converting to another format, like wmvhd or dvrms.

Yes, I did. When you can run a simple script file, and yes I ran it, which creates symbolic links, in the timespan of about a second, then playback your videos, that beats the heck out of converting the videos for hours at a time.

[PLUCKYHD]

Yeah but you lose all ability to chapter skip select audio

ff/rr

huh... one of the many reasons I left.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Yeah but you lose all ability to chapter skip select audio

ff/rr

huh... one of the many reasons I left.

Gotcha, but I wasn't addressing that issue. I was just pointing out that you can playback .VOB's with symbolic links, via Extenders.
It is true that VMC is very limited in this department, which may or may not change in the new version of Windows coming out, but it's still going to be locked to whatever Microsoft decides to do with it.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Gotcha, but I wasn't addressing that issue. I was just pointing out that you can playback .VOB's with symbolic links, via Extenders.
It is true that VMC is very limited in this department, which may or may not change in the new version of Windows coming out, but it's still going to be locked to whatever Microsoft decides to do with it.

Yeah it won't change trust me they like to keep hollywood/drm happy to much. Dvd probably never, Blu ray keep dreaming.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Yes, I did. When you can run a simple script file, and yes I ran it, which creates symbolic links, in the timespan of about a second, then playback your videos, that beats the heck out of converting the videos for hours at a time.

Then you know that it's not video_ts playback. You're tricking the extender into playing a vob as a mpeg; no menus or subtitles and all the potential issues that come with treating a vob as a mpeg ps. Might as well save space by converting the file.

More importantly, looking at the context of the OP question this "solution" hardly seems relevant.