[enron29]

Alright home theater guys, I need some help. What I would like to do is create backup copies of my blu-rays without losing too much quality and store it somewhere and be able to stream to my tv so I can watch a movie without putting in the disc everytime. Here are my questions:

1. What external blu-ray drive is recommended to do this as I only have a standard DVD/DVD-RW drive in my PC?

2. What format should I copy my blu-rays too without losing too much quality? I was planning on using my PS3 to stream thru, but I guess that won't play ISO or mkv or anything like that.

3. Since my PS3 is somewhat limited, what should I use to store the movies and what should I use to stream them to my TV's?

Not sure if I'm missing any questions. If you can think of anything else I would need to know, I would appreciate it. I have been using DVDFab to make transfer my standard DVD's to .m4v format so I can put them on my iPad. Haven't had any issues so far. Thanks for the help.

[CollinsE90]

PS3 will play MKV, just rip into MK3 and save them that way

[Ochmonek]

DVDFab also rips Blu-Rays.

[tHegeRm]

Why spend all that time ripping your own?
Why not d/l them and keep em on an external drive?

Limitations of PS3 media serving: If host comp isn't running a quad core good luck streaming anything bigger than 720p.

I'm using this:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

^will stream the biggest BD files I have in .mkv @ 15gb each with surround audio.

MKV is the format you wanna use.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Why spend all that time ripping your own?
Why not d/l them and keep em on an external drive?

Limitations of PS3 media serving: If host comp isn't running a quad core good luck streaming anything bigger than 720p.

I'm using this:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

^will stream the biggest BD files I have in .mkv @ 15gb each with surround audio.

MKV is the format you wanna use.

Streaming server has nothing to do with how many cores a CPU has. Its the PC the plays the files needs to have a decent hardware.

A decent dual core and a cheap nvidia card will play any movie at 1080p. My 3 year old laptop will play any 1080p movie on a external 24" screen with no issues, while im converting another avi file with a 3rd party hardware.

[enron29]

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

PS3 will play MKV, just rip into MK3 and save them that way

Originally Posted by Ochmonek

DVDFab also rips Blu-Rays.

So I can use DVDFab to convert to MKV, right? And is this pretty good without too much loss in quality? Any ideas on an external blu-ray drive?

[enron29]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Why spend all that time ripping your own?
Why not d/l them and keep em on an external drive?

Limitations of PS3 media serving: If host comp isn't running a quad core good luck streaming anything bigger than 720p.

I'm using this:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570

^will stream the biggest BD files I have in .mkv @ 15gb each with surround audio.

MKV is the format you wanna use.

Pardon my non-intelligence with this. So this product will store and play movies from it? It's an all-in-one type deal? And 1TB is quite a bit of memory, right?

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by KGB7

Streaming server has nothing to do with how many cores a CPU has. Its the PC the plays the files needs to have a decent hardware.

Yes, serving pc (the comp with the MKV on it) should have quad core for best results as stated by the author of PS3 media server.

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/

Originally Posted by KGB7

A decent dual core and a cheap nvidia card will play any movie at 1080p. My 3 year old laptop will play any 1080p movie on a external 24" screen with no issues, while im converting another avi file with a 3rd party hardware.

add a large audio track to that (like the Star Wars films) and the files get bigger than 15gb using all of the available buffer strength. You will get choppyness or audio hiccups.

Just my experience with my PS3 as this is the only way I watch movies.

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by enron29

Pardon my non-intelligence with this. So this product will store and play movies from it? It's an all-in-one type deal? And 1TB is quite a bit of memory, right?

Correct, add movies to it's internal drive or connect any external HD via USB and serve from that.

[enron29]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Correct, add movies to it's internal drive or connect any external HD via USB and serve from that.

Awesome. It's not as expensive as I thought it might be. Now with the .mkv file, it's like if I was watching straight from the disc? I just don't want it to be pointless to do this if I'm losing quality. And isn't there something special I have to do for the surround sound to be converted? Thanks for your help.

[CollinsE90]

streaming anything wont be the same quality as the actual disc

hire a mexican to put your discs in

[enron29]

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

streaming anything wont be the same quality as the actual disc

hire a mexican to put your discs in

But if I use the WD product described above, it's not really streaming, but rather storage for all the movies in one spot playing directly to the TV. No mexicans needed.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

Yes, serving pc (the comp with the MKV on it) should have quad core for best results as stated by the author of PS3 media server.

http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/



add a large audio track to that (like the Star Wars films) and the files get bigger than 15gb using all of the available buffer strength. You will get choppyness or audio hiccups.

Just my experience with my PS3 as this is the only way I watch movies.

A media server, is no more or less then file server that stores any type files on a HDD/SSD.

The component that is connected to a Screen, is the component(PC or PS3) solely responsible for decoding video and audio.

If you use a HTPC/PC, all the decoding will be done by a video card, any Nvidia video card for $100 that supports Audio and Video decoding will take off all the stress off the CPU. Its called GPU Decoding. You will simply need a free software that supports this future.

http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding




P.s.

There is nothing stated by the author in your link.

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by enron29

Awesome. It's not as expensive as I thought it might be. Now with the .mkv file, it's like if I was watching straight from the disc? I just don't want it to be pointless to do this if I'm losing quality. And isn't there something special I have to do for the surround sound to be converted? Thanks for your help.

I bought one instead of upgrading to a quad core in my PC.

The .mkv is the best you can get from a BD disk but a collins said it' not the same as the actual disk, you are viewing from a converted form, does that mean it's less than 1920X1080, no but it may do things like artifact or show cloudiness. It all depends on the quality of the rip.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by enron29

But if I use the WD product described above, it's not really streaming, but rather storage for all the movies in one spot playing directly to the TV. No mexicans needed.

You still have to rip the BD to some type of file format to use the WD product.

[CollinsE90]

Originally Posted by enron29

But if I use the WD product described above, it's not really streaming, but rather storage for all the movies in one spot playing directly to the TV. No mexicans needed.

That is how I do it, I download and put on a WD harddrive, but if I am not mistaken MKV cant be played that way, the streaming converts the MKV file over the air. MKV is a very compressed file almost like a .RAR.

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

I bought one instead of upgrading to a quad core in my PC.

Dude! Stop talking about Quad core CPU's. Your WD product doesnt have a quad CPU and it plays files that 1080p just fine. Why? Because it has nothing to do with Quad cores or Ghz.

Please get the facts right.

[tHegeRm]

Originally Posted by KGB7

A media server, is no more or less then file server that stores any type files on a HDD/SSD.

The component that is connected to a Screen, is the component(PC or PS3) solely responsible for decoding video and audio.

If you use a HTPC/PC, all the decoding will be done by a video card, any Nvidia video card for $100 that supports Audio and Video decoding will take off all the stress off the CPU. Its called GPU Decoding. You will simply need a free software that supports this future.

http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding




P.s.

There is nothing stated by the author in your link.

^^ Cannot seem to find the info I was looking for...

Serving PC: Windows XP, dual core, 2.5gb
PS3 connected to Samsung 55" series 8

Some files will not even start when run on my PS3 but when run from WD unit they work without problem.

Try the same video on the computer it's stored on, works without problem??

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

That is how I do it, I download and put on a WD harddrive, but if I am not mistaken MKV cant be played that way, the streaming converts the MKV file over the air. MKV is a very compressed file almost like a .RAR.

MKV is just a file, just like avi file. It will play over the air or by wire or under water just fine.

And it doesnt get converted by anything to anything. Once video is converted from BD to MKV, it stays as MKV as you play it on your TV.

[enron29]

So I'm assuming that M2TS is worse than MKV?

[KGB7]

Originally Posted by tHegeRm

^^ Cannot seem to find the info I was looking for...

Serving PC: Windows XP, dual core, 2.5gb
PS3 connected to Samsung 55" series 8

Some files will not even start when run on my Comp but when run from WD unit they work without problem.

Try the same video on the computer it's stored on, works without problem??

Then the issue you have is between your PC and the PS3. Its either LAN or software compatibility issue. Not CPU issue.

The WD has far less horse power then your PC, yet it works fine. Why?

[CollinsE90]

Originally Posted by KGB7

MKV is just a file, just like avi file. It will play over the air or by wire or under water just fine.

And it doesnt get converted by anything to anything. Once video is converted from BD to MKV, it stays as MKV as you play it on your TV.

MKV is not widely recognized, AVI is the most typical file to play and those streaming programs convert MKV to AVI.