Creating A Media Server

[bruceb]

I have the latest DVDFab V8 (lifetime license, no need for BluRay) and am thinking of creating a media server for my dvd collection (probably not till late next year)

Need to know if:

1): DVDFAB will fully retain the dvd menu for tv shows on dvd

2): Wondering about how much hard drive space this will take up. I have somewhere in the 500 to 1000 dvds (rough estimate, could be more)Some are in B&W and most are in Color .. some sets have 4 dvds per TV season (some more)

3): What would be a good system to use to do this ? ? It will not need to go on the internet, just a local private IP that we can access via the home LAN .. I am thinking this may require at least 2, maybe 3 hard drives with at least a 2 GB capacity each

4): What type of OS would I need for this ? (probably Windows Server)

Thanks

 

[smitbret]

I have the latest DVDFab V8 (lifetime license, no need for BluRay) and am thinking of creating a media server for my dvd collection (probably not till late next year)

Need to know if:

1): DVDFAB will fully retain the dvd menu for tv shows on dvd

2): Wondering about how much hard drive space this will take up. I have somewhere in the 500 to 1000 dvds (rough estimate, could be more)Some are in B&W and most are in Color .. some sets have 4 dvds per TV season (some more)

3): What would be a good system to use to do this ? ? It will not need to go on the internet, just a local private IP that we can access via the home LAN .. I am thinking this may require at least 2, maybe 3 hard drives with at least a 2 GB capacity each

4): What type of OS would I need for this ? (probably Windows Server)

Thanks

A lot of this is going to depend on your playback devices at the different locations.

1) If you want to retain the menus then you need to rip to ISO. I don't think that DVDFab does this but I may be wrong. Ideally, an investment in AnyDVD will do this and with the size of your collection, the premium for AnyDVD will be worth it.

2) Just figure 7GB per DVD and you'll be fine so if you have 1000 DVDs, plan on 7TB of usable storage space. Will you be using anything like RAID for redundancy?

3) See my initial statement. If you are putting in dedicated players that can play back from local storage then just set up a cheap, local server with SAMBA. In fact, unRAID comes to mind for this: www.lime-technology.com. It was built for this exact purpose.

If you have DLNA devices (phones, tablets, BD players, PS3, etc.) then you will need a DLNA server like Serviio, Plex, Mezzmo, etc. That introduces transcoding of incompatible file formats and requires a beefier CPU in your server. These programs run on top of an existing OS.

4) For me, Win7 Pro has been handling server duties like a champion for a few years now. For a Home Server you don't need anything exotic, expensive or complicated.

 

[sdifox]

how do you plan to playback plays a big role on what you should do.

Ripping takes time. I would just torrent the movies/shows or look into a premium binary ng service.

I run plex myself

 

[bruceb]

Not planning on a Raid array at this time. And they will be viewed on normal TV sets, most of which newer ones have Internet Access .. hopefully they can access the Media Server as is. Not sure if they will need some sort of access box to control the Media Server from. It will be a big job, and it won't even be started until late 2016 and I do know it may take some time to put the DVD on the hard drive. Not sure if DVDFAB or ANYDVD actually needs to read the disc in the same amount of time it takes to play it or if it does it much faster when ripping to the hard drive. Only reason for doing this is to eliminate wear on the dvds and not have to go and get them when you want to play them. It also allows for 2 people to watch the same dvd on 2 sets at the same time (won't happen often, but it can)

 

[tential]

how do you plan to playback plays a big role on what you should do.

Ripping takes time. I would just torrent the movies/shows or look into a premium binary ng service.

I run plex myself

Seriously if you already own them, torrents are your best option. The legality may be questionable but as consumers, I really don't see the difference.

Otherwise, I'd buy 2 5tb drives and rip them in full Isoformat but it's a terrible process either way.

 

[sdifox]

Not planning on a Raid array at this time. And they will be viewed on normal TV sets, most of which newer ones have Internet Access .. hopefully they can access the Media Server as is. Not sure if they will need some sort of access box to control the Media Server from. It will be a big job, and it won't even be started until late 2016 and I do know it may take some time to put the DVD on the hard drive. Not sure if DVDFAB or ANYDVD actually needs to read the disc in the same amount of time it takes to play it or if it does it much faster when ripping to the hard drive. Only reason for doing this is to eliminate wear on the dvds and not have to go and get them when you want to play them. It also allows for 2 people to watch the same dvd on 2 sets at the same time (won't happen often, but it can)

how many client at the same time and what is the network like? Too early to think solution if you are not doing it til q3 2016.

The ripping will be a big job, the media server, not so much.

 

[smitbret]

Not planning on a Raid array at this time. And they will be viewed on normal TV sets, most of which newer ones have Internet Access .. hopefully they can access the Media Server as is. Not sure if they will need some sort of access box to control the Media Server from. It will be a big job, and it won't even be started until late 2016 and I do know it may take some time to put the DVD on the hard drive. Not sure if DVDFAB or ANYDVD actually needs to read the disc in the same amount of time it takes to play it or if it does it much faster when ripping to the hard drive. Only reason for doing this is to eliminate wear on the dvds and not have to go and get them when you want to play them. It also allows for 2 people to watch the same dvd on 2 sets at the same time (won't happen often, but it can)

Wowza, you still have a lot of planning to do. Your TVs may or may not playback directly from a Media Server and if they will, you will probably need to go the DLNA route or see if they have a Plex plugin.

It might be easier to just invest in a RaspPi2 running OpenELEC at each location then you can cheap out on the server.

Either way, you should probably start ripping ASAP. Depending on the speed of your DVD Drive, a DVD should take less than 10 minutes per disc.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Maybe I am desensitized to it but I don't think ripping is that bad. MakeMKV makes it easy. Just do one or two every night before you go to bed and then BLAM a year later you are done.

 

[Fallen Kell]

how do you plan to playback plays a big role on what you should do.

Ripping takes time. I would just torrent the movies/shows or look into a premium binary ng service.

I run plex myself

It is why I bought 200 disk DVD changers/burners. Going through my collection would have taken forever if I did it manually. This simply was the time it took to load 200 DVD's at a time and start the script I wrote to rip them, walk away for 2-3 days, come back and do another set.



As for dealing with TV shows on DVD's, I have actually found it much better to rip them to individual episodes. They work much nicer with most playback software.

 

[Binky]

Edited:

...I don't think ripping is that bad...BLAM a year later you are done.

...and there you have it. Have fun!

I'm a watch-it-once kinda guy. To each their own, but I really don't understand long-term storage of movies. I would rip the movies you REALLY want to have easily accessible, and just let the others die on the vine, err, shelf.

For players, I think the most interesting area of growth for players is in the Android boxes/sticks. These things are cheap, and you can run Plex, Emby, or full blown Kodi on them. Low end is about $35 per TV and high end is something like an Nvidia Shield for $200.

 

[Ketchup]

Similar to Binky, the Blu-Ray and DVD movies aren't going to get any better than they are right there on the disc. Movies we watch with any kind of frequency go on the server. Everything else stays on the disc.

 

[sdifox]

It is why I bought 200 disk DVD changers/burners. Going through my collection would have taken forever if I did it manually. This simply was the time it took to load 200 DVD's at a time and start the script I wrote to rip them, walk away for 2-3 days, come back and do another set.



As for dealing with TV shows on DVD's, I have actually found it much better to rip them to individual episodes. They work much nicer with most playback software.

I didn't bother with the dvds. Just torrented/nged.