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Pre-wired Home networking and media server

lopri

lopri

Elite Member
OK I am kinda overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information with regard to 1) Home networking 2) Video encoding/serving. And the constantly evolving nature of technology means that I don't know whether I'm gathering the right information. Experts help needed!

Here is what I want to do.

1) Setup a dedicated machine for movies.
2) Play movies wherever I want in the house

And what I have

1) Pre-wired home - each room has 2 RJ-45 jacks, all of which routed to the garage via Cat5e
2) 4 HDTVs and 3 PC Monitors
3) Lots of computers and two PlayStation 3's

What I *think* need to be done and what I'm not sure about

1) Install a router and 16-port gigabit switch in the garage
2) Connect the router and the gigabit switch, and all the rest of Cat5e cables to the switch as well
3) Can the media server be anywhere in the house, as long as it's connected to the switch?
4) Now, I want to rip all my DVDs and store them in HDDs, and want to be able to access those anywhere in the house, under a friendly user interface. What OS is the preferable choice in the server side? I have a TechNet subscription so I would definitely like a Windows variant.
5) With the low price tag of today's HDD's, I can just back up a whole DVD into an ISO, which will save time and energy required for ripping and encoding. But the problem with this approach is how I am going to remotely mount/unmount the ISO files with various OS'es (for example PlayStation 3) since those OS'es don't see an ISO file as a video file and can't access the server's directories. (am I correct?)
6) Should I rip the DVD's so that various OS'es can recognize them? If so, what'd be the easiest application that'll give the best quality? Is there a program that outputs a DVD into a single video file that is broadly compatible, with just one click? I have hundreds of DVDs and it'd be a daunting task if I were to rip/encode every single DVDs.
7) Again, since HDD's are cheap and the network is hard-wired, the size of files or the bandwidth is largely a non-issue, I assume.

I will try to detail my questions as I learn more, but hope you could understand what I desire despite what nonsense there might be from my planning. Any input would be appreciated.
 
> 3) Can the media server be anywhere in the house, as long as it's connected to the switch?

Yes.

> 7) Again, since HDD's are cheap and the network is hard-wired, the size of files or the bandwidth is largely

Sort of. At 4 - 9 GB for storing a DVD without quality loss from re-compression, for just 200 DVDs you need ~1 TB of file space.

So for 600 DVDs, you need a big server case, 4 x 1 TB drives, a RAID-5 controller card.

Plan to buy more than 600 DVDs? You'll need a RAID card with more than 4 ports or 2+ RAID arrays.
 
Thanks for your opinion, Dave. I am willing to setup a RAID 5 array if need be. However, the question I have is - how can I navigate through the folders or ISO files from the client, and mount/unmount those ISO files to a virtual drive? Note that I want a Media Center-like interface in the client side (with the cover arts and whatnot). And in the case of PS3, I don't know if it can even see a remote drive.
 
If you want a really friendly interface for your DVD library, you'll want to "rip" them to VIDEO_TS folders, and then use Windows Media Center's DVD Library feature (which will work with a network share). It'll work on Media Center Extenders, too, with a bit of hacking.
 
Ohh.. thanks for the tip, erwos. I didn't know that WMC could see VIDEO_TS folders. Thinking about it, there's gotta be some other media center application that'll allow explorer-like views and even remote drives? I am going to look into it.

Meanwhile.. What does the following registry hack do?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930526

I found out what it does.

http://channel8.msdn.com/Posts...ital-DVD-library-EVER/

Now, how can I access this from a client? Just share the whole library folder? (And I assume this hack needs to be done on both the server and the clients?)
 
Originally posted by: lopri
Now, how can I access this from a client? Just share the whole library folder? (And I assume this hack needs to be done on both the server and the clients?)
Click to expand...
You need to do the hack on any machine that's going to be using the DVD Library functionality of WMC. All DVD library does is look at an SMB share for ripped DVDs - there's no server-side magic to it at all. I used to serve out the DVD share on a Linux box, in fact.
 
I think you are on the right track, I just want to bring up a couple of points:


Are you planning to intergrate HD content to your system? If so, some gigabit system require Cat6 cabling to handle the stream.

What are you planning to use as a client at the TV units? There are several stand alone media devices that can stream and even decode your files from a server source (or even attached external storage).

What kind of controll will you have while watching a movie? Screen adjustments to customize per TV? I uess if you have a PC (client) at each TV then it's not such a big deal.

As for archiving; again a typical DVD9 will compress to about 5-9 gigs, but I wouod suggest keeping the copression a low as possible for the best quality. HD content will be much higher depending on how much of the disk you want to archive. Again, since you are not bound to a consumer DVD (5 or 9) you can choose to have as little compression as you like. I can tell you that you will need ALOT of storage so plan accordingly (it will only grow).

Format: Several available. ISO, IMG, MKV, WVM, AVI, MPG, RM, TS (maybe more). This will be the most challenging part of your system. As far as I know, there are no universal player yet. I think it is the ultimate goal of these remote Network Media Players but none have succeeded. Whooever can make this happen will make a gazillion bucks. I can tell you the having mixed format is kind of a pain but managable.


add: What about sound?
 
I might rip Blu-Ray discs in a distant future. Right now I am only considering my DVDs. I can't change the cables at this point (they are already installed) unfortunately so Cat6 is out of question. As for TVs, two big TVs (a 52" LCD and a 50" plasma) are hooked to PS3's. A 40" LCD is hooked to a PC, and a 32" LCD is in a guest room and currently only getting OTA signals. So it is kinda crucial that the movies can be streamed to PS3. Basically it's PCs and PS3s. I still think ISO files would be ideal because 1) it's simple to just rip the DVDs instead of encoding/transcoding 2) those ISOs can serve as backup copies if need be. But as I read more about media serving, encoding seems to be a way to go.. Then again, I can't imagine myself devoting that much time and energy to encode/edit DVDs..

Regarding sound - Do you mean 2.1/5.1/7.1.. ? I'm frankly ignorant when it comes to sound.. I assume 5.1 is standard?

 
Originally posted by: Lemodular
As for archiving; again a typical DVD9 will compress to about 5-9 gigs, but I wouod suggest keeping the copression a low as possible for the best quality.
Click to expand...
I also heard about upsampling DVDs to 720p.. How is it done?

Thank you much for your reply, Lemodular.

P.S. Also, is there any way to take advantage of PS3's DVD upconverting this way?
 
I have never done any software upconversion, but your best resource may be here : http://forum.doom9.org/ and http://forum.videohelp.com/adv...eo-conversion-f14.html

as for sound; what I was asking was how you were going to hook-up for sound (or surrounds). You mentioned the clients (PS# and Pc's) so I assume you can connect directly to the TV's or run a digital line to a separate AVR or something of the sort. I just wanted you to think about that while you are planning the media distribution.

Good luck
 
Another stupid question.

Without some kind of upconverting effort, a ripped video (whether it's Divx or H.264) is inferior quality to the original DVD, correct?
 
Originally posted by: Lemodular
I think you are on the right track, I just want to bring up a couple of points:


Are you planning to intergrate HD content to your system? If so, some gigabit system require Cat6 cabling to handle the stream.
That is not true. CAt5E will carry gigabit traffic, so long as it is properly installed.
What are you planning to use as a client at the TV units? There are several stand alone media devices that can stream and even decode your files from a server source (or even attached external storage).

What kind of controll will you have while watching a movie? Screen adjustments to customize per TV? I uess if you have a PC (client) at each TV then it's not such a big deal.

As for archiving; again a typical DVD9 will compress to about 5-9 gigs, but I wouod suggest keeping the copression a low as possible for the best quality. HD content will be much higher depending on how much of the disk you want to archive. Again, since you are not bound to a consumer DVD (5 or 9) you can choose to have as little compression as you like. I can tell you that you will need ALOT of storage so plan accordingly (it will only grow).

Format: Several available. ISO, IMG, MKV, WVM, AVI, MPG, RM, TS (maybe more). This will be the most challenging part of your system. As far as I know, there are no universal player yet. I think it is the ultimate goal of these remote Network Media Players but none have succeeded. Whooever can make this happen will make a gazillion bucks. I can tell you the having mixed format is kind of a pain but managable.


add: What about sound?
Click to expand...

 
Originally posted by: lopri
Another stupid question.

Without some kind of upconverting effort, a ripped video (whether it's Divx or H.264) is inferior quality to the original DVD, correct?
Click to expand...
Your media player should "upconvert" automatically if you rip them to MPEG-2 / VIDEO_TS.
 
Never seen it, but it looks like a video recorder and transmitter. I basically record your analog stream and digitized them to an external storage source. It will also function like a slingbox and up load your recorded media to a mobile device.

A few things I would ask:
Can it handle HD content?
Is is HDCP?
Can it handle more than one storage device at a time?
Is it network-able?
Will it work on multiple display devices?
Is the stored format proprietary?
How are the various audio format handled?
and most importantly, what is the quality of the playback material?

It rips in real time so it would take years to catalog a large library.
 
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