Network attached external DVD drives?

[CyRex]

Does anyone know if anyone makes a network attached DVD drive? I have done some searching, but can't seem to find any online. There are network-ready external hard drives. The other option would be a network attached unit to house a 5 1/4" drive, but I can only seem to find the 3 1/2" equivalent.

I was thinking that I could just set one of those up next to my extender and share the drive in Sage so I could play the DVD's. The closest solution I can come up with is an external USB DVD drive paired with a network USB server.

Any reason why this wouldn't work? I don't really have a dire need for it, but it would be nice if it could be done for a reasonable price.

-Dan

[electron]

I am in the same boat. I swapped out my MCE box with the SageTV/extender setup, and now I can't play back DVD's. I was thinking about getting a very slim DVD-ROM player, and use it with those USB/IP servers to map it.

I was hoping I could just map the DVD drive that's in my pc (located next to the extender), but not sure how to tell SageTV that this mapped drive is a DVD player, so I can use the "play dvd" function.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by CyRex

Any reason why this wouldn't work?

You can't play copy protected DVDs over a network.

[electron]

Not even when using the PureVideo decoder ?

Btw, the USB over IP method would work, since the system wouldn't know the difference between a local USB drive or a remote USB drive.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You can't play copy protected DVDs over a network.

Ahh, well, that may be a bit of a snag... Guess I'll stick with using my Xbox 360 for now.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by electron

Not even when using the PureVideo decoder ?

Doesn't matter, I think the decoders need to handshake with the drive or something, and that can't be done over a network. You'll get the same result if you share a DVD drive from another PC and try and play it on a different PC.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Doesn't matter, I think the decoders need to handshake with the drive or something, and that can't be done over a network. You'll get the same result if you share a DVD drive from another PC and try and play it on a different PC.

Yeah, I don't believe Sage will allow you to do this anyway. Your best bet is to rip everything to hard drives without CSS encryption as it will then play like any other videos right off hard drives. The only issue with this is the amount of space it uses! Right now I'm at 800GB and only have about 130 DVD's ripped (and unfortunatley no Raid setup yet so if a drive goes I'm going to loose some work).....I need about 4 - 1TB hard drives....

[Tomahawk51]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You can't play copy protected DVDs over a network.

So to clarify a similar situation I was thinking about:

If I share the DVD drive of a networked PC, and make that drive a media location for Sage, can Sage play that movie on my extenders? What about use of ANYDVD or DVD43 as a way to deal with that protection issue?

I'll be looking to test this when I get home as it would be a nice way to cluttering up rooms with DVD players. Ripping is an option, but it slows the works down.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

If I share the DVD drive of a networked PC, and make that drive a media location for Sage, can Sage play that movie on my extenders?

Right, this is basically where I was going with my initial inquiry. I have read about being able to play DVD's on their extenders by sharing the DVD drive and making it available to Sage. Is this only possible if the DVD drive is actually attached to the server?

-Dan

[stanger89]

It's only possible if the DVD is not copy protected. The Extender can't play copy protected DVDs at all.

[electron]

I am pretty sure you can do this if you buy/install something like AnyDVD. I personall don't want to run any extra software to deal with this, so I'll just rip them I guess. It's ironic & sad how the DVD DRM technology always affects the honest people, but not the 'pirates'.

[Tomahawk51]

Originally Posted by electron

I am pretty sure you can do this if you buy/install something like AnyDVD. I personall don't want to run any extra software to deal with this, so I'll just rip them I guess. It's ironic & sad how the DVD DRM technology always affects the honest people, but not the 'pirates'.

I have AnyDvd installed. I'll try this tonight.

[Tomahawk51]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

I have AnyDvd installed. I'll try this tonight.

UPDATE: It does work just fine, over UNC! I had not allowed enough time for Sage to rescan to find the new media, but it works and looks great using AnyDVD.


It did not work; Stanger was right. I should expect that by now, seeing the depth of his posts here.

I shared the drive on my 2nd PC, with AnyDVD running. I added the UNC path to Sage's list of Media folders. I saw no DVD in the list of media.

I also mapped the shared drive to the Sage PC, and tried to "browse for media," but it didn't show that drive letter.

I restarted the Sage Service (for another reason), so I *think* the media imports should have been refreshed. I'll try again tonight from an extender to see if that disc magically shows up.

[electron]

Stanger's statement refered to encrypted DVD's. AnyDVD should remove the encryption before it even hits the Sage server, so I would think this could work. Do you have AnyDVD installed on the machine that has the DVD drive, or the SageTV server? I personally haven't tried this, I was just recommended this solution by an experienced SageTV user.

[gplasky]

Plus a drive letter isn't going to work. You need to import the drive with a UNC path. \\Server\\DVDdriveshare.

So on my laptop I shared it and called it "DVDDrive" so now the UNC path looks like \\GERRY-R61\DVDDrive.

Gerry

[Tomahawk51]

I was wrong, see my previous post.

[electron]

Where did you install AnyDVD? I am going to try this myself.

[Tomahawk51]

Again, you might want to try DVD43, as it's free first.

My Sage Server is an XP machine in the basement, and I have a Vista machine in my office. I installed AnyDVD on the Vista machine.

I then shared the DVD drive on the Vista machine, added the UNC path to the Sage Server (did this through placeshifter by the way), forced a refresh of media directories.

It showed up on my extender, and I was looking at the Simpsons Movie with no issues... <insert Simpsons pun>

Hope this helps, I am glad I finally looked into this.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by Tomahawk51

It showed up on my extender, and I was looking at the Simpsons Movie with no issues... <insert Simpsons pun>

Yeah I caught Bart's punishment in the begining too.

[Eckwell]

Yes! but will it work with a Blu-Ray drive for Blu-Ray disks via the extender?