DVD over network?

[Grasshopper]

So I've gotten approval from the purchasing department (wife) to replace the current client pc with an HD extender and am eagerly awaiting an email from George alerting me that they're back in stock. I know that the extender doesn't play DVD's, so I'm trying to think of how to replicate this functionality to maximize WAF during the transition. My server is running WHS.

Is it possible to watch a DVD on the extender when the disc in question is in a drive on the server?

Is it possible to watch a DVD on the extender when the disc is in a drive that's on another pc on the LAN, with the drive mapped to a drive on the server?

If the answer to these is "no", as I suspect, I'll probably just buy a cheap DVD player and do some extra programming with a learning remote.

[pjpjpjpj]

I'm pretty sure that the answer is "no" to both, but I will defer to those wiser than me.

However, the easiest answer is to get some DVD-ripping software (possibly freeware?) and rip your DVDs to your hard drive. Then you have access to all of your DVDs through the extender with a touch of your remote, and don't have to worry about going to a PC and inserting a disc. If you simply rip them in the file format that they are on the disc, you get full DVD menu functionality, just as if you were playing the disc in a DVD player.

[electron]

I had the same problem (server in basement, HD extender in living room). However, next to my TV, is my main PC, so I installed SlySoft AnyDVD which strips the protection real time (no ripping needed), mapped the drive, and added it to the import list (videos only) in SageTV.

When I want to watch a DVD, I just pop it in my drive, and within seconds, I can watch it in SageTV just fine.

Another route I was considering was to buy one of those external USB slim dvd readers, and run it over IP back to my server.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

So I've gotten approval from the purchasing department (wife) to replace the current client pc with an HD extender and am eagerly awaiting an email from George alerting me that they're back in stock. I know that the extender doesn't play DVD's, so I'm trying to think of how to replicate this functionality to maximize WAF during the transition. My server is running WHS.

Is it possible to watch a DVD on the extender when the disc in question is in a drive on the server?

Is it possible to watch a DVD on the extender when the disc is in a drive that's on another pc on the LAN, with the drive mapped to a drive on the server?

If the answer to these is "no", as I suspect, I'll probably just buy a cheap DVD player and do some extra programming with a learning remote.

I run DVD HD Decrypter on my main computer and when I want to watch a DVD, I just rip it using that to remove the encryption and then drop it onto my server and reimport all videos into Sage and Ta Da....we can now watch it thru Sage. I actually now have a second server with 1.8 TB of storage that just stores DVD rips...

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

However, the easiest answer is to get some DVD-ripping software (possibly freeware?) and rip your DVDs to your hard drive.

This may make sense for DVDs you own (if you don't mind spending kilobucks on terabyte RAID systems). But for rental discs that you don't intend to watch more than once, having to rip them first isn't really a viable solution.

See this thread for a previous discussion of the network-attached DVD option.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

This may make sense for DVDs you own (if you don't mind spending kilobucks on terabyte RAID systems).

I guess that depends on how many DVDs you own, or at least want to put on your hard drive.

[BFisher]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

But for rental discs that you don't intend to watch more than once, having to rip them first isn't really a viable solution.

No offense, but why isn't it viable? It's what I do Takes about 10 minutes to rip a DVD to my hard disk... And when I'm done, it gets deleted. Easy as it gets.

[electron]

I have rented over 300 discs from NetFlix so far (~3 years), If I had to rip all of those just to watch them, at 10 minutes each, that's over 50 hours JUST to prepare to watch a rental disc. Big waste of time. IMO, with the SageTV setup, nothing beats the efficieny of having AnyDVD installed. Once you start talking about Blu-ray movies, it will get worse. Again, all IMO