Question on storing DVD's on Sage Server

[BrianDC]

Ok, so I've been trying to search and read up on how people are storing DVD's.
I'm new to Sage, and have SageTV running on my WHS server (which rocks btw)

Currently only running a Placeshifter client, but have plans to get 3 HD-200 extenders for viewing around the house.

My question revolves around DVD's and how best to store them for playback over placeshifter / SageClient / HD-200's. I have a fairly large collection of DVD's that I would like to store on my server for ease of use, as my server is not located somewhere that is easy for my wife to access. *yes we do have some stand alone DVD players, but looking for ease of use going forward

I realize I can use programs like AnyDVD to remove the copy protection, but do I just need to copy the files from the DVD to a directory on my WHS server?
Do I need to run shrinkDVD or cloneDVD before I copy the files to my server?
Do I need to convert the DVD's to an .iso image? (I'm not sure that the HD-200's will play then in iso format)

I would prefer to keep the dvd functionality for menus / chapter selection / etc.

Where should the "Audio_TS" and "Video_TS" files be stored on the server?
Currently I have SageTV storing my recorded shows in the //localhost/videos/sagetv. Should I store them in a new location like //localhost/videos/DVD?

How do I play these DVD's through placeshifter / HD extenders?

I would like to only have to convert my DVD's once, so I figured I would ask before I go nuts only to find things don't work once I get my HD extenders.

*If this is covered elsewhere, I apologize. Any help to get me on the correct path would be great! I'm a bit upset that I didn't try to use Sage earlier, as I'm paying out the nose for my current DTV setup.

[pjpjpjpj]

You can put your DVDs anywhere, as long as it is a folder that you add in the setup as a media directory.

You can use all sorts of packages/formats to hold your DVDs but it seems like the easiest and most reliable way is to just rip them as-is (TS). With how cheap external hard drives are becoming, just buy a USB drive or two, and stick them there. You can have the drives on the network somewhere, but it's easiest to just plug the drives right into your server.

Most people around here seem to make a master folder for DVDs, then subfolders for Genres/themes/types, and then even more subfolders within those. If you are using SageMC or nielm's Dynamic Custom Menus plug-in, you can create a link directly to this folder view from your main menu. And as you probably know, throwing a jpg called "folder.jpg" with the cover art of the DVD into either the DVD title folder or in the VIDEO_TS folder will give you the cover art in the menu.

Hope that helps...

[superteancum]

You can use all sorts of packages/formats to hold your DVDs but it seems like the easiest and most reliable way is to just rip them as-is (TS).

What program do you use for the "as is" rip? (what does TS stand for?)
Do you name the sub folder something like Batmanbegins_2007, does it matter?
Is there any program that will automatically search for cover art? This would be a big pain to do it all by hand.

Thanks.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by superteancum

What program do you use for the "as is" rip? (what does TS stand for?)
Do you name the sub folder something like Batmanbegins_2007, does it matter?
Is there any program that will automatically search for cover art? This would be a big pain to do it all by hand.

Thanks.

I use dvd decrypter. TS = Transport Stream

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34301

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by superteancum

Do you name the sub folder something like Batmanbegins_2007, does it matter? Thanks.

From all I've read here (and I could be wrong), it seems that the preference for the folder name would be "Batman Begins (2007)". People who work on plugins for IMDB searches need us to use some sort of standard I guess, if the plugins are to work.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by BrianDC

Ok, so I've been trying to search and read up on how people are storing DVD's.
I'm new to Sage, and have SageTV running on my WHS server (which rocks btw)

Currently only running a Placeshifter client, but have plans to get 3 HD-200 extenders for viewing around the house.

My question revolves around DVD's and how best to store them for playback over placeshifter / SageClient / HD-200's. I have a fairly large collection of DVD's that I would like to store on my server for ease of use, as my server is not located somewhere that is easy for my wife to access. *yes we do have some stand alone DVD players, but looking for ease of use going forward

There's a section in the SageTV manual about how to do DVDs.

I realize I can use programs like AnyDVD to remove the copy protection, but do I just need to copy the files from the DVD to a directory on my WHS server?

Yes that will work.

Do I need to run shrinkDVD or cloneDVD before I copy the files to my server?

You can, I use DVD Shrink (set to No Compression) to strip out everything but the main movie, saving space and making it more seamless as the movie just starts when you select it instead of going through all the BS a the menus.

Do I need to convert the DVD's to an .iso image? (I'm not sure that the HD-200's will play then in iso format)

No you don't need to, and I wouldn't since iso only works natively on extenders.

One thing I should bring up is Placeshifter (unless something changed recently) doesn't support DVDs. If Placeshifter support is a must, then you'll need to look into converting/remuxing to a different format.

I would prefer to keep the dvd functionality for menus / chapter selection / etc.

If you want that then the "Rip Video DVD to Disk" in AnyDVD will work.

Where should the "Audio_TS" and "Video_TS" files be stored on the server?

See the SageTV manual.

Currently I have SageTV storing my recorded shows in the //localhost/videos/sagetv. Should I store them in a new location like //localhost/videos/DVD?

That would work, I have separate shares for all my imported media.

How do I play these DVD's through placeshifter / HD extenders?

You just pick them from the Videos section, though as noted, Placeshifter doesn't support DVDs (AFAIK).

What program do you use for the "as is" rip? (what does TS stand for?)

In this case it just means native folder structure (ie VIDEO_TS folder, not Transport Stream). Any number of programs will rip as is, I have AnyDVD so I just use that.

Do you name the sub folder something like Batmanbegins_2007, does it matter?

However you want to name it, you just make a folder <moviename> and stick the VIDEO_TS folder contents in that.

Is there any program that will automatically search for cover art? This would be a big pain to do it all by hand.

I'll leave that to a search, there are a few options for that.