We can’t have a satellite dish at our temporary apartment without paying a crazy fee. It’s not a problem, though. If plans go roughly the way we hope, we’ll only be here through the summer and who wants to watch TV in the Summer?.
In the 9 years we’ve been married, we’ve opted to buy DVDs rather than go to the movie theater. The DVD collection is significant and we won’t have room for all the DVDs on the bus. We’re putting them all on a Drobo using Handbrake to produce Apple TV ready files. I expect it to take most of the Summer.
Today, I’m routing cables so we can watch the movies stored on the Drobo.
I’m using the Mac Pro to process the video files and to act as the player (quicktime). We have three video cards on the Mac Pro. One is connected to a 37″ Vizio display over a 25′ long VGA extension cable.
I ordered a 12′ TOS cable from Monoprice.com to connect to a JAMO home theater system. I also ordered an ethernet cable to connect the Mac Pro directly to the Airport Extreme so we get better reliability when watching movies.
Ultimately we want to incorporate Apple TV into the mix, but for now it’s just a quick and dirty way to kick back and watch a movie in our temporary little world.
10 Comments
Hi Neal,
I am in the same situation and it is indeed a very lengthy project (particularly as I do not have a Mac Pro for the ripping).
I wish there was a service where you could send all your DVDs to and get a Drobo back with everything sorted nicely.
I am adding the movies to iTunes afterwards with summary etc so I can access it via other Mac and Apple TV - works great.
Which settings are you using in Handbreak?
Same here. Ripping DVDs using DVDFab Platinum to my Drobo for viewing on Vista media center. I’m about 20% there as I work on it when I have time. I can push three (2 fast and 1 slow) machines into ripping duty at a time…nice to have the library browsable on the big screen.
Klaus, I use the Apple TV default setting with 5.1 surround sound.
Something I didn’t mention is that I also use an application called MetaX to tag the file and add cover art.
I LOVE the Drobo DVD business idea. Someone should do it!
DVD business idea = never happen.
Remember guys, ripping DVDs is kinda-sorta illegal.
Thanks for the MetaX tip Neal, looks very valuable. I suppose you still need to keep all the original DVD’s in any event in case you need to ever provide proof of ownership?
So the business model starts to shape up - exchange your original DVD with a digital copy (or permanent stream rights for that title) from someone against a small fee..?!
I will keep my DVDs in storage both to prove ownership and also because of potential format changes in the future. For example, all the DVDs I backed up prior to Apple TV 5.1 surround sound are only in stereo.
Often DVD backups look better than the original, I guess because the re-compression for Apple TV.
@FWGMILLS - Kaleidescape is a business that does just that and they won a legal battle when they were sued (http://www.cepro.com/article/kaleidescape_prevails_in_dvd_ripping_case/). They charge a massive amount of money for the hardware and DVDs on the system have to be purchased legally.
I’m interested in hearing updates on this project. I’ve dabbled with this a bit (decided that wherever I go in the world, I need to have “Star Wars” in my pocket), but the time commitment to do a major collection is considerable. I’ve got quite a large collection, too, and I know I’d watch things more if they had the more immediate accessibility of being stored on a server rather than in one of the many shelving locations I’ve got around the house. The biggest blocking point to a business doing this at the moment is that (as I’m sure everyone here understands) simply defeating the copy protection on the disc is illegal in the United States. You can be the legal owner of the disc and the only person who will ever watch the movie after it’s been ripped, but the necessary step along the way breaks the law. I suspect discs will do their fade out before that law manages to change in the US. That all said, I could do this and still sleep at night just fine. It’ inarguably illegal , but it doesn’t strike me as morally wrong. The people the studio wishes to see reimbursed for their part in the production were when I bought the disc. What I’m opting for is mainly a different, easier to manage, storage medium. Because this enables widespread distribution of a single paid copy, it’s against the law. Not because of what I will do with the technology, but what others have done with it.
Let’s see…
Olympics 2008
Euro Soccer Tournament
UFC
Randy - I think those are all sports words/events/teams and since I’d rather peel my skin off bits at a time than see sports, I’m still okay to be without the satellite.
You make a good point, though. Satellite and cable is better suited for providing entertainment for sports fans than the Internet will be for awhile.
I’m pretty sure that fee is not legal. I may have read this wrong but see: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html
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