CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Wanman,
> Do I only need to purchase the AnyDVD and the AnyDVD HD Option? <

Yes, AFAICT. With those two, you can then use any player to play, or any ripper to rip, content from any HD disc. Clone DVD can be used for the later, but so could any number of freeware apps that are available.

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I think you only need the AnyDVD and HD option which comes to about $81.69.

I just got my new HP laptop with BR drive built in. It comes with an HP application for playing BR's. I immediately popped in a BR and hooked up an HDMI cable from the new lappie to the 42" LCD in the living room and got a HDCP error when trying to clone displays. Then I downloaded the trial version of AnyDVD HD and also updated the media app from HP and tried to play Narnia Prince Caspian and it gave me an error for not being able to play virtual BR discs. I guess with AnyDVD on it thinks it is a virtual BR.

Well I turned AnyDVD off and made the LCD my main display and was off watching BR in all its glory. Kind of a pain in the ass but got it working.

I want to rip some BR's now but I am not sure which program to purchase to watch them. I here that the total media theater is the best but at $70 this is starting to get pricey!

I will probably just stick with watching them in real time for now.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Greg. Disappointing to hear about the virtual BR thing.

I haven't tried Total Media Theater, but I have been disappointed with every ArcSoft product I have used. I'd recommend not laying out any bucks until AFTER you've used TMT and confirmed that you're satisfied with its functionality.

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

If you get a NAS, for god's sake stay away from Netgear. I've got a Netgear Storage Central thing, and while it works, the software is so unremittingly abysmal that I've considered pulling the drives out and running over the NAS with a bulldozer. And we do have a bulldozer.

The thing won't install with the newest version of the software, requires two old versions in a row to work at all, has a horrible UI, tends to bog down / crash machines it's installed on, has crap documentation, and is unstable and slow transferring data. It's an absolute train wreck. Any recommendations for a NAS that doesn't completely f*cking suck would be welcome over here.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

I would have mentioned the NetGear Storage central unit, which is a NAS with internal storage for 2 drives that I've seen for really, really cheap. But I had suspicions that it WAS that cheap for good reason. Thanks for the confirmation, perisoft.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:40 pm Post subject:

Funny Netgear came up... Just yesterday, my buddy and I were looking at the Netgear ReadyNAS Duo. It's a 2-drive home version of their higher-end (and much more expensive) business product. It's gotten really good reviews and even some awards and looks like a really nice, well-designed product. Unlike the previously mentioned Netgear product, it's not cheap.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASDuo.aspx

Unfortunately, you can't get it bare.... The 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB versions street for about $360, $465, and $580, respectively. That would make the 1TB version pushing $700 by the time you threw a second drive in it (the ONLY way I'd use one of these things, personally). The 500GB version would still be about $550 by the time you pulled the 500GB and put in (2) 1TB drives - if you can even do that.

It looks like it has some really nice features, but compare that to the D-Link 323 mentioned earlier that would barely run $350 with two 1TB drives.

I'm thinking seriously about trying out the D-Link after Christmas bills are paid. If it sucks, I'll pull the drives, sell it on ebay bare, and move on to another product or use the drives in a USB/Firewire/eSATA case for desktop drives - or something.

Anybody know of any other devices that are inexpensive like the D-Link?

SC

stefuel · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:29 pm Post subject:

"Anybody know of any other devices that are inexpensive like the D-Link?"

Well there was this girl...

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:34 pm Post subject:

Anybody heard anything about the HP Media Vault Pro?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/564598-REG/HP_Hewlett_Packard_GX662AA_ABA_Media_Vault_500GB_Network.html

SC

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:54 am Post subject:

"I've considered pulling the drives out and running over the NAS with a bulldozer. And we do have a bulldozer."
Would a Cat D-9 solve the problem

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:25 am Post subject:

It seems as though a NAS will be the logical choice for storing BD's on a local network and stream to a PS3. I guess all that we need to do is settle on which one is best suited for the task. One thing that I'm wondering about is how to file them. Let's say you have 100 BD's. Would you place them in one large file or alphabetically with a bunch of smaller files? I assume that if the one large file is used, the play list on the PS3 would show in the order they were installed? I kind of like the idea of one large file. It would allow you to scroll through the whole collection. The down side is as your collection grows that list could be hard to scroll through for someone who doesn't know what's on the list and what they really want to watch. One other thought would be by release date. Create folders by the year. Anything released in 2008 would be in it's own folder and so on. That way all the newest movies would be bunched together.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

100 BD's would probably be in the area of 2.5TB. I just guesstimating because a single-layer BD has a finite capacity of about 25GB and Sony (and maybe others) has no problem using double-layer BD authoring.

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

When I was ripping (ahem, backing up) DVD's onto disk I simply left them as ISO files which I loaded into a virtual ROM drive. I just segregated them like A-F/G-L/M-R and so on with each being a different disk. One file:one movie.

I'm sure someone else had a much more elegant solution, though.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

I really don't think using a junker PC as server is a big thing....I've had an old 700 Mhz PC running Win2K for since 2002 it has a bunch of TS files captured with my HiPix from HBO & Showtime 6 years ago. The old girl just keeps running. Its survived probably 10-20 power outages a year.

This would be a very elegant solution if you own the Blu-rays.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0010237NO/curtpalmecrtp-20

It doesn't come cheap at $2400, but I think its cool as hell.

Mike

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject:

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 5:05 pm Post subject:

Ya know, I was looking at the on line pictures of that and the transport does not look like a traditional mega transport. It looks like a single drive. What do you want to bet it's just like what we are trying to do with a NAS just in a glorified package.

I'm going to look again for the operating instructions.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

stefuel · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject:

It must have some sort of physical disk storage. It's only got a 500 GB drive. The review says it also takes forever to load even a SD disk. Does that mean it does not read on the fly but has to buffer a chunk prior to playing? Wouldn't it be just to sweet if we could just shoe-horn a giant drive into the PS3 and backup our movies right from the player into the player?