DVD Server ideas?

DanB wrote:
> For whatever reason I could never make XP format a drive with a
> partition larger than about 140gb, but the same XP will use a 750gb
> partion that is mapped to a Linux box just fine. ??? Beats me, but
> my Windows expertise ended with NT year ago.

An easy solution is to hook up a PC to an LCD HDTV where there is
is a digital output connector on the PC and a digital input on the HDTV.
I can very easily do this with my PC and 32 inch Sharp Aquos HDTV.

The PC will play DVDs just fine to this and if you need lots of storage,
a USB hard drive will work. They are already formatted and a 1 TB
drive doesn't cost all that much. This is easy enough that I take the
HDTV and a DVD player with me when I go camping, along with the
PC and its monitor. The PC is now using a 24 inch widescreen monitor,
so I am not so sure that I need to bring the HDTV any more.

I have a lot of DVDs, so I just grab a bunch of them and take them
with me. I am getting ready to buy a Blu-ray player, so I may take
it and the HDTV and that way I will have high-def movies to watch
when I want to just rest for awhile.

In article <892dnaa1mfhmvyrVnZ2dnUVZ_vednZ2d@oco.net>, DanB <dbxxxxxxx@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Hard drives have finally gotten big enough to be of use in storing DVDs.
>With 4 two terabyte drives, you can stuff 8 terabytes into a Linux server.
> I assume you can with Windows also, but have no idea what the upper drive
>size limits might be for XP.
>
>I have in mind (eventually) putting all my DVDs on a server, then just
>accessing it over the network to play one. However, I don't want to view
>it through a PC video card since the quality is alway way less than in
>native DVD Player to TV mode. So the problem is how to get a DVD player
>to access the file server. I have been told that there are a few DVD disk
>players that have a network connection, but so far haven't found one or
>how it is supposed to work. I doubt that they would do what I want to
>attempt, since somehow I will have to browse the file server to select a
>movie.
>
>MythTV will work for the above, and has the advantage that it throws away
>all the macrovision crap that causes artifacts in the picture. But with
>even the best video card I have ever tried in it, the picture quality is
>inferior to a straight player to TV setup.
>
>This project is just getting to the planning phase, so anybody got any
>ideas?
>
>Thanks
>Dan
Use a NAS (Network attached storage) server software such as TWONKEYMEDIA or
the like on a PC , and then use a PS3, or Xbox360 as the media player.

"DanB" <dbxxxxxxx@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:892dnaa1mfhmvyrVnZ2dnUVZ_vednZ2d@oco.net...
>
> I assume you can with Windows also, but have no idea what the upper drive
> size limits might be for XP.

2TB from memory, that's using the MBR style partitions. Using MS's proprietary "dynamic
storage partitioning" you can have up to 32 drives on a single volume.

G.

On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:25:00 -0500, DanB <dbxxxxxxx@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> Well building a myth tv set up would be more work than I would want to
>> do.
>> Do you have a friend with a windows pc? You need it to format the hard
>> drive and to rip and transfer the DVDs
>>
>>
>No. I have plenty of Linux tools to rip/play/combine/split DVDs. The
>only problem is that the Linux doesn't have a tool of the quality of
>Dvdshrink yet. K9Copy (and a couple of others) does about the same job but
>it isn't as slick as Shrink.
>
>For whatever reason I could never make XP format a drive with a partition
>larger than about 140gb, but the same XP will use a 750gb partion that is
>mapped to a Linux box just fine. ??? Beats me, but my Windows expertise
>ended with NT year ago.
>
Have you tried swissknife? it allows for an external hard disk drive
to be used interchangeably between Windows XP, Windows 98, Mac OS and
Linux. It will do FAT32 & NTFS and FAT16 partitions. Allows creation
of a single partition of up to 2048GB of FAT32 or NTFS file systems.
>
>> The PS3 is it's own very powerfully computer The PS3 has it's own Hard
>> drive also but I like to have my HD separate so I can move it around to
>> different computers to transfer files. The PS3 has a built in network
>> port as well as a wireless port. Mine links up to my network via the
>> wireless and one of my computers has video files that can be accessed
>> from the PS3 although you don't have to . Just use the
>
>Ok, I will have to explore the PS2/3. I can get my hands on one of those
>easy.
>
>Thanks
>Dan

"DanB" <dbxxxxxxx@yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsI6dnUtT3IdTGyXVnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@oco.net...


> No. I am a Linux geek since the 90s. Don't do Windows at all. I use
> Totem for my video, which of course is just a shell over the Linux
> utilities. So far, I get great video to my 21 inch WS monitor, but really
> lousy output to my larger LCD Tv. I assume that it is a problem with the
> Nvidia binary drivers.



depends how you're connecting to the tv.
s-video will never look very good from a video card - stick to a dvi output
to hdmi input on tv.



--
Gareth.

that fly...... is your magic wand....

Problem solved.

Got a Mac Mini that is made for this particular use. It comes with a neat
little remote and a program called Front Row that will allow full DVD
functions from your easy chair. It feeds a TV with DVI and has digital
audio out.

Since I know absolutely squat about Macs, I had to have a little help
setting up aliases (links to Linux folks, shortcuts to Windows people) to
my remote server but it saw all shares on Linux and Windows boxes. Took
about 5 seconds for a Mac geek to tell me how and about 10 minutes for me
to stumble through the procedure.

Browses through and plays videos on all four 400gb drives with no problem.
Should have no problem with 2-tb drives, if and when they get here.

Dan