I'm pondering doing for my modest DVD collection (~50 titles) what I've already done for my CD collection (1200+ CDs): ripping everything and packing the DVDs away for good.

Option #1 would be ripping them in their raw form (5GB each), saving them on the RAID box, and sorting out the right playback gadget. I've been pondering the use of a Mac Mini as an HTPC, making this all pretty simple to do, but it could also work with cheaper "network DVD players", assuming I could get them to work. The downside is that I'd have to bump up the disk capacity of my RAID to hold all those DVD images.

Option #2 would be some sort of transcoding (MPEG-4 or otherwise). This tends to force you to stick with the Mac, as it can decode anything, and it avoids needing to upgrade the RAID. However, the quality will presumably be visibly lower than the original DVD.

Option #3 is to wait it out for another six months. By then, the Mac Mini (or equivalent) will be that much faster and cheaper, as will the storage upgrade for the RAID box. Also, by then I'll probably take the plunge for a flat panel (versus my current CRT rear-pro with component digital in).

Anybody tried any variants on options #1 or #2? Is Mac better than PC for this?

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Unrelated but kinda related question: I make a point of using the TiVo to grab music shows (e.g., Austin City Limits or Legends of Jazz on PBS). Before I went HD, I hooked up my USB sound card to capture the digital S/PDIF output of my TiVo, then trimmed and MP3 encoded. It was difficult, but it worked, as the content was never anything fancier than 2 channel PCM (maybe Dolby Pro-Logic encoded, but that's easy to ignore). Now, the sound is Dolby Digital over HD. As far as I can tell, the easiest way to go is probably to use the analog hole, and just tap the 2-channel outputs on the HD-TiVo. Is it worth the bother to figure out a way to capture the 5.1 Dolby Digital stream and transcode it to two-channel MP3?

I'm pretty sure you have tivos. You can use option #2 with a hacked tivo and TivoServer. Decoding ripped VOBs is also possible with TivoServer, but I never got it work. I didn't try very hard though and I was using earlier software than what's available now.

Option 4: Buy a DVD Mega Changer, use DVDLobby PPC and UIRT to control it, and your WiFi PPC to look through your collection and pick the title you would like to watch.

I do this as it preserves the full quality of the DVD's, whilst allowing me to hide all my cases away (and infact even the changer) and giving me a very cool DVD remote at the same time. I also take the second output from the DVD player and pipe it around the house to all the other TV's in the house via RF, the quality is good enough on small/portable TV's. The only disadvantage of doing things this way is that you can only watch one film at a time.

Cheers

Cris.

All my TiVo gear is DirecTiVo gear, so the hackability is suspect. Certainly the HD-TiVo has all the necessary hardware to speak to the file server and display scaled video. But the software?

I currently follow option #1 for the most part. I shied away from using a mini due to the lack of software available to build a frontend or to play the vob files from the server. I currently use XLobby as the frontend. It is freeware and has worked wonderfully for me for the last 18 months. I then use TheaterTek 2.0 to show the movies. It also works very well. I use DVD Profiler to create the database that imports directly into XLobby. I can then select a movie at the touch of a button.

I did option 1 about 1.5 years ago. Built a cheap machine :
sempron 2400
5 250GB drives in software raid 5 array (~ 1 TB)
160 gb for boot and other misc
fans


I used a modded xbox running XBMC to strem this stuff.

If you would like to spend less money you can use a linksys nslu2 and two 500 gb usb drives. Transfer speed isnt great ~ 3mb/s . But that should be enough to stream a dvd for 1 user. DVD playback works ok with the nslu2 also.

A server is much more versatile, but also much more power usage.