ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi
I have seen a Western Digital 2TB Disk that says it can work as a Media Server - at the moment all my CDs are on iTunes and I want to be able to store all my DVDs onto a hard drive - is this possible -has anyone else done it and which Media Server did you buy?
The intention is that the Avant controls Apple TV and that the DVD connection will be used by a DVD player than is DLNA compliant(?) and so this will stream DVDs and LoveFilm.
I'm a bit new to this so ineterested if the picture quality is as good and what software I would need to rip the DVDs
I notice in one of our tech titles this month - I won't mention the name, as they review B&O products, too - that the Western Digital media server (this one http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=620) was given a "recommended" award. One of the Synology drives (http://www.synology.com/products/product.php?product_name=DS411slim&lang=enu) was given Editor's Choice.
But, yes, you could rip your DVDs to your media server. Use something like Handbrake to convert them to a format which, say, your Apple TV or Mac can handle. There's a number of presets in Handbrake, to make it much easier.
Picture quality will be decent if you pick the right settings. Remember that the pictures you see on your TV are simply compressed/streamed digital versions of the original movie. No reason why you can't recreate a very decent version of your DVDs in a digital format. It simply depends on how much space you want to allocate to your movies - they take GBs of space :)
Hi,
I have that WD Disk. Mine is called WD MyBookLive (often known as a NAS = Network Attached Storage). It's a pretty good product. All my media is on the drive and it can act as your own personal cloud meaning I can access the drive when i'm away from home using my iphone or computer.
Depending on your computer that you use to rip DVD's, I have historically used RipIt for the mac, which is very quick and easy to use.
I convert all my dvds so that they are available in itunes so that I can use my movies for say watching on an ipad. And all of the DVDs are stored on the WD MyBookLive.
Have tried to keep this post as simple as possible, but if you want me to provide more detail, please ask.
Cheers
MH