Streaming from WHS 2007 and Ripped DVD formating

[FeedMeaStrayCat]

Hi All,

Two questions.

1- What is the best format for riping DVD's for play on the WD Live? Currently I have a whole mess of DVD's that are ripped as VOB's and stored in the following folder structure.

Movie Name

Video_TS

VOB files, BUP files, IFO Files.

All of these DVD's are stored on HP Mediasmart EX running Windows Home Server 2007.  The Mediasmart is running Serviio Media Server which is DLNA. I choose this method over using a network share because when using a network share it dispalys all the folders on the WHS as opposed to just the "Video" folder.

The problem I am running into is that the WD Live displays all the VOB files as opposed to just one central file/movie which looks pretty bad.  

I would like to just be able choose the movie and play it without having to choose the correct VOB.  Is there anyway to do this without merging the VOB's or changing the format?  Like I said I have a ton of DVD's already ripped and I am not dying to go through all of them, especially since there on network share and I would have to move all the DVD's to my central computer to convert them.

2- Is there anyway to retain the DVD menu functionality?

Thanks,

John

[Ripcord83]

your easiest solution at least to me would be run a program to put them back into an .ISO file.
granted you'll still have to do coverting but because it's just creating the container and not changing the files.
it usually only takes a few min as opposed to converting to a .AVI, .MKV, etc. which can take a lot longer.

[Tinwarble]

Well, as stated, .iso is what you want.  This will keep the file the same and let you use the menus.

The easiest way to do this is with Imgburn (freeware), if like you say, you have a lot of movies this will take a while to do.  But in the end you'll have a single file that plays the same as the original.

Just so you know and before it gets asked, and .iso is basically just a uncompressed zip file.  So your file is not re-encoded, your just changing the container.

[Chiefy]

This is my biggest gripe with the unit.  I have a ton of DVD's ripped in file structure, and the machine stutters when playing them back.  Only way around this is to wrap them as ISO's and then they play fine.  What gives?  This was the main reason I bought the unit; to stream already ripped DVD's to my TV.  Until this gets fixed, I am not happy with the machine.

[Techflaws]

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FeedMeaStrayCat wrote:
I would like to just be able choose the movie and play it without having to choose the correct VOB.

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Usually all you have to do is press play on the VIDEO_TS-folder so there's no need to pick a VOB. I still don't get why people keep ripping to VOBs instead of ISOs. With both formats however, menu functionality is retained.

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Ripcord83 wrote:

it usually only takes a few min as opposed to converting to a .AVI, .MKV, etc. which can take a lot longer.

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Converting to MKV takes as long converting to ISO cause there's no new compression applied.

[FeedMeaStrayCat]

Thanks everyone for the replies 

Now my question is there a way to make everything look pretty, so to speak.

I'm not crazy about the file explorer format.  I really like the dashboard layout but it seems like the only way to use the dashboard is by connecting a external HD.

Thanks again,

John

[TonyPh12345]

Nah, you just need to add your shares to the Media Library (Setup -> System -> Media Library -> Media Library Manager)

[FeedMeaStrayCat]

Thank you very much for the info.  I have started the process of adding the files to the media library.

My question is how exactly does the media library work? Does it add meta data to the folders on the network share? I would assume this is why it needs write access.

I actually already have meta data in each folder from user of another program (My Movies). I am wondering if there is a way to make use of the Media Library on the WD Live TV, but without adding additional meta data to each folder considering that there is already meta data there. In other words use the Media Library on the WD Live, but read off of the exsisting meta data?

Thanks again for all your help. It makes me happy that there is a community of people like myself who question how things work, and love to tinker.

[TonyPh12345]

I don't know if it will import another source of metadata...  It has to be in the format the WD expects.