Can Someone tell me if THIS exists - VIDEO server type device...

[dane]

Following the quick answering of prayers to hammondc's original thread (found here), I feel compelled to mimic his successful post to ask for something that *I* have been looking for...

Marantz used to make a Music Server (DH9300) similar to what the squeezebox does but does so as a hi-fi component rather than via a computer (our computer doesn't stay on very long) ...

Well I'm looking for a stand-alone "VIDEO server" for video storage.. Not TONS of videos, mind you -- maybe 10-20 tops... I have no problems deleting less-watched movies to make rooms for new movies bubbling their way to the top of the list. This will be for most of the kids' favorite movies as well as a few of my own..

I'm not terribly interested in a dedicated PC for this type of thing, I would imagine that something more hi-fi comonent based would consume less power and make less noise (discussions of 'slient PCs' aside), and more importantly, be much simpler than building a dedicated HTPC and teaching my wife (and myself) how to use it.

Simple sometimes really is better, even at the expense of features. :thumbsup:

In my best hammondc voice, ( :D )

Am I dreaming or what?

thanks!
..dane

[woofersus]

I think Nuforce makes something like that, but it's expensive. There are a bunch of streaming devices, but for something that stores media locally, there are a couple of hard drive based players that you could load up with media. I know WD makes one. Also, there's Apple TV depending on what file formates you'd want to deal with. I believe it syncs up with a computer and stores media localy.

[gonk]

There's Kaleidescape, but it's at a scale and cost that doesn't match your desire.

I've used an external USB hard drive with my OPPO players (starting with the 980H) to rip copies of my daughter's DVD's and play back the .VOB files, but it's not the most robust approach on earth.

[dvenardos]

DVD recorder with hard drive?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214

For 10-20 movies what are you gaining over popping the DVD in the player? Are you trying to keep the kids from wrecking the DVDs?

edit: or maybe you need it to serve all your tvs?

[hawkeyejw]

Wish I had as quick and helpful a post for you as I did for hammondc, Dane! Unfortunately, centrally storing videos (especially DVDs) for playback on your television/projector doesn't seem to be as straightforward as it is on the music side. I *think* that you can rip movies to a hard drive and stream them through Apple TV, but I'm not sure how straightforward it is.

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of legal proceedings over whether consumers have the right to back up the dvd's they own (reference).

I'd love to have a central server to play all my movies from as well, so if there's something out there that I don't know about, it would be great if someone pointed me (and Dane) in the right direction!

[Monkeypimp]

Wish I had as quick and helpful a post for you as I did for hammondc, Dane! Unfortunately, centrally storing videos (especially DVDs) for playback on your television/projector doesn't seem to be as straightforward as it is on the music side. I *think* that you can rip movies to a hard drive and stream them through Apple TV, but I'm not sure how straightforward it is.

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of legal proceedings over whether consumers have the right to back up the dvd's they own (reference).

I'd love to have a central server to play all my movies from as well, so if there's something out there that I don't know about, it would be great if someone pointed me (and Dane) in the right direction!

I rip all my movies and serve them using a program called PLAYON (it also streams Netflix, hulu, CBS, locally stored media, etc) I do have to have all the media stored on my computer. I then can either stream it through my directv HD-DVR box or through my PS3. It works almost flawless. I watch a ton of Netflix videos using it. I do have a 10mb cable connection, have my house completely wired with Gigabit Lan and a quad core CPU.....so I get no playback issues at all.

All my Video and Music is stored on my computer and backed up to an external hard drive. It really makes a ton of room in my family living area as all my cd's and dvd's are either in the car or the closet. The only thing I have sitting around is my vinyl and blu-ray's.

Well worth the $40 price tag on Playon. http://www.themediamall.com/playon

And to be honest the most difficult part of it is ripping the movies and gettin them in the correct format....we need a 'Flac' for video.

[hawkeyejw]

I rip all my movies and serve them using a program called PLAYON (it also streams Netflix, hulu, CBS, locally stored media, etc) I do have to have all the media stored on my computer. I then can either stream it through my directv HD-DVR box or through my PS3. It works almost flawless. I watch a ton of Netflix videos using it. I do have a 10mb cable connection, have my house completely wired with Gigabit Lan and a quad core CPU.....so I get no playback issues at all.

All my Video and Music is stored on my computer and backed up to an external hard drive. It really makes a ton of room in my family living area as all my cd's and dvd's are either in the car or the closet. The only thing I have sitting around is my vinyl and blu-ray's.

Well worth the $40 price tag on Playon. http://www.themediamall.com/playon

And to be honest the most difficult part of it is ripping the movies and gettin them in the correct format....we need a 'Flac' for video.

This is pretty cool, thanks! :thumbsup:

I'm going to have to look into this.

[Monkeypimp]

This is pretty cool, thanks! :thumbsup:

I'm going to have to look into this.

Oh I forgot it works with the XBOX and Wii as well....although Wii support is in beta and it has lower video quality due to Wii hardware limitations.....

I also forgot to add that it has a bunch of plugins that you can add so you can stream all sorts of stuff like hgtv,cartoon network, spike tv, mtv, etc. They are all found here: http://www.playonplugins.com/

This program has gotten me closer to being able to dump Directv and get all my watching via playon and netflix.

[cburbs]

There is a huge list of stuff over here -

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1160835

Most stuff needs to hook up to an external hard driver(USB, Esata, etc) or PC.

I actually dropped cable back during the winter and went to a Tivo. I have the HD box that came with I believe a 160gb hard drive. I swapped that out with a 1tb drive. You can do alot of stuff with the Tivo -

1- Record OTA HD
2- Stream Netflix Movies
3 - Play your favorite tunes, music videos, and photo collections—all of it available in your living room with the friendly TiVo remote - need to connect to a PC.
4- free program to automatically download recordings to your PC, remove commercials, and convert for your portable video player or send back to Tivo box in a single step - kmttg.
5- Stream Movies from your PC to Tivo with Streambaby software


To get some good general Tivo info - http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...86#post7097286

[snock]

Dane, do you want to serve many Tvs or 1 main TV? If its mainly one then you could skip the netwoking solutions and use and old fashioned DVD jukebox. I put this out there becuase most other solutions require a decent amount of care and feeding.

I have movies as ISO files on my office PC. I watch them on the office HT via windows media center with MovieBrowser plug in. I watch them using AppleTV with Boxee software on it for my main HT. The latter is more high maintenance. I like both but both require an always on computer.

Sounds like you would want a NAS and a popcorn hour playback device if you dont want your PC on all the time. What is your budget? Ray3 might chime in about the NAS+Popcorn Hour combo and if there is much care and feeding with it.

You certainly have options. I also see more and more Blue Ray players showing up with ability to play movies. The LG BD390 for example can do netflix and network movies. It is likely far pickier than other options but it would be 1 stop for most uses.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/transports/high-definition-dvd-players-hd-dvd-blu-ray/lg-bg390-wi-fi-netflix/setup-network-features

[dane]

Thanks everyone! I also posted this question on AV123's forum and have gotten some good suggestions there also, for those interested.

There's Kaleidescape, but it's at a scale and cost that doesn't match your desire.

Yup, a little out of my price range I think.. :) Also in legal limbo I believe.

DVD recorder with hard drive?

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214

For 10-20 movies what are you gaining over popping the DVD in the player? Are you trying to keep the kids from wrecking the DVDs?

edit: or maybe you need it to serve all your tvs?

That's more like a DVR. If it allowed me to copy my DVD's *to* the HDD for later playback, I might be interested. But it's to play DVDs and record *to* DVds from what I undersatnd.. :(

I'm just looking to see if there's an inexpensive way to (1) keep the kids from handing the movies so much, and (2) give my wife a more convenient way to select a movie and hit play, and not need to sit there waiting for the menu system, previews, "fast play" and other junk just to get a movie started for the kids when there is tons of other chores to be done around the house.

Wish I had as quick and helpful a post for you as I did for hammondc, Dane!
[...]
I'd love to have a central server to play all my movies from as well, so if there's something out there that I don't know about, it would be great if someone pointed me (and Dane) in the right direction!

I'm currently quite interested in the Western Digital WDTV box ... $99 and does what I'm looking for with a decently stylish interface. Doesn't require a dedicated PC or networking interface. Some consider that a severe limitation-- but I consider it a massive simplification of the system for those who don't need the additional complication.

I rip all my movies and serve them using a program called PLAYON

Thanks Monkey for that suggestion! I'm not looking to use a central PC server, however. We don't really HAVE a central PC. We have a laptop that moves around the house with wi-fi access for email and web surfing. It wouldn't be suitable for a media server.. but thanks! looks like your suggestion is helping some other folks though. :applause:

There is a huge list of stuff over here -
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1160835

Thanks-- I will check out that link next. I'm interested in the Tivo option but don't have the cash to lay down for a lifetime service new-unit-purchase (unless they've cancelled that option again) ... I don't want a monthly fee, and again it would all require a PC-server which we just don't have. If we already had a powerful PC that was on all the time it wouldn't be so big a deal. But that would ultimately involve a lot of complication from where we are now.

Dane, do you want to serve many Tvs or 1 main TV? If its mainly one then you could skip the netwoking solutions and use and old fashioned DVD jukebox. I put this out there becuase most other solutions require a decent amount of care and feeding.

Trying to be budget-conscience and don't have any plans to go blueray for quite some time. Our TV is a 10+ year old Sony Trinitron CRT. 'best' input is SVideo. :) No need for blueray just yet... :scratchchin:

Also, just needing to serve one TV for now.. And I don't see that changing in the next five years either. The only other option that would be possible would be serving our projector. This is another good approach for the WDTV since it's so nice and small and portable, it can go with our projector just as easily if we go on trips without needing to bring all the DVDs...

Thanks SO much for all the ideas so far you guys .. I am completely amazed at the number of options out there for this .. I never knew it had been done at all and thought I was really asking for "too much" here... Proved me wrong!

..dane

[cburbs]

If video quality isn't a huge thing you don't need a beefy PC to host your files especially if you run linux.
I used to host my stuff on a PIII 500 running Naslite to host my files.

Then I switched to freenas on the OS side on that PC.

I no longer have that PC but you don't need a beefy PC to do this.

Cheapest route might be an external hard drive and the Western Digital WMV.

Though you still have to get your movies to the external hard drive.

[dane]

agreed.. our laptop does have a DVD player, so hopefully something like that can be done.

Obvoiusly my #1 choice would be a standalone box that fits into my component rack with a DVD player and an internal ripping mechanism. There would be tons of limitations to a solution like that, but it really would be "plug and play." :)

Looking into this WDTV thing... Seems pretty inexpensive too..

..dane

[dvenardos]

That's more like a DVR. If it allowed me to copy my DVD's *to* the HDD for later playback, I might be interested. But it's to play DVDs and record *to* DVds from what I undersatnd.. :(

Maybe you can't, but I just assumed from this that ripping was a possibility.
"The built-in hard drive stores up to 200 hours of videos, which you can later choose to record to DVD."

[dweekie]

agreed.. our laptop does have a DVD player, so hopefully something like that can be done.

Obvoiusly my #1 choice would be a standalone box that fits into my component rack with a DVD player and an internal ripping mechanism. There would be tons of limitations to a solution like that, but it really would be "plug and play." :)

Looking into this WDTV thing... Seems pretty inexpensive too..

..dane

I would suggest wdtv and an external hard drive. I use one with no issues. Devices with internal ripping are not worth the added expense in my opinion.