Suggestions for a DVD Video on Demand System?

An anonymous reader asks: "I was paid, with about 1000 DVD movies, by a video rental store that owed me money and then subsequently went out of business. I'd like to rip a couple hundred of them to a 1 TB disk array, and serve them up to my big screen, via a video on demand system. However, all the systems I can find for interfacing computer network to the plasma display only serve up the basic MPEG files, and not the entire ripped DVDs with their menus, etc. What systems would Slashdot readers suggest that could manage the ripped DVD files as a complete disk, and serve them up?"

If he's got plasma...

[LostCluster]

The more I think of this situation, the more I think that the solutions are worse than the problem at this point. If he's got a plasma screen, he's not going to want to give up any video quality, so recompression really isn't an option.

Maybe the best idea is to find him a high-quality DVD player and nice storage rack so that he can organize his 1000 DVD collection and show it off.

Oh, wait, this is /. We like doing things the hard way...

Hollywood is never gonna help this...

[LostCluster]

However, all the systems I can find for interfacing computer network to the plasma display only serve up the basic MPEG files, and not the entire ripped DVDs with their menus, etc.

I don't think any off the shelf product is ever going to recognize the possiblity that there's a full menus-including DVD on an HD somewhere, because that means you ripped it and you know how Hollywood doesn't appove of that... therefore, this project will always be stuck in homebrew land.

The DMCA stands in the way between yet another great idea and consumers...

Disc Changers

[vwjeff]

You can link multiple DVD disc changers together. It might not be the most romantic idea but it will be reliable. I think Sony makes a few models with this capability.

the legality question... oh how sad

[Slowping]

Gonna get modded as a troll for this one... but here goes...

Funny how already I see at least half a dozen posts about the legality of breaking CSS in order to rip those legally owned DVDs.

And yet the irony is so many people still buying DVDs and giving the MPAA and the CSS consortium their money.

Maybe I'm fooling myself by not buying DVDs and not going to movies. Should I just give in? Is anyone here actually still voting with their dollars by withholding it?

Re:Store the ISO's and then mount them

[theparanoidcynic]

Um, "mount -o loop"?
Another possibility is to use vobcopy -m to decrypt the discs and dump the contents to your hard drive.
Either way you can use --dvd-device under mplayer and probably something similar under xine to treat the directory in question as a DVD drive.

He found slashdot, but hasn't found Google?

[telstar]

1) Load browser
2) Navigate to www.google.com
3) Type "Play DVD from hard disk" in pretty little box
4) Hit Enter
5) Click first link

Or just click here [digital-digest.com]

Is this really a problem for Slashdot? If I think about half of the shit I've submitted that got rejected, it's enough to make me not submit anything again. Sure, my submissions didn't have cool buzzwords like "video on demand", "terrabyte", and I don't own a plasma display, but they were articles whose answer wasn't the first darn response on a Google search. Subscribers ... Are you getting what you paid for?

Seriously, why?

[JoeShmoe]

This isn't meant as flamebait but...why on earth would you want a video on demand system that uses the horrible bastard of an interface on most modern DVDs? Do you enjoy subjecting yourself to the mind-numbingly stupid Memento menus? Or the Ghostbuster DVD that repeats the same Ghostbuster riff ever five seconds?

To be truly authentic, should this theoretical system also implement the "no fast forward" option during the FBI warning? How about the Coke commercials?

Let's also have to select our audio settings each and every time we change to a new movie. Ignore the fact that your audio system probably changes configuration every two years if you are lucky, let's go ahead and have to choose Dolby 5.1 with English subs every time you pop in Cowboy BeBop.

To me this is a problem in search of another problem. To do what you want is painfully simple. Save the DVDs to hard disk as images, then load in in Daemon Tools/Nero ImageDrive. Poof. Get a cheap PC and use one of the many thousand media management programs as a point and click interface. Have the icons load CUE files for the movies. For a bonus, using multiple virtual drives to load collections like Aliens Quadrilogy etc and then have a playlist to play them all one drive after another.

Or...

Rip them all to a nice quality XviD with AC3 audio, multiple audio tracks if there's a reason (Ebert commentary etc) and subtitle files. Store at least 4 times as many movies with barely any loss in quality, and then have make playlists that play the movie with settings optimized for your sound system and then play deleted scenes and other extras.

Sorry if this seems like a rant, but if you want 1000 DVDs online, make images? Am I overlooking some obvious reason why this won't work?

- JoeShmoe
.

Re:1000 DVDs?

[WindBourne]

I know that you ment if funny, but the stupid thing is most of the new DVD's cost the stores USD $7-9. Now, you are talking 1000 of the buggers that are used, so these are actually worth less. He probably is getting about 4000 worth of DVDs.

Re:Hollywood is never gonna help this...

[jettoblack]

The ruling in the DVD X Copy case didn't state that ALL DVD ripping software is illegal. They only found that in this specific case, the software's primary purpose was copyright infringement, and it didn't have sufficient non-infringing use to support continued sale of the product.

Its possible that other DeCSS products will not be tested in court, or will be found to have sufficient non-infringing (ie fair use) use to justify their existence.

Re:I'm afraid I can't legally help you with this

[Anonymous Coward]

I refuse to interpret the DMCA in such a manner.

The way other people interpret it means nothing to me. And yes, I'm willing to go to court over it, so bring it on.

Blacking out???

[Thinkit4]

"Intellectual property" is so ludicrous. So then you must have a system for disabling your own viewing when someone rents a copy?

Re:He found slashdot, but hasn't found Google?

[System.out.println()]

It's already on another thread, but since it seems to need it over here:
"What systems would Slashdot readers suggest that could manage the ripped DVD files as a complete disk, and serve them up?"
I have seen maybe one response on this story that answers the question that actually got asked.

Re:I thought that too, but its legal

[burris]

There is no such thing as a "fair use product." Fair Use is the term for the exception to the exclusive rights of Copyright holders.

burris

Re:If he's got plasma...

[Fulcrum of Evil]

It's nice [crutchfield.com], but it costs $1200 on sale and is a tempting target for thieves. Gimme one where the expensive bits are in the trunk any day.

Re:If he's got plasma...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

OK, so this person wants to but 200 DVDs on a 1+TB RAID. That could fit, provided you average 5GB per DVD.

What does a 1TB RAID cost, and how much does it compare in cost to a 300-400 DVD Sony changer? I'm thinking the changer might cost half as much. I imagine it is quieter too.

Re:1000 DVDs?

[zbuffered]

So you're telling me that a rental store will pay an extra $70 for the rights to rent a movie for two weeks? They're going to recoup 10, 20 dollars of that back, max. What's the logic here?

Re:1000 DVDs?

[LostCluster]

It's closer to a 5 to 8 week distance. At $15 per week, that's $5 to $30 of profit per disc, plus the fact that they can recoop another $10 by selling most of the previously viewed disks when it moves out of the "new release" category and therefore demand will never be that high again.

Re:1000 DVDs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you kidding me? Try renting some movies like Requium for a Dream or Sex and Lucia. Blockbuster or Hollywood Video will not stock them as they were originally released, but cut for content. You will rarely find a local store with that policy. The only time I can think of those stores being any better than some of the independent stores is when you want a major new release the weekend it comes out on video, as they usually will have enough to cover demand, or you can con them into giving you a free rental if it isn't there. Personally, I'm not too much into major hollywood movies, so I have no use for the chains.

Re:Hollywood is never gonna help this...

[DA-MAN]

You'll also need far more than 1TB if you plan to rip all those DVDs. Your average DVD hold 4GB of data; any fool can tell you 4GB * 1000 > 1TB

Did you read the posters question, and perhaps miss this part:

I'd like to rip a couple hundred of them to a 1 TB disk array, and serve them up to my big screen...

You yourself said that a 1/2 TB can store 100 DVD's, and so I would assume that 1 TB would be able to store a couple (IE 2) hundred DVD's.

Also your math is all wrong, most video dvd's are the 9 GB capacity...

Re:If he's got plasma...

[mwheeler01]

What world do you live in?
More like:

Him: Hey, I've got a 300-disc DVD changer!
Her: That's pretty cool...

For an array:

Him: Hey, I've got a terabyte array!
Her: *blinks a few times* oh...