Not car related I know but hope someone with some experience can help, I'm looking for a software programme that will enable me to load DVDs onto my iTunes which I can then play on apple tv, ideally something that's easy to use, can anyone who does this already help, thanks.

Handbrake is free.
Though I use 1 click dvd convertor.

In both cases you need DVD43 (to decrypt the dvd for ripping). 2022 P440e AB

I`ve just had a look at a program I use for my system (not apple TV).

It`s called DVDFab, and seems to have the options to export apple TV compatible files.

http://www.dvdfab.com/

Hope you don`t have as many DVD`s as me, or you`re in for an extremely long time infront of the pc/mac.
Estimated over an hour + for each film.

Ditch the AppleTV and build a media center running xbmc
Ripping the films to .mkv format takes less than 5 mins.
(using makeMKV)

And I think it is far more pleasing on the eye than the AppleTV interface.

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what would you need to make a media centre (its all new to me) to run xbmc

whats quality like in way of sound and and picture on a 42" plasma

npinks wrote:

what would you need to make a media centre (its all new to me) to run xbmc
whats quality like in way of sound and and picture on a 42" plasma

I cheated and bought a dell studio Hybrid. Works flawlessly with my 50" plasma

http://www.dell.com/hybrid

It seemed to have everything I needed in a small case.
HD video is sorted by the onboard HDMI port and the audio with the digital out.
Everything is top notch.

Click image to enlarge

Any old PC would do really, dual core and above processor I guess would be preferable.
(my hybrid has a pentium dual core 2.00ghz processor).

Stick in a newish graphics card, one with an hdmi port, I think some can do audio through hdmi aswell,
If not you`ll have to buy a sound card with optical/digital out.

It all starts getting a bit more technical and the reason I went for a ready built system.


Some nice cases here though if you fancy going the whole hog.

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom...es_96.html

I had often dreamt about using this case before I saw the light and saved a lot of hair pulling!

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1118.html

Here is an article that seems to have better information for you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-7-htpc,2159.html

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

That's a very nice piece of furniture with clean lines you have there...mind sharing the brand?

Thanks. PJPR
Cairns Blue HSE
180k Miles of Adventure

Thanks, the 1 click DVD convertor is what I'm looking for, I just want a setup that will allow me to download movies in HD or close to that quality,I've got a handfull of movies that I would watch again so want to store them on the apple for convenience, I'll try this software later, thanks again.

Hi Andrew - I have just started looking at and playing with Windows Media Centre on my laptop ahead of building a PC.. What are the pro's (cons) of xbmc vs Windows Media Centre -The guy in the shop I went to was very pro of WMC??

Also why are you ripping in MKV format - are you not losing the quality of the original by doing that?

Have to admit xbmc looks really good!

xmbc is free - xpmce isn't

xbmc has some great expansion features, however you do need to know what your doing - if you want to try a MediaCentre system then Windows7 MCE is a good introduction as its 'slightly' more reliable than the xbmc can be.

I tried every MCE version available and bizarrely now find myself running W7MCE (with MyDVD) at the moment - the SkyTV & iplayer plugins are superb

Kaine

another nice feature of xbmc is the skin's you can use - you can have different skins on W7 however they don't integrate as nicely

Kaine

PJPR01 wrote:

That's a very nice piece of furniture with clean lines you have there...mind sharing the brand?

Thanks.

Wish I coud say it was an expensive bespoke piece, but sadly it is just
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40105707
Without the caster wheels
Works very well, nice and deep for cable management, and holds approx 68 dvd`s in each drawer.

so I buy a Dell Hybrid (like the look/shape of that) and then i presume.....

I load xmbc onto it, insert a original DVD and it copies it to the hard drive (gets past the anti copying encryption etc) then do I need to find the cover shots and movie details or is that automatically done?

I have loads of DVD's that i could do with getting on to something like this, and then boxing them up somewhere in the loft as my blue-ray collection is slowly getting bigger and bigger each month

is the dell hybrid sold in the UK as the link goes state side, and i can find it on Dell UK?

2nd Rower wrote:

Hi Andrew - I have just started looking at and playing with Windows Media Centre on my laptop ahead of building a PC.. What are the pro's (cons) of xbmc vs Windows Media Centre -The guy in the shop I went to was very pro of WMC??

2nd Rower wrote:

Also why are you ripping in MKV format - are you not losing the quality of the original by doing that?

Apparently and MKV file is a multimedia container format. It is NOT a video or audio compression format (video codec). It is an envelope for which there can be many audio, video and subtitles streams, allowing the user to store a complete movie or CD in a single file

http://www.matroska.org/technical/whatis/index.html

2nd Rower wrote:

Have to admit xbmc looks really good!

npinks wrote:

so I buy a Dell Hybrid (like the look/shape of that) and then i presume.....

I load xmbc onto it, insert a original DVD and it copies it to the hard drive (gets past the anti copying encryption etc) then do I need to find the cover shots and movie details or is that automatically done?

I have loads of DVD's that i could do with getting on to something like this, and then boxing them up somewhere in the loft as my blue-ray collection is slowly getting bigger and bigger each month

is the dell hybrid sold in the UK as the link goes state side, and i can find it on Dell UK?

Yeah I guess you could buy a hybrid Will have a look if there is anything more suitable.

yeah I tried to find the hybrid on the dell website and it seems to have been removed from uk stores ?

I am sure there will be something much better out there now ?


http://www.testfreaks.com/desktop-computer...pc-eb1012/


http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/12/lenovo-...inment-pc/


http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/vmp72.htm


Or if you`ve an old pc you could just upgrade to suitable graphics card in for £50 !
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct....subcat=938
This one seems to do 7.1 through the hdmi port for one less worry.


I tried to do the whole process on the hybrid once, but it wasn`t very quick.

I normally use my main PC as it has a far better processor etc. Rip your dvd`s with something like MakeMKV or dvdfab/ dvd decrypter, stick em on an external HD large 500gig+ / 1 TB (I use 4 x 500gb so far and still have 200+ dvds to copy over )

Apparently xbmc does "scrape" the movie files and tries to locate posters etc, but I havent found that yet. So I just point media companion
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=33961 to the freshly filled HD and let it do its business. It will automatically choose the bits you need, but also offers you the ability to choose which posters you want, which I find more pleasing.

Connect the completed HD to you media pc, load up xbmc, add the HD to the source list and it will spring into life.

AndrewHG2 wrote:

PJPR01 wrote:

That's a very nice piece of furniture with clean lines you have there...mind sharing the brand?

Thanks.

Wish I coud say it was an expensive bespoke piece, but sadly it is just
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40105707
Without the caster wheels
Works very well, nice and deep for cable management, and holds approx 68 dvd`s in each drawer.