Using Apple to store and play my DVDs

Question

I have hundreds of movies on DVD-- all legally purchased over the years. What is the best way to store them and play them? A mac mini? Apple TV? I would like to be able to use Front Row to browse my library on the big screen TV. Any recommendations for the best configuration?

Answer 1

I too have decided to go in this direction. Right now, I have two Pioneer 300 DVD changers about half full of my movies & TV shows. They're connected into my big screen and my theater surround system. I get a great picture and great surround sound. But accessing movies is really clunky and slow, and now one of the changers screws up disc loading every once and a while. So I am working on setting up a Macintosh Media Center.
My goals are: 1) move all my video off DVD media into chapterized MP4 files stored on hard drives. 2) move all my music from iTunes in my G5 into the new Mac Media Center. 3) Try to have the AC3-5.1 digital surround stream fed from the Media Center into my theater surround system. 4) Try to have the digital video stream feed from the Media Center directly into my big screen HDTV at 1080i [the only resolution other than 480p my big screen accepts]. 5) have my Harmony One universal remote try to control everything as it does now. 6) be able to tranfer non-DVD media [VHS/Laserdisc/Satellite/Over-The-Air HD] into the Media Center.
So far, after looking around for a couple of weeks, this looks easy to do. I've decided on a Mac Mini Core Duo as the center of the Media Center, as you need at least a Dual G5 or a Core Duo to work in HDTV. I've also decided to stay away from AppleTV due to all its silly little limitations. I can connect the Mini directly to my big screen via the included VGA adapter. Then the Mini can be set to output 1080i video using SwitchResX, a video manager app from Madrau.com. Further the Mini had TosLink digital audio input and output for simple connection to my Yamaha surround amp. As for other hardware, I'm probably going to go with a Logitech diNovo Edge Mac Edition Bluetooth keyboard and a Logitech MX Air mouse that works a mouse cursor with your hand and mouse in the air. For video input, I have to get an Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus. This will not only digitize standard TV video and audio, but also has an antenna connection for over-the-air digital broadcasts. With my Dish receiver, pro VHS deck, and Laserdisc player all connected into the surround amp which then connects to the EyeTV, I can do DVR ops with any video source.
I have been playing around at DVD conversion to MP4. My current workflow is to backup my DVDs with MacTheRipper, use MPEG StreamClip to save a movie as one big VOB file, the convert the movie with Open Shiiva. A 45min Star Trek episode compressed from 1.84GB down to 226MB with no apparent change in video or audio quality. A 92min movie compressed from 3.09GB down to 1.04GB. After the DVD is turned into an MP4 file, I use an app I just found called MetaData Hootenanny to add my own chapter marks to the movie. This works great, both in QT Pro and in Front Row. I also see that HandBrake does most of the same work, but you lose some flexibility.
Where I'm at right now is file organization. iTunes does great job of organizing music MP3s, but doesn't touch video files at all.
Hey!!! All you Front Row Experts out there!!! Am I doomed to having a single list of a bzillion videos that I have to scroll thru or is there some way to organize a pile of six or seven hundred videos into some kind of multi-level order??? ....say by show / season / episode no for TV shows or genre for movies??? Right now I just have a gaggle of music videos, some TV show themes and a couple of movies. That's 147 videos and I haven't even got started on my DVD collection.