For those of use who don't care about space saving!

[NixNeon]

I understand the purpose here of being able to re-encode our dvd media to a hard drive or disc, but for those of us who don't care about file size there is a better way and it's completely legal!
I own a Media Center Pc and I am archiving all my dvd's and vhs to mpeg2 so I have what is commonly refered to as a video on demand system right in my threatre room.
I use a simple capture device (ati, dazzle will work) and a piece of software from Ulead called Movie Maker. I simply connect my dvd player to the capture device and record it just like a movie off of tv. The ulead product lets me save it to a mpeg2 file. This is what big companies do for professional VOD systems. Granted the hardware part is not as sophisticated but the quality is just as high as ripping and re-encoding, plus you don't have to deal with making sure all the settings are right and it anly takes the length of the movie to complete. All this and it is just as legal as recording a show off of HBO!
My server has 400 gig of space so file size is not an issue. This is for those of us who want a high quality picture with little time and expense.
Please if someone finds fault with this idea or has tried this and gotten poor quality video let me know. I am interested in the highest quality I can get without spending $1000 on hardware.

[killingspree]

if you just want the best quality at no quality loss and size does not matter (not much at least) why don't you just ripp the whole DVD/or movie either way you like it on your hard drive. you won't have any quality loss and it won't be much bigger than the captured mpeg2 file!
AND it only takes 10 minutes to half an hour. depending on what DVD drive you have!

to capture a DVD over an analog (how do you spell this in english?? :) is complete nonsense... just IMHO of course!

regards
steVe

edit: oh about the $1000 hardware... as you already have your (huge) server - what do you need a 400 gig server at home anyway?!? - and your computer that can do mpeg2 capture in real time, as you wrote, you'll just have to get a DVD - ROM drive, if you don't have one already. and i believe you do so don't you?. anyway this will cost you way below §100 rather something like §75 -50 in the US - don't know exactly, cause i'm from europe!
2nd edit: the fault: what you're basically doing is to convert a digital source to an analog ( DVD player) and reconverting it to digital media afterwards again. (mpeg2 caption). this would be comparable to sending the contents of a cd over a radio signal, recording it again and then burning it on cd again, although you would have had the chance to copy it directly!
hope this helps and doesn't sound offensive, i just can't get how you got this idea! :-)

[sillKotscha]

Originally posted by killingspree
to capture a DVD over an analog (how do you spell this in english?? :) is complete nonsense... just IMHO of course!


it isn't complete nonsense it's pure bullshit :D

digital -> analoge -> digital ... guess what you will get?!!

it's like buying a Porsche, changing the engine to one of Vauxhall's (Opel) and keep on driving with the original bodywork - absurd


cheers Sill

[NixNeon]

Rather than Spouting oft on how smart you are and how I Know nothing why don't you answer the question. what I'm trying to say is that it converting is just for the ability to fit things on disc I Don'T NEED To DO THIS! I need to be able to play the files in WMP and I want the highest quality.
And the reason I have a four hundred gig Server is for this. I have over 280 DVD movies and 1500 cd's. I an trying to create a video and audio on demand set up and I need some advice not people telling me I'm full of shit. oh yeah I also have it because I CAN!

[killingspree]

Originally posted by NixNeon Rather than Spouting oft on how smart you are and how I Know nothing why don't you answer the question.

oh excuse me, but i think i already did.

Originally posted by killingspree
if you just want the best quality at no quality loss and size does not matter (not much at least) why don't you just rip the whole DVD/or movie either way you like it on your hard drive. you won't have any quality loss and it won't be much bigger than the captured mpeg2 file!
AND it only takes 10 minutes to half an hour. depending on what DVD drive you have!


still, if you want to fit all DVDs on your server (disregarding the 1500 CDs for now) you'll have to get some more disk space, or do reencoding.

anyway as i quoted myself above: if you want best quality and size does not matter, just make copies to your hard disk, with any DVD ripper, preferably DVD Decrypter.
no encoding, no DivX, plain vobs!
if you want them to play in wmp just install the codec or create frameservers with avisynth...

sorry if i offended you in any way with my preceding post. did not mean to, although i have to admit i was a little amused by your interesting method of approaching this!

regards
steVe

[sillKotscha]

Originally posted by killingspree

sorry if i offended you in any way with my preceding post. did not mean to, although i have to admit i was a little amused by your interesting method of approaching this!


the same for me... ;)

[jeremypps]

as other people said, your method is quite "extravagant".
if you can copy the whole content of a dvd on your hdd and then convert it in whatever format you want, well, i think there's not anything else to add... apart from macrovision: how do you capture from your set top dvd player without the macrovision problems ???
well, it's your business.
cheers.

[2COOL]

Well, there was an earlier APEX DVD player that could do that. So it is possible. Pretty interesting and I found out about it back then after APEX pulled if off the retail shelves. Even top APEX people didn't know about the hidden menu. You can read the article here.

http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-3622-8-20018128-1.html?tag=ld