(Just a long random info kind of post for our setup for watching our DVDs while we camp without taking along the actual disks.)
As we ramp up for a longer trip (month and a half), we've been trying to figure out what to do for TV while we're on the road. I'm too cheap for satellite since we don't use it at home. In fact, at home- we don't have any cable service- we just use Internet streaming services (Hulu+ and free channels on our Roku). But, that requires a lot of data and while I have a 10gb/month plan, I need it for working full time while I'm on the road.
We have a crap-ton of DVDs that we have collected over the years- likely 100 kid movies/TV show DVDs and another 100 or so non-kid movies (and a couple of non-kid TV series). We used to carry 20-30 DVDs with us, but it was cumbersome having that many fill a cabinet - plus, even with that many, the repetition got boring.
(Here's where I need to add a legal disclaimer- I'm unsure of the copyright legalities of ripping my own DVDs (that I paid real money for) for my own enjoyment. Some DVDs come with electronic copies, but they are restricted on what/where I can play them on and "file size"-wise are significantly larger than what I can do on my own.)
So, here's what I've been doing:
Purchased and installed AnyDVD for about $50 - this breaks any copy protection on the DVDs so that the next program can actually read the bits and bytes to my computer
Installed Handbrake for free - this reads the DVD bits and bytes and copies them to a file on your computer
Purchased and installed MetaX for $10 - this is optional but helps my spastic-ness with allowing me to assign icons to my movie files and tag them with info about about the movies. It saves me a ton of time by including a built-in Internet search for movie data.
Bought a 1TB Seagate Wireless Plus hard drive for $169 - this drive actually creates a WiFi network so that phone/tablet devices can connect to it and stream videos directly from it
Bought a Roku 1 for $50 - this lets me watch steaming content on our TV
As I indicated above, we actually bought the Roku for our home use when we got rid of cable. Cutting the cord saved me $80/month so it was easy to spend $50. The nice side effect is that it hooks up to the Seagate Wireless Plus drive to let me stream movies from the hard drive to the TV that it is hooked up to.
Installing the AnyDVD, Handbrake and MetaX are all simple - just run the installer programs and accept all defaults.
The one-time ripping of the DVD collection is what takes the longest. You have to do each one individually. For me, since I'm spastic:
I searched out the best Handbrake settings for good quality yet decent file sizes. I've used this individual's settings and seem happy with the file size vs. quality: https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/top...s/#entry257918
I re-type the chapter names when they're available (not that I've actually found where you find them in any of the apps).
All of my files are stored in individual folders by DVD. This keeps TV shows together.
All of my files are stored specific to the name of the DVD for movies or episode name for TV shows. The TV shows are probably the worst since you have to lookup each episode name.
I use MetaX to search each DVD to apply a pretty thumbnail icon and set metadata about the DVD into the files.
On the Roku, I had to:
setup the Roku to connect to the wireless harddrive
install the Roku Media Player channel/app
Once the Roku setup was complete, using the Media Player channel, it immediately found my wireless harddrive as a network storage. I was able to browse to it and see all of the content on it. Playing a movie/TV show was a matter of browsing to Videos --> Movies or TV Shows --> and picking what I wanted to play.
For phones/tablet devices, Seagate has a Media app itself. You connect the device to the wireless harddrive's WiFi network and then run the app. It lets you browse the content on the drive and play whatever videos that you want. It also lets you view photos and whatnot on there but they're not as clear as I'd like. This will let the kids watch stuff while we're driving on the long drive days or my daughter back in her bunk when she's up way before the rest of us.
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
I have two USB 3.0 3T drives that I usually bring. One has movies and the other TV shows (all in MP4 format). I use DVDfab/Handbrake for conversion.
Normally, the drives are part of my home network and we watch movies on the big screen streamed through the network. A real hoot when I ask friends what they want to watch or what their favorite movie is; then spool it right up. Star Trek or James Bond marathons are also great fun on a rainy weekend.
Anyone up for a "My Mother the Car" (1965) or "It's About Time" (1966-67) Marathon?
Pass the popcorn!
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
Based on information on various sites I went with DVD43 and Handbrake. Following the directions for this configuration I can use Handbrake to pull from the DVD and convert all in one easy step. I just wish there was a way to pull in the metadata kinda like CDDB used to do back in the day when people actually used CDs.
Disclaimer: As a person who has had their work pirated in the past, I do not condone the illegal distribution of movies, but I do appreciate being able to take movies we own with us on the ipad.
__________________ There's no use crying over spilt milk... unless it's on your keyboard.
Based on information on various sites I went with DVD43 and Handbrake. Following the directions for this configuration I can use Handbrake to pull from the DVD and convert all in one easy step. I just wish there was a way to pull in the metadata kinda like CDDB used to do back in the day when people actually used CDs.
Disclaimer: As a person who has had their work pirated in the past, I do not condone the illegal distribution of movies, but I do appreciate being able to take movies we own with us on the ipad.
On edit, the AnyDVD runs in the background (you just install it and it always runs). The Handbrake is just one rip & encode step. I wouldn't do it if I had to take multiple steps to getting the DVD files ready for viewing.
Check out MetaX - it's been incredibly helpful at pulling metadata from various online sources. You pick the one that you want. I have yet to find something it didn't find.
Re the disclaimer: I second this. Everything that I've ripped and have available are what I purchased and own the physical disc for.
__________________
Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
I have two USB 3.0 3T drives that I usually bring. One has movies and the other TV shows (all in MP4 format). I use DVDfab/Handbrake for conversion.
Normally, the drives are part of my home network and we watch movies on the big screen streamed through the network.
Do you mind sharing how you accomplish this? Like what physical hardware/setup do you have for it?
Figuring out how to get the content from my "computer" to the TV was never real clear for me (hence why I went the wireless HD + Roku route).
__________________
Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
You never cease to amaze me. Cudo's on the Buffy and Willow popcorn pic
I'm most impressed by the Futurama pic.
Is Willow the same chick that was the band geek in American Pie?
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
with all that media .. and hardware, i think you need to up the ante on your download range and speed .. there is way more out there than just streaming ..
On edit, the AnyDVD runs in the background (you just install it and it always runs). The Handbrake is just one rip & encode step. I wouldn't do it if I had to take multiple steps to getting the DVD files ready for viewing.
Check out MetaX - it's been incredibly helpful at pulling metadata from various online sources. You pick the one that you want. I have yet to find something it didn't find.
Re the disclaimer: I second this. Everything that I've ripped and have available are what I purchased and own the physical disc for.
Oh, ok, so it works like DVD43. Only difference then is that one is free. Most of the 'content unlockers' tended to be 2 step.
I don't encode often enough to worry about MetaX. We do it more on a "I want to bring this movie this weekend" basis. If I ever got serious about it I might look into it. I've still got several hundreds of movies that haven't been ripped yet.
__________________ There's no use crying over spilt milk... unless it's on your keyboard.
I have a dedicated server (6 tb) at home running windows media center. I use any dvd/clone dvd to rip them to the server then copy over what we want to a 2 tb portable hard drive for the trailer connected to a small computer. I can also link to a phone for wi fi and surf the web when a signal is availible. This was set up by son inlaw who works in IT. I know how it works but dont nessisarily know all the details
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Jim & Debbie England
Do you have Gas? 2015 F350 6.2L CCLB DRW 4.30 axle. 2020 Keystone Cougar 364BHL ,Gone 2012 Yellowstone Ridgeline 34RLT Fifth Wheel
Oh, ok, so it works like DVD43. Only difference then is that one is free. Most of the 'content unlockers' tended to be 2 step.
I don't encode often enough to worry about MetaX. We do it more on a "I want to bring this movie this weekend" basis. If I ever got serious about it I might look into it. I've still got several hundreds of movies that haven't been ripped yet.
I didn't realize DVD43 was free. Sounds like they accomplish the same thing. I know that I used one on our old PC and it wouldn't work when we upgraded to a 64-bit install of Windows. I don't recall what it was.
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
I have a dedicated server (6 tb) at home running windows media center. I use any dvd/clone dvd to rip them to the server then copy over what we want to a 2 tb portable hard drive for the trailer connected to a small computer. I can also link to a phone for wi fi and surf the web when a signal is availible. This was set up by son inlaw who works in IT. I know how it works but dont nessisarily know all the details
I'm curious if you know any details about the "small computer" in the trailer.
We also have a dedicated hot spot device instead of using or phones for Internet since I work regularly from the camper. Well, that and my mother-in-law- it was a hassle to have her ask me to setup my connection so she could connect. The dedicated hot spot is just there and always on.
__________________
Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
with all that media .. and hardware, i think you need to up the ante on your download range and speed .. there is way more out there than just streaming ..
just sayin' d-mo
Do you mind expanding on this? I'm not understanding what you're saying or suggesting.
I have a dedicated hot spot device that I get internet through for our non-cellular devices.
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
Unless something has changed recently (and I'll admit it may have since my last round of ripping) if you have the 64bit version of handbrake all it takes is to copy a .dll file to the right folder and you don't have to mess with DVD43 or AnyDVD. Just FYI. I have a laptop I pieced together from 3 broken ones, we call it frankenputer and it lives in the popup now with some music and movies copied to it just in case. Our phones are still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan so if there is cell service we can just netflix or whatever on a rainy day.
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'14 Rockwood 2318G
'03 Ford Explorer
Unless something has changed recently (and I'll admit it may have since my last round of ripping) if you have the 64bit version of handbrake all it takes is to copy a .dll file to the right folder and you don't have to mess with DVD43 or AnyDVD. Just FYI.
I read that and thought the same. I have 64bit Windows. I read an article and put that DVD into the right folder but still had issues with a few DVDs. Once I installed AnyDVD - it ripped right through. I literally did before/after attempts on 2 of them (didn't work vs. did work).
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
Do you mind expanding on this? I'm not understanding what you're saying or suggesting.
I have a dedicated hot spot device that I get internet through for our non-cellular devices (iPods, iPads, laptops, etc.).
I think what he is saying is that it's probably best not to publish in the forum
but do a search for XBMC, or rasberry pi with xbmcubuntu (sic), or if you don't want to fuss with it read some reviews of the G box Midnight on amazon. ( I have one its glitchy but mostly works) We too have XBMC with many add ons on Frankenputer.
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'14 Rockwood 2318G
'03 Ford Explorer
but do a search for XBMC, or rasberry pi with xbmcubuntu (sic), or if you don't want to fuss with it read some reviews of the G box Midnight on amazon. ( I have one its glitchy but mostly works) We too have XBMC with many add ons on Frankenputer.
I thought about building a raspberry pi computer, but wanted something ready made/off the shelf that I could just pickup and use. Kind of like that G Box Midnight that you mentioned. Unfortunately I hadn't heard anything about this before- looks pretty neat. I'd still need a step-by-step idiot's guide to setting it all up.
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Officially a SOB with a 2022 Jayco Precept 36C
Checkout my site for RVing tips, tricks, and info | Was a Fulltime Family for 5 years, now we're part-timing on long trips
I read that and thought the same. I have 64bit Windows. I read an article and put that DVD into the right folder but still had issues with a few DVDs. Once I installed AnyDVD - it ripped right through. I literally did before/after attempts on 2 of them (didn't work vs. did work).
Wierd, I never had an issue except with some Disney movies, and it didn't seem to matter what I tried anyway to rip it. But where there is a will there is a way
Really isn't much to set up on that, I didn't even have to hunt for the goodies like in the windows version of XBMC. BUT it's running on Android so has lots of customizations specifically to make it run a bit better, which breaks some add ons occassionally which work wonderfully on window/linux loads. eventually they update and fix, or reloading is super easy too, but to say it's as easy to use as something like you're Roku would be a lie, but easier than building a linux box probably.
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'14 Rockwood 2318G
'03 Ford Explorer
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