First of all i am totaly new for Media Server so please forgive me for bothering you gurus. Since last 3 weeks i am trying to get info "How to do that" but i could not get any helpful answer and if i got some info that was very technical and i dont understand at all. Well my Question is

I bought a month ago WHS 2011 installed on Fujitsu server. I have

1. PS3 attached with 42" plasma

2. Sony DVD player with another 42" Plasma in other room (DVD player attached with home network).

3. 3 Computers in home (attahed with wireless network " Win-7, XP and Vista")

4. I have DVDFabe 8 software.

I tried different things but no success. At the end i tried (DVDFabe) DVD Ripper to PS3 format (MP4). It did that but on small screen picture quality is good but when i see on 42" Plasma picture quality is poor.

In one store two people were talking about these media things and i just asked them my question. what they told me did not understand any thing. that was like "fisrt you ripp the movie and convert it in mp4 and then you convert or put it in H264 container and ...... I am totaly new and i did not understand that all.

Can any body give or reffer any tutorial how to copy/rip DVDs with Real Quality picture to media server which can play on big TV screen without quality lost.

First off, welcome to the forum

So really you have two issues:

1) You are trying to use your PS3 for media playback. The PS3 is severely limited in the type of file formats it supports, so in many cases you need to alter your media for playback

2) Encoding (which is what you are doing to get to h264 mp4) will result in loss of quality. The amount of quality lost will depend on a variety of factors (such as the encoding settings, your equipment, your eyes, etc....).

There are a couple of options you can look in to, but first, what format is the media you want to play back, just DVDs and/or Blu-rays?

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

thankyou so much for you reply

1) You are trying to use your PS3 for media playback. The PS3 is severely limited in the type of file formats it supports, so in many cases you need to alter your media for playback

Yes i am trying to use and will always use PS3 as media playback because this PS3 will always be attached with this TV.
what option i have regarding "alter my media playback" as you mentioned above.?

2) Encoding (which is what you are doing to get to h264 mp4) will result in loss of quality. The amount of quality lost will depend on a variety of factors (such as the encoding settings, your equipment, your eyes, etc....).

Thats what i don't know how to do this, i want to learn but i could not find any information.


There are a couple of options you can look in to, but first, what format is the media you want to play back, just DVDs and/or Blu-rays?

I have both DVDs and Blu-rays.

Thanks for helping me.

OK< so here are a couple of options:

1) You can rip into a lossless format regardless of whether the PS3 supports that format. You would then need to install a transcoding software on your WHS 2011 (such as Serviio). Serviio will stream your library to your PS3 for playback by transcoding. The downside to this is that it is CPU intensive and you may/will see some quality breakdown.

2) You can rip your DVDs / Blu-rays to a format that the PS3 supports without encoding. To do this you would probably want to do the follows:

DVDs:

When you rip a DVD you are left with multiple vob files. The PS3 cannot handle this and will only play one vob at a time. The way around this, after you rip your DVD, use VOBMerge to join the multiple vobs to one big vob. The PS3 should be able to play this back without issue. An alternative would be to use VOB2MPG

Blu-rays:

This is more difficult. You can use a program like CLown_BD (search the wiki for my guide) to create a single m2ts file which the PS3 should be able to play back. HOWEVER, and this is big, the PS3 has Cinavia. What this means, if the Blu-ray you ripped has Cinavia embedded you cannot play back on the PS3. There is no way round this unfortunately.

3) Rip to a PS3 format via encoding. The most popular App for doing this is Handbrake (mp4). However, and as you noted, once you encode there will be some quality loss. Best bet would be to just try a few of the different handbrake settings. Once again though, if the Blu-ray has Cinavia the file will not play on the PS3.

My personal opinion would be to get a media player dedicated for playing back streamed content from your WHS 2011 and leave the PS3 for ganme playing/physical disc playback.

Hope this at least gives you some ideas.

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Sorry i was at job when i got your above post and now i just came home and replying.

1) You can rip into a lossless format regardless of whether the PS3 supports that format. You would then need to install a transcoding software on your WHS 2011 (such as Serviio). Serviio will stream your library to your PS3 for playback by transcoding. The downside to this is that it is CPU intensive and you may/will see some quality breakdown.

Yes the above option i am using already and i noticed this Serviio is very good Add-on.


2) You can rip your DVDs / Blu-rays to a format that the PS3 supports without encoding. To do this you would probably want to do the follows:

DVDs:

When you rip a DVD you are left with multiple vob files. The PS3 cannot handle this and will only play one vob at a time. The way around this, after you rip your DVD, use VOBMerge to join the multiple vobs to one big vob. The PS3 should be able to play this back without issue. An alternative would be to use VOB2MPG

I downloaded VOBMerge and VOB2MPG and right now i am going to try this and will let you know the result. But when i ripp and DVD it just create one VOB so how can i create multiple VOB?

Blu-rays:

This is more difficult. You can use a program like CLown_BD (search the wiki for my guide) to create a single m2ts file which the PS3 should be able to play back. HOWEVER, and this is big, the PS3 has Cinavia. What this means, if the Blu-ray you ripped has Cinavia embedded you cannot play back on the PS3. There is no way round this unfortunately.

I do not have optical Blu Rays drive in my any computer so i will try it when i will have.

3) Rip to a PS3 format via encoding. The most popular App for doing this is Handbrake (mp4). However, and as you noted, once you encode there will be some quality loss. Best bet would be to just try a few of the different handbrake settings. Once again though, if the Blu-ray has Cinavia the file will not play on the PS3.

HandBrake has many options and i need to learn this, any link which has more info about HandBrake?


My personal opinion would be to get a media player dedicated for playing back streamed content from your WHS 2011 and leave the PS3 for ganme playing/physical disc playback.

Your personal opinion is very valuable for me. Can you reffer some of good Media Players. Also if i buy media player then what format of ripped files they can play. Also with them how id picture quality?

Hope this at least gives you some ideas.

Yes your informations gave me lot of ideas and i am very thankfull to you for your kind help.
Thanks
_________________
Cheers,
Damian

Actually, if you are only getting one VOB then that is all you need, you don't need to use VOBMerge (the ripping software you are using may already be merging all the VOBs for you)



I don't think there is one best setting. For HD Content I will usually just use the Hiqh Quality preset, but it depends on what device you are ripping to (i.e. if I am looking to create an mp4 for my Android or iOS tablet I will use those presents)



My personal favorite for playing back local content is the Dune players (the most reliable players I have tested to date). A solid alternative is the PCH A300 and Popbox v8 (although there are some bugs). I am also in the process of reviewing the Mede8er MED500x2. With any of these players, they support the native DVD and Blu-ray formats, so you can simply rip in their native format and get lossless playback without having to worry about encoding, etc... Since you are not encoding the picture quality will look just the same as the original source. Here are some of my reviews:

PCH A300

Popbox v8

Dune Smart D1

I completely understand trying to get the PS3 to work for you since you already own it. I in fact own a PS3 as well, but it just has too many limitations and I feel like I would have to make too many compromises in order to make it work (as well as having to deal with Cinavia)

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I don't think you will ever be happy with a ps3 serving up video to your tv unless it is a secondary tv.
That is the way I use mine.
You could try a addon such as ps3 media server. I am not sure if it works with 2011,
Also with multiple vob files there is a setting in the ps3 that will play all vobs in a folder but that comes with issues if you do a 1 to 1 copy meaning it may play the first file then the second one is in french, then the third is a extra feature such as a documentary of the film. I have also noticed problem with subtitles even with the ps3 media server.
The ps3 may work okay for a starting point but you will quickly learn it has limitations for a home theater as a media player. If you use it outside of just playing the dvd in the ps3 itself.

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