Hey Damian. Thanks for replying even though you have your hands full. I appreciate it, but please don't feel inclined to tend to my frivolous issues. You've got more important things going on and you need time for yourself as well

Yeah, so I'm having problems but, hey, I'm learning My ineptitude in this aspect is over-matched only by my determination to figure it out!

I will try your suggestions when I have some more time. My wife is using the HDTV to watch The Sound of Music right now so I can't monkey with the HTPC

I will move the ripped movie files to my user "Videos" file and rename the folder exactly. I didn't have good reason to store it in the Public file. I just didn't realize that would cause any issues. From now on, I'll use the "Videos" file under my user folders. I will run the MB config again as you specified too and point it to the correct folder.

Quick question when you have a moment - no need to reply tonight - do you know what setting in Vista I need to change to allow me permission to delete the movie file that I ripped into my admin "Documents" folder? That folder was the AnyDVD default folder and I didn't change it when I ripped it the second time. Now I can't delete or cut and paste the file. I get a message saying I don't have permission, but I never have the opportunity to provide the admin password. Grrrrr!

I really like DVDFab for ripping. It works great and the free version is quite powerful. I rip DVDs so that I get just the main movie and no extra stuff. I can tweak wagt audio is ripped with it and I can name the folder. I like it better than AnyDVD. AnyDVD is good if you need to work with Blu Ray rips. I decided not to do that given the amount of space needed to store a single movie. Maybe some day but now DVDFab works well. You might try it out.

_________________
HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

Hey Tex - Happy Easter or if you don't celebrate happy sunday!!! You use the free version of DVDFab, correct? I think the link is here.

Basically, if you want to rip Blu Rays you are going to want AnyDVD. If all you care about right now are standard dvds, I agree with Tex, stick with DVDFab. The difference between the free version of DVDFab and the paid version (correct me if I am wrong Tex) is that with the free version you can only rip the entire movie. The paid version you have more options (only ripping certain chapters, etc...). I actually have the paid version of DVDFab and AnyDVD. Why you ask??? Well, I originally bought DVDFab first because they actually supported Blu Ray, and I felt vs AnyDVD it had the whole package. DVDFab worked for a few Blu Rays then mysteriously it stopped working. I contacted customer support who then claimed Blu Ray was never supported (even though it worked for me and when I purchased it clearly stated this on their website) . So now I have two paid for software, so I use DVDFab for all standard DVDs (set to rip only the main movie and leave all the fluff out) and use AnyDVD for the Blu Rays.

AnyDVD had an unlimited upgrade option as part of the purchase price, don't know if they still have that. Like I said though, AnyDVD only matters if you are doing Blu Ray. A free alternatove to AnyDVD is DVD43. I think it is supposed to work with Blu Ray but have a feeling not as well as AnyDVD

_________________
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

Blessed Easter to everybody. I think I'm going to give DVDFab a shot. To be honest, I wasn't really planning on storing all my movies on my HTPC. And I don't own any Blu-Ray DVDs, though I suspect I will purchase some down the road. But I downloaded MB and wanted to see what it could do, so this is why I needed to find DVD ripping software.

My scheme was to rip a few of my wife's Harry Potter DVDs to run the rule on MB and at the same time attempt to WOW my wife I may decide to rip a few of our favorite movies then as well to have a small library. But I don't want to hog up my hard drive space. How much space does the average ripped DVD file take up?

Plus, saving money by going with DVDFab is an advantage as well

Does anyone have any knowledge about PowerDVD Copy? Since I have a PowerDVD suite that came with my Blu-Ray drive, I checked the Cyberlink website for DVD ripping software. PowerDVD Copy is there DVD ripping software and it costs $40, I think. But I didn't know how it compared.

I've got a mandatory visit to the in-laws today so I doubt I will have time to work on this today.

Thanks fellas!

Thanks Damian. Happy Easter to you and your family too.

I did not test DVDFab enough to get a precise feel for what the differences are between the paid version and free version. IIRC, the big difference was the mobile options, i.e. transferring rips to mobile devices like a PSP. I'm using the free version with DVDs with no problems at all. The free version allows you to do custom rips so you can just have the main movie with chapters intact and none of the extra junk found on the DVD. You can also tweak it so you get some extras but not all. You just check the boxes for what you want to rip. You can also do the entire DVD if you want. Rip to VOB or ISO (if you want).

DVDFab is really an excellent free product for ripping DVDs. Very powerful and allows easy customization. Can't beat the price.

_________________
HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

Hey Rhino - My guess is that PowerDVD will only rip unencrypted dvds, so you will need an app like AnyDVD or DVD43 running in the background which handles "on the fly" encryption removal.

Sorry to hear about the in laws, mine are 4 hours away

_________________
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

Just a note of my $0.02 on the DVD ripping software.

Like Damian, I have both paid versions of DVDFab & AnyDVD for pretty much the same reason Damian does. I think DVDFab is the best ripper software (easy and feature rich). I only went with the paid version so I had access to the mobile compression and a bit more flexibility in ripping a DVD (I know there are free versions of SW out there that will do this, but I just wanted something that was easy and supported).

As for AnyDVD, I picked that up end of last year while they still had their lifetime free updates. I don't have any Blu-Ray discs yet, but it is certainly in my plan to make the switch. Also, I'm in contention with ripping the Blu-Rays due to size (Damian, I believe you mentioned getting the file size down to ~8GB - if so, I will want to learn your method! ), but I figured, a one-time investment was worth having the option. Since the lifetime upgrade feature is no longer available, I wouldn't make the purchase until ready to rip Blu-Ray.

_________________
---===[ Scott ]===---

Hey Scott - I am actually working on a Wiki article for this site for using Ripbot which is the app I use to get my Blu Rays down to 8GB. I will post here when it is up (Just me and my son again today so if he keeps napping I should have it up today!!!).

_________________
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

Does anyone know what .mkv files are? I read about them on another forum, but I kind of glazed over that discussion as I was interested in information on other topics. All I know is that quite a few people use them and have interest in converting files to/from .mkv

BTW, when I clicked on the link to DVDFab Decrypter, I noticed mention of this software handling HD-DVD & Blu-Ray.

Rhino - mkv is just a container, like AVI, MP4, etc... The popularity is this container is very versatile, you can have multiple audio tracks and subtitles in, including TrueHD, AC3, etc.. For instance, if you want to have 5.1 audio in an MP4, you have to convert the audio to AAC, with mkvs you can maintain the original audio. I create mkvs for all my Blu Ray movies. This container is slowly catching on, still not as widely supported as AVI, mp4, etc... but getting there

_________________
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, you lost me there professor I'm still nursing It's okay though, you don't have to attempt to boil it down into even more basic terms for me. This realm is all so new to me. I've used computers for 15 years in the work place, but I never delved into how they operate before.

I'm still green with setting up a network, how to configure internet security settings, and installing codecs, drivers, apps and plugins I'm a bit out of touch with the latest technology and social gadgets. I have a mobile phone but I barely use it and when I do I just make phone calls I just got an MP3 player 2 years ago. I've never been on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and I've never IM'd anyone. Just using these online forums is a stretch for me but I'm getting more comfortable with that.

Here are a couple links to forum threads about .mkv files if you're are interested. Maybe nothing new for you on these sites:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033822
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1023720

So now that I've admitted the magnitude of my ignorance, can someone tell me what 'PQ' means???

Haha, PQ = Picture Quality

_________________
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

Nice! That's an important one to know. I should have been able to figure it out though

Here's a quick question for this thread that I've been wondering about for a week or so:
Do you ever watch anything on your HDTV that uses Flash Player? If so, is there a way to set it to 16:9 ratio?

I found a download for a widescreen Flash Player that cost $10. But I wasn't sure that I was ever going to have the need to watch anything with this software once I get VMC online content optimized.

Not an important question, just passing time

I know Hulu does require a flash player to be installed (the free version will do). I have had no issues watching Hulu on my HDTV, there is an option to fill to screen when you pull up a show. I know some of the programs like SecondRun.tv and Zinc try to set it up so the "Full Screen" option automatically gets triggered when a show starts.

_________________
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

Scottc - Just finished writing up the wiki for Ripbot264, which is what I use to encode my Blu Rays to mkvs, you can find it here. Really the key is to play around with different settings. There are a lot of other apps out there that you can use to encode, I have just had the most success with Ripbot and pretty much have it down to a 2 click process. Note though that if you are going to encode a Blu Ray, you will want to use a Quad Core or higher (Core i7) pc. On my quad core it takes about 12 hours, so I just let it run overnight. One good way to test it out to see if you are happy with the results is just to try it on a clip. If you rip a Blu Ray that are probably trailers, just try encoding one of the trailers so you get a feel for the process and can decide if you are happy with the end result.

_________________
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