It's been a while since I've been here. Looks like the forum is granted. What I'm wanting to do is use AnyDVD or a similar product to rip DVDs to a PC. Then transfer the data to a 4 TB server. Then stream movies from the server to a HDMI port on my TV. Is this doable? Any suggestions on hardware or software? I picked this forum because none of the others seemed to fit.
dvdfab the free version can rip your dvd's, rip the movie only into an ISO. Then use fairuse wizard lite (the pay version will let you encode to higher bitrates "better quality") to convert that ISO into a AVI (use the x264 codec 2-pass mode) this will give you the best quality. AVI is the best format to use for streaming. But if you prefer to use DVD quality, just keep your movie inside an ISO and use VLC to play them back. (VLC can play ISO's directly). If you have an option on how to format your server, use the NTFS 64kb clusters, the larger clusters allow for smoother streaming especially on large video files. Make sure you have a video card that can output to HDMI, the radeon HD4350 (cost 40.00) has built-in HDMI output. It is capable of transmitting 1920x1080 HD video including 7.1 surround sound to your big screen TV. My media server (with 5 hard drives) is connected directly to my 27 inch LCD. I'm just using the VGA output (my LCD tv has a VGA input).
