Video Files: Need advice

[yuni56]

Hello There,

I would like to add my collection of about 250-300 Dvd movies etc, I would like to access all stored dvds at a later stage.

can I put the .iso files of dvds on my nas, will Linux mce be able to run those iso files, can I store them under a Library ?

I have some video files too, is there any way to keep the same video quality and reduce the file size ?


would be thankful for any help.
Yuni

[sambuca]

Hi

LinuxMCE does read dvd iso files, although I am not sure if it needs them to have a .dvd file ending or if it supports the .iso extension. So, yes, I think what you want is possible. To be able to properly access them in LMCE, you need to tag them after adding them, so that you could browse them by title, director, etc. This can be done either manually or, I think, by using the more automatic imdb lookup.

You could always re-encode the video files, but you might loose some quality. Depends what format they are in and what size you are looking for.

regards,
sambuca

[colinjones]

yes, .iso and .dvd are treated the same (since 0710), just put the files in a LMCE video folder and it will scan them in. As Sambucca says, you will want to tag them to make them easier to sort through.

pretty much by definition reducing the size of a video file will reduce its quality. However if you use a decent program, get the settings right and use a good codec you can minimise this loss of quality - perhaps Handbrake. BTW, if you already have 300 .iso files, I wouldn't worry about the size of the odd .avi file, an .iso file is almost always going to be massive per hour of video compared with just about anything else! You are probably focusing on the wrong size issue

[patmankn]

I just want to throw in, that by converting the DVD to avi, you win space and will most of the time loose the "DVD-Experience" with specials, extras menues etc. which is supported by LMCE.
I would love to see some more support for Matroska files in the future, as these support all that stuff.
But for now LMCE does only support menues, multi-language etc via DVD.
Correct me, when i'm wrong.
I'm planning a bigger NAS just to hold my DVD-ISO... and i have to make sure, that my girlfriend wont kill me, when i tell her she needs to run 3 computers (nas, core, MD) just to watch a simple DVD ;O)

[sambuca]

Yes, the size of .dvd/.iso files are basically the size of the DVD itself, for the few DVDs I have on lmce so far, it is around 7GB each.

On a related note, I've been wondering if its possible to actually encode the video files inside the .dvd file? I guess it depends on how xine plays back .dvd files.

best regards,
sambuca