Ripping DVD's you own isn't legal, but...

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NetTechie

Limp Gawd
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Jan 10, 2014
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Ok, so I've done some research on this, and apparently it is not legal in the US. But if you want to setup your HTPC to play all your movies, what other way is there? Owning them via amazon for watching online? I read that it is completely legal to rip music to your computer, so apparently the laws governing DVD ripping are yet to be changed. I have some questions as to what you can do for streaming videos over a network, or setting up a HTPC. However, if it isn't legal then I guess I can't ask on a legitimate forum such as this then?
 
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CDs do not have copy protection that needs to be circumvented. The laws on the book preventing this stem from the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act).

This even presents 3rd party printer ink, in some cases.

Just go ahead and rip your movies if you own them. This is the least of Hollywood's worries, at this point.
 
Well, my first question is... is it possible to rip them to a format that could then be browsed and watched from my tv, without needing a separate HTPC computer. What hardware is needed for this?

At the bare minimum a Blu-Ray drive for my computer, so it can rip them. I just ordered a 12X LG bluray drive from newegg, hopefully this will suffice. The computer has a 4TB hard drive, which I'm sure isn't much when your talking storing DVD's on it. Assuming they will be stored on the computer and not a separate network drive. I'm thinking I could get by with Western Digital Green drives, as they are cheap.
 
NetTechie said:
Well, my first question is... is it possible to rip them to a format that could then be browsed and watched from my tv, without needing a separate HTPC computer. What hardware is needed for this?
Click to expand...

Is it a smart TV or do you have an Xbox 360 or any console that uses DLNA?
 
XBMC FTW!

http://xbmc.org/about/

The Western Digital devices are also great for watching local media, but they fall short when it comes to Internet Streaming, where Roku is king. I love my WD Live Plus that I bought about 5 years ago. Plays everything I've throws at it flawlessly.
 
So the concept is share the folder with the ripped movies in it, and use a WD Live device to browse the network and find the folder, then load the ripped movies and stream them to the tv?
 
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Ok, so the next step is rip the movies with makeMKV, and it will play them once the folder is shared? Wonder how big Blu-ray movies are when ripped?
 
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Thanks! I edited my post, I wanted to verify that once the folder is shared through windows, the WD Live will be able to browse it through the network and play the rips. Is this correct, or do I need to run some sort of server on the pc that has the rips?

Edit: Looks like I'll need a media streamer on the computer, such as XBMC. Wonder if 100mbit is fast enough ethernet, or if I'll need to get a 1gbit hub (my hub is old).
 
NetTechie said:
Ok, so the next step is rip the movies with makeMKV, and it will play them once the folder is shared? Wonder how big Blu-ray movies are when ripped?
Click to expand...

I have a little over 350 blu ray rips (video/lossless audio only/foreign speaking subs only) and the average size is 22GB.

The largest rip I own is The Hunger Games @ 38.1GB.
 
NetTechie said:
Thanks! I edited my post, I wanted to verify that once the folder is shared through windows, the WD Live will be able to browse it through the network and play the rips. Is this correct, or do I need to run some sort of server on the pc that has the rips?

Edit: Looks like I'll need a media streamer on the computer, such as XBMC. Wonder if 100mbit is fast enough ethernet, or if I'll need to get a 1gbit hub (my hub is old).
Click to expand...

No it's not. I had to upgrade my lan to gigabit.
 
I have the blue cables they bundle with devices, not sure what kind they are but they fit the ethernet port. Will these do gigabit?
 
The cables all say just Cat 5, no "e" afterward. So I guess I need newer cables? They came with 100mbit devices, so the cables are not recent.

Edit: I ordered some Cat 5e cables from monoprice, $8 shipped for 4 of them 5 feet each. Hope they work!
 
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Ok, so I'm gonna get a gigabit router, new cables, I have a hard drive to fit movies on, a Blu-ray drive to rip the movies, and next I'll need a WD Live to connect the computer with the TV. I'm guessing I need to install some kind of server software to stream the media to the WD Live.

Looks like you need something like this:
http://www.universalmediaserver.com/about/

or this:
https://plex.tv/features
 
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What version of Windows are you using? With my LG tv, I just right click the movie and use play to, and the TV picks it up and plays it no problem.
 
Windows 7 64bit. I don't know if it will work well, as some reviews said it didn't work without a server. The WD TV Live would cause slowdowns they said, and sometimes lock completely and have to be reset. Having a server fixes this apparently.
 
mw8t said:
No it's not. I had to upgrade my lan to gigabit.
Click to expand...

Couple people are saying in my switch topic that 100mbit is enough, what happened before you had to change to gigabit? All my hardware is 100mbit at the moment.
 
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100mb is fine for Plex. Roku's only have 100mb wired connections anyway and they stream full blu-ray mkv rips without issue.
 
If the WD TV Live doesn't need gigabit ethernet, then maybe the port itself on the device is only 100mbit, thus removing any point in getting a gigabit network?

If this is true, then it might transmit faster over wireless, as wireless N is 300mbit I think?

The web page for it says nothing in regard to what speed the ethernet port is. It does say it is Wireless N though.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330
 
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The point is the movies are well below 100mbit so what's the point in >100mbit? It's not a point of the ethernet speed, you won't come close to saturating a 100mbit connection for playing media aside from buffering. I doubt the WD Live defaults to a large buffer or needs to rebuffer if there are no issues with your network. A 100mbit switch is more than sufficient for the application, it doesn't matter if it can link at 1gbit.

Keeping in mind 1gbit could in no way hurt and can help other things (like if you have to transfer files between PCs). It is also a cheap upgrade as you can find switches on sale for less than $20. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm saying you don't need it for streaming video. I would not run it over wireless due to possible signal issues. You will never see anywhere near 300mbit on N. If there are sporadic signal issues this will lead to the video stuttering as the buffer empties/fills. Wired 100mbit is far better for this application than wireless 300.. or even 867mbit 802.11ac. Why put your signal over the air for a non-mobile application? It's great if you have to walk around/constantly move a device, other than that a wired solution is almost always better -- even if it has lower *THEORETICAL MAXIMUM THROUGHPUT*.
 
FYI, if you have a smart TV with DLNA support, you technically wouldn't even need the WD Live player, and could likely stream straight to your TV off USB drives or network shares.
 
Oh well, it seems I got my numbers wrong regarding needing gigabit ethernet to stream blu -rays. I needed to upgrade anyway as I was sending these Blu-ray files over the network so...
 
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