Hello Again... and a Question

[Bobby]

Hello to all my old friends here at muvipix. It's been a long time. Hello to Chuck and Steve and Twosheds and RJ and Bob and Momofduty and Sidd and Peru and Dave McElderry and the many more whom I haven't shared with in literally years.

I am fine. My wife and I hit 70 this year, in great health and enjoying our retirement here at the beach in NC.

If you could please advise, I have a question:

Most of my past video editing work was preserving family memories. As such I have 65+ DVDs - each a full production with menus, etc.

I have DVD image files of all, and of course a full set of DVDs to play. But my two daughters (each of whom had a full set at one point in time) have lost them or destroyed them by improper care. So, I need to replace them - but, with what? I don't want to do DVDs again, and with streaming more prevalent even DVD/BluRay is soon disappearing.

So, I need something that will play a DVD image (.bup, .iso, .vob files). I have all the old project files, but to go back and re-do each project to output a different format would be daunting.

I could buy each of my daughters a notebook PC, load up all the images, and provide one of the viewer programs to view them. They would have to connect to a TV but in this age of HDMI it shouldn't be too hard of a problem.

Or, I could put the images on a 'net accessible server but would then need some kind of player or streamer that would play that format from the 'net. I still have an old Patriot box that I think could do it from the 'net, but it doesn't support the DVD image format as I recall.

So, what is there to accomplish my goal?

Thank you much for helping and giving me a reason to say hello again!

Bob

[ed]

I would rip and convert the DVD files to mpeg format and put them on usb drives. You can plug them into PCs or smart TVs.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Bobby]

Nope. That would not preserve the menus.

Thanks, Bob

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Hello Bob. Glad that all is going well with you.

So about 65 DVDs at standard DVD size would be around 310GB, give or take. As a 'starter for ten' a couple of thoughts spring to mind but, without doubt, there will be other options.

My first thought was to use cloud storage for the DVD files. Alternatively, and more of a DIY cloud solution, would be to use a NAS as a "private cloud device" and make it available over the internet. I know that you can do this with Synology devices and I suspect that other NAS (QNAP...) support the same functionality.

For watching the videos you could use something like Plex(?) or KODI but not sure about whether the DVD menu structure is available.

https://www.plex.tv/
https://kodi.tv/about/

[Peru]

Hi Bobby!
It's good to hear you and your wife are doing well.

I could buy each of my daughters a notebook PC, load up all the images, and provide one of the viewer programs to view them. They would have to connect to a TV but in this age of HDMI it shouldn't be too hard of a problem.

That might be the simplest way. VLC plays ISO images with the menus.
One thing that you will have to be sure of is that the audio driver supports HDMI.

[Chuck Engels]

Wow !! So great to hear from you Bobby

The biggest issue here is keeping the menus, lots of ways to share the videos as you know but without menus. I agree with Peru that the notebook may be the simplest way but I'm sure you will get a bunch of suggestions from the group. It might still be worthwhile reproducing the DVDs as well, they can always be played on a laptop connected to a TV as well and the DVD drive on a PC will probably not go away any time soon as not everyone has super fast interest speeds that can download very large files easily.

Hopefully if you go the notebook route they will take better care of it than they did the DVDs

Seems that these things get more important with age and become more valuable, I know that has been the case for me.

So glad to hear you and your wife are well, please don't stay away for so long next time

[Chuck Engels]

Found this option, looks promising

http://www.techhive.com/article/3019593 ... ovies.html

And another possibility

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045217/ ... cloud.html

[Chuck Engels]

This is a little older technology from a few years ago but would still provide a good solution for you.

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2 ... ystem.html

[Chuck Engels]

Also might want to just put the files onto a 1TB portable drive for each and make sure they have VLC installed on their computers. Most smart TVs can play the files I would think, does anyone know for sure? You can connect a portable drive to a smart TV and play almost anything, not all formats will play, but I would think a DVD image would.

[Bobby]

Thanks all. I will try to stop by more often, and if I find a good solution I will let you know.

First pass I am going to put an image or two on an external HD and take it to a friend's house who has a smart TV and see if it recognizes and plays. That would be the easy solution as both daughters have smart TVs. Mine is an old Panasonic plasma (I REFUSE to give up my plasma, at least until OLED) and buying drives for them is cheap and easy.

Bob

[sidd finch]

Bobby glad to hear you and your wife are doing well.

There is a freeware program called DVD shrink that lets you copy your DVD's to a hard drive with menu's intact.

http://dvdshrink.org/

The cloud based storage might be a bit cost prohibitive so I might suggest a wireless hard drive like a WD My Passport Wireless Pro WDBP2P0020BBK Network Drive - 2 TB



https://www.google.com/shopping/product ... D8oQrRIIRQ

Sidd

[momoffduty]

I second the USB drives. I burned my daughter's wedding video on disc and gave her each chapter on a USB drive. The only downside is no menu. I bought 32G USB drives fairly cheap. Externals are cheap too.

Good to hear from you! Happy retirement.