….until I read this post on a site for folks who use HandBrake to convert their DVDs into compressed movie files. Obviously, this isn’t about stealing movies (as the MPAA would have folks believe — it’s about allowing folks to watch their movie collections without having to break out their DVDs. It’s no different than the right we all enjoy to rip our CDs, convert them into MP3s, and listen to them on our iPods.
Before I get all political… back to the original point — there’s a guy in Northern Ireland who has a better home theater setup. And gigabit ethernet. And 5 terabytes of storage. And a bunch of Mac Minis for use as set-top boxes for showing movies. All over his house.
I too am putting all my DVD collection onto drives. Ive currently got 5Tb of storage and run the whole thing over a 1Gb Ethernet network feeding into all our bedrooms, sun room, living room and even to the workshop, great for those New Yankee Workshop series. I view the movies on a 50″ Pioneer through the direct out HDMI interface. GREAT picture image even without tweeking the picture quality.
The kids all have Mac Minis in their rooms and use Frontrow to watch their movies. I have ordered a Mini Core Duo with 2Gb memory and hope this does the job. I’ve been encoding Hi Def programs at H.264 at 2100kbps with a 2 pass encode which currently takes the best part of a day, almost 22 hours for a 2 hour Japanise HD movie. ripped from the digitalout of the BlueRay player on a MacBook Pro.
Great quality even with fast paced imagary. Smooth transitions between shades does loose out but I’ll have to put up with it at the moment.
Phil
Oh, I think I know where some of my bonus money is going… but part of me wonders what the heck he is talking about when he mentions a “BluRay” player in the MacBook Pro. Mine has a DVD drive, so he may just be full of sh*t.
Even so, I’m jealous. 
