Home Theater Media Library

I have of late received many questions in regards to setting up a movie library which can be played back without the need to pop in your sometimes fragile disc. Whether it be DVD or Blu-ray, I have some answers. But first let me be clear, the goal of this article is for you to use for personal use only. While the movie and music industry are money and power hungry, I cannot condone illegally sharing their works. And in most cases it’s the executives and industry heads that are least concerned with the consumer and more concerned with  their increasing paycheck. However let us leave that for another day. First I’ll cover hardware and then software.

While there are many ways we can do this, I’ll cover a few. And it all cases these are for big screen as I have mine setup. More on that later. So the first way is the PS3 which is so limited that I don’t recommend it. However, you can attach a external Hard Drive formatted as fat32. And yes that is the only one supported thus far.  And while it does support WMV, DivX, and MPEG4 files they will be limited to the file size of less than 4GB because fat32 doesn’t allow it. But it is possible, just don’t expect the highest quality videos. I’ll cover the software you need to do so further down.

Next is the Xbox 360 and I must say ‘Thank You April’, for asking me how? Which ultimately allowed me to think outside the box and find a way that works well. First off the 360 can support fat32, but by limitations we don’t want to use that. However, I found out through research and testing that it does work with HFS+, an Apple OS file system. The great thing about this is that we can use larger files, no 4GB limitation. So grab a large external USB hard drive and format it as HFS+ and you’ll be half way there. This means large DivX files can be played as well as WMV.

The third option is my personal favorite and is much more flexible. First find a Slimline desktop computer. Hp and Lenovo make some good units. I would suggest a AMD Athlon dual core processor or Intel Core i5 at the minimum CPU. Ram can be anywhere from 2GB and up, but I suggest 4GB. The hard drive size is up to you, the bigger the better but you’ll probably want a large external drive anyway. Blu-Ray is a great addition if the computer comes with it, but it can also be added later. As for the OS stick with Windows 7 Home Premium. Last but most important you need a low profile video card with HDMI out. I recommend a AMD 4000 series or later Radeon card.  

Now for the PS3 and 360 we can use Aiseesoft Blu-ray Ripper software to easily convert your Blu-Ray or DVD disc to a format that can be used on the respective system. Keep in mind file size restrictions on the PS3 and if choosing a MPEG4 even on the 360 you’ll only be able to use a 4GB file. You can also use Handbrake which is free to make MPEG4 files that you can control the file size. And You can use handbrake on the Mac. Now remember we need HFS+ for the 360 so take a look at MacDrive so you can format and move those files to your external drive without needing an Apple computer. I would suggest using WMV files on the 360. If your using an Apple computer I suggest the combination of VLC media player and Handbrake to create your MPEG4 files. There may be some paid software titles you can use to create DivX files.

And now for the Home Entertainment PC, yes that little slimline style Windows 7 box. An easy way is to again use Aiseesoft Blu-ray Ripper or for just Blu-Ray WinX Blu-Ray Decrypter  gives an easy way to get a M2TS file that we can playback in VLC Media player. This preserves the high quality audio and video. Aiseesoft can do this as well if you adjust your settings and choose a file format you like.

Now I know I haven’t given you step by step tutorials as that would be to easy. I want to give you the tools and the ability to get it done, while not giving the exact details. Again, this is partly because I don’t approve of piracy. But in any case, the software I mentioned is relatively easy to use and with the information I’ve provided you should be able make your movie library. But be warned we are talking video and with video that means it is a long process to completion.

What’s your take? Or do you have a better, easier way?