Distributed HD video/audio

[stpierre76]

Hi all
Hope everyone had a great Christmas.
I am wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction as I need a few specific thing. I am looking at a device which can rip,store and play SD &HD video/audio to multiple rooms at the same time.
At the moment, with 3 kids all wanting to watch something different, things tend to get chaotic, so I have iTunes on a PC which I downloaded a few movies and then play them in different rooms via apple tv at any point in time. However, m a little annoyed to have to use iTunes and apple as I don t agree with their methodology and above all their price. You can get a DVD/blu ray of an old animation movies for peanuts at your local kmart or target and yet on iTunes you have to pay the same price as new release.
The other problem is that sometimes the apple tv does not always find my library so I have to restart the apple tv and computer in order to get them talking again. Little to say that m a bit over it. M not sure if I connect all my apple tv to the router via Ethernet if it would make any difference or if getting a Mac mini would improve that.

So, if anybody knows of a device that I can store all my purchase DVD/blu rays and them play them in different zones/room at the same time, or at least in 3 rooms at one time , that would be great. If it could be controlled via an IOS or ANDROID device, that would be the cherry on the cake.
I think jrivers does offer something like that but not sure about multiple zones and to be honest m not really looking forward to have to use a computer and tweak everything so that it works. M looking for convenience and ease of use.

Sincerely yours
Jean st-Pierre

 

[John Duncan]

A couple like AVA's Zaram and Kaleidescape spring to mind, but they cost the earth

To be fair, I have struggled to find a reasonable way to copy DVDs (haven't tried Blu Rays, I have a Mac and no Blu Ray drive for it) which doesn't take, like, forever on a PC, so have generally given up, even when all I want to do is watch The Killing Season 1 on my Nexus 7. Everything I've tried (for research purposes only, naturally) - DVD Fab, Handbrake, MactheRipper - seems to have its own foibles.

However, if you're determined to press ahead, you might want to start looking here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/guides/2009/12/30/how-to-build-a-dvd-server/1

which contains some good pointers.

Note that if you want to stream video around the house, wireless isn't going to cut it - you're going to need wired gigabit ethernet.

 

[stpierre76]

Hi John Duncan,
Thanks for your reply and advice.indeed I have heard of the two systems you mentioned and also know that they are not cheap.
At this stage m really not into building and tweaking a computer in order to rip and play movies. For me, that s just too much hassle.
I think m stuck with iTunes and their downloads. Although, it s a bit of a rip of, one must admit they it s convenient. I may get a Mac mini with time capsule as to give me a massive storage space in order to put the kids movies and connect it plus all the apple tv to my router via Ethernet so I don t get any dropouts. It s a shame that the apple tv is only a 10/100 Ethernet port. M hoping they ll increase that to a gigabit ethernet in order to increase transfer reliability and speeds.
Anyway, thanks again for your help and advice.
Regards
Jean st Pierre

 

[moreseric]

Do you have specified budget? Cause there are many professional solutions like Russound but it is quite expensive toy.