HTPC Build

[Varg]

just as a curiosity what program are you using to make your dvd's into divx?

Bittorent

LOL ARG!

[majer]

hmmm well i was looking to digitize my dvd collection to divx. thought maybe you had a conversion program.

[Jim Tressel]

hmmm well i was looking to digitize my dvd collection to divx. thought maybe you had a conversion program.

I'm going to be looking to do the same.  I'll let you know if I find something good.

[majer]

sweet thanks.

[Troyer]

ProCoder ... of course it's $500.

[majer]

im really loving XBMC not so much on boxee

[Varg]

im really loving XBMC not so much on boxee

Did you set something up as well? I would have to agree with you, XBMC is way sexier.

Also, and maybe I am missing something here, but the ones I did encode i just used the DIVX program. It works really well.

EDIT: For ripping i used DVDFAB or Alcohol 120. Both work really well to create ISO and if memory serves me correctly.. i cannot remember how i did the ISO to AVI trick though.... I will look when I get home tonight.

[Troyer]

Here's the workflow we use at work:

DVDDecrypter or DVDFab will rip the VOBs.  You can just append all the VOBs using copy /b source1.vob + source1.vob destination.vob .  We then convert the combined VOB into whatever.  We have ProcCoder which will take basically any format in and spit out any other format.  Super works too.

[Troyer]

What was the downside of XBMC on Windows?  I'm playing around with a spare computer as a HTPC for proof-of-concept, if you will, since I got a tuner card for $20, but don't want to put Linux on it since it will eventually be used for something else.

[Varg]

What was the downside of XBMC on Windows?  I'm playing around with a spare computer as a HTPC for proof-of-concept, if you will, since I got a tuner card for $20, but don't want to put Linux on it since it will eventually be used for something else.

XBMC is fine and dandy on windows, as long as you have the RAM/CPU for it.

One thing you should know though, XBMC has NO pvr functionality. Its purely a front end for your media and internet streaming media

[Troyer]

Hrmmm....
So I'd need either Boxee or Media Center for PVR, right?

[majer]

just trying out the thought of a HTPC. i noticed that with XBMC on windows with the aeon skin i lost the mouse visually, other than that i actually love the program once i figured it out. and as for boxee maybe the test pc i ran it on was to slow but i had crappy quality and was very laggy. why i wanted to know about converting my dvds is my current home entertainment center is a LG and it will take thumb drives or anything formatted fat32 and will play divx, so i would really love to have it all at a fingers touch rather then change dvds.

[Varg]

Hrmmm....
So I'd need either Boxee or Media Center for PVR, right?

boxee has no pvr functionality either.

just trying out the thought of a HTPC. i noticed that with XBMC on windows with the aeon skin i lost the mouse visually, other than that i actually love the program once i figured it out. and as for boxee maybe the test pc i ran it on was to slow but i had crappy quality and was very laggy. why i wanted to know about converting my dvds is my current home entertainment center is a LG and it will take thumb drives or anything formatted fat32 and will play divx, so i would really love to have it all at a fingers touch rather then change dvds.

aeon skin on a 52 inch with a bunch of 1080 backgrounds is freaking amazing looking. Yea, just know your not going to get HD out of Divx, but in my opinion divx is not bad at all and a good choice if you are worried about space.
Did you see how to setup the backdrops? Check out this thread to find some nice ones. It really sets it off:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=43390

[Hawkes]

so it looks like it doesn't "officially" support windows 7.... has anyone tried it?

Honestly, I don't have a problem with with the media center on win7, but I'd really like the scrapper for all my movies.  that would be sweet.

[Varg]

XBMC and Boxee both work on windows 7, I have personally installed both. I would have to say though, XBMC>BOXEE with the only problem being xbmc does not support netflix streaming. But to be honest, boxee does such a poor job of it I cant really say it is a benifit of boxee. Windows Media Center is OK, I just like being able to customize things and add scripts and plugins.
The backdrops and scrapping abilities of XBMC is just so damn sexy its going to have to be what I go with.

Things are calming down from Christmas and I am going to get back working on this after a few days. The little Acer i got is a champ and renders 1080p perfectly (on linux).