Dvd Footage Onto A Nas Or Similar?

[Murdoch]

Ok, I'm not going to be trying to copy bought films! We have a pile of dvd's from the last 15 years of children growing up and holidays etc.

What I would like to do is store them on a hard drive and have them "accessible" to our smart TV. This has a USB port, spare hdmi and a network connection.

Not sure how to do this so suggestions please.

Thanks

 

[steptoe]

I just either

A : rip them onto my Ubuntu FNAS and then saimply access it via my TV

B : rip them onto a USB dongle

C : rip them onto the 500G HDD plugged into the TV

mostly via method A though.

and simply played via the network.

stuff on the laptop or tablet is played via some black magic trickery where a button is clicked and it magicaly appeares on the TV, I have no idea how.  :C

 

[Marvo]

Are they written on the disks in full DVD format (vob files) or are they divx/avi/mp4/mkv files? What file formats can your TV play? What type of PC do you have ie is it Windoze/Crapple or Linux (Ubuntu)?

Just for interest, I believe they either have or are in the process still of changing the law in the UK to allow you to keep a backup file of media you've bought through official channels. 

 

[steptoe]

my tv requires me to register something or other to play divx files,

F that, I use the PC to convert them on the fly so the tv will play whatever format it is.

 

[Marvo]

Yeah, certain TV manufacturers deliberately omit certain codecs to stop you playing file formats that are commonly used for filesharing. Some codecs (like divx) are omitted because they're proprietary and you need a license to distribute them bundled with hardware. It just makes what should be a simple task complicated.

 

[steptoe]

Yeah, certain TV manufacturers deliberately omit certain codecs to stop you playing file formats that are commonly used for filesharing. Some codecs (like divx) are omitted because they're proprietary and you need a license to distribute them bundled with hardware. It just makes what should be a simple task complicated.

so, is it a bad thing to register my tv to play them?

I dont do anything dodgy, I just dont like big brother stuff too much..........

 

[Murdoch]

A brief update:

So I've concluded that the DVD we have "creates" files with a .VOB extension

I have shareware that claims to convert .VOB files to .MP4 files

I have an external USB drive which I can plug into the Sony TV

The Sony TV information claims it can "play" .MP4 files from a USB drive

so my next step is to convert a file to MP4, load it onto my external drive and plug it into the TV and see what happens next.

Thanks for the imput so far, its appreciated!

 

[steptoe]

just a quick thought,

make sure you format the USB drive to a system the TV can read,

I think mine needs FAT , although I didnt try ext4 , so I cant be sure.

 

[Murdoch]

just a quick thought,

make sure you format the USB drive to a system the TV can read,

I think mine needs FAT , although I didnt try ext4 , so I cant be sure.

Thanks for that.

I can't reformat my USB drive as its currently my external back up device so fingers crossed the Sony isn't too fussy!

 

[Andy™]

FAT doesnt work well on mine, kept getting messages saying the file size was too large (4-6gb) so changed it to NTFS

 

[Blue Duck]

I have a Sony TV with USB I think it reads fat & NTFS okay but may not be able to cope with large drive sizes 100gb plus.

 

[OnOff]

The LG's seem to read/take anything. 

 

[steptoe]

The LG's seem to read/take anything. 

except you cant record onto a dongle,

its got to be a 'proper' HDD,     :C