No, not a disease or a deviation. Instead an incredibly efficient way of cataloguing and retrieving your DVDs stored on harddisk. Must say - I was getting a demo of Kaleidescape the other day and wondering whether that was the way to go. (Very expensive way to go.) And then I came across DVDpedia -- which costs a lot less. You do need storage, but I have a 3 terabyte server at home, and this program in my MacMini seems to be doing the trick. Now I'll just have to transfer my DVDs, will take some time.

Very intuitive and elegant interface:

http://bruji.com/dvdpedia/ 

Coolskin:

Thanks for the link.

I was interested in Kaleidescape 

but for my taste is was too expensive.

Yes, I do believe you'll get a Kaleidescape feel to the interaction, plus more information if you want it, as DVDPedia goes on the net an retrieves fact sheets, stills, info on actors, behind the scenes, etc. Have just begun trying it out (at USD18 it's a couple of pints where I live). Will report. 

soundproof:

Coolskin:

Thanks for the link.

I was interested in Kaleidescape 

but for my taste is was too expensive.

Yes, I do believe you'll get a Kaleidescape feel to the interaction, plus more information if you want it, as DVDPedia goes on the net an retrieves fact sheets, stills, info on actors, behind the scenes, etc. Have just begun trying it out (at USD18 it's a couple of pints where I live). Will report. 

This is how I first came across this, from March 7th of this year:

http://www.htguys.com/archive/2007/March09.html 

It's subsequently been updated, actually answering to a few of the suggestions from the HTguys.

http://www.htguys.com/archive/2007/October16.html 

That's when I got really interested.

You need to rip your DVDs to the harddisk. For that you'll find various applications you can use. Handbrake is used by some, I use Mactheripper.

http://handbrake.m0k.org/

http://www.mactheripper.org/ 

When extracting films, I recommend you pick the option to extract the feature only. (That is, not the extras, or the trailers in front, etc.) That way, when you pick a cover the program will go immediately into the feature, without warnings, trailers and menu.

Also make certain you set the program to extract all the audio information, to ensure you get the best possible signal for your setup. And do listen to the HTguys' podcasts. In both it takes a while before they get to talking about DVDpedia, but they give you a good overview. 

I've actually replied to this hours ago, but it went to moderation for some mysterious reason. (Very persnickety feature of BeoWorld, by the way).

DVDPedia will most likely put Kaleidescape out of business. It's remarkably superbly excellent.

You have to rip your DVDs to your harddisk using Mactheripper or Handbrake. I prefer Mactheripper.

You can opt to not rip the entire DVD, skipping intro's, etc.

Once the DVD is on your harddisk you're set. Add a movie through DVDPeida (I like to add them from IMDB, which has very good synopses and crew and cast information).

You need to have the info-pane open. (That's the window below the coverview that shows details of the movie.)

Now just drag your DVD's TS-file from where it is on your harddisk to the info-window, and let go of the mouse-button. You have now linked the listing with your movie file.

When you're looking at movies, in full-view (with all covers), you'll find a large white PLAY button that you can click when you have selected a movie, or you can use the play-button in the menu if you're in window-mode. This will launch DVD-player.

There are ways of setting DVDPedia to have it use VLC or another player. I prefer VLC, because the colour management and sound management is better in VLC, in my opinion.
 

soundproof:

DVDPedia will most likely put Kaleidescape out of business. It's remarkably superbly excellent.

You have to rip your DVDs to your harddisk using Mactheripper or Handbrake. I prefer Mactheripper.

Hope my Mac Mini (first edition) which is hardwired to the BV7 can handle streaming video from a seperate harddrive. Will check this before I will run of to the store...

Yet again thanks for sharing this usefull DVDPedia (18 bucks) and MacTheRipper (free) software.

This may be down to how you have set your television (BV7?) to handle the signal. I doubt that it processes 5.1 from the analog signal coming out of the Mac Mini. (However, you can get surround out from the Mac Mini).

Yesterday I was streaming movies to the iMac a block away from the server, showing movies without a glitch over wireless. But I have found out that the graphics card in the Mac Mini is having a little trouble processing Wi-Fi without little skips in the signal -- will look into this and post a solution. (May actually have to run an Ethernet cable from the server to the Mac Mini). Works flawlessly over wireless on the iMac, though. 

I'm quite blown away, I have been programming my iPod Touch to control iTunes and DVD-Pedia, etc., using Remote Buddy. Wireless, two way, can pick speaker pairs (through connected Airport Express units), control playback, find music ...

This is the Touch display (one of various - there's another very pretty one with the whole cover on the display, you can have playlists) - and you interact with finger presses.

soundproof:

But I have found out that the graphics card in the Mac Mini is having a little trouble processing Wi-Fi without little skips in the signal -- will look into this and post a solution.

Turns out my Mac mini was sick - the network card was bad. Got a replacement unit today, hooked it up - presto! Now it's receiving streamed  movies from my stand alone server through DVDPedia as smoothly as if I had placed a DVD inside it! 

How is the Ipod toch working as a remote. Will it show the cover of teh moview with DVD pedia? 

is it cumbersome to start remote buddy, will it autostart. How long does it take after power on until it is connected to the mac?

Is it a decent 2 way remote or just a toy leaving you to want more. I have the Imac & BEO4 solution but would consider mini mac, infrant NAS and ipod touch for  christmas.

Any idea how to avoid auto start up of the DVD player when inserting a DVD disk?

IN SYSTEM PREFERENCES>CDs&DVDs>Pick the behaviour you want, in this case that the DVD should not be opened automatically. 

Coolskin:

The iomega 750gb harddrive isn't as quiet as I was hoping. (Twice as noisy as the Mac Mini)

I've tried several locations; in the cabinet under the Mac Mini, under the couch.

Unfortunately the fans pick up speed when cooling is necessary, and then they are noticable.

I will upload the movies anyway.

My next option is to store the iomega harddrive next to my DSL modem, in a closet central in our home.

Possibly with the aid of an AirPort Extreme Base Station?

This is what I'm doing, in order to get the server out of the way - both to cut down on noise but also to keep it safe. You can then either connect wirelessly, or run an ethernet cable from your Airport Extreme to your MacMini, in order to have the highest possible transfer speed. Works nicely on my setup. 

ADDING: There's an Ethernet connection from my server to my Airport Extreme Base Station, and I'm also running an Ethernet cable from the Base Station to my MacMini. It turns out I get a much more reliable playback of DVD quality files over cable than over wireless.

Wireless works perfectly to my new iMac -- but I prefer the cable to be certain of not getting a playback hick-up to the MacMini.

Have a look at this. I don't have a BV7, and haven't tried it to that -- but seem to remember that someone here had trouble with converting the optical toslink signal from a mac, think that may have been due to the converter, though.

http://forum.beoworld.org/forums/post/22596.aspx
 

The price we pay for being early adopters - I've also at times ended up with hardware that can't do very obvious stuff.

You can get the surround out of your macmini by using a soundcard connected via firewire or usb -- but then you might also want to consider upgrading to the most recent macmini. It's faster and has IR, wireless and bluetooth. I've connected it directly to my tv using a dvi to hdmi cable.

Once I have everything playing as I want, I will be moving control to a Beo4. However, I understand that Lintronic requires Windoze. I will be looking at iTrans/iRed, Mac software which supplies Beo4 emulations to IR transmitters. You can control all kinds of hardware, B&O and non-B&O. 

I'm waiting for their iRed 2.0 which is supposed to be iPod Touch compatible, as well. If I can put a Beo4 emulation on the Touch, then I can control B&O and non-B&O, as well as Apple software, from one unit. 

dilznik:

However, I suppose DVDPedia doesn't launch mp4 files, does it?  Only the Video_TS stuff?