General Forum

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

Puncher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:00:17 GMT

Puncher:

mfirst:

how do you rip your DVDs to a hard drive?

more details please????????

As mentioned earlier, AnyDVD and CloneDVD will do just about anything you can think of to do with an original copy.

ImToo probably allows more "save" format options than CloneDVD

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

steph — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:44:02 GMT

What is more interesting ?

1- Use a Tvix as a "video" center to store DVD and Blu-Ray and let the BS5/BM5 act as a music center

2- Use the BS5/BM5 as a fully MediaCenter with videos, photos and music stored but maybe with the risk of "overload"

The Tivx reads .iso files and it's apparently easy to rip a DVD and store it to the Tivx.

Rip a DVD with handbrake and get a .wmv file could be OK too.

So, what is the wisest decision ?

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

Puncher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:18:49 GMT

mfirst:

how do you rip your DVDs to a hard drive?

more details please????????

As mentioned earlier, AnyDVD and CloneDVD will do just about anything you can think of to do with an original copy.

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

Maurice — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:59:52 GMT

AHHHH at last somone who i can relate too LOL

being the tender age of 50+ i can still recall when "files" were somthing you shaped metal with !!!

and there wasnt even a mention of "downloading" ;-)

BTW wasnt it great when your recording tracks on tape issues could be solved by taping over the corner of the cassette and reusing it time and again ....Sighhhhhhh happy days.....

Regards Maurice

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

TripEnglish — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:32:34 GMT

mfirst,

There are several software products devoted to this task. Aside from Kaliedescape, all happen easily on a computer. As I've said, I used handbrake before I realized it was a hell of a lot easier (and no more illegal) to just go to a torrent site and download the file from a peer to peer network.

But basically, the software suite opens up, it recognizes the movie DVD in your drive, you select what type of digital file you want to turn it into (the same as decided whether to rip as MP3 320kbps or WMA or whatever for music) and then hit Go. It sputters and churns and about 30 minutes later you've got yourself a video file of the movie that you can move onto a BeoMedia, onto and AppleTV, onto and iPhone, or whatever else you want to do with it.

Just watch out or movie studios will send assassins to your home and take what is theirs!

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

TripEnglish — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:27:59 GMT

Mr. Anders Son,

You care correct that "out of the box" the BeoMedia will only play very short .mpg files (and struggles even with them sometimes), but while the hardware may not be ideal, it will play 720p content with the installation of the codecs. Most of what I found was 480p, which looked terrific on the Avant, but occasionally I'd find a DVR rip of 720p that was just spectacular.

So, like I said, if you want to give your BeoMedia a new lease on life, just boot it in windows (I'm sure those instructions can be found on this site), log on to Internet Explorer and visit sites to download codecs just as you would if you were sitting in front of a regular PC. When you restart the machine, the BeoMedia software will play whatever content you've loaded provided the codecs support it.

The reason, as has been explained to me, that B&O don't push this capability further is that just about every way of getting video content onto a media server is illegal. I have no idea what actual exposure they would subject themselves to, but the torrent STB hasn't launched either so they have to twiddle their thumbs and say it's for home movies I suppose. When you think about it, every other stb that delivers digital video, whether it's Netflix, Blockbuster, Movietime, Apple, or whatever is really the access to a service and not a clever storage device that lets you access your video from a couch. Most of those are still "repurposed" devices at this point in time.

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

mfirst — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:09:53 GMT

how do you rip your DVDs to a hard drive?

more details please????????

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

DoubleU — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:09:58 GMT

steph:
If BeoMedia 1 is discontinued and BeoMaster 5 can't act as a "video storage", there is no more MediaCenter in the B&O range ?
What is the B&O solution to store DVD ?
Is there any solution for video like BeoSound 5 for the music ? (don't want another brand, just want full B&O) ?

If your a video person, a BM1 or BM5 is already outdated. Only mpeg1 is supported. Do not even think about watching HD-content. You have to go with a 3rd party brand.

That said, the only B&O solution for now (and probably the next x? years) is PUC-control. TVIX 6500 is already supported. The Pocorn Hour A-110 is getting very popular these days, so my guess is it is a matter of time before it will be added to the PUC-list.

A nice program to rip DVD or even blue ray is HD AnyDVD. This is not a conversion tool like Handbrake, but let you watch your content in the way it should.

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

mr_anders_son — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:04:12 GMT

jk1002:
@ Mr Andersson ; since you have it, can you please post some pictures and write how you like it with Beosound 5, or did you just get the master.

I would also be interested how happy you are with loading content onto it and if it can play gapless, which I consider important for opera, compilations and DJ mixes.

Cheers

I have Beomedia 1 not 5"s

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

jk1002 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:44:16 GMT

@ Mr Andersson ; since you have it, can you please post some pictures and write how you like it with Beosound 5, or did you just get the master.

I would also be interested how happy you are with loading content onto it and if it can play gapless, which I consider important for opera, compilations and DJ mixes.

Cheers

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

mr_anders_son — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:28:16 GMT

TripEnglish:
The BeoMedia actually played full length HD movies perfectly. You just had to install the codecs. The same will be true for the BeoMaster 5, which will retail alone for about the same price as the BeoMedia. The interface will be very similar, though with some better sorting techniques more like the BeoSound 5. And this time the video card can really do the video content justice.
However, the PUC support makes it possible to connect a huge variety of media centers, so everyone can have what they like.

Beomedia 1 playing HD movies perfect????

I doubt that

Mine does not. And it can only play small quicktime trailers not even medium....

What have you done??

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

TripEnglish — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:19:11 GMT

Here's how I did it:

1. Actually ripping DVDs was such a chore I only did a few. I used Handbrake because you can customize the video type to perfectly match the product. Some are preloaded, like AppleTV & iPod. There was some trial and error, but once you get it you can save it for all future rips.

2. I ended up (gasp!) downloading from mininova.org. I found it easily searchable (once you get a little familiar with some abbreviations) and there are feedback mechanisms built in. I use uTorrent as a torrent client. This is easy and generally quick with the right internet connection. Movies, music, audiobooks, tv shows. It's all there.

3. No matter how you do it, download or rip, you just set the target location to the BeoMedia under a file in Photo.

4. As for the codecs, you can boot the BeoMedia in Windows and go onto the web and download whichever codecs you need. Once installed on the computer, BeoMedia (the software) will recognize them as native.

I preferred this to using AppleTV simply because I have more control over how to categorize things and what formats I can load on it. I understand you can hack the AppleTV, but for whatever reason I found this easier.

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

steph — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:05:47 GMT

Thanks Trip !

How can you rip DVD from the PC to the BeoMedia (or BeoMaster) ?

Do you use special software or... ?

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

TripEnglish — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:56:02 GMT

The BeoMedia actually played full length HD movies perfectly. You just had to install the codecs. The same will be true for the BeoMaster 5, which will retail alone for about the same price as the BeoMedia. The interface will be very similar, though with some better sorting techniques more like the BeoSound 5. And this time the video card can really do the video content justice.

However, the PUC support makes it possible to connect a huge variety of media centers, so everyone can have what they like.

Re: No more B&O Mediacenter ?

sethach — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:19:31 GMT

I also own a dvico 6500 connected to my BV 7-40 MK III. The box is great, and the PUC control is ok.

There is only a format problem which I am faceing. When I play back movies in 4:3 format (i.e. Billy Idol Storytellers as ISO DVD Image),
then the screen format seems horizantaly squeezed. Format 1, which is intended for 4:3 movies, is only acceptable at "enlarged".
The Format-go switches to Format 3, but is also not like the original.

If I change the dvico setting to 4:3 output, the screen format is a lot better - but some menu parts are outside the screen.

I would like to mention, that the playback on the BV DVD is ok, and Format 1 is the correct format.

Has anybody an idea?