So how do you get your movies into MC? Well there are two ways, and I have to start off by saying that ripping a commercial DVD is illegal, so only do this for non commercial DVDs… First of all you can install AnyDVD and this will let you rip and entire DVD folder structure to the hard drive from within MyMovies. This works well, but the resulting ripped DVD will not play on MC extenders as they do not understand a DVD folder. The second method which I use is to rip the actual Movie from the disc using a programme called Smart Ripper. This creates a VOB file which is identical to that on the original disc. I then use VideoRedo to convert the VOB into an MPEG file. As there is no video processing going on the whole process takes about 20 min per disc. You are dealing with several Gbs with DVD’s so it’s never going to be as quick as ripping a CD! As the second method is just creating an Mpeg of the film you don’t get any of the extra features, chapters or indeed any of the menus, but they do work perfectly on the extenders, which is why I do it that way.
There are other ways of displaying a DVD library and Media Centers Built in DVD library is a great way of viewing your collection. I have tried this but it’s a bit of a hack to get going and unless you live in the US you don’t get any of the cover art or access to the extra features like the cast & crew list.
Overall MyMovies is an excellent plug-in and one you should add to your collection. It’s perfect for anyone who has a collection of DVD’s they want quick access to (I myself will use it to store my daughters children’s DVD collection, no more missing or scratched discs!) and having a simple way to view movies trailers is an added bonus. It even got my WAF last night, so everyone is happy!
July 25th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Another option for ripping disks is DVDFab Mobile, which can rip DVDs straight to WMV, which means you can play them on any media extender without worrying about codecs!
July 25th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I have not been able to have this work properly.
I installed the server part on my MSS WHS since I’m running SQL for Sharepoint. I installed the client on my Shuttle SG33G5M Deluxe Vista Ultimate. I get the My Movies 2 splash screen and nothing else. If I use Task Manager, I see a connection failed error. I did configure the firewall as per My Movies web site without success. However if I disable the WHS firewall, it works, any suggestions ?
July 25th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
“Well there are two ways, and I have to start off by saying that ripping a commercial DVD is illegal, so only do this for non commercial DVDs”
This is not a correct statement. It is not Illegal (in the U.S. anyway).
July 29th, 2008 at 3:44 am
I have used My Movies since before WHS. Use it, love it. No problems.
July 29th, 2008 at 3:46 am
It also serves up DVDs from my Sony FireWire changer to the network.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I don’t know what’s wrong with this thing. I install the client version and when I want to configure the library of my movies, it asks me to connect to a server. What server. I’m using the damn client. Why can’t I just point to where my movies are on the external HDD.
Useless to me, uninstalled it almost immediately.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Will this work with iso files? Before i had my home sever i ripped a ton of movies to iso. I can mount them outside of MCE and stream them from my WHS box but would like to use the MCE console and have all covers. Would be a real drag if i had to convert them all.
Thanks
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 am
Lorenc-
You need the server/client edition if you’re running on one system. The client version is used to connect to a server in a multizone environment.
Scott-
Yes, it works with iso files which is how I use it. You have to have Daemon Tools installed (free) and it uses that to mount the iso and serve it.
August 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I installed My Movies yesterday using Transcode 360 (free) along with the excellent tips in this link:
http://tobias-tobin.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-transcode-360-with-my-movies-242.html
This allowed me to play my Video_TS folders on my Xbox 360. They flicker a little, but rarely. It is fine with my kids. I could not, however, get the Xbox360 to read files directly from WHS. It only worked when I moved the movies to the VMC machine on which My Movies server was installed. When I tried to load them from WHS, I got a “path not found error”. I know that I have run across a solution to this in the forums, but I can not remember where. I will eventually find it.
In the mean time, this works great for my kids and saves on disks getting ruined.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Can you stream ISO’s to the 360 using this? I’m debating whether to setup my system this way (Vista Media Center + 360 extender) or a WHS + XBMC…