Which digital media player plays full ripped DVD's ?

If money is no object...

One option is to build yourself or purchase a home theatre pc. This is what I did. I use the MyMovies application & plugin to Windows Media Center to browse my DVD library which is sitting on my NAS in exactly the format you describe.

xbmc

you can buy a ~200$ acer, install the linux/live version of xbmc and play all your SD and HD content stored on your nas/network.

the xbmc forums have alot more info, I'd check there and the xbmc wiki.

Personally I have 2 xbox's (original) and an appletv all running xbmc, with an nv+ storing most of my dvd's in iso format, and a small amount of blu-rays in folder rips or mkv files.

Sunday Afternoon wrote:
If money is no object... One option is to build yourself or purchase a home theatre pc. This is what I did. I use the MyMovies application & plugin to Windows Media Center to browse my DVD library which is sitting on my NAS in exactly the format you describe.

I was just glancing at http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1820 .... this is turning me off a little in that I am trying to stay away from a "PC" machine, rather I would like a harddrive-less, low power, purpose-build network streamer like a Netgear ev8000 or WD Live TV machine, which I can plug into my component AV controller.

Also, I currently wire up my laptop to the TV with the audio and s-vidio wires to watch my DVDs from the NAS - trying to get away from that.

Do you have a picture of how your home theater pc ? and maybe a link to where you purchased it? How much power does this thing draw?

Fully understand.

I also wanted to have a dvr which brings different requirements. I also have a couple of tuner cards later and a 1TB local drive for the recorded tv. Not quite the low power device you are after...

I should add that the htpc article you link to is from 2006. There are integrated graphics on motherboards that can do native blu-ray decoding and output the audio and video on hdmi to a receiver. Here is a suitable motherboard (I recently used this for a build): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394. I paid extra for a 45W rated cpu and use a mini-ninja heatsink to keep the noise down.

I don't have any pictures of my setup to hand. I built this a year ago with a slightly earlier motherboard into an Antec htpc case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129054 (I disabled the garish in-case screen & IR receiver as the iMON software sucks) and have a discrete IR blaster instead.

The first time this thing switched on it was so quiet that I didn't realise it was on...

The block diagram is htpc -> receiver -> tv, all over hdmi. The audio is processed by the receiver and the picture passed on to the tv. Haven't measured the power draw of my htpc.

TeknoJnky wrote:
xbmc you can buy a ~200$ acer, install the linux/live version of xbmc and play all your SD and HD content stored on your nas/network. the xbmc forums have alot more info, I'd check there and the xbmc wiki. Personally I have 2 xbox's (original) and an appletv all running xbmc, with an nv+ storing most of my dvd's in iso format, and a small amount of blu-rays in folder rips or mkv files.

Hey, is this what you are talking about?
http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-s ... -the-cheap

yea

Now that is cool!

winger wrote:
Hey, is this what you are talking about? http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-s ... -the-cheap

Sunday Afternoon wrote:
Now that is cool! winger wrote: Hey, is this what you are talking about? http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-s ... -the-cheap

+1 !

yea, I'm going to go with an acer build soon after I decide on which nas I'm gonna get.

I bought the appletv with the intention of doing HD with the broadcom crystalhd card, but crystalhd is still in heavy development and the appletv in general is just a bit too underpowered and laggy for my taste (although much smoother when booted with linux, but that brings its own issues).