# Hi from California USA & a request



## SoundMax (Feb 6, 2013)

It seems strange to be a "newbe" when your almost 70 'cause you do not expect to be young again, or atleast so says my Dr.!

The discussions here are probably way over my bald head but here goes ...

My wife's health continues to decline. We have a large DVD library. Some DVDs are blu-ray - some are not.
To pass time away for focus less on her pain, she uses these movies as a diversion.

I have heard on a radio show "tech guy labs" about people who have stored their movies on a server for all the family to use at their own TVs.

Hardware : Is this a NAS server?

But how does one get his movies onto a PC for playback?

I want to use an "on screen" movie selection such that my wife can use a remote. I got her an iPad for the touch screen but not sure how to merge into a system.

I am willing to read any article or book that could give me a step by step guide. Never have seen a good dummies book on this problem.

More and more of my friends are having similar problems.

As for me, back in the 50s: yes I bought a 16" tone arm, got a good low tracking cartridge and a transcription turntable. I still have about 5000 records. I remember haviong a record store with listening booths !! Ah the good old days. Never bought a Wards Silverstone ( as we called them) or a Magot Box ( awful to repair).

Used to be a radio DJ AM & FM. But when I got introduced to working in a recording studio - life changed for me. Its a "drug" I cannot get ride of. There is nothing as good as analog !!!

I had a pro audio store for awhile. Installed THX home theaters ( wow - what a blast). One theater I used a Ultra THX Stewart Screen - man what a picture !!!

Well, its time to take pills. In the words of an old TV show, "Good night Gracie"


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## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

Wow......glad to have your wealth of knowledge on the forum. SO for our troubles and what life has put in your way but there are plenty of people here who can aid you in making your movie library for your wife and yourself.

Feel free to start a thread in this section of the forum. Here

I look forward to seeing you around the forum.


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## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

First, a warm welcome to HTS! Nothing wrong with being almost 70 - I am not that far away from there myself. Sorry to hear about your wife's declining health. Hope she gets better.

There are several options for streaming media around the house, and yes, a NAS is what you need to store the files. There are other options as well.

My favorite set top box for streaming is a Netgear NTV-550, but they have been discontinued. Western Digital's WDTV Live Hub works reasonably well and has a 1TB drive built in. Multiple Hubs can be put around the house and share files between them without a NAS. Popcorn Hour is a popular streamer as well, but it does not have a build in hard drive. For a NAS, the Western Digital Live series of hard drives work well. There is software for copying your movies to a hard drive, DVDFab is one that I have heard of, but there are questions about legality.

Have you considered something like a Roku that streams movies from the internet? They can be had for around $50. A subscription to Netflix (about $8 or so a month) will allow access to many movies of various genres. A broadband internet connection is required for streaming, I would say almost any DSL or cable connection would be plenty. Multiple Rokus can be put around the house with only one subscription fee. There are many other streaming services other than Netflix that can be accessed with something like a Roku.


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## Wardsweb (Apr 2, 2010)

Welcome to the Home Theater Shack. You sir are rich indeed, a loving wife and a life filled with audio. I too am a avid analog guy; I have three vinyl systems and two with reel to reels. 

Here are some sites you may check out. Many of these movie servers are not cheap but offer ease of use.

http://vidabox.com
http://fusionrd.com
http://kaleidescape.com


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Welcome to HTS! :wave:

That is quite a background - great to have you here!

Enjoy your time with us on the forums and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!


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## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

Welcome to the most respected home theater forum on the internet! :bigsmile:


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## Infrasonic (Sep 28, 2010)

Welcome to the forum!

You have many options; the easiest have been listed above. Since you’re in LA I know you have access to high speed internet so streaming is the definitely the easiest whether it be from a Roku, WD TV Live, "Smart" TV/Blu-Ray Player or other such device.

Also mentioned above are media servers where you would buy the content from the company directly like Kaleidescape and while they are very easy to use they are extremely expensive.

If you want to convert your existing movie collection into digital content then it gets a lot more complicated. Long story short you'll need a relatively new computer (<3yrs) and a lot of hard drive space along with a program like XBMC to play the content seamlessly. Without compression you could fit about 150 DVD's (not Blu-Rays) onto a 1TB hard drive. Using software like DVDFab or AnyDVD to actually do the copying.

If you don't have a computer then you'll have to build/buy one, there are many guides online but here are a few:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/how_build_compact_3d-enabled_htpc_less_1000
http://www.missingremote.com/guide/beginners-guide-building-home-theater-pc
http://htpcbuild.com/getting-started/

Good luck and let us know if you need any more advice!


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