[lanndo]

Hey Guys, new here, but have been reading a lot of your posts for awhile now. I have an old computer that I am interested in setting up as an htpc. It's a 3.4 P4 (one of the last processors made in that line), it's got 2GB of DDR2. I recently purchased an HD4650 to replace an aging nVidia 6900 (PCI-E x16), while the card doesn't have HDMI, it does have dual-dvi, and from what I have read here is that if I purchase an adapter it should work quite well (TV only has HDMI and VGA). I'm new to this experience, but from what I've read, it looks like my computer will be able to function quite well. I am a little worried about the HD's as they are both older (Original Raptor 10k, and a 320GB 16mb WD I got on sale a few years back).

I'm running this all in an oldschool antec full-size case (think alienware pre-dell) which is heavy as sin, but a dream to work inside. If all goes to plan I'd definately get a smaller case and perhaps a blu-ray drive. What i'm mainly interested in is ripping my existing DVD collection to it (~50 DVD's), having netflix, hulu, etc.

Any thoughts on this setup? Will it be okay for HD streaming? I think my HD's should be large enough to rip my collection at high quality, so what settings would you recommend in Handbrake to get the best possible transfer? I don't plan on using these movies on an iPad or iPod, just more for the convenience of being able to store all those DVD cases that pile up and being able to just select a movie painlessly. It's running XP if that matters, and I wasn't sure if installing XBMC live would help out any. Thanks again! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[jhsrennie]

DVDs are only 576p and this resolution will play fine on virtually anything. You might run into problems trying to play 1080p. Try it and see.

If you have the disk space the best option for DVDs is probably to rip them to an ISO file. That way you keey all menus etc and original video quality.

JR

[lanndo]

I had thought of this originally but I think I would rather have it just play the video file rather than messing with previews, disclaimers, etc. I know on Handbrake there is an option "High Profile" which is H.264 at 1800 kbps. Would this be the optimal setting?

[jhsrennie]

Optimal quality (assuming file size isn't a concern) is just to copy the video off the DVD. You don't have to copy it as an ISO, you can just copy off the .vob files, which are basically just MPEG2 files.

However I would guess that if you use h264 with a bitrate of 1800Kps the quality will be indistinguishable from the original DVD.

JR