Tallitsch

I was researching connecting my ReplayTV unit up to my Comcast set-top control box and ran across the site for this $180 device. Because it is very cool I had to do a write up about it. We have a bunch of devices attached to the TV to play games and watch movies. We have the Xbox, which also works through the Windows 7 media player to access our NAS which has movies stored on it. Then there is the OSD, which also access the NAS directly, and we have the Roku for streaming Netflix’s. The OSD is an ok device, but is temperamental sometimes when it comes to playback. Watching movies through the Xbox is also a pain due to having to have the Windows7 computer turned on and then having to use that crazy game pad to make the movie play. I love the Roku for its ease of use and how well it works, but it does not access anything other then Netflix online. This SageTV device looks like a Roku, but will access all kinds of video and audio formats from NAS, or networked shared PC, much more then the OSD. It does even more with additional software, making this a DVR and allows you to remotely access you movies from anywhere you have internet access. If someone wants me to test this out, just send me one or the $180 and I will perform extensive testing with it and write up my findings.

We like movies like most everyone else and there are the good old stand-by’s that we take out to watch when nothing else is on our 100+ channels. What I don’t like is the whole DVD in the DVD player bit. I like to have the ability to watch a DVD either upstairs on my Neuros OSD, downstairs on the Xbox, on my Blackberry or our Creative Zen when we are camping. So how to make this all work. I have tried several programs and to date the best I have come up with is the following. To get a DVD protected or not into the computer I use DVD Decrypter. This free program is rock solid for converting an entire DVD or just the main movie to VOB, IFO and BUP. You also have the choice to convert to an ISO. Why an ISO, because it is just one file and can be mounted and viewed using software or read by some cool devices like the Tvisto Galaxy, which is great for taking to the rental cabin.
Ok, now that you have your movie in VOB, IFO and BUP, the next step is to convert it into a format that can be viewed on one of the mentioned devices. For this I have yet to find anything that works as well as Handbrake. This is another free piece of software that will convert a folder of VOB, IFO and BUP files into MP4, AVI and some other formats. If you plan to use the Windows Media Center with an Xbox see my entry on that for issues that I found converting files. As for the Divx converting, you need to get the Divx Converter, and that does cost money. I have to admit that the quality is very good for the file size. My conclusion on the whole converting is that you need to convert to the best format for what you are planning to use for playback. For example the Xbox, my current findings are AVI and for little hand held video players, best to use MP4.