Ripping Formats / Metadata / Cinavia Questions

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
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Hi Everyone,

I’m going to be purchasing a WDTV Live SMP and have a few questions hopefully this community could help me get answered before making my final decision.

  1. DVD Ripping / Format Support - I’m in the process of backing up my movie collection into digital formats. Initially I was using Handbrake to convert them to .m4v but have read reports users were experiencing issues with FF & RWing. I’m interested in seeing which format you’ve all had the best experience with.
  2. Metadata / Movie Sheets - One of the most lucrative features I’m interested in is having visual information relating to the video file. I’ve seen a few threads about Thumbgen; if anyone has a YouTube tutorial or a link to a How To article it would be greatly appreciated.
  3. Cinavia - Based on what I’ve read it isn’t included in WDTV Live. However, It’s possible it could be implimented in devices such as this in the future. I’m interested in hearing what the community thinks about the potential of this happening and of any alternatives which may be available if it does get implimented.

**Additional Questions - Edited**

  1. Which programs are you all using to Rip DVDs and convert them to adequate file sizes?
  2. If anyone else is using Handbrake is there a specific preset that you feel works best for WDTV Live SMP?
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RIght now I have some avi some mkv and some straight isos. I tend to like the mkv the best of the three but thats really just because I seem to get the best rip of the media on it and i tend to rip them at high file sizes to ensure I don’t have much loss in quality from the originals. Some poeple don’t care baout that but IMHO you can can always scale down from the best quality but you can NEVER regain quality once it has been lost. As far as fast forwarding and reversing I have not noticed any stutter or issues but again I am ethernet connected on the ones I am using.

No clue on ThumbGen I am just getting into the movie data information myself. At firstIi wanted to just have the files but after seeng some of the content on the scren i am loving the xml/thumbnails and backdrops and hope I too may be able to get more into the visual appeal of my movies. before they are even playing as the secleted file.

I purchased these WDTV Live SMD exactly for this Cinavia reason. I have multiple Sony Blu-rays that I own as well as a Sony PS3 I paid hndsomely for but this makes it so I CAN’T stream my own ripped media on my own purchased PS3. I have to walk in and toss in a disk or I have to use the USB drive. The fact there is this limitation is why I dumped the PS3 and went to these devices. IMHO since these have optional firmware updates this is a non issue. If htey update 3 major revisions from now and add some Cinavia breaking code into their players then I’ll keep the firmware update from two major releases from now and never update to the third and never be affected.

IMHO Firmware updates should be about providing additional benifits NOT about limitning something that is already capable. This is a point that Sony OBVIOUSLY does not care about on their PS3 firmware updates.

My PS3 is now turning into a pure gaming machine for my son and these are my go to for all streaming content )my media files AND netflix) and I am not looking back.

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@StumpedTechy

I’m thinking I’m leaning toward MKV at this point. The PS3 console was also my primary media player but finding out it has Cinavia protection and doesn’t support formats such as MKV was what made me decide on obtaining a WDTV Live SMP.

I’m interested in what type of programs you’re using to Rip DVDs and convert to MKV. Right now I have AnyDVD installed and is used as the ripper. Handbrake is what I’m using to convert to MKV/M4V. I tried out MakeMKV and was pleased with how fast it was but didn’t like how it didn’t compress the file size to be much smaller.

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Actually PS3 does support MKV as long as your running a PC side streamer. I was using PMS (PS3 Media Server) and this played mkv files just fine (well except the cinavia protected ones).

I use MakeMKV and Handbrake and that has always worked well for me. I leave it at the 1080p settings for handbrake and then just reconvert lower if I need it for any “mobile” alternatives which we really have not needed as a fmaily yet.