Enjoying my DVD collection without the discs!

[kosmicken]

The descriptionn of the BM DVD Library plugin answers my question that doing this is possible. But my next quesion is how? What do I need to do in order to rip DVD movies and TV box sets to my hard drive and browse and watch them from a library interface, the way I have been enjoying audio CD's without the discs for many years?

I do use DVD Shrink to copy DVDs to my hard drive, and then another pogram (I forget what it's called) to convert the main feature to a small 640x480 .avi file for viewing on my PDA. But this is all I have done so far. DVD Shrink's website says that the program allows you to copy your DVD's using a DVD burner. But can these files be viewed directly from the hard drive? I have no idea what kind of files they are and the extensions are not recognized. Does the BM DVD Library give you access to all the DVD extras, as if you had the disc in the drive, or is it just the main feature?

With such an useful plugin (and this is just one of many examples), why do so many poeple say that BM is not worth the money, and recommend Media Portal instead? Does anything like this exist for MP?

[kosmicken]

Okay...I searched Google and found out that you can use WinDVD (I have it on my laptop) and PowerDVD (on my desktop) to open DVD folders from your hard drive. Good. But what are my options -- other than BM with DVD Library plugin -- for enjoying my DVDs in a library interface, both for the desktop environment and media center environment?

[nanook105]

This will probably spark a huge debate (as many are frustrated by the lack of development on BM), but I have/use three copies of BM with the DVD plugin and from that perspective alone, it is well worth the money for me and my family (two are currently being used by my kids as I type - very typical on the weekends during school and almost every night during the summer).

I ripped all of my dvds with dvd decrypter to vobs, and I get full menus with all of the extras. You can also rip to ISO - take a look at the help file at the end of the first post for your options

[kosmicken]

I see there have not been any updates (by SS) to BM in quite some time, but why is this considered such a problem by many? Is it missing features that people would like to see added? Features that have not been covered by the numberous user-created plugins?

I looked at the documentation a little and I see that you can use vob and ISO, but I really don't know what either of those are so that doesn't tell me much. But it's great to know that you can get the full menus and extras. I rmember reading somewhere that the DVD Library is primarily designed for movies, but have you used it with any TV box sets? How well does that work?

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by kosmicken

I see there have not been any updates (by SS) to BM in quite some time, but why is this considered such a problem by many? Is it missing features that people would like to see added? Features that have not been covered by the numberous user-created plugins?

I looked at the documentation a little and I see that you can use vob and ISO, but I really don't know what either of those are so that doesn't tell me much. But it's great to know that you can get the full menus and extras. I rmember reading somewhere that the DVD Library is primarily designed for movies, but have you used it with any TV box sets? How well does that work?

I think that all of us had real high hopes for BM. It was very flexible, and with the plugins the potential seemed endless. However, the music portion doesn't work very well with large collections, and the file navigation for regular videos (not the DVD library), is rather clumsy. It also doesn't work all that well with BTV, which is why you will see a number of integration threads. If you search a little, there are many threads on features that have been requested