Yes, I know that DVDs are already digital. What I’m referring to here is the question of whether it’s worth it to rip the disc to a file and use a media center for playback instead of a DVD player.
The answer is yes, it is worth it – but only if you can afford the hardware and are willing to deal with a media center PC’s way of doing things.
Software and legal issues
A popular choice for a media center PC is LinuxMCE. It’s a very friendly way of using a PC (or any number of other devices) for media center use.
However, specifically concerning commercially available DVDs – which are encrypted – there’s a whole ton of legal bru-ha-ha concerning that. As such, the free version of LinuxMCE will not rip those discs as stated in their own wiki.
Yes, there are ways around a DVD that uses CSS (which per the context of this article means Content Scramble System), but I can’t explain how that’s done here for legal reasons. All I can say is that yes, it can be done.
Hardware
Per the hardware side, just about any PC will work. You can be cheap or go all-out extravagant with your audio and video, but it’s the hard drive(s) that you need to put the money towards. You need space and lots of it. For the drive that holds the operating system, that one can be small. It’s your storage drives that need to be huge.
On the assumption each DVD you rip is 10GB in size, you will be able to fit roughly 100 ripped DVD movie images on a 1TB drive.
Things to take into consideration
The only real issues with a media center PC are longevity and backups.
A platter-based hard drive has a life span of 5 to 7 years whereas a commercial DVD optical disc (assuming a player doesn’t wreck it and the disc is stored properly after each use) will last 10.
On top of that, backing up terabytes of data takes a ridiculous amount of time to complete at present.
Furthermore, when you’re copying that much data there’s a high risk of DVD images going corrupt each time you do it. This is partially due to the fact DVD images are so large in size.
To ensure backups are performed properly each time, you must use proper backup software that not only copies but confirms to keep file integrity in check. Having so much as a little "blip" occur when copying a DVD image can wreck the whole movie and make it unplayable.
This all makes media center PC usage sound horrible but in reality it doesn’t. If used properly and you perform routine backups, you can easily exceed the life span of traditional optical media due to the fact you can move data from one drive to the next as needed.
You also have to remember that it’s not as if you’re going to throw out your DVDs once you rip them, so you’ll always have a physical backup.
What about Windows 7?
Maybe Linux isn’t your thing, and that’s fine. You may have entertained the idea of using Windows instead. But you may have noticed there isn’t a Windows 7 Media Center Edition.
That’s because there’s doesn’t need to be.
Windows 7 Home Premium (as well as Professional and Ultimate) already has it built in. You can read more about that here. If you have 7, you’ve already got it. Just click the Windows logo, type "Media", click the menu choice for "Windows Media Center" and you can start using it right now.
I will say up front that if you don’t have Windows 7 already and are looking to build a media center PC, you should try LinuxMCE first simply for the fact you can skip the $119 Win 7 price tag.
But I’ll also say Windows 7 does a fine job in the media center department:
Looks good, functions well.
With either the LinuxMCE way or the Windows way, you won’t be disappointed.
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