What is the nicest way to move home dvd's to a hard drive to easily navigate and play through smart tvs
move home dvd's to hard drive
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mikiem2
ModeratorProbably the best place to start is what sort of setup you have or want to have?
A "Smart" TV has basically the electronics from a [usually cheaper] Android tablet inside. Lots of the media players & streaming video devices have the same, and some people use their Android cell phones &/or tablets. Many Blu-Ray players include both the Android type electronics & the electronics needed to play DVD & Blu-Ray discs.
If you want to use the Android part to play video, the best format for that video is AVC [H.264] with a bit rate that usually should not exceed around 10 or 12 -- more than plenty for video originally on a DVD, but maybe 1/2 or less than what you'll find on Blu-Ray discs.
If you want to convert DVD video to AVC for Android playback the easiest way would be to use almost any of the ffmpeg-based converters like those that are on GOTD from time to time. You'd want to keep the video at it's playback size rather than enlarging it for an HDTV -- the TV &/or player will handle that better. DVD video is originally 720 x 480 or 576, & expanded out to wide screen 16:9 when that's the type of video you have. An Android player may stretch that video the same as a DVD/Blu-Ray player, or it may not, but you can enlarge the width to normal playback size when converting, & that's probably the safest bet.
If you need/want subtitles you'll have to use a separate program to OCR them to text, e.g. Subtitle Edit. Saved as an .srt file, named the same as the video that goes with it, and stored in the same folder, most Android players will give you the option to display those subs.
Once you get to that point the AVC video [& optionally subs] can be stored almost anywhere the player or TV can access them, depending on the hardware playback device. Some will play video available on drives shared over your home network, while others work best with USB storage, & some can do both.
If you don't want to re-encode the audio/video you can store DVDs on your hard drive & play them through Windows Media Center for example. The hassle there is you need to play the video on a PC/laptop, & have the TV connected as a [often 2nd] monitor. Depending on the Blu-Ray player, you might also be able to play DVD video stored on a USB drive. If you have an Android device that lets you install apps, you can get a player that will work with mpg2, & stream that to your TV over a wired or wireless connection. The streaming part is hardware dependent. Bear in mind that most Android hardware is optimized for AVC [only Blu-Ray players also have the electronics to decode mpg2], so mpg2 has to be decoded entirely in software -- IOW it may work less than optimally.
There are programs that will re-encode your DVD video on-the-fly -- typically you tell it which file [DVD] to play, & it'll convert it, sending the results of that conversion over your network. You'll need a fast enough PC/laptop to do the conversion & stream it, & you'll need to make sure your TV [or a box or dongle connected to the TV] can receive the stream & display it.
And there are several technologies that will stream the video from a player on your PC or cell or tablet to a compatible box or dongle or TV. Most all have caveats of one sort or another, & they depend a lot on what you have at the receiving end, that box or dongle or brand/model of smart TV. Some of it's proprietary from companies like Samsung, while other technologies are more open like Miracast.
Posted 9 years ago #
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