We recently moved and in our new house I wanted to make sure we’d be in a position to access media easily whether it be music or our DVD collection. Apple makes this so easy and beautiful, though there certainly are some tricks to expedite the process.
iTunes allows you to broadcast audio to a stereo directly connected to either a Airport Express OR a Apple TV. In this case, I’ve setup a few Airport Express’s and a single Apple TV. From a MacMini (connected to 4TB of ext. storage), I can broadcast my iTunes library. As well, from my Apple TV (connected to an LCD display), I can browse my recently ripped DVD collection.
DVD Ripping: To do this, I made it a two step process. First, I ripped the DVD’s “Feature” with MacTheRipper. I used v. 2.6.6 even though apparently a 3.0 is out there somewhere. All of the DVD’s were ripped on my Mac Mini and stored on the external 4TB HD. To convert these to video files capable of playing on the Apple TV, I used HandBrake 0.9.3. I took advantage of the Queue feature which worked quite well. Once I blasted the finished files into iTunes, I used Amazon to locate high-res album artwork (or in this case, DVD covers). Using Preview, I edited these covers to work in iTunes.
What I’m left with is an incredibly easy-to-access DVD library from my family room. Even my wife thinks it’s cool.
