In the first of a three-part series, Martin Pipe explains how to set your PC (or Mac) up as a multimedia jukebox for your music and video collection. Later, he'll explain how to make it available all around your home, and finally he'll test some of the more affordable media streamers on the market.
If you have a large CD or DVD collection, tracking down a specific item can be a frustrating experience. If, like me, you've got a lot of discs, you may find that once that movie or album has surfaced you may no longer be in the mood to play it! Audio/video 'jukeboxes' and new concepts like multimedia networking are starting to gain acceptance, thanks in part to developments like Apple's iPod, broadband internet and video streaming/downloading. Even at the proudly-British audiophile end of the market, hi-fi giants like Linn, Arcam and Naim are selling expensive home 'music servers' that allow complete CD collections to be accessed at the touch of a button or two. And these days, it's becoming difficult to find a mass-market quality audio product that doesn't have the ability to be upgraded for iPod compatibility.
Most of us have some kind of a computer at home these days - the one you're reading this webpage on, perhaps? If you have an iPod and are using iTunes, then you already have the beginnings of a jukebox. Not only can this software synchronise music and video with your iPod, but it can also play this content. We'll come back to the virtues of iTunes shortly. If you don't have an iPod, then you can still use iTunes, or you can use other freely-available software to turn your PC into a sophisticated audio-visual jukebox. And in the second part of this series, we'll describe how the media collection stored on your PC can be enjoyed elsewhere in your home thanks to networkable media players.
Making the right connections
But first, let's examine how you can connect up your PC to your AV equipment - something that will also allow you to enjoy games and streaming TV content (like Channel Four's 4oD and BBC iPlayer) on the 'big screen', with big sound to match. First, audio. The speakers 'bundled' with PCs tend to be of pretty atrocious quality. What little bass there is tends to be uncontrolled and flabby, while mid-range colouration imparts a 'hollow' quality to vocals. Laptop speakers, meanwhile, tend to be 'tinny' and treble-dominant. Not very nice, in other words. Thankfully, all modern computers give you an external audio output that can drive a hi-fi or home-cinema system.
There are usually two varieties - analogue (present on just about every computer that's been made in the last ten years) and digital (higher-end models, or computers fitted with an after-market soundcard). The digital output gives better sound quality because it bypasses the computer's own analogue circuitry and, like the one fitted to DVD players, will usually feed 5.1 soundtracks to a multi-channel AV amp or receiver.
It will either be coaxial (electrical) or optical - buy the one you need to connect it to your gear. Analogue outputs, which tend to be the only option on laptops, usually take the form of a 3.5mm socket. You will need a stereo 3.5mm-to-dual phono cable to connect it to your audio equipment. These cables, like digital ones, are available from most good accessory suppliers.
And video? Most modern HD-ready flat-panel TVs and projectors have a 15-pin VGA input - feed this, instead of your computer monitor, from the computer's VGA output. If your computer has an HDMI (or DVI output), then use that instead if you can - it will result in better picture quality. HDMI and DVI-to-HDMI cables are also readily available.
I recommend ensuring that the graphics-card drivers of your computer are up-to-date, to ensure best results and optimal compatibility with your TV - these can be found on the website of the computer or graphics-card manufacturer. If you don't yet have an HD-ready TV, then you'll have to make do with a standard-def connection. Many modern computers and laptops have a composite or S-video output; the display drivers have a mode (accessible from the Windows control panel) that will 'duplicate' whatever's displayed on the monitor on these outputs. Under these circumstances, use the better-quality S-video if you can.
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Use CladDVD.net in its 'DVD mode' - click the 'start rip' option, and when the process is complete you'll find a newly-created folder called 'VIDEO_TS'. In here, you'll find a series of files containing the DVD's audio-visual content. Tell VOB2MPEG to point to this folder, and these files are converted into a single .mpg (MPEG) file. Rename this file with the movie title, and put it in the folder where you store your movies.
This MPEG file can be handled by the vast majority of media playback software and networked players - or converted into a DivX file with DiVX Converter. Simply drag the file, and drop it into the converter. A 'file settings' menu then appears; in the 'media options' tag, you'll be able to choose the soundtrack you want. In most cases, this will be the 'main' one - you're told if it's '5.1 surround'.
If you check the 'maintain source audio', this original soundtrack will be retained. This is useful if you want to preserve the 5.1 soundtrack; if its unchecked, all you'll get is a 2-channel MP3 'downmix'. If a DiVX file is all you want, run CladDVD.net in its 'PGC mode'. In this case a single VOB file is created; this can be imported directly into DivX Converter. The DiVX 'profile' to select for DVD (and digital TV captures) is the default 'home theater' - you'll see this just above the 'convert' button that kicks off the process.
Some DVDs employ copy protection - this can be 'defeated' by an easy-to-use wizard-driven program known as RipIt4Me. This works in conjunction with another program known as DVD Decrypter; the files produced can be converted into a .mpg or DivX file as previously-discussed. As soon as conversion is complete, the original 'ripped' DVD files can be deleted. Don't forget to choose 'movie only' in RipIt4Me's ripping settings, by the way.
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Soft option
Now we can look at the software you'll need - I'll concentrate on 'free' examples for now, since they're perfectly adequate to get you started. To 'rip' CDs to the computer's hard drive, I use a program known as
Exact Audio Copy, or EAC. This does a very good job at extracting audio from your CDs, and storing the tracks on your hard drive in a standard form known as WAV files. These contain the audio information, as stored on the CD, with no changes. As a result, they should sound just as good! The downside with WAV is that because they aren't compressed, they tend to be quite large files, and take up a lot of memory on your hard drive.
EAC will 'rip' all or selected tracks, will automatically name them from information stored on an online database and even automatically initiate their conversion into much smaller MP3 files - you'll also need to install the LAME software (also free) for this, though. Playback? I use the popular Winamp media player - with the various plugins available via the developer's website, it can handle just about anything! By default, though, it will play CDs, WAV files, MP3 and WMA.
Winamp also allows you to create custom playlists with any number of tracks, which is useful for background music at parties for example. It's a simpler alternative to the Microsoft media player bundled with Windows, and can sound pretty good, too! So too can iTunes - which combines ripper, player, a store portal, podcast downloads and iPod synchroniser.
It's of course available for both Macs and Windows PCs. Unlike Winamp, iTunes handles audio files with digital rights management (DRM) - which protects the copyright of tracks you have purchased from the iTunes store, for example. By default, iTunes specifies AAC audio compression at a bitrate of 128kbps. For critical listening on high-grade digitally-fed audio equipment, this might not be good enough. Thankfully, the encoding settings can be changed (Box 1). Note that Winamp will play non-DRM iTunes-format AAC .m4a files with the appropriate plugin.
A modern Windows XP PC can, however, also act as a video jukebox. Equip your PC with a digital terrestrial or satellite tuner card fed by the appropriate aerials, and you'll be able to watch digital TV, and listen to digital radio with better-than-DAB quality. Your favourite programmes can also be recorded to the hard disk, Sky+ style. With a satellite card and the correct H.264 decoding software (now normally supplied with the hardware), reception of BBC-HD will be possible - note, however, that your PC needs to be a pretty powerful one to achieve this. Windows Media Player, standard on all Windows-packing PCs will play TV recordings - ensure that your digital TV software is configured, via its settings or preferences menu, to record 'mpg' files. Winamp is also capable of playing such content.
Then there's your DVD collection. I use a program called 'CladDVD.net' to get movies onto my computer. This software 'breaks' the DVD encryption and places an unencrypted copy on your hard drive. Additional software, such as VOB2MPG, is used to convert the DVD-specific file format (VOB files) into standard MPEG ones that are compatible with PC software - like Winamp and Windows Media Player - and networkable media players. There's no loss of quality here, and the 5.1 soundtracks are retained. Some newer DVDs use trickier 'RipGuard' or ARccOS copy protection; to get around this use DVD Decrypter (search on Google!) in conjunction with Ripit4me. The processes are summarised in the Ripping DVDs box.
If you want to make the movies take up less file space (typically one gigabyte for a typical 90-minute blockbuster, as opposed to five) while retaining most of the original picture quality, then you could use the 'drag-and-drop' DiVX Converter - part of the free DiVX for Windows bundle. This gives you the option of retaining the original 5.1 soundtrack, so that full surround sound is retained. Most media players, whether PC programs or networkable stand-alones, can deal with DiVX files.
A final warning - sensible organisation of your 'library' is essential, or you might spend a great deal of time trying to hunt down a file - the 'virtual' equivalent of our original problem. Remember to dedicate folders to your audio and video files, and create within them subfolders (comedy, action movies, soul, heavy metal and so on) as you go.
All clear? If you've got any questions, ask Martin in the forum below.
Martin explains how to network your media around your home in Make your own home network pt2
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Fred Williams
