If you do not need to convert then IMHO don't. I do not know what video/audio formats the PS3 and or 360 will play but if you must or simply can not stop yourself from converting then convert to either wmv or h264. DivX is dead so do not even consider it. It is dead for good reason; it is not even close to performing as well as wmv or h264.

jeking said: It's not that I have a desire to convert, but I want to avoid putting the disks in and out. It there another way to 'store' the dvd on the server so I can watch it on the XBOX or PS3?

Hello.

Actually there are some prety good solutions out there.

asset is a upnp music streamer that works with both XBOX and PS3

http://www.whsplus.com/2009/06/01/asset-upnp/

And for Video, A brilliant fellow have made a streaming engine for ps3 that also works for xbox that handles all transcribing and so forth, so that you can play all your movies on PS3 and Xbox

http://www.whsplus.com/2009/04/25/ps3-media-server-for-whs/

And for PC streaming, why not put all your dvd and blueray directly on the server

http://www.mymovies.dk/

Hope this helps ;)

jeking said: Those are some great suggestions, but I guess my question was not clear enough. I can copy my DVD's to my server but I end up with several VOB files. As I understand it, the XBOX can not read VOB files and even if it could, I'd have several files for one movie. How do I get those VOB files into one file the XBOX can read? Thanks again.

Hehe

Seems I misunderstood your question

Mymovies.dk is a program that can rib a dvd into your harddisk, but as a feature you could rip is a wmv or mpeg3.. this the xbox can read :) and the mymovies plugin on your server would then also keep a constantly updates list of movies.. take a look at the site, a aweet program that I hae been using for almost a year now. (even before the home server version came).

Alternatively, find another program, anydvd or the like that can rip dvd, but remember that xbox havs a very limited file list, and preferes WMW, and please remember to rip withour countrycode, the xbox has a very nasty habbit of ruining wmv files if they contain countrycode (have allready ruined a dozen myself to see if it was really true.)

The best one with presets for Xbox and PS3 is Handbrake. I use it to rip stuff for playback on my 360 and PS3 all the time. I even use it to convert stuff for my Blackberry Storm.

"everything will be ok in the end. if it's not ok, it's not the end" - unknown