One of the key features in MyMovies that many people do not know about is media conversion.  It is one of the sleeper features which I find very useful.  In a nutshell, along with ripping your content you can also have your media converted for a mobile device to a specific folder/share all in one step.

Here is an overview of the process to give you an idea of how I use mine.  Hopefully this will give you a better idea of how powerful this feature is.  I will not get into the ripping process as that can either be done automatically for you by MyMovies/AnyDVDHD or you can use you own methods for ripping your content.  For purposes of the this article I am going to assume a few things.

  • You have successfully installed and are using MyMovies on WHS.
  • That you are using MyMovies or other method for ripping your content.
  • That you have a mobile device such as IOS that can support MP4.

Setting the Options

In order to begin the process, lets walk through the setup option in MyMovies that are critical to this process.  The first place you want to go is the “Disk Copier” tab.  This is only necessary if you plan on using your WHS for the actual ripping process.  If you do, make sure the process is started and that you have installed AnyDVDHD.  Select the format types you want for DVD and BD and click “Apply”.

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The “Monitor” tab is important to this whether or not you rip your content yourself, or use MyMovies to do it.  In my case I am monitoring 3 folders which basically means that whenever content is copied to it, MyMovies will catalog it.

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The main tab is of course the “Video Converter” tab.  This is where we are going to configure the format, location, and some options.  MyMovies will do up to 2 conversions for you, allowing you to have two different formats at two different locations.  For me I just use one so that is all I setup on my options.

  • Profile Settings – Format type or device type.
  • Store on Share – Location of where to store the converted file.  Each profile can be set differently.  In my case I use a share for storing my iPad movies.
  • Language and subtitles
  • Options
    • You can set the first check box to automatically add the movie to the converter queue as you rip you content.  This assumes you are ripping using WHS.
    • Delete original movie after the conversion (this is something I do NOT want to do, but it is an option).

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The Process

There are two main ways to use this feature.  As explained above, if you click the option to automatically add discs when copying, the process is completely automated.  Assuming it recognizes the movie you inserted, it will rip and convert it for automatically.  You must be using WHS to rip you movies for this to be fully automated.

Selecting the movies you want to convert

If you are like me and rip your content on a different computer using different software.  You may not want to convert everything, but rather have the ability to quickly select the movies you want to convert.  If that sounds like you, you are in luck as MyMovies makes this process very painless.

To do this, click on the “Title Collection” tab of the MyMovies section of your WHS dashboard.  You should now see your entire movie collection that has been cataloged.

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Find the title you want to convert and “Right Mouse”, click and select “Add to converter queue”.  That’s it.  Your movies will now convert in the background and be stored complete with meta-data in the folder that you selected.

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Conclusion

MyMovies makes it almost painless to convert your movies for use with your portable device.  The process does have a couple of downsides despite being a great solution.  My first complaint is that the converter engine is based on Handbrake.  Handbrake is a very stable converter however it drives your CPU into overdrive.  My server is a Core I5-2500 and when it is converting, the CPU is at 100% for the entire process.  This is not the end of the world but annoying none the less.  Presently there is no support for things like QuickSync which would alleviate this issue and provide faster conversion times.  This leads me to my second complaint, conversion times take more than 2 hours on a core I5 for one BD movie.  Again not a show stopper as it can run at night but an annoyance anyway.  Lastly, since handbrake is a bolt on, you can not adjust any options on such as temp storage location.  I use an SSD on my WHS and by default handbrake stores its temp files on the “C” drive.  This means my SSD gets beat-up pretty bad during this task.  Again, not the end of the world but rather an annoyance factor.  On the upside you can add converters if you are looking for something else other than handbrake but I could not locate any.  It would be great if they added a small option to upgrade to a better converter that supported QuickSync.

Overall this is a great solution even with a few minor flaws.  Using this solution is far less painful in converting movies than most other solutions I have seen.  If you have MyMovies installed on WHS then you should give this a try, and if you where holding off buying, now you have a better reason to get it.