Hi there. I'm one of the seemingly rare reverse-switchers coming back to PCs after years on the Mac. And I've built myself a powerful little media-machine, but I'm struggling with how to make it easily navigable in Windows 7. First order has been converting my DVD collection via a handy piece of freeware called DVDSmith, which quickly extracts the contents of a DVD, menus and all, into a folder on my PC. And all I have to do is right-click the folder and select the option "Play in VLC Media Player" to play one. The problem is access and organization. I would like to be able to select from these films using their cover-art as icons - either in a piece of software, or from Windows Explorer. But I see that Windows still handles icons very differently from the Mac, not letting you paste just any image. I've found utilities that convert JPGs into icon files, but all seem to render them into ugly, pixelated squares that cannot scale up. So any method, third-party software or Explorer-based, for making the movie collection more enjoyable to navigate would be welcome. It would also be nice to make certain folders just open in VLC without the context menu, but I'm not holding my breath on that.
I understand what you are trying to do but wouldn't you not be better converting your dvd,s to say xvid to save space also rather than selecting individual folders with vlc you can make a play list that it will save just select your film from that. personally i would try dvdfab.
I'd like to add that the My Movies I linked to above also integrates with AnyDVD for ripping, etc. I have also used DVDFab.
im getting me a acer revo 3610 in a week or so, and i have tried all the htpc software like xbmc, boxee, media portal etc but i feel that none of them fits me. i play my mp3's and music through songbird with grooveshark as a bookmark and spotify so the music side is good. but when it comes to my movies which is mostly in xvid or mkv so i need something nice to organize it with covers info etc kinda like xbmc but without all the other stuff. i use mpc hc as my video player. so if i read correct im in the same spot as TC. any suggestions would be nice, my movies was not what i was looking for.... a movie launcher that shows things like info covers and then launches mpc hc. man i really hope you understand what im after