I know I've done this in the past, that is to play DVD files from one PC's hard drive with DVD software on another PC on the same wired 10/100 home network.

I've now added a Vista PC to my home theater, and want to be able to play DVD files from the huge hard drive I've got in the back bedroom.

I've tried mounting drive images, mapping that drive to the PC in the home theater. I've tried just sharing the directories with the DVD files (not images) on the network. I can find the files with PowerDVD Ultra but it reports the media I'm trying to access has the wrong region code. This is not true, and those media files DO play just fine on the machine they are local to.

My hope is to rip all 100 or so DVDs I have to the big hard drive in the back bedroom, then be able to play them with something on the HTPC. So far not having any luck. I can make ISO image files or AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS files for each movie.

Will someone who does this, using VISTA Home Premium preferably, please tell me what steps and what software you use? My wife already likes having a PC in the theater room, but if I can get this going she'll then approve the HD projector I want to buy I'm sure! ;-)

I'm getting close to figuring it all out. First I discovered VLC media player. It plays both ISO files as well as VIDEO_TS folders equally well. Then I discovered "My Movies", an addon and freestanding DVD organizer that works as an addon in Vista media center. Tomorrow (today?) I'll see if VLC will play the movies over my network. If so I'll start ripping them all to the hard drive as within media center after My Movies is installed there is also an option to play them if on the hard drive.

Pony up for a K'scape or Experinet.

OK. I backed up 19 DVDs today, added them to the MyMovies collection application, then set the main directory I'd put them in to share across my home network. I installed MyMovies on both the server and the HTPC, with each DVD entry pointing to the folder where that DVD was backed up to. All movies are on a large external USB 2.0 drive but media center on both machines could play the same movie at the same time, even if they weren't syncronized. Sharing was specifically limited to two users at a time. It didn't seem to matter that some files were in VIDEO_TS folders and some were in the DVD-named folder itself. All were found and would start playing within 15 seconds of telling media center I wanted to watch the movie I'd selected from the database.

Apparently there is a way to have media center watch the video folder and automatically add new DVDs backed up within it. I haven't figured that out yet though.

The VLC media player also works over the network, but isn't as convenient as using MyMovies in Media Center. You have to brouse for and open each file seperately rather than just picking them off a pretty graphic cover-art list.

I'm not against ponying up, Clark. I am in favor of figuring out how to do this first with a minimal investment, at least to prove the concept. I'll send the MyMovies developer a donation as I like it very much. I'll probably not use VLC, athough it's a very sweet DVD/Video player.

I also am not the ideal customer for either Xperinet or K'scape. I don't have a server room, just lots of computers. I do have a network throughout the house, but it's just cables run through the attic from a router in a bedroom closet. There is no Theater, only a living room with a 40" HDTV and a master bedroom with w 46" HDTV. We watch TV in the living room primarily, and recently added a PC to the equipment shelving in there. I'm a DirecTV customer and with their new HR20 HD DVRs I found I could access Music and Photos off the PC in a guest bedroom/office over my home network. I ripped all 300 or so CDs to that system just for that reason. The HR20 also hints at video sharing, but does not have that enabled yet. If it had been I would never have bought a PC for the living room. The Music playing has become a very much-used desirable activity. Before doing this we rarely listened to our old Cds as they were apparently too cumbersome to find and load into a CD player. Now they are easily accessed, sortable, and searchable. Doing the same with my DVD collection was the next logical step. I've had it working for one day now, and we've already watched 3 old movies from our collection that we wouldn't have known where to find before.

My next house will be the media showcase. Dedicated theater room, centralized media server, etc.. Only, though, because I'll have figured this stuff all out on my own, for very cheap, in this not-to-ideal-for-home-theater house I live in right now.