Yeah, I am deep into a discussion over at AVS about ripping and quality.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I too am doing (almost) 1:1 rips. I don't rip the audio tracks in other languages, and I don't rip any subtitles. We just don't use/need them in our house. Others are all about compressing that rip down to as small as possible before they notice a difference with their system. I just never want to have that "compromise" but others might be OK if they have a 50"TV (vs. a large front projector) or are in a common room in their house where the room acoustics are their biggest issue, not compression, and not a dedicated space.
I broke things up into 2 devices. A media server, and a HTPC. The HTPC hasn't been purchased, but I am look at hardware configs. The server is probably way overkill, but it came down to about $80 more for a speedy CPU vs. a low end one and in the whole cost of the server (with all of the hard drives), it wasn't much.
Boltron, I might hit you up in a PM first about picking your brain on the HTPC piece of things. If the information is good for the masses, we could turn it into a new thread.
For now, I wonder how we can help Zarak out with his question.
