Need Home Media Center Help....

I have recently converted my stepfather to Mac... Good for me...:black:

He has found the joys of iTunes and converting his whole music collection digital format.

He now wants to take it a step further. He wants to put his whole DVD collection on TB hard drives and be able to play them on his HD TV and home theater in the living room.

Here's the solution I have given him. Check me if I'm wrong. We rip the movies down into avi using Handbrake at full quality (About 3.5gb per 1 1/2 hours). I then use isquint or visualhub to convert the files so I can put them in the movies folder of iTunes using the optimize for TV button.

2 questions-

1) Am I going to be able to retain the DVD quality video and Ac3 sound when I put it in iTunes? If not, is there a way to organize the videos (ie. another program) that is as user friendly as iTunes?

2) What is the best solution to get the video to an HD TV and sound to the home theater components short of buying a new computer? He's not opposed to doing that, I'd just like to try to use the home's existing hardware. Maybe there is a card add-on or something in that realm.

I thank you all for any help....

Macs have front row. That is like windows media center

Ok so that helps solve the delivery issues. Basically I'm going to need another computer in the living room that has a video out to the TV. Let's hope that iTunes will not destroy the quality of the video....

I dont think you can import a movie into itunes.