For anyone with a large DVD collection

JustAnotherSaver

Not sure of the best forum really. Just something i'd wondered -



We're having a bit of a storage problem at the moment, not just with DVDs but things in general. Between my wife & I i wouldn't be surprised if we're getting on 200 DVDs and that's after selling the ones we really wont watch again.


Just wondering how you guys store yours.


Obviously i'm not talking to the people who've got 10-20 DVDs in their house, but those with quite an amount.





What I've had to do is get one of those CD/DVD wallet things that stores about 8 DVDs to a sleeve and take all the discs out of their boxes.



Only thing is some DVDs came in a sort of 'collectors casing' if you will. Metal tins, inserts etc. So while most packaging i don't really care about, some i'd rather not bin. Then when we feel like watching a movie but not necessarily a long one you have to Wikipedia the runtime of a movie if you don't have a box to refer to :rotfl:


So what do you do?

JJ_Egan

All on a NAS box or USB hard drive.

JustAnotherSaver

Not sure what a NAS box is but i imagine it's another version of a USB drive.



Don't you worry about the whole thing going corrupt?


I've no idea how much my DVD collection cost me but it'll be a bit. The thought of plugging some storage device in one day only for it to say "ERROR!"

JustAnotherSaver

Anyway, aside from the worry of it all going boobs up ....


1) How do you export from the DVD to [insert media here] without loss of picture/sound quality?
2) How long does it take (approx) per DVD?
3) You can still use the menu system, subtitles etc the same way you would if using the actual DVD?

[Deleted User]

We had to downsize when we moved recently, all of our DVD's (200 plus) are now stored at a local charity shop

A_Pandiculation

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Not sure what a NAS box is but i imagine it's another version of a USB drive.



Don't you worry about the whole thing going corrupt?


I've no idea how much my DVD collection cost me but it'll be a bit. The thought of plugging some storage device in one day only for it to say "ERROR!"

Most charity shops virtually give DVD's away because (almost) nobody wants them any more.
And as for value, there really aren't many that are worth more than a quid or two. Look at eBay or Music Magpie for ideas of value; you'll probably be shocked.
DVD's have already gone the way of VHS tapes for by far most people. Even the more recent Blu Ray's are struggling to sell & as for UHD Blu Ray (which is supposedly the best way to see 4K content on your shiny new 4K telly) the sales figures aren't exactly very good. A glance at the small amount of discs on sale in stores like Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury's etc. should suggest to you how little demand there is for them.

Online streamed content is the way to go.
200 DVD's at an average initial cost of £10 each. That's is the same as Netflix UHD streaming sub per month so would equal 200 months of Netflix UHD subscriptions - that's more than 16 years!
Lots of things you can watch in UHD, a better picture AND often in surround sound too if yo're set up for that. There's far more than 200 movies there.

If you're still sure you want to save them then yes, a NAS is maybe the way to go.
200 DVD's will need a 2TB NAS but preferably 4TB or more for future expansion. There's lots of info on how to save a DVD to a NAS if you look. And as for corruption, just like (I hope) your computer you backup EVERYTHING in multiple places including the cloud.

Me?
A NAS was unnecessary, overkill for my needs BUT I don't store full-blown DVD-quality or UHD Blu ray quality files.
So I bought a couple of 5TB Seagate portable hard drives for about £110 each, one of which is connected to my router & one to my desktop. Both hold copies of all the things we like and we can watch them anywhere and on anything, from our OLED 4K TV in the lounge to on a tablet when we're away on holiday. All backed up too. Music, photo's etc.

No storage problems there you see.
Plus when you play back whatever you can see the runtime together with how much is passed and left to go.
Honestly, I couldn't tell you the last time I bought a physical copy of music or movie.
In fact I disposed of my large DVD collection some 10 years ago on the last house move and I haven't missed it, even with my surround sound system which is used so much that I recently upgraded both my receiver and my speakers.

Sorry it's a long post but hopefully it's given you an insight into options.
Oh & before you ask how long it takes to rip a DVD to a NAs or disc, that depends on lots of things so the only way you'll know for your equipment is to try one and see.
HTH.

Neil_Jones

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Anyway, aside from the worry of it all going boobs up ....


1) How do you export from the DVD to [insert media here] without loss of picture/sound quality?
2) How long does it take (approx) per DVD?
3) You can still use the menu system, subtitles etc the same way you would if using the actual DVD?

1) Software available online, MakeMKV or Handbrake are two common ones.
2) Depends on speed of the computer and how much data is on the disk, most 90 minute DVD movies you can usually rip them in about 35 minutes.
3) If you do it properly, yes though using something like Kodi as your media player means it can download subtitles from the various resources on the internet. In all honesty most people only ever watch the extras on a DVD once or twice anyway.

JustAnotherSaver

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

We had to downsize when we moved recently, all of our DVD's (200 plus) are now stored at a local charity shop

I couldn't do that :eek: Too much time & money spent, plus we love to watch films.

JustAnotherSaver

A_Pandiculation wrote: »

Most charity shops virtually give DVD's away because (almost) nobody wants them any more.

Ahh the age of the streamer. I think i'm a dying breed. An album came out recently from an artist i like. I waited on the CD version being available which was a small wait. I could've had it a week or so sooner if i was happy with the stream/download.

And as for value, there really aren't many that are worth more than a quid or two. Look at eBay or Music Magpie for ideas of value; you'll probably be shocked.

Not really. I know they're not worth much these days but then i'm not looking to make profit out of my collection.


I'm not a fan of this streaming lark. For example, there's DVDs & music CDs i've bought as the years have gone by, discs that were very easy to get at the time but they weren't 'big films' or 'big albums' by 'big stars' but they were of interest to ME.


I have a hard copy of them so i can watch/listen to them again & again whenever i wish. HOWEVER, if i didn't have a physical copy then there's some DVDs/music CDs that i just would struggle to get or not even be able to get at all today because they're apparently not popular enough to even stream.

If you're still sure you want to save them then yes

I must be boring then because i like watching the same movie more than once ,

And as for corruption, just like (I hope) your computer you backup EVERYTHING in multiple places including the cloud.

That cloud thing bothers me for 2 reasons...


1) For any reasonable capacity i imagine you have to pay - and therein lays the problem ... it costs, probably an ongoing fee.
2) Whoever is providing this storage, what about when they shut up shop. You're out of luck.

So I bought a couple of 5TB Seagate portable hard drives for about £110 each, one of which is connected to my router

What does connecting it direct to the router offer you? I'm not a total technophobe but there's bits that do baffle me.

Thanks for the post though. Helpful

JustAnotherSaver

Neil_Jones wrote: »

3) If you do it properly, yes though using something like Kodi as your media player means it can download subtitles from the various resources on the internet. In all honesty most people only ever watch the extras on a DVD once or twice anyway.

In my experience Kodi & subtitles are very iffy. Out of 10 movies i only get subtitles on say 1 or 2. 2 may even be stretching it. Very annoying.

[Deleted User]

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I couldn't do that :eek: Too much time & money spent, plus we love to watch films.

We thought the same, so much so that the wife was talking about renting a local lock up from the council purely for storage but it would have been just throwing away more money so we bit the bullet. We did look at selling them but as mentioned by others the price offered just seemed like a kick in the nasties so we gave them to the charity shop (I hoping they were grateful rather than 'not more DVDs' )

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I'm not a fan of this streaming lark. For example, there's DVDs & music CDs i've bought as the years have gone by, discs that were very easy to get at the time but they weren't 'big films' or 'big albums' by 'big stars' but they were of interest to ME.

I have a hard copy of them so i can watch/listen to them again & again whenever i wish. HOWEVER, if i didn't have a physical copy then there's some DVDs/music CDs that i just would struggle to get or not even be able to get at all today because they're apparently not popular enough to even stream.

I have a relative who actually works for a streaming company where you also get the DVD and they've had to remove multiple titles because they simply can't get the DVD anymore and I'm not talking particularly old or fringe films.

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

What does connecting it direct to the router offer you? I'm not a total technophobe but there's bits that do baffle me.

It means you can access it over the local network by any compatible device. It's basically your own centralised server.