Best Storage for DVD/Bluray Library?

[Zweihander]

Hi all, 

 

Looking to store 500+ movies on either the cloud or an external HDD and connect to a media server/center.

 

What are my best options? Everything is on disc at the moment, looking to transfer these before I move so I don't have to transport so much stuff. I literally have a huge tote full of discs that I'm getting tired of lugging around from place to place. It's also a pain in the ass to try and find the movie I want to watch, take it out of the case and then put it in the player. I feel like this would be so much simpler if it was stored online or via storage. I just don't want to have things go corrupt later down the road...so I'm looking for the best options. Would love to either put all my movies on a hard drive and be able to play on my TV with Plex or Kodi (?) - or possibly upload to a cloud storage. I have a Roku player with Plex on it, have a few shows on there already...but I'm also looking at Kodi.

 

I figure this will be a huge undertaking, copying everything over ... but it's 2017 and I'm tired of having all these discs, books and other crap *I've got a Kindle now*. It's time to downsize. 

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? Criticism?

 

Thanks :)

[Electronics Wizardy]

Get a small nas like a synology?

 

Rip it with handbrake?

 

[toasty6776]

I actually did this with all my parents movies when I got my own place and I love my solution. I have a custom built NAS server running unRAID and it's working like a charm. I wouldn't recommend cloud storage since that high capacity plans are either not available from many providers or WAY too expensive.

[Zweihander]

1 minute ago, toasty6776 said:

I actually did this with all my parents movies when I got my own place and I love my solution. I have a custom built NAS server running unRAID and it's working like a charm. I wouldn't recommend cloud storage since that high capacity plans are either not available from many providers or WAY too expensive.

 

Yeah ... just looked at some of the cloud storage options. 

 

A bit out of my price range, and I'd rather not have to pay a monthly/annual fee.

 

NAS seems like a solid idea actually. How is your custom server built? 

[toasty6776]

As for the process of actually copying the disks, I used MakeMkv and encoded them in adobe media encoder so I don't have to deal with 30GB per Blu-Ray.

[toasty6776]

1 minute ago, Zweihander said:

 

Yeah ... just looked at some of the cloud storage options. 

 

A bit out of my price range, and I'd rather not have to pay a monthly/annual fee.

 

NAS seems like a solid idea actually. How is your custom server built? 

 

I don't have a parts list on hand but I could whip one up real quick.

[Zweihander]

2 minutes ago, toasty6776 said:

I don't have a parts list on hand but I could whip one up real quick.

That'd be cool.

 

Can you also talk me through the process you did? 

[toasty6776]

1 minute ago, Zweihander said:

That'd be cool.

 

Can you also talk me through the process you did? 

 

Sure, I'll be right back

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Zweihander said:

eah ... just looked at some of the cloud storage options. 

look at acd if you want cheap cloud storage. 60 bucks a year for unlimited(i have over 20tb currently) Id just be sure to encrypt it.

[toasty6776]

It's a little pricey, I know and the PSU is actually different than the one I have, but I love having all my media available on all my devices. If you want to save some money you could leave out the SSD (that's just in as a cache so file transfers to the machine are faster) or get a slightly lower power CPU.

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PN7M6X
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PN7M6X/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($149.95 @ Jet) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($98.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($43.74 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Mini ITX Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $796.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-05 16:29 EST-0500

 

For the process of copying, I followed this guide over on lifehacker.com

[Zweihander]

23 minutes ago, toasty6776 said:

It's a little pricey, I know and the PSU is actually different than the one I have, but I love having all my media available on all my devices. If you want to save some money you could leave out the SSD (that's just in as a cache so file transfers to the machine are faster) or get a slightly lower power CPU.

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PN7M6X
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PN7M6X/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($149.95 @ Jet) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($98.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($43.74 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($85.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Mini ITX Tower Case  ($105.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $796.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-05 16:29 EST-0500

 

For the process of copying, I followed this guide over on lifehacker.com

Looks solid ... but I'm not too keen on building a new device at the moment.

 

Perhaps just a storage solution for the time being, and maybe later build a HTPC when I have the extra time/funds to do so. 

[superbike81]

2 hours ago, Zweihander said:

Looks solid ... but I'm not too keen on building a new device at the moment.

 

Perhaps just a storage solution for the time being, and maybe later build a HTPC when I have the extra time/funds to do so. 

What he suggested there IS a storage device.

[AshleyAshes]

 

 

The FlexRAID server I built is pretty suitable for media hoards and unlike most suggestions, you can arbitrarily expand the number of hard drives without needing to rebuild your entire array.

[Zweihander]

22 hours ago, superbike81 said:

What he suggested there IS a storage device.

Actually, what he suggested is a computer (HTPC) ... not a device for storage alone and nothing more.

[mealto]

I would suggest you do a bit of calculating and then figure out how much space you need now and what you may need moving forward. 500 BR movies as is requires a ton of storage space... Possibilty even requiring 4-5 large sata drives.