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Mass Entertainment System

cubies1982
By cubies1982
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Hey,

 

(I don't know where to post this.)

 

I've been wanting to put all my DVD boxsets onto a huge harddrive so that I could have a semi-entertainment system. I've been thinking about buying a Blu Ray burner and Blu Ray discs, ripping all the DVDs and backing them up and then investing in a 3TB HDD which I can then use with a remote controll and Windows Media Centre to browse through all my boxsets without any discs. If anyone has every done this kind of thing before please let me know. I'd love to get some advice or a better method.

 

Thanks from Cubies.

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I have a 21TB media storage server the serves TV and movies to my home theater PCs.  What you are suggesting is really no different than that.
 

However, I don't get the motive in copying your DVDs to Blu-Ray as backups.  That would be VERY time consuming, much more time consuming that just ripping your DVDs in the first place.  Why not keep your DVDs on the DVDs they are already on, put them tightly in a nice box, and then store them well out of the way?  Or if not that, why not just use a redundant storage system instead of a single HDD?

 

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this is why when you do this you make 2 copies so you have a back up

 

i have a similar set up with currently 10 tbs full ov movies/tvshows

CPU: i5 6600k @ 4.6 ghz  Motherboard: Asus z170-a  Cooling: Corsair h80i GT GPU: EVGA GTX 970  Ram: G.Skill 2x8 gb ddr4 2400  PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 550w  Case: Corsair 200r Storage: 250GB 850 EVO + 2x wd 1 tb drives

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I have a 21TB media storage server the serves TV and movies to my home theater PCs.  What you are suggesting is really no different than that.

 

However, I don't get the motive in copying your DVDs to Blu-Ray as backups.  That would be VERY time consuming, much more time consuming that just ripping your DVDs in the first place.  Why not keep your DVDs on the DVDs they are already on, put them tightly in a nice box, and then store them well out of the way?  Or if not that, why not just use a redundant storage system instead of a single HDD?

 

Because that means having tons and tons of DVD boxsets taking up space. I could fit ten DVDs onto one Blu Ray disc which would take up far less space.

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Because that means having tons and tons of DVD boxsets taking up space. I could fit ten DVDs onto one Blu Ray disc which would take up far less space.

Assuming you were storing complete DVD ISOs, it'd be more like 2-3 on single layer BluRays and about double that for 50GB DL Blu Rays.  But this also comes at a cost.  Writeable discs have a shorter shelf life than pressed commercial discs so unless you foot the bill for some higher end bluray writable media, then you might find your backups went to crap in 10 years or so.

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Assuming you were storing complete DVD ISOs, it'd be more like 2-3 on single layer BluRays and about double that for 50GB DL Blu Rays.  But this also comes at a cost.  Writeable discs have a shorter shelf life than pressed commercial discs so unless you foot the bill for some higher end bluray writable media, then you might find your backups went to crap in 10 years or so.

 

What is your solution other than having huge cardboard boxes filled with DVD boxsets and movies?

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What is your solution other than having huge cardboard boxes filled with DVD boxsets and movies?

Are you wanting to throw away or sell them? Sounds like you don't want them any more. If it were me, I'd probably still keep them. I'd feel like a jerk if a got rid of all that stuff I spent so much money on. Plus, worst case scenario, the FBI wouldn't consider the blu-ray or hard drive copies "backups" if you don't have the original media.

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Are you wanting to throw away or sell them? Sounds like you don't want them any more. If it were me, I'd probably still keep them. I'd feel like a jerk if a got rid of all that stuff I spent so much money on. Plus, worst case scenario, the FBI wouldn't consider the blu-ray or hard drive copies "backups" if you don't have the original media.

 

Well I was thinking about shoving them all onto Blu Ray discs and the FBI doesn't exist here.

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Well I was thinking about shoving them all onto Blu Ray discs and the FBI doesn't exist here.

Sounds like you're keeping them then.  I'd just leave them neatly stored away and use Handbrake to convert/compress them.  

 

Do you have a smart TV? If so, it might have a built-in app that can play video files, and there are multi-bay USB hard drive enclosures that support RAID1.  

 

That's what I do with my movies, except I have a R2-JBOD enclosure that doesn't have RAID. 

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@cubies1982

Never with Dvds but a while ago i ripped my entire family's collection of cds (about 10,000)

I had 3 computers on, each with a internal and external diskdrive (like a usb one). So 6 ripping stations in total.

I thought it would take me a few days....

 

In the end that took me 40 days, at about 12 hours a day. Not fun, but definitely worth it

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Currently I have all my physical audio CDs ripped as MP3s and movies as MP4s.

 

With my new system and plans for a larger media storage solution, I'm going to re-rip the CDs to higher quality MP3s and simply rip the DVD/BluRay disk images. I'll have to use a different front-end since WMC won't play BluRay (at least for me) and Win10 doesn't have WMC anyway. (The new media storage box will have WMC to record TV and MCEBuddy to automatically convert those to MP4, but playback will be with something else)

 

Yes, I have kept all of my CDs and DVD/BR disks. It takes up a lot of closet space, but I still want to keep them. (The media server and UPS for that, cable-modem, phone and network will be in that closet as well.)

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Maybe just do one CD every time you log into your computer and build it up over a period of time?

Tip to those that are new on LTT forum- quote a post so that the person you are quoting gets a notification, otherwise they'll have no idea that you did. You can also use a tag such as @Ryoutarou97 (replace my username with anyone's. You should get a dropdown after you type the "@")to send a notification, but quoting is preferable.

 

Feel free to PM me about absolutely anything be it tech, math, literature, etc. I'll try my best to help. I'm currently looking for a cheap used build for around $25 to set up as a home server if anyone is selling.

 

If you are a native speaker please use proper English if you can. Punctuation, capitalization, and spelling are as important to making your message readable as proper night theme formatting is.

 

My build is fully operational, but won't be posted until after I get a GPU in it and the case arted up.

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