I have > 1800 DVD/Blu-rays. in need of a storage solution

[Kodi4444]

i have > 1800 DVD/Blu-rays. I'm tired of searching through my massive collection to find the movie I want to watch. it would be great if I could find a 2000 disk red box type thing. I could just type in the search box the movie I want then when it finds it I click it and it would dispense the movie I want. I would also be interested in possibly digitizing my massive collection but I would need 88TB. 

[AshleyAshes]

28 minutes ago, Kodi4444 said:

i have > 1800 DVD/Blu-rays. I'm tired of searching through my massive collection to find the movie I want to watch. it would be great if I could find a 2000 disk red box type thing. I could just type in the search box the movie I want then when it finds it I click it and it would dispense the movie I want. I would also be interested in possibly digitizing my massive collection but I would need 88TB. 

Your first option, well, it would involve a robot.  Like, an actual, honest to god, setup of shelves and a mechanical device that then goes through those based on an index, grabs and dispenses the content.  These exist but are only seen in large data tape backup type situations.  In short, it would be huge and expensive.  You aren't going to do this.

 

So the second option is to build a huge media storage server and start ripping.  In the server area of this forum you can see examples, including my own:

 

Unless you're crazy and rich and can dedicate a whole room to a disc changing robot...

[WMGroomAK]

32 minutes ago, Kodi4444 said:

i have > 1800 DVD/Blu-rays. I'm tired of searching through my massive collection to find the movie I want to watch. it would be great if I could find a 2000 disk red box type thing. I could just type in the search box the movie I want then when it finds it I click it and it would dispense the movie I want. I would also be interested in possibly digitizing my massive collection but I would need 88TB. 

You could do a Red Box type thing I guess, if you can find one that would fit that many disks.  I would just digitize them all though onto a Home NAS that is running either Kodi or Plex and then stream it to my TV.  Easier on the organization and space IMO.  You could also then keep the physical discs in an organized cabinet if you wanted to pull the physical media to watch later.

[ARikozuM]

@AshleyAshes 

[argyle]

Digitizing a collection can be time consuming but it's one of my favorite hobbies. I like to test out new compressions and settings to get better quality vs. space. I have hundreds of DVDs and Blu-Rays (haven't actually counted them in a while) and have gone through and digitized them all and use Plex to organize them/playback on my devices.

 

It isn't cheap hardware-wise to store large quantities of data but it's a lot cheaper than it used to be. I recently picked up a fairly inexpensive HP workstation off-lease with a Xeon processor, threw in some hard drives and I am running a NAS on there with Plex.

[dalekphalm]

23 hours ago, Kodi4444 said:

i have > 1800 DVD/Blu-rays. I'm tired of searching through my massive collection to find the movie I want to watch. it would be great if I could find a 2000 disk red box type thing. I could just type in the search box the movie I want then when it finds it I click it and it would dispense the movie I want. I would also be interested in possibly digitizing my massive collection but I would need 88TB. 

As others have noted, realistically, ripping your collection digitally is the only practical solution. 

 

88TB would be uncompressed. Look up Handbrake. Handbrake is your friend. Compress the movies using h.264 or h.265 and you can cut that file size down anywhere from half h.264 w/ no noticeable downgrade in quality) to 1/16th (for people who download 1GB 1080p torrents and don't care so much about the quality). 

 

 

You'd need to do some basic testing first to find what compression settings give acceptable quality to you, then do some averages and calculate how much storage you'll need. 

 

I currently have a 18TB array (15TB after parity data) and I can fit hundreds (possibly more) of blu ray rips onto it. 

[Kodi4444]

On 4/15/2017 at 0:11 PM, dalekphalm said:

As others have noted, realistically, ripping your collection digitally is the only practical solution. 

 

88TB would be uncompressed. Look up Handbrake. Handbrake is your friend. Compress the movies using h.264 or h.265 and you can cut that file size down anywhere from half h.264 w/ no noticeable downgrade in quality) to 1/16th (for people who download 1GB 1080p torrents and don't care so much about the quality). 

 

 

You'd need to do some basic testing first to find what compression settings give acceptable quality to you, then do some averages and calculate how much storage you'll need. 

 

I currently have a 18TB array (15TB after parity data) and I can fit hundreds (possibly more) of blu ray rips onto it. 

 

 

 

I would think that haveing them uncompressed would be better so I can stream them like Netflix to any of my computers in my house. unless I can stream them compressed without loss in quality.

[Kodi4444]

since ripping all the movies seems to be the best option I was thinking I could build a server and put all the movies on there so I can stream any movie to any of my computers or possibly a smart TV

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, Kodi4444 said:

I would think that haveing them uncompressed would be better so I can stream them like Netflix to any of my computers in my house. unless I can stream them compressed without loss in quality.

Well first off, when I say "uncompressed", that's actually a bit of a misnomer. EVERY video you will likely ever watch, digitally, is compressed in some form. Raw uncompressed video is ridiculous, and digital video capture is by it's very nature, lossy in some aspect or another.

 

Anyway, for practical purposes, I use the term "uncompressed" to refer to full quality 1080p Blu-Ray movies straight from the disc.

 

In terms of streaming compressed vs uncompressed? Your viewing experience literally wouldn't change in terms of how it'll work. Also, Netflix video is INCREDIBLY COMPRESSED, and is much lower quality compared to Blu-Ray 1080p. If you're happy with Netflix quality video, you'll be totally fine with compressing Blu-Ray movies to a smaller file size.

 

Raw blu-ray movies are anywhere from 18GB to 30GB (or even larger occasionally). You can easily shrink those down to 8GB to 10GB without the average person noticing any difference. With that in mind, some people will be able to tell the difference, but most won't.

 

Using a computer, running something like Plex Media Server, you can "stream" any videos to devices across your house (Other computers, Roku boxes, Apple TV's, etc). Depending on network type and speed (WIFI vs ethernet, and so on), compressed video files will be easier for the server to stream. It'll also allow more simultaneous streams at once (Eg: You watch a movie in one room, and your brother watches a different movie in another room, etc).

 

If you have wired Gigabit Ethernet to everything, and a decent computer running the server, though? You can serve multiple full quality Blu-Ray rips without trouble.

 

Honestly, file size, total drive capacity, and budget for buying HDD's, is going to determine which route you go with. But Ripping the Blu-Ray's and DVD's (Oh and DVD's can be compressed to under 1GB with no noticeable quality loss), is definitely the only practical way for you to do this.

[flibberdipper]

5 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Netflix video is INCREDIBLY COMPRESSED

Still better than "HD" Comcast.

 

Anywhooser, I feel like it's genuinely best for the OP to just kiss his poor wallet goodbye and either build a custom machine or an old workstation and just make a fairly large-capacity Plex server and just start ripping discs like a madman. Hell, if you got a fairly powerful CPU in it, you could throw in a pair of ODD's and rip two discs at a time.

 

At least optical media doesn't just decided to take a shit on you all of a sudden like tapes did.

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Still better than "HD" Comcast.

 

Anywhooser, I feel like it's genuinely best for the OP to just kiss his poor wallet goodbye and either build a custom machine or an old workstation and just make a fairly large-capacity Plex server and just start ripping discs like a madman. Hell, if you got a fairly powerful CPU in it, you could throw in a pair of ODD's and rip two discs at a time.

 

At least optical media doesn't just decided to take a shit on you all of a sudden like tapes did.

Lmao well being better than ComCast is setting the bar quite low

 

Anyway, agreed. Though, frankly, it'll still be far cheaper than his "Red box" idea.

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Well first off, when I say "uncompressed", that's actually a bit of a misnomer. EVERY video you will likely ever watch, digitally, is compressed in some form. Raw uncompressed video is ridiculous, and digital video capture is by it's very nature, lossy in some aspect or another.

 

Anyway, for practical purposes, I use the term "uncompressed" to refer to full quality 1080p Blu-Ray movies straight from the disc.

 

In terms of streaming compressed vs uncompressed? Your viewing experience literally wouldn't change in terms of how it'll work. Also, Netflix video is INCREDIBLY COMPRESSED, and is much lower quality compared to Blu-Ray 1080p. If you're happy with Netflix quality video, you'll be totally fine with compressing Blu-Ray movies to a smaller file size.

A better term is 'Re-Multiplexing' or 'Remuxing'.  Multiplexing itself is when media streams are aligned in in a container format, be it a disc or an AVI or MKV.  Specifically it puts all the tracks aligned in paralleled to make reading from storage media as efficient as possible.  And no one's going to confuse Remuxing for re-encoding.

 

That said, personally, I remux BD discs (Hey, 8TB drives are cheap) but I do rip DVDs since MPEG-2 is horrendously inefficient, a lot of discs will be interlaced and need a inverse telecine effort and some other stuff.  Usually better to do a fairly high bitrate rip than remux the DVD disc.

 

 

1 hour ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Still better than "HD" Comcast.

 

Anywhooser, I feel like it's genuinely best for the OP to just kiss his poor wallet goodbye and either build a custom machine or an old workstation and just make a fairly large-capacity Plex server and just start ripping discs like a madman. Hell, if you got a fairly powerful CPU in it, you could throw in a pair of ODD's and rip two discs at a time.

 

At least optical media doesn't just decided to take a shit on you all of a sudden like tapes did.

If one has 1800 discs, I imagine their wallet can sustain some hits without damage.   The real downside would be the massive time sink that ripping would present.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

A better term is 'Re-Multiplexing' or 'Remuxing'.  Multiplexing itself is when media streams are aligned in in a container format, be it a disc or an AVI or MKV.  Specifically it puts all the tracks aligned in paralleled to make reading from storage media as efficient as possible.  And no one's going to confuse Remuxing for re-encoding.

 

That said, personally, I remux BD discs (Hey, 8TB drives are cheap) but I do rip DVDs since MPEG-2 is horrendously inefficient, a lot of discs will be interlaced and need a inverse telecine effort and some other stuff.  Usually better to do a fairly high bitrate rip than remux the DVD disc.

 

 

If one has 1800 discs, I imagine their wallet can sustain some hits without damage.   The real downside would be the massive time sink that ripping would present.

What do you use to rip your DVD's? Handbrake? I'd be curious to see which settings you've found good. I only ripped a few of my DVD's and have yet to find a set of settings that I'm happy with.

[Syntaxvgm]

I would honestly suggest ripping. IN the very least, sort them alphabetically in a booklet and make a catalog you can search on your pc

[flibberdipper]

1 hour ago, AshleyAshes said:

If one has 1800 discs, I imagine their wallet can sustain some hits without damage.   The real downside would be the massive time sink that ripping would present.

tru

 

Though depending on hardware, the time it takes to rip might not be that bad if you have, say, 4 ODDs. Yeah, you'll still be doing it for a longass time, but nonetheless... MOAR POWER.