I'm interested in downsizing my DVD/Blu Ray Library as all of the movies, cases, etc take up a ton of space. A couple of options I am considering.

VUDU would allow you to take select movies to Wal Mart, have them digitally converted for $2, and added to your account and i can stream this through a smart tv or my xbox. Pretty seamless process, however it is $2 per movie, but would save me the time to rip.

Second option would be to build/setup my own media center, rip the DVDs to it, but honestly no clue where to start, what software i would need to buy, etc.

Has anyone done this? Thoughts?

I guess third, cheaper option would just be buying a 1995 CD Holder and put all the movies in there...also an option still.

Thanks!

Are you interested in maintaining a server in the house to view the movies? If not other than setting up some of your own cloud services, your best option ithe Vudu. We did that a while back and while they didn't do everything, they did a lot and it was nice to have had done.

400 DVD changer on ebay for $150

More expensive than a CD wallet, but this is what I use. After you load all your dvds in, it will go in and pull the title for almost all of the movies automatically. Gets the cover art from about half the discs too. It's longer than a standard receiver, but I have the space for it and I only watch movies on one tv. If you don't need to stream to multiple tvs, I'd look into it.

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VUDU would allow you to take select movies to Wal Mart, have them digitally converted for $2, and added to your account and i can stream this through a smart tv or my xbox. Pretty seamless process, however it is $2 per movie, but would save me the time to rip.

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I didn't know this was a thing, thanks!!!

I actually have a similar DVD changer that was linked above... I'm just tired of my discs not working over time and having that big beast in my cabinet. I would love to go all digital but not have to worry about converting everything and worrying about my hard drive crapping out and losing every movie ever owned. Will keep an eye on these cloud options.

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Second option would be to build/setup my own media center, rip the DVDs to it, but honestly no clue where to start, what software i would need to buy, etc.

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This is what I have done. I use DVDFab as the software ripper. It is a put in DVD/Bluray and click start type of software. I bought the lifetime license and it is fairly expensive but it is a very easy software to use.

The one drawback to ripping all the movies is the space concern. I have over 750 blurays taking up over 30TB of space. I use two Synology boxes to store the movies and use Kodi as the interface.

It is nice to be able to watch any movie with one press of a button instead of getting up, finding the bluray disc, loading disc in player, skipping all the menu options and finally getting to the movie (first world problems I know).

I also have chromeboxes with Kodi installed behind each TV accessing the synology boxes and can watch at least seven 1080P movies at same time on my network.

makemkv to rip and then storing them on a network drive is the easiest/cheapest option. But it is a hassle with tv shows since you have to double check each episode to make sure you are labeling them correctly.

Olag,

Is your box something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

Also, do they not need an OS for Kodi to run?

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Olag,

Is your box something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

Also, do they not need an OS for Kodi to run?

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I have a DS415+ (not made anymore but you can find on ebay sometimes) and a DS1515+.

I kept an eye on Newegg and Amazon for prices. Sometimes Newegg will have better prices when you include taxes included on Amazon purchases.

The synology boxes are only the storage medium. Kodi is installed on the chromeboxes behind each TV. Essentially I removed the ChromOS and flashed Kodi on it. I followed the steps mentioned on AVSforum (Link).

I have the boxes set up as a MySQL server and it shares the "watched" status and share's the library between all chromeboxes. I only have to update one movie library and it is pushed to all chromeboxes.

If you are looking for the synology to actually do the decoding, you will need to get the DSXXXplay versions but i have heard the transcoding isn't the best.

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Olag,

Is your box something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

Also, do they not need an OS for Kodi to run?

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I have a DS415+ (not made anymore but you can find on ebay sometimes) and a DS1515+.

I kept an eye on Newegg and Amazon for prices. Sometimes Newegg will have better prices when you include taxes included on Amazon purchases.

The synology boxes are only the storage medium. Kodi is installed on the chromeboxes behind each TV. Essentially I removed the ChromOS and flashed Kodi on it. I followed the steps mentioned on AVSforum (Link).

I have the boxes set up as a MySQL server and it shares the "watched" status and share's the library between all chromeboxes. I only have to update one movie library and it is pushed to all chromeboxes.

If you are looking for the synology to actually do the decoding, you will need to get the DSXXXplay versions but i have heard the transcoding isn't the best.

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How much would you say it cost you to set all that up?

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How much would you say it cost you to set all that up?

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quite a bit.

DS1515+ - $641
(5) 6TB Drives - +$1200

DS415+ - $550
(4) 4TB Drives - +$600 (waiting for 6TBs to keep coming down to replace the 4TB with)


Chromeboxes - (10) $99 each - $1000


Just the hardware around +$3500.

I am also into home automation so I chose an expensive hobby.

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Olag,

Is your box something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DiskStation-Diskless-Network-Attached/dp/B005YW7OLM

Also, do they not need an OS for Kodi to run?

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I have a DS415+ (not made anymore but you can find on ebay sometimes) and a DS1515+.

I kept an eye on Newegg and Amazon for prices. Sometimes Newegg will have better prices when you include taxes included on Amazon purchases.

The synology boxes are only the storage medium. Kodi is installed on the chromeboxes behind each TV. Essentially I removed the ChromOS and flashed Kodi on it. I followed the steps mentioned on AVSforum (Link).

I have the boxes set up as a MySQL server and it shares the "watched" status and share's the library between all chromeboxes. I only have to update one movie library and it is pushed to all chromeboxes.

If you are looking for the synology to actually do the decoding, you will need to get the DSXXXplay versions but i have heard the transcoding isn't the best.

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You're my nerd hero.

I sold most of mine and never looked back. Never watched the large majority of them anyway.

Get a Synology or QNAP NAS and run plex. Its basically a more streamlined kodi and also builds some really great remote access features in (really cool to take my Roku stick and plug it in to the hotel tv and watch my tv shows and movies). Not to mention that have apps for almost everything and have been updating things quite frequently.

If you are looking for a more economical set up I do the following for my home network:

To rip my DVD's I use WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Edition. It works pretty well for most DVD's however some dvd protection will defeat it (It will either only record a few minutes, or it will record the chapters out of order, this seems to only effect newer DVD's). For those few disk I use the Cucusoft DVD to Zune Converter Suite That I purchased years ago for my Zune. It is lower quality and sometimes stutters which is why I purchased WinX, but it seems to defeat any copy protection. I usually try to keep my movies under 2GB as I have limited space to store them.

For Storage I have a Synology DS214Play. With a 3GB Hard Drive (I still have a Bay to add another drive later)

Synology comes with a video service that you can use, but I prefer to use Plex Media Server to stream video to my devices. It does a better job Identifying the video, although occasionally I have to manually find the cover and info for a movie.

On my main tv I have a Nexus Player, in my bedroom I have an Amazon Fire Stick, and the other two TV's have a Chromecast (Requires a phone or tablet to cast to the tv). Of the 3 I prefer to use the Fire Stick and would recommend a Fire TV over the Nexus Player.


I cobbled this system together piecemeal over the last few years.

make MKV + "unlimited" online storage with aggienetwork email = access to all your movies from anywhere at any time

This is the absolute best way to digitize your library because MKV won't compress the video at all(this can be a headache when you upload 35GB blurays). But DVDs should be less than 7 GB. If you need to compress and/or require another format use Handbrake, it's an open source video encoder.

Another perk of make MKV, it's free because the developer is constantly keeping it in beta. You can find the key in the forums just off the page in the link.

ALSO, IT'S ALL FREE.

I didi the Vudu Disc to Digital thing. They have software you can use to do most of them at home. There were some that didn't work and I had to take them to the store. Also, if you do more than 10 at a time it's only$1 each. I did every one that I could and ended up with about 300 Vudu movies. Then for the 20 or so that vudu did not have, I ripped them with MakeMKV and have them in a Kodi library. I viewed it as outsourcing the server function to Vudu for $1 each as a pretty good deal.

DVD fab to rip
Handbrake to downconvert to reasonable mp4 size using custom settings. (Google best settings for Plex)
Plex to organize and stream.
I'm using about 1.5 TBs of storage to store roughly 1K movies of decent quality.

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make MKV + "unlimited" online storage with aggienetwork email = access to all your movies from anywhere at any time

This is the absolute best way to digitize your library because MKV won't compress the video at all(this can be a headache when you upload 35GB blurays). But DVDs should be less than 7 GB. If you need to compress and/or require another format use Handbrake, it's an open source video encoder.

Another perk of make MKV, it's free because the developer is constantly keeping it in beta. You can find the key in the forums just off the page in the link.

ALSO, IT'S ALL FREE.

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What are you using to get movie from MKV to TV? some sort of stream to tv through apple tv/chrometv?

MakeMKV to rip the blu-rays. The output files are huge, I use handbrake to re-encode them to reasonable sizes
You can also use MakeMKV to DVD's, I just use handbrake, it works well

Keep in mind Vudu has contracts in place. No guarantee those movies will be available years from now.

Another vote for MakeMKV. I actually have an ebay auction up now for huge lot of physical movies that I just ripped . I just put 218 movies on a $80 2TB HDD.

A DVD will take up ~5GB & a BR ~25GB. If you're not married to "loss-less" BR quality, Handbreak (as others have mentioned) can compress the bit rate but keep it at 1080p.

Here is the $35 VonHaus 1080p media player I plug my HDD in. Of course not as streamlined as a Plex server on the LAN, but does the trick for now. You'll be out of the gate for $115 on hardware. All software free.

VonHaus 1080p HD TV Mini Media Player - MKV - Play any file from USB HDDs/Flashdrives/Memory Cards - HDMI and AV Cables Included
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NEIYBK0/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474941584&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=von+haus+media+player

I actually run a Plex server on my Windows PC. Not fancy NAS or anything. My PC is always on, I downloaded Plex, and bought an extra hard drive. I then rip with MakeMkv and convert with Handbrake.

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I actually run a Plex server on my Windows PC. Not fancy NAS or anything. My PC is always on, I downloaded Plex, and bought an extra hard drive. I then rip with MakeMkv and convert with Handbrake.

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I've been a laptop only user since 2006 so no machine active on my home network constantly. That's why I went with the external USB HDD plugged into a media output device. I will eventually get a NAS. Don't see myself jumping back on the desktops.

Worth noting the $35 1080p VonHaus media player I linked above has played any container (.mkv, .mp4, .avi) and codec I've thrown at it via USB.

Also, if anyone already has a FireTV, you can run Kodi on that as well. It just installs as another app,
so you can still stream Amazon Prime Movies as well. Kodi is not replacing the stock FireTV Firmware.

I have about 30-40 movies on my home PC and just setup a windows share, and
Kodi can view it just fine. It will even find the CoverArt if you stick to standard naming
conventions for the files.