DVD's are dead.

They won't admit it but they are going to be on the same pile as Betamax and MiniDisc in the near future.

I've not bought a DVD for years, and can't remember the last time I took one out of it's box and watched it, however i'm always scrolling through the digitised media on my external HDD and wathcing stuff; sooooo....

How difficult (and by difficult i mean costly) woud it be to rip an entire collection of hundreds of DVD's to some NAS and then browse and watch through something connected to my TV/xBox 360/Home Cinema/Humax HDD?

Can someone fire some figures at me?

I'm guesing the easiest would be some sort of massive HDD's home server of desk top PC running behind my TV?

I've seen cracked AppleTv in use and wonder if that is the way forward? it certainly looks slicker.

Any help gratefully received

I found it easier to download all my back catalogue and then bung all my DVD's in the loft. Its easier than ripping your dvd's.

Once you have scheduled the download you can leave it running where as you have to be involved to switch discs and

its a time consuming PITA. You may also find that the dvd rip is not as well ripped as some you can download unless you

know what your doing with compression ratios etc.

Agreed its so time consuming ripping everything I'd 'acquire' everything you can and just rip what you can't find

Apple TV's are excellent! Especially for Netflix, I have no use for my Xbox anymore

For me the big choice was whether I wanted a backup of the disc - with menus, extras etc. or just the movie. In the end I ripped the while lot so nothing's lost and no worrying about formats or compression etc.

I use a silent amp-shaped PC running XBMC for playback. I also ripped all my hddvds and blurays. Ripping takes a while, but you just keep feeding discs in and doing other things until it's done.

I don't do it, but a friend has ripped all his collection using FabDVD, reckons 10-15 mins a disc, costs $49 and he swears by it.

Will take longer if you compress to MV4 or similar though.

I've just bought an Apple TV for movie streaming and Netflix - great if your computer doesn't reside in your sitting room.

Sorry DVDFab

DVD decryptor and dvd shrink. you will need to do a search, but they are free and if you can still find them they do the job.

if you are using Mac OSX then all you need is handbrake.

if you are using Mac OSX then all you need is handbrake.

+1

I really would just download them. For the films (and series where applicable) download the blueray rips. DVD quality just looks depressing on today's screen sizes. Keep the dvds in the loft if it makes you feel legally warm and fuzzy. Take them to the charity shop if you'd rather feel morally warm and fuzzy.

Ripped my 400+ strong collection to M4V files using RipIt and Handbrake on my Mac. Took quite a while, but now it's done it's just a case of ripping each new film as you buy it.

Running Plex (based on XBMC) on my media centre connected to a NAS drive with all the media on.

Best use of money I've spent in the last 5 years, easily. The Missus watches Buffy, Angel, Futurama and all the TV series daily and I get to choose a film without having to dig through a mountain of boxes just to find the disc isn't in it. It'll also stream to any computer on the network or my phone (either at home or out and about).

If you're buying new films digitally, then just rip a few DVDs every other day or at the weekend until you've got them all done. Cheaper than re-buying them, and you're not really losing out on anything as you have the disc if you really want to watch it in the meantime.