hi, for an example I have couple hundreds of music CDs that I often import them into an iTune on my computer and organize the songs, then rip them onto an empty CDs, or simply export files to my iPod. I also watch DVDs from my movie collections or when I buy them during my travel to watch them on the go. Just insert the disk and go is much easier and more portable for me than to be carrying around an external drive hanging out on the side of the lap top.
I had about 400 CDs, they were stolen in a move. I now have all my songs stored digitially through Apple iTunes. I don't have to keep up with them, I don't have to move them, I only keep the songs that I want to currently listen to stored on my computers and phone, AND I haven't had one stolen ( yet ).
Movies, same story. I have about 1000 DVDs and 300 BluRay sitting in a box in my attic. I've converted everything to digitial and purchase all new movies digitally to store on my personal cloud server. I can watch these movies almost anywhere in the world, anytime I want. Much more portable than dragging around a bunch of disks or an external drive ( which I haven't found the need for ). There is one time, when I download a few movies to my iPad and that is when I'm traveling. I usually download about 5 movies and they keep my occupied when I cannot get internet access for one reason or another.