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macness

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2011
567
23
Vancouver Canada
with netflix and movies always available for watching or downloading, is there a point in me storing movies on my macbook or an external hard drive anymore? it almost makes more sense just to download, watch and delete when needed
 

AtomicEdge

macrumors regular
Mar 23, 2009
173
0
It's worth remembering that Netflix does cycle content on and off the platform, so a film you love may just vanish. If you but them through iTunes, and the studio supports iTunes in the Cloud for their films, then you can just stream them when you want them.

I am just getting to the end of ripping mine and my girlfriends DVDs, and I have about 400 films stored now. I would love to be able to stream them all, but there is no way I am going to buy 400 movies again.

Fingers crossed for iTunes Match for movies!;) In 10-15 years... :(

----------

Before you go deleting all your films, remember that iTunes in the Cloud for movies is only available in the states at the moment too. Which sucks.
 

steve-p

macrumors 68000
Oct 14, 2008
1,740
42
Newbury, UK
I don't really get the need to collect and store hundreds or thousands of movies either. It's not the same as music where you could listen to some things over and over. I wouldn't be surprised if the average person who has ripped hundreds of movies has never watched more than a handful of them more than once. I would prefer to rent or pay a subscription for movies than actually be responsible for storing and backing up a vast and growing amount of stuff. That way, storing them is someone else's problem, and quality can increase as technology improves. The downside is if movies ever become unavailable, or exclusive to an ecosystem that you don't want to use.
 

AtomicEdge

macrumors regular
Mar 23, 2009
173
0
Yeah I get why people might not want to store lots of films.

Personally I got caught up in buying DVD's when they were booming, and don't want to just throw them away or sell them for next to nothing, but I want that shelf space back. For now I am ripping them and boxing them up. It's not a big time commitment, and I have the storage/backup space.

When I feel that streaming services can provide most of what I have ripped, I will delete the films and take the movies to the charity shop (if they still take them!).

I think it might be a couple of years yet though.
 

mslide

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2007
707
2
with netflix and movies always available for watching or downloading, is there a point in me storing movies on my macbook or an external hard drive anymore?

But they're not always available for download, especially from Netflix. I like Netflix but I use it to watch things when I don't know what I want to watch. For those times, I browse Netflix until they're something that I find.

Most of the time, however, when I decide there's a certain movie I want to watch, it's not available on Netflix or anywhere else for download/streaming. I'm not counting buying/renting movies from iTunes because I consider that to be expensive. Thus, I buy physical disks when they're cheap and rip them.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,537
940
with netflix and movies always available for watching or downloading, is there a point in me storing movies on my macbook or an external hard drive anymore? it almost makes more sense just to download, watch and delete when needed
What if you want to watch a movie and the internet connection is down? What happens if the Netflix site is having problems? What if you want to watch a movie when you're on the road and no internet connection is available?

I prefer to rip all my movies and store them, so even with no internet, I can watch what I want, when I want.
 

jtrenthacker

macrumors regular
Apr 12, 2012
228
642
Quality issue for me. All of my movies are bluray rips which look and sound much better than anything I could stream from Netflix.
 

iphone1105

macrumors 68020
Oct 8, 2009
2,106
316
I rip and store my movies digitally simply because my DVD collection was taking up so much space!!!! I just took them all, and over several days ripped them and converted for ATV2 and Itunes, etc...and was able to take all my old dvd's, box'em and put them in our storage in our extra room! No more clutter around the house, and still have all my films to watch. Plus I keep a duplicate copy of them all on an external HD so I can literally carry my entire film collection with me anywhere i go.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
I have designated 1 2TB drive to media (movies, music, home video). I fill it up to reduce clutter and be able to find a movie I want to watch easier than sitting in front of a stack of dvd's. Once it get's filled up, when I rip a new movie, another will have to be deleted. So it's constantly cycling. Of course, I will delete a movie I am unlikely to watch again first, so eventually it will fill up with movies that will be repeatably watched.

So it's a matter of convenience.
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
The ability to load any movie I want onto my iPhone/iPad/Macbook Air and/or be able to watch from any tv in the house without wondering where the disc is is priceless. I agree you probably won't watch a movie as many times as you listen to your favorite song, but then again being able to fire up a movie without getting off your butt when there is nothing on tv is priceless.
 

macness

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2011
567
23
Vancouver Canada
Great answer, but can someone please help me with all this movie ripping- even when i download a movie i get kind of confused.

Once a movie is on your computer and you convert it to work on your apple tv or iPhone , what do u do with the original version? do you just delete the other copies and keep the ones in iTunes? hmmm does that mean that music I've transferred to iTunes have duplicates too?
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
Great answer, but can someone please help me with all this movie ripping- even when i download a movie i get kind of confused.

Once a movie is on your computer and you convert it to work on your apple tv or iPhone , what do u do with the original version? do you just delete the other copies and keep the ones in iTunes? hmmm does that mean that music I've transferred to iTunes have duplicates too?

Yes you delete the original and most likely you have ever song saved twice. Once in itunes and once in your download folders if you are downloading songs outside of iTunes.
 

AtomicEdge

macrumors regular
Mar 23, 2009
173
0
Yes you delete the original and most likely you have ever song saved twice. Once in itunes and once in your download folders if you are downloading songs outside of iTunes.

Not to butt in, but that's only the case if itunes it set to manage your library (it's an options that is on by default though), if it is not set to manage the library, then it just adds links to files to itunes when you add them in, meaning you need to keep the original.
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
Not to butt in, but that's only the case if itunes it set to manage your library (it's an options that is on by default though), if it is not set to manage the library, then it just adds links to files to itunes when you add them in, meaning you need to keep the original.

Yes that is true, but I'm assuming that since the OP doesn't even know whether he has two copies or not, then he probably doesn't even realize that it is even an option to turn off. I turned that feature off a long time ago, but knowing that it isn't the default function.....
 

EvilC5

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2010
504
0
Hanover MD
Yeah I get why people might not want to store lots of films.

Personally I got caught up in buying DVD's when they were booming, and don't want to just throw them away or sell them for next to nothing, but I want that shelf space back. For now I am ripping them and boxing them up. It's not a big time commitment, and I have the storage/backup space.

When I feel that streaming services can provide most of what I have ripped, I will delete the films and take the movies to the charity shop (if they still take them!).

I think it might be a couple of years yet though.

i was the same way, i had probably 350 DVD's and well over 1000 CD's and when i made the decision to rip them, I never looked back because it gave me back so much space.


i kept my CD's, but most of the DVD's not so much.
 
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