How do I archive my DVD collection?

[Silverstring]

I have a sizable DVD collection (over 400 DVDs) that I want to get rid of. I may be moving to a much smaller apartemnt, and I'm just getting tired of moving these boxes/shelves all over the country, and having them take up space (especially since I watch them so rarely). I recently got rid of my entire CD collection (ripped to Apple Lossless) and find I don't miss the physical CDs at all. I'm hoping to have a similar experience w/ the DVDs. I want to move toward an all-digital existence (Kindle/iBooks, iTunes Music, Archived DVDs). I'm getting sick of storing/displaying physical media.

I have a nice home theater, so I don't want to rip compressed iPhone/AppleTV quality versions of these DVDs. I want true archival quality, as good as having the actual physical DVD (with extras, 5.1/7.1, all audio tracks, etc....if it's possible, of course).

I plan to soon buy a Mac Mini (whenever they're updated), that will store/run all these DVDs. I also want the option to re-burn physical DVDs from the digital copies (I don't think I'll be utilizing it, but I like to not back myself into a corner).

CAN I do this?

If so, what's the best way? Anyone have a similar experience?

 

[mkrishnan]

The analog to ripping lossless copies of CDs is probably doing a direct rip of the DVD. There are numerous Mac (MacTheRipper, FairMount, etc), Windows (DVDShrink, DVDDeCrypter), etc., apps that do this. If you want it to be truly lossless, though, you're looking at DVD-sized rip images, and so this will take up a lot of hard drive space -- 400 DVDs is probably going to be over 2TB. So in the immediate future, 400 DVDs without lossy ripping will not fit inside a Mac Mini....

Some of these apps also do lossy transcoding in the DVD TS_Video format (DVDShrink is really nice in this regard), to get a smaller rip that can still be re-burnt to a DVD (e.g., burning a copy of a DL DVD onto a single layer DVD), but there is quality loss in the process.

 

[spinnerlys]

A video DVD uses up to 8GB of storage space so take that into account, as that would mean TBs of data with your collection.

You can rip video DVDs using MacTheRipper, RipIt and FairMount. See which best suits you.

Also know, that you don't have the legal right to own this copy on your HDD if you don't have the actual DVD anymore.


And you can burn video DVDs with Burn or Toast.

And here are some more threads:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/618698/

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&...G=Search&cx=011016119145480959114:kuv1aq0hily

 

[Silverstring]

The analog to ripping lossless copies of CDs is probably doing a direct rip of the DVD. There are numerous Mac (MacTheRipper, FairMount, etc), Windows (DVDShrink, DVDDeCrypter), etc., apps that do this. If you want it to be truly lossless, though, you're looking at DVD-sized rip images, and so this will take up a lot of hard drive space -- 400 DVDs is probably going to be over 2TB. So in the immediate future, 400 DVDs without lossy ripping will not fit inside a Mac Mini....

I should have mentioned that I currently have an iMac, so I'd be looking for a Mac application for this purpose. I also purchased 2 2TB drives for this (one for the rips, the second as a identical backup). Those drives are connected to my iMac now, but I'd connect them to the mini in the future. The simpler the application the better for a direct rip (also makes the process quicker..I'm planning on ripping the DVDs, then selling them/giving them away, as a weekend project).

RipIt looks the most simple/straightforward. Since no conversion is involved, I'm getting the same copy as I would with say, Mac the Ripper, right?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[mkrishnan]

RipIt looks the most simple/straightforward. Since no conversion is involved, I'm getting the same copy as I would with say, Mac the Ripper, right?

Yeah, RipIt seems like a great solution (MTR was kind of the standard for doing this, but they've gone through this long period of this goofy closed beta program that requires a donation to receive access, and...).

The only thing that gets changed when you make a full DVD rip is that any CSS protection mechanism and region locking get disabled. Otherwise your copy is functionally identical.

Given that you have the drive space, and you're not expecting to have this on the Mini's internal drives, you should be good to go.

 

[ChrisA]

...
I have a nice home theater, so I don't want to rip compressed iPhone/AppleTV quality versions of these DVDs. I want true archival quality, as good as having the actual physical DVD (with extras, 5.1/7.1, all audio tracks, etc....if it's possible, of course)..

DVDs are already compressed. The only lossless archive format is to capture a complete ISO image of the DVD. Nothing else can do what you ask.

Figure that hold you collection of 400 DVDs you are going to need about 4TB. This tells me you should be looking at a good RAID setup.

You will also need some way to back this up. The best way is to buy multiple identical RAID boxes and rotate one of the boxes to an off site location.