Discs to Digital - How?

[handcraftedbits]

Originally Posted by Spotty

Yup, that is exactly what I do! I think that qualifies as “keep a duplicate copy somewhere”

Honestly, I consider my Blu-rays the "backup" for my RAID. Yeah it would suck having to rip them all over again, but it's an option. And with dual-parity in my RAID, I think actually having to resort to a backup is unlikely.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's against this site's rules to discuss that.

Just the fact that this is true shows how broken things are with copyright protection these days. IMO people should have every right to back up their movie collections from discs that they legally acquire. But of course that would make you a criminal. I understand the whole "copying is ok but decryption/circumvention is not" argument, but that's the point - effectively the laws in the US mean you can't legally back up your own discs that you paid for. It's garbage.

Another problem with the whole "backup" thing. People back their discs up for two purposes - 1) for ease of playing their files through their media center, while keeping their original discs in safe keeping, and 2) in case the original media goes bad or anything happens to them (stolen, damage by fire, flood, bugs, etc.).

But the law isn't on your side there, either. Technically, you can only keep a legal backup of your discs (assuming they were not protected with any copying technology) as long as you are in possession of the original discs. If you no longer have the original discs, you are supposed to delete your backup copy. The idea is otherwise you could just "backup" rented discs, or sell your discs but keep the backups, so you would still have them digitally, even though you sold the right to have them when you sold the discs. In reality, what this means is backups are worthless as far as the law protects you, because if your media rots or gets stolen, you no longer have the original, therefore you should dispose of your backup. But the whole point of the backup is having a fallback copy in case something happens to the original.

Like I said, the system is broken.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by dig311dug

This.
for me it would be 37.5gb (averaging a bd 25 and 50) x 3309 discs = 124,087.50gigs would equal 124.0875 terabytes.

10tb hardrvies = $200 * 13 hardrives =

$2,600 to convert to digital, not to mention the time... which would be incalculable.

$2,600 is a lot of money but considering that would be a full 100% backup of all your discs, that's not unthinkable, as long as you have the money for it. I'm sure many would consider that a wise investment to keep their purchases forever digitized for safekeeping. You don't have to buy all the drives at once, since as you said, it takes a ton of time to back them up. That's the real issue - the time.

I think if you started right from the beginning of your collection, and just backed up each disc as soon as you got it, it might not seem too bad (throw the disc right in your pc drive and back it up right away - about an hour), other than large box sets with multiple discs, but starting a backup scheme when you already own hundreds or thousands of discs can be a staggering amount of time to take on.

Of course, do you need to back up every single disc? Maybe you do. Depends on your collection. Many people in here probably have discs they don't care too much about. So maybe you could start off with your most cherished discs and work your way down a bit at a time?

[skreemingskulll]

Originally Posted by hanshotfirst1138

If you rip your own movie to a hard drive, would anyone in the legal system even know or care?

Has anyone ever been in legal trouble for copying their own LPs, cassettes or CDs for themselves (or even their friends)?

That's the end of that discussion.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by veritas

your math is way off though if they used HEVC. By going to a higher effeciency encoder the size would drop down by 62% on 1080p materials so the average size for a disc image would be 14.25gb per disc. In general people would not make a disc image though so it would drop a in half again to about 7gb to get just the movie at blu ray quality. By that math it would require about 2 to 3 hard drives to hold your entire collection.

This is why people are annoyed with itunes and vudu not using hevc for streaming services they could easily give us blu ray quality streams without cutting corners all they have to do is pay for a newer encoder.

But his math is spot on if you're doing full direct disc backups with everything including menus and extras untouched. What you're talking about is re-encoding, which takes far, far, faaaar longer than just doing a straight backup. You can back up a full blu-ray in about an hour, or less, give or take, depending on the size of the disc and other factors like readability of the disc and the disc drive itself. Re-encoding a full-length movie takes several hours at least, and the higher the quality settings, the longer it takes, and if you have an older, slower cpu, it will take even longer.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by fodderwing

I have joined this forum after nearly 10 years of regular lurking... the OP of this thread has asked something that's been on my mind for a long time now.

I have 2.5K discs, double stacked in bookcases, and I'm running out of room - probably a familiar problem to many here.

If I could, I'd start recording them onto a series of hard-drives, or set up a NAS (in 30 years of computing, I've had 3 hard-drives go bad on me). Trouble is I haven't a clue how to start, or what the preferred interface platform should be (not a MAC person).

The fear in the back of my mind is that I go ahead and invest the time/money to set this up, only for technology to overtake my efforts rendering it as junk before I've finished the project (I worked my way through to the end of the DOS6 manual, just as WIN95 arrived).

I'm aware that this is a tightrope subject in this forum - is there a "Dummies Guide" anyone could recommend?

Well if the full disc is backed up properly, then regardless of file format changes, you'll have the original files in full quality in a standard format that will be supported by software for a very long time, allowing opportunities later if necessary for converting to other formats for playability in a worst-case-scenario. The important thing is saving the files in the original quality.

Of course, there's the issue that many of the discs you back up may be for nothing later as you upgrade them to better versions, leaving your backed-up older copies meaningless to you. But then you can always delete the old backups if there's nothing on the older discs that's exclusive to that release. As I said, if you keep on it as you buy each disc, it's not too bad. But to start when you already have thousands of titles can seen daunting.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by skreemingskulll

Has anyone ever been in legal trouble for copying their own LPs, cassettes or CDs for themselves (or even their friends)?

That's the end of that discussion.

None of those contain copy protection that has to first be circumvented in order to make a back-up; that's one distinction.

"we called on our legal expert Derek Bambauer, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arizona ...

who said this:

"The moment you crack DRM (Digital Rights Managemnt) to rip the DVD, you've violated Title I of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 17 U.S.C. 1201 prohibits circumvention of DRM . . . Some courts have tried to leaven this rather harsh rule, but most have not. While it's typically hard to detect small-scale circumvention, the question is whether bypassing DRM is legal. The statute sets up some minor exceptions, but our ripper doesn't fall into any of them. So, the moment a studio protects the DVD with DRM, it gains both a technical and a legal advantage—ripping is almost certainly unlawful."

"There are minor exceptions—like for educational purposes—but in general no, ripping a DVD you own is sadly not legal. "

https://lifehacker.com/is-it-legal-t...-i-own-5978326

The principle is the same whether a DVD or a blu-ray.

"Movie enthusiasts hoping to legally make backup copies or space-shift or format-shift their legally purchased DVD or Blu-ray discs are out of luck. Agreeing with rights holders' and the Motion Picture Association of America's doomsday predictions, the Librarian of Congress on Tuesday rejected, again, another proposal that would allow users to finally rip these items for personal use."

"The DMCA prohibits circumventing encryption or access controls to copy or modify copyrighted works. Even if an exemption has been granted, it must be renewed in three years or it expires."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-personal-use/

"Title 17 of the United States Code says that it is illegal to reproduce a copyrighted work. If a DVD comes with a box or has a label on it indicating a copyright, then it is technically illegal to make any copies of it for any reason."

https://www.toptenreviews.com/softwa...pping-illegal/

"Breaking DRM or ripping Blu-Rays discs is a crime In the United States. While there are fair use exemptions, these don't apply to the public at large. "

https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-...u-rays-171228/

Personally, I feel that making back-ups should be legal, but my opinion is not the law.

[handcraftedbits]

Originally Posted by mar3o

$2,600 is a lot of money but considering that would be a full 100% backup of all your discs, that's not unthinkable, as long as you have the money for it.

The part that gets me is you've got people on here with 2.5K+ discs, so like $30K give or take, posting $100+ per month budgets in the "Blu-ray Spending" thread talking about how a couple grand for a NAS is madness. I get the time argument to an extent, but not so much the money part of it.

Originally Posted by mar3o

That's the real issue - the time.

It definitely does take a lot of time, but the thing to remember is that you don't have to sit there while the disc rips -- you just have to do a little fiddling when you first start and when you finish the rip. It's a long time, but it's a mostly passive activity (and multiple Blu-ray drives makes it go even faster). And like you said, once you've scaled that mountain, as long as you rip your new purchases right as you get them, there's nothing to it.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by andjar01

I used to think those 10-20 GB blu-ray rips look great. Not anymore ...not since i started collecting blurays and using 4K(+ 4k upscaling) displaying devices only.

Funny, since there are thousands of blus on BD-25s that fall in the 15-20GB range, and a 1:1 rip won't look any different than the disc.

[mar3o]

Obviously he's talking about re-encodes, which is never ideal, and always adds more compression. But you already know what he's referring to, and are just looking to be confrontational as usual.

[koberulz]

For those who use Plex, what's your playback device?

I downloaded the app on my TV, but it's a pain in the ass given my TV doesn't have next/previous buttons and the whole UI seems like a mess TBH (not sure how much that differs from one device to another though).

[handcraftedbits]

Originally Posted by koberulz

For those who use Plex, what's your playback device?

I downloaded the app on my TV, but it's a pain in the ass given my TV doesn't have next/previous buttons and the whole UI seems like a mess TBH (not sure how much that differs from one device to another though).

The best app in my opinion is Infuse, though it's only for Apple devices.

[casey76]

Originally Posted by koberulz

For those who use Plex, what's your playback device?

I downloaded the app on my TV, but it's a pain in the ass given my TV doesn't have next/previous buttons and the whole UI seems like a mess TBH (not sure how much that differs from one device to another though).

I use my NUC as a playback device hooked up to my TV and have a Harmony universal remote to operate the GUI for Plex. It works great.

[Mysteron Mayhem]

Originally Posted by koberulz

For those who use Plex, what's your playback device?

I downloaded the app on my TV, but it's a pain in the ass given my TV doesn't have next/previous buttons and the whole UI seems like a mess TBH (not sure how much that differs from one device to another though).

I have been using an Nvidia Shield connected to my main tv. I have nothing else to compare it to since it is my first plex device, and it seems to be working well enough for me. - No complaints.
I love the thing. It has every service I could want on it, and its fast and responsive with frequent firmware updates.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Just the fact that this is true shows how broken things are with copyright protection these days. IMO people should have every right to back up their movie collections from discs that they legally acquire. But of course that would make you a criminal. I understand the whole "copying is ok but decryption/circumvention is not" argument, but that's the point - effectively the laws in the US mean you can't legally back up your own discs that you paid for. It's garbage.

Another problem with the whole "backup" thing. People back their discs up for two purposes - 1) for ease of playing their files through their media center, while keeping their original discs in safe keeping, and 2) in case the original media goes bad or anything happens to them (stolen, damage by fire, flood, bugs, etc.).

But the law isn't on your side there, either. Technically, you can only keep a legal backup of your discs (assuming they were not protected with any copying technology) as long as you are in possession of the original discs. If you no longer have the original discs, you are supposed to delete your backup copy. The idea is otherwise you could just "backup" rented discs, or sell your discs but keep the backups, so you would still have them digitally, even though you sold the right to have them when you sold the discs. In reality, what this means is backups are worthless as far as the law protects you, because if your media rots or gets stolen, you no longer have the original, therefore you should dispose of your backup. But the whole point of the backup is having a fallback copy in case something happens to the original.

Like I said, the system is broken.

Thankfully the moderation on here seems more lax now. Years back this would have been deleted the same day. But I guess it's fine to discuss it now on here

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by casey76

I use my NUC as a playback device hooked up to my TV and have a Harmony universal remote to operate the GUI for Plex. It works great.

NUC?

I also have a Harmony, so something that works with that (ie not my PS4) would be ideal.

Plex seems great for films and TV, but it seems it doesn't support MVC 3D and the metadata system really wasn't built for things like sports or wrestling, which are a large part of my collection.

I mean I could theoretically upscale my MVC 3D films to have full-res SBS 3D, but I'm not sure how well that would work.

[casey76]

Originally Posted by Mysteron Mayhem

I have been using an Nvidia Shield connected to my main tv. I have nothing else to compare it to since it is my first plex device, and it seems to be working well enough for me. - No complaints.
I love the thing. It has every service I could want on it, and its fast and responsive with frequent firmware updates.

I've heard that the Shield is a good option as well. I believe it comes with the Plex app. The shield wasn't available when I bought my NUC or I may have gone with it instead (cheaper).

[casey76]

Originally Posted by koberulz

NUC?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...-kits/nuc.html

It's pretty much just a mini computer that I've installed the Plex app on.

[bigshot]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Enable to transfer movies into a digital format for personal or commerical use, is a piracy issue, also a coprighted infringement, which is forbidden to be discussed on the forum.

As I said above, I am the director of a non-profit digital archive which has a fair use exemption from laws regarding overriding copy protection issued by the US Copyright Office.

https://www.federalregister.gov/docu...access-control

"Also significant is the fact that the statute contains certain permanent exemptions to permit specified uses. These include: Section 1201(d), which exempts certain activities of nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institutions"

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't keep up on the law regarding consumers as much as institutional rules, but as I understand it, ripping a disc for personal backup purposes is fine as long as you don't have to circumvent DRM to do it. Unprotected discs are fair game. The DRM is the part that involves the law, not necessarily the act of ripping. However if you rip an unprotected copyrighted disc and reproduce and sell it, you then definitely have committed a copyright violation. That's different than personal backup purposes. Don't take my word on this though. It would be worth checking with a lawyer on this if you are considering it.

[handcraftedbits]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Plex seems great for films and TV, but it seems it doesn't support MVC 3D and the metadata system really wasn't built for things like sports or wrestling, which are a large part of my collection.

When you say "doesn't support MVC 3D", in what way? That's just the way the video is encoded, isn't it? I don't think the Plex Server really cares about that. What does make a difference is the Plex client. The default Plex client, yeah I could see it not being able to transcode something like that. The trick is to use a third-party Plex client, because the first-party one sucks. If your client supports it, you're golden.

As far as sports, yeah the metadata system isn't ideal. But I think the bigger problem is that there really isn't a sports metadata service akin to TVDB from which a plugin could be made that would scrape your metadata. So... you're stuck with manually populating the metadata for sporting events. It's what I did, and I have hundreds of games (though my metadata is pretty light: home/away team, and date).