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[raym]

Hi. Does anyone here own a DVD Carousel like this: http://www.buymebuyme.com/retail/customer/product.php?productid=45269&partner=nt&cat=&page= ? And if so, does it work with MC?

I'm thinking about using something like this for my DVD collection but only if I can get it working with MC.

Thanks.

[ThoBar]

You're aware this doesnt actually read the cd/dvd?

It only houses and indexes them, with manual intervention (as in you read the DVD in your DVD player, then add it to the carousel).

I have used one, and found it of limited usefulness.

Cheers,
C.

[benn600]

Unfortunately, I would recommend building a multi terabyte NAS and just ripping the DVDs.  It is a more expensive solution but has great instantaneous access and provides a backup in addition to the original media.  2 TB will hold around 300 movies which is a very reasonable collection size.  DVD collections, in my experience, are smaller because movies require a much greater commitment compared to music.  2 hours vs. 2 minutes (approx)

You could buy a 500 GB drive for around $150.  If you wanted to build a 1.5 TB solution, you'd need 4 drives (for RAID 5) so you're at $600.  Quite pricey, I know, but that's more than 200 movie capacity and that carousel you showed doesn't even hold that.

It's more expensive but pretty handy.  Actually, I just realized RAID 0 would be fine because you don't need redundancy...just re-rip them if the thing fails.  So, you can get 1.5 TB for ONLY (lol) $450.  With that item you showed, around $270 for three of them--300 discs...you'd get a little under that with 1.5 TB.  So close to double the cost.  But, compare this solution to a carousel that can actually read the DVDs.  Also, would it even send the DVD data over the network?  It's secured content and might be problematic.  I'm assuming here you want network connectivity so you can access the movies from lots of computers.

[Magic_Randy]

I would recommend building a multi terabyte NAS and just ripping the DVDs.

This is a longer lasting solution.

[raym]

Thanks for the replies guys.

No, I wasn't aware that this thing only houses and indexes dvds  I thought they'd offer more. Never mind..... on with the ripping!

[benn600]

Unfortunately, it's quite sad how quickly DVDs can eat up your hard drive space--and how long it can take to rip 300+ which means re-ripping them if you switch drive setups since you probably can't back them up.  I have 4.09 TB of usable space (4.5 TB) and am already down to 1.75 TB free with all my data.  That may seem like a ton but the graph shows I'm approaching 2/3.  And it took a ton of drives to get that much space (and a ton of money).  And I really don't want to have only some of my DVDs ripped.  At this point, I'm still fine, but we always buy new DVDs so that free space will just continually drop.

[raym]

Unfortunately, it's quite sad how quickly DVDs can eat up your hard drive space--and how long it can take ...

Exactly. I had hoped one of these carousel thingys could be used for storage AND playback which would solve the problem.

At this point, given the money and time required to rip DVDs to HDD, I don't see any real benefit over simply sticking the thing in my DVD drive and hitting play. I guess there's the management and cataloging aspect which MC brings to the table but again, the effort required to get there doesn't seem worthwhile to me.

[benn600]

Here's my advantage.  Our kitchen has an Xbox with media center added (Not xbox 360) and I can pull up any movie I own at any second I desire.  Also, one computer in our house doesn't have a DVD player in it.  We can still watch our DVDs on that.  Don't forget being able to watch DVDs in our theater (basement), kitchen (main floor), or that user I described (second floor).  It's hard to store DVDs on all three floors.  We also have my computer, our living room "main family" computer, and our Gateway Destination (31" monitor with new computer).  It is amazing to watch anything anywhere without locating the DVD, etc.  I often, to be honest, don't even use MC.  I just use VLC because it works so well.  MC is mainly for music and the occasional picture browse.  I'm just so used to video via the Windows Explorer and VLC because it's so lightweight and simple.  Plus, I may pause a song to watch a movie, show clip, video podcast, etc., and that way my music isn't interrupted.  The server method works so well here but it dooms me to managing a huge file server!

I'm worried about when I run out of space.  I am estimating I can fit another 250 DVDs...or less if I start scanning in our analog photos (I need to start that!) / get more music (I will but music is so small!)

That's funny how music is really so much smaller.  I mean at 300 MB per CD compared to a modest 6,000 MB per DVD, you're talking 20 times the space!  Luckily I own about a third as many DVDs as CDs!  My video folder alone takes 1.86 TB...that's 1 THOUSAND eight hundred sixty GB.

[johnnyboy]

Here's my advantage.  Our kitchen has an Xbox with media center added (Not xbox 360) and I can pull up any movie I own at any second I desire.  Also, one computer in our house doesn't have a DVD player in it.  We can still watch our DVDs on that.  Don't forget being able to watch DVDs in our theater (basement), kitchen (main floor), or that user I described (second floor).  It's hard to store DVDs on all three floors.  We also have my computer, our living room "main family" computer, and our Gateway Destination (31" monitor with new computer).  It is amazing to watch anything anywhere without locating the DVD, etc.  I often, to be honest, don't even use MC.  I just use VLC because it works so well.  MC is mainly for music and the occasional picture browse.  I'm just so used to video via the Windows Explorer and VLC because it's so lightweight and simple.  Plus, I may pause a song to watch a movie, show clip, video podcast, etc., and that way my music isn't interrupted.  The server method works so well here but it dooms me to managing a huge file server!

I'm worried about when I run out of space.  I am estimating I can fit another 250 DVDs...or less if I start scanning in our analog photos (I need to start that!) / get more music (I will but music is so small!)

That's funny how music is really so much smaller.  I mean at 300 MB per CD compared to a modest 6,000 MB per DVD, you're talking 20 times the space!  Luckily I own about a third as many DVDs as CDs!  My video folder alone takes 1.86 TB...that's 1 THOUSAND eight hundred sixty GB.

Which is why you can run the DVD's through DVD shrink and get them down to 4Gb easily or encode them all to xvid at the highest quality and get them down to 2Gb at no noticable quality difference leaving you with 3x more space

[benn600]

Here's a good question.  Say I have 300 DVDs in a nice folder structure with folder.jpg cover art.  Can I point DVD shrink to that folder and have it automatically resize the files?  Also, can it only resize the vob files, keeping the menu completely in tact with all original menu structure and bonus features?  That would be compelling if it was all automated and only lowered the quality without removing subtitles, sound quality, etc.  But again, I wouldn't consider this until I finish off those 1.75 TB's.

[johnnyboy]

DVDShrink, Nero Recode, etc, etc all keep the menu's and everything else - the DVD looks pretty much identical to the original with the only difference being that the video has been compressed.
Not sure if they can be set to batch job a few hundred movies but theres probably one out there that can.

To be honest though - I prefer ripping the menu's and everything OFF the DVD's. To me its just annoying that I go to watch a film then have to watch 5 minutes of junk, FBI warnings, trailers for films that are probably now 2yrs old, etc before I can finally get to my film, especially seeing as they usually stop you fast forwarding most of this rubbish.
I often take DVD's I have and turn them into .avi's simply so I can choose the film I want, hit play and have the film just start - exactly what I want and goes PERFECTLY with my theme for a HTPC of simply 'play what I want exactly when I want' rather than 'play what I want after 5 mins of trailers and warnings and navigating menus' - I already navigated a menu in my HTPC to choose the film - now just play it for me already!! lol.

Sorry - all that junk at the beginning is a pet peeve, always annoys me!

[benn600]

I totally agree but then I end up cutting out bonus features and such that I later realize I had all along only because I "for some random reason" was actually playing the physical DVD.  That happened to me on a season of South Park.  I found some bonus materials I wish I had seen long ago.  I will strongly consider this when I finish off my NAS space.

[johnnyboy]

Glad I'm not alone in this.
After paying $25 or whatever to buy the DVD - how dare they think they can then also shove a ton of junk and advertising and other rubbish infront of me that I have no choice but to either sit and watch or try click 50000 buttons to get past.
Next they'll be telling me those adverts subsidize the cost of the DVD's (like they do with TV shows).

Hollywood needs to get less greedy and start giving us what we want rather than what they want!!

[benn600]

I wonder about the people who actually make those decisions.  I wonder if they get angry.  Do you think the top people who decided to encrypt DVDs use DVD Decrypter?  They should prosecute them, lol.