DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Best way to digitize DVD/CD collection?

Has anyone done this? Not sure about music as I think popping a cd in the car is easier than surfing through menu upon menu on some type of player....

Just looking for experiences or thoughts on the matter. Thanks.

Do you have apple products?

Yes, thanks P...meant to include that info!

Windows media player rips CD's very easily. It will figure out what CD it is (unless you've got some really really obscure stuff like I do) and get the song names, etc. It is just time consuming putting each disc in and out of the computer; very redundant. Put the disc in, press a button, wait, take it out, repeat over and over and over and over....

I burnt my collection several years ago, about 400 CD's. Not hard, just time consuming. I work from home and my media server is right next to my desk so I just ripped everything to it over several days.

I despise iTunes. It is crap; and I like Apple products for the most part. Winamp is my product of choice for listening to music. It can also rip, but I like media player a little better for that.

CD's are easy enough as stated above.

DVDs are a little more difficult as they require a ripper and then there is quality variables that need to be taken into account. Most rippers will rip fine for viewing on a small device (laptop, tablet, phone), but on a large screen, the quality can be lacking unless it is ripped with better quality in mind, which then file size and space becomes the issue.

Ultimately it will depend on your reasoning for digitizing, the method of playback, and the resources you have available as well as how much stuff you intend to digitize.

Like Columbus, I have most of my 500+ CDs ripped to a Hard drive, and those are all currentyl uploaded to googlePlay so I can access them anywhere anytime.

With the right player it's difficult, as you can either shuffle and play random, or search by folders or by typing in a partial name and get to what you want. In the case of most new smartphones, you can even speak the input box to avoid typing.

Ah. I've been using iTunes long enough that the UI doesn't bother me at all. That I can stream my iTunes library to my stereo effortlessly trumps just about any shortcoming that I've encountered.

I've always found the FLAC issue to be a bit funny (not a jab at you by any means), as I'm sure the shortcomings of most people's listening environments have far more influence on the overall fidelity than the difference between a lossless format and a very high (300+) Kbps VBR encoded mp3. And those that can afford high-end hifi setups in tuned rooms would be able to afford the storage space to have all of their music in wav format. But the "audiophile" world is a strange one, to be sure.

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I've digitized most everything movies and music. Others will tell you what to rip with. I find media player to be pretty easy to use. I ripped at a relatively high quality.

Movies are another story... I use a program called auto rip and compress, however its geared towards media center users as it will ultimately end up in wtv format. That being said, I've used a bunch of different rippers in the past... DVDFab Decrypter was always pretty good to me.

I have not ripped any blu-rays. Frankly, downloading a digital copy is way more convenient than even using the digital copy that comes with the movies. It's a sad state when it comes to that...

Ultimately there are two things you need above all else... Time and storage. hard drives are cheap, but ripping takes a long, long, time....

"tries to take over"? How do you mean?

It wants to become the default app for everything media related, and the last time I touched it, if you didn't select "Custom" install, you weren't even presented with an option to have it not do that, and bam! all your file associations were changed.

Gotcha. I haven't had a Windows machine in a long time so I haven't experienced that. On my Macs videos default to QuickTime Pro. I did put iTunes on my Win7 computer at my last job, but only so I could listen to the stuff that was on my iPhone. I didn't have any media on the computer itself.

My brother-in-law uses a free app from Apple that allows you to digitize movies as well as cds. It is kind of involved but it works great. He has everything divided by movies, tv shows, music, etc. All he has to do is use his remote and click on a menu, then a sub menu. He can also watch his entire collection on his ipad or his iphone. It isn't very popular because it is a little involved, or at least that is what I understand. He can rip blu ray or normal dvds, all in high quality video. Everything is on a hard drive that stores the movies and such. If this sounds like something you might want to learn more about get a hold of me on Facebook and I can get you in touch with him through there.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1157590/how_to_rip_dvd_handbrake.html

Haven't ripped any dvds, but this is a great program that was made for apple. Vlc is a legit freeware video player, and won't cause you any problems.

I would use itunes for your cds, but i would change the encode settings to mp3, and set a high quality for music.

If you get an appletv you can then watch it all on your tv.

I haven't went this route but i'm pretty sure it works well.

Another program to check out for apple is plex for a media center.

Right now I use windows media center with an addon called media browser.

Either way handbrake and itunes will get it all on your computer.

In addition to what everyone else said, don't forget to make backups. If you are going to spend days ripping CD's and DVD's, it would suck to have to do it all over again when the drive crashes.

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Another program to check out for apple is plex for a media center

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I believe this is what my brother-in-law uses. If it is it's a great system. He uses a hard drive as well that is ran through the tv.

I almost bought a mac mini just to run plex a few years ago. I ended up using windows 7 with media browser. Now they have plex for the pc, but i haven't had the time to figure out my options.

I'm seriously contemplating getting rid of cable, and going ota. and using a roku with the plex channel.

I got a western digital mybook live thats 2tb, and need to get everything onto that. Then I think i can use a plex server, and get all my stuff on my pc, laptop, phone....whatever.

I end up googling all day and reading about so many options, that i get overwhelmed, and end up doing nothing. lol.

Plex is pretty awesome, and with the new version having DLNA you can access everything on an Xbox 360.

Thanks for all the ideas, gang. Lots to think about since I'm not all that computer savvy.

My TV is DLNA capable, so I just run a DLNA server on my desktop and keep a library of movies on there.
I pulled Cat5 throughout the house and have it all switched with Gigabit ethernet.... streaming is easy-peasy


I haven't done too much ripping, but Handbrake is one of my favorite pieces of software, especially if you need to re-encode the audio or something.

My music library is about 1500 CD all ripped, MP3 at 320 bps.

Movies are ripped with DVD Fab 8 and I use MyMovies to catalog. Probably a 100 or so movies.

I just moved into a new house a few weeks ago and ran cat 6 to connect the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, and the living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor. I have not done the garage yet but its on the to do list. I have the bedroom TV's and living room TV hooked up to jailbroken Apple TV 2's running XBMC, home theater in the living room, all connected to a central 6TB NAS with a TP-Link gigabit router. I get my local TV stations in HD via Leaf Plus antennas (these things are amazing, but a bit pricey).

I have a $60 per month internet bill and that's it for my monthly entertainment budget. I get all my media via streaming or downloading. However, I spent about $1000 on equipment so far and I still need to buy speakers for the bathroom (gotta jam in the shower), kitchen, dining room, and garage still. Gonna end up being around $1500 in equipment when all is said and done, and that's not counting the TV's and home theater system that I've had for a couple years now. So I still have about 3 years of cutting the cable TV bill before it pays itself off, but my setup is pretty sweet

I could have gotten a couple Roku's and done it wirelessly while running a Plex server on my PC, but I decided to take the saying go big or go home to heart

Skip the speakers for rooms you only want music in and instead get Sonos Play3's

They can play from your local library, any internet service, or local radio.... they're the Bee's Knees.


And, holy crap, I want your setup, lol!

With a setup such as yours, hardwired is probably the best way to go anyway.

If those Sonos units aren't your cup of tea, you could pick up some Airport Express units and stream your audio to those via AirPlay. Hardwired them with your Ethernet setup and get the added benefit of using them as range extenders for your wireless network as well. The biggest upside is that you get to choose the amp and speakers of your liking. You could even get some high quality outboard DACs, in keeping with your "go big" theme, since the Express has optical Toslink out. Or just get a couple B&W Zeppelins!