Question Is the end of DVD/blu-ray players upon us?

Surprised there aren't more of you advocating ripping?

I had thought about keeping some spare players to see me into old age, but saw the light with the recommendation to rip my discs after being persuaded by @mb3195 of its merits.

Multiple benefits in one. Looks cool with a poster wall, easy to jump straight into a movie and the big one for me of getting away from the reliance on a player long into the future. Can just move my data from NAS to NAS as I upgrade for the rest of my life :smashin:
 
I tried that, it was easier to pick out a disc and put it in the player.
 
I tried that, it was easier to pick out a disc and put it in the player.
Once you get organised it really isn't all that much extra work than using a player. I view the media server as a way to store classic and re watchable movies plus an easy way of browsing. Good for jumping between demo material for showing off your system too.
 
Nothing wrong with that, different strokes for different folks.
 
I plan on trying to rip some of my titles. I have my eye on a Pioneer BR transport to use with my Mac, but have got to clear my credit card bill first!
 
I fear the coming social scoring system that will be brought in, say something wrong on one website and watch your other accounts get deleted because your score has dropped. Microsoft has deleted accounts of XBOX users and ALL their downloaded games, which they paid for, got deleted. The concesquences of this is a form of self censorship which I dont believe is healthy. If you lose your job and have to cut back your expenses then you will lose access to everything in a subscription based society. Elon Musk said nobody will own anything in the future. I leave that one with you.
 
Surprised there aren't more of you advocating ripping?

I had thought about keeping some spare players to see me into old age, but saw the light with the recommendation to rip my discs after being persuaded by @mb3195 of its merits.

Multiple benefits in one. Looks cool with a poster wall, easy to jump straight into a movie and the big one for me of getting away from the reliance on a player long into the future. Can just move my data from NAS to NAS as I upgrade for the rest of my life :smashin:
Unlike music I have no desire to watch part or all of a film every few days or even weeks. I will decide what film to watch and put the disk in my player. I’ll then watch it from start to end.

The other thing about ripping disks is what do you do with the disk? Sell it? But if you do that should you still keep the ripped version? Or if you borrow a disc from a friend and rip it isn’t that theft? Isn’t that why copy protection was introduced years ago?

I’m not pointing any fingers at you @Apollo. It’s the wider question of why ripping is even possible with so much protection around and the financial benefits when so much has to be spent on the hardware to support it.
 
I am waiting for the 820 to come down in price but I might be waiting a long time. I do not think there is much, if any, in the output quality between the 820 and 450 but what annoys me with the 450 is it has an external power supply. I use a continental power block and run everything via that so a UK power supply is a little hard to fit:D
 
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Surprised there aren't more of you advocating ripping?

I had thought about keeping some spare players to see me into old age, but saw the light with the recommendation to rip my discs after being persuaded by @mb3195 of its merits.

Multiple benefits in one. Looks cool with a poster wall, easy to jump straight into a movie and the big one for me of getting away from the reliance on a player long into the future. Can just move my data from NAS to NAS as I upgrade for the rest of my life :smashin:
I have ripped all my DVDs and BDs, it's a necessity as I've got hundreds and so it would be a lot of work to hunt for a disc in the boxes where they are stuffed. The rips are on my NAS and I simply stream to my Dune HD Smart H1 player, ageing but still works well.
 
I have ripped all my DVDs and BDs, it's a necessity as I've got hundreds and so it would be a lot of work to hunt for a disc in the boxes where they are stuffed. T

Same here... I'm in the process of ripping my collection to my NAS so the original discs can be stored out of the way.
 
Same here... I'm in the process of ripping my collection to my NAS so the original discs can be stored out of the way.

I hope you’re using RAID1 to safeguard your collection.
 
Unlike music I have no desire to watch part or all of a film every few days or even weeks. I will decide what film to watch and put the disk in my player. I’ll then watch it from start to end.

The other thing about ripping disks is what do you do with the disk? Sell it? But if you do that should you still keep the ripped version? Or if you borrow a disc from a friend and rip it isn’t that theft? Isn’t that why copy protection was introduced years ago?

I’m not pointing any fingers at you @Apollo. It’s the wider question of why ripping is even possible with so much protection around and the financial benefits when so much has to be spent on the hardware to support it.
I've no desire to watch the same film weekly either, what has ripping got to do with that?

You browse your collection from the comfort of your chair if you haven't predetermined the nights feature and press a button. Even my all time top 5 favourite classics like Jaws or Aliens will get a watch at most once a year. Anything else decent will be 2-5 years and the vast majority 5-20 years or possibly never!

What you do with the discs is store them in a more convenient location rather than taking up several square meters of valuable wall space and becoming a dust trap. Selling your discs and ripping borrowed or rented ones is a question of conscience I leave each to decide for themselves.

The question of why it is possible is more a question of why not? The ability to backup or media shift content you legitimately own has been accepted for years.

In terms of costs it can be done fairly cheaply and even a top tier setup is often a fraction of the overall system cost. My total system including Zappiti media player, 28TB 4-bay NAS, upgraded network switch, ripping PC parts (optical drive and extra temp storage) plus offsite USB backup drives cost less than my Emotiva power amplifier.
 
I hope you’re using RAID1 to safeguard your collection.

RAID 1 is is a bit overkill, RAID is redundancy, not backup.

I use (the equivalent of) RAID 5 in an 8-bay NAS with a backup.

As to what to do with the discs and isn't it illegal. The same as when I ripped CD's which is also still illegal. I picked them, I paid for them, I'm not illegally sharing them, I'll do what I want with them.

And they're all packed away in storage.

Yes, my NAS and the drives etc were expensive.

Not as expensive as the 1000+ movies I've bought over the years and plenty of box sets on top of that.
 
@Apollo , thanks for explaining why you do it. I wasn’t suggesting you watch a film or parts of it every few days. A 28Tb NAS setup plus extra hardware is hardly cheap and none of it enhances the picture or sound quality. It’s just fine for convenience and frees up physical storage space. Fine if that’s what people want to do. It’s your money after all.

It seems strange though in this world of copyright protection that it’s even possible to make a pure digital copy of anything. Back in the days of video cassette Macrovision prevented that.

Your 28Tb drives will fill up eventually of course then the whole cycle starts again.
 
@Sloppy Bob , RAID5 covers against failure but as you say, it’s expensive. I suppose if you have a large collection it’s an attractive option as it frees up storage space. To be honest I’m fairly picky about films I buy so my collection is quite small. I effectively started again 4 years ago when I disposed of all my DVDs and started again with Blu-ray including 4K.
 
Selling your discs and ripping borrowed or rented ones is a question of conscience I leave each to decide for themselves.
It's illegal and something that is not condoned by AVF. It amounts to copyright theft.
 
I’m starting to look at ripping now, not because I no longer want to use discs — just the opposite, but as a backup, in part because some of the titles that I have are no longer available, but also because when that day does arrive when physical media is no more, the selected parts of my carefully curated library will still be available to me if my players die and I can no longer get hardware.

The whole process of ripping seems obvious and confusing in equal measure. I think that a sticky thread would be really helpful for we ripping newbies. Is that something that a moderator has to do?

Coming back to ripping, here are two examples that I find confusing.
1) I have the Region B BR disc Riddick. There are two options for playback — Theatrical release, or Directors cut. Audio is DTS-MA 5.1. I want English subtitles which I might need when my hearing gets really bad (it’s not good now).
2) I have a region 3 copy of the Korean film A Bittersweet Life, Director’s Cut. I want to preserve the Korean language track but also need English sub-titles. For audio there’s both Dolby 5.1 and DTS-ES.

In both examples, I have no interest in extras. If I use the discs, then I have full access to the disc menus so I can pick what I need. When I rip something, are menus preserved? What about audio and sub-titles? What does one use to play stuff that’s ripped? The list goes on, which is why, personally, a dedicated thread would help me, and certainly other newbies too.
 
The whole process of ripping seems obvious and confusing in equal measure. I think that a sticky thread would be really helpful for we ripping newbies. Is that something that a moderator has to do?
Only mods can issue a 'sticky'. It will not happen in this instance simply because of the complexity of copyright laws.
 
On the subject of RAID: I use Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR). If you have at least two hard drives installed SHR allows for 1- or 2-drive redundancy - meaning the SHR Volume can suffer up to one or two failed drives without experiencing data loss.
 
I agree that the issue of copyright is tricky, but in my case all I want to do is make backup copies of stuff that I've already purchased. I'm not interested in obtaining stuff illegally, and don't hold with piracy in any shape or form.
 
I agree that the issue of copyright is tricky, but in my case all I want to do is make backup copies of stuff that I've already purchased. I'm not interested in obtaining stuff illegally, and don't hold with piracy in any shape or form.
Is it legal to do that?
Lots of stuff from 2015 saying it is illegal but I've not come across anything later saying it is legal.
 
It's illegal and something that is not condoned by AVF. It amounts to copyright theft.
Quite correct, it is illegal and I never stated anything to the contrary.
 
Is it legal to do that?
Lots of stuff from 2015 saying it is illegal but I've not come across anything later saying it is legal.
It is strictly illegal since the Musicians Union/UK Music/BASCA (bless 'em) got the private copying exemption the Government intended following the Hargreaves Review overturned in the High Court.
 
Hmmm. I was under the impression that you were allowed to make copies for personal use.
 

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