Best ways to store Blu-rays for playback?

[php111]

Hey, the first question, is most going digital in todays generation rather than physical disc? Second question, I have a lot of Blu-ray and DVDs for both movies and TV series, which would be the best to store them and for playback and when storing them but for permanent use rather than temporary use? This is my current system, a 5.1 surround sound which is a 40 inch Insignia HDTV, a pair of speakers, surround sound speakers, subwoofer, center channel, SAE amp to power the sub, Yamaha receiver, a Sony blu-ray player. From what I see from time to time is a media center or something for DLNA. Do not know much about that. In fact I do not even know what it is and what I would be looking for to buy even if that would be the best option to go in.

 

[Montucky]

Look into making your own backups of your discs to MKV or ISO versions. Then you can play them back with a multitude of devices. In the past, I've used HTPCs, my PS3 (back when it was a multimedia powerhouse), my beloved Boxee Box, Sony TVs' built-in playback capabilities, the Western Digital TV Live, Roku (the worst for home media IME), and now I'm hearing great things about the Nvidia Shield for multimedia needs. I've stored my stuff onto external drives, but I will likely be moving everything over to a NAS one of these days where I can "stream" my movies all over the house.

There's a WHOLE world out there for exactly what you're looking to do. BIG can of worms and legally questionable, so I won't get into the nitty gritty of HOW to do it, but it's really a lot of fun. FWIW, I never illegally download or share movies. I've only copied my own discs for personal use, but there have been lots of battles over what constitutes "fair use," and I'm not sure where things are at on that front these days.

 

[Gunny]

I've been using HTPC's for years and absolutely love the flexibility and convenience. As Montucky recommended, I burn my frequently accessed title to disc. Standard Video_TS format for DVD's and ISO's for Blu Rays. I have about 6TB of internal HDD storage and I do manual backups to USB drives on a periodic basis as I do not trust most of the consumer level NAS solutions I've researched.

Quality-wise I'll probably be purchasing an Oppo UDP 203 soon so that I can watch my movies with optimal video processing but you simply cannot beat the HTPC for convenience.

 

[Bucknekked]

Hey, the first question, is most going digital in todays generation rather than physical disc? Second question, I have a lot of Blu-ray and DVDs for both movies and TV series, which would be the best to store them and for playback and when storing them but for permanent use rather than temporary use? This is my current system, a 5.1 surround sound which is a 40 inch Insignia HDTV, a pair of speakers, surround sound speakers, subwoofer, center channel, SAE amp to power the sub, Yamaha receiver, a Sony blu-ray player. From what I see from time to time is a media center or something for DLNA. Do not know much about that. In fact I do not even know what it is and what I would be looking for to buy even if that would be the best option to go in.

for music and concert Blue-Rays, I've gone the MKV route so I can play them on the same media server as my music library. For DVDs, same outcome, just a different toolset. With either media, its ripping at the source's level of quality and playing a file through your music or HT system.

Its a process to master, but it isn't difficult. Most places, like the AH, won't give you instruction on exactly how to do it because as a previous poster mentioned, whether its legal or not is up to the eye of the beholder. Private use and just doing it so I have a working copy and a backup covers my concience.
But I know there are entertainment lawyers out there who feel their need for a new boat outweighs any sort of common sense so its always best to be cautious.

Files are the future so get your media there anyway that makes you smile.

 

[BMXTRIX]

For years I've been backing up my BD library to ISO format, but I feel like I may just move into the MKV arena for greater compatibility with players moving forward. I recently played with the XGimi projector with built in Android and was able to network, quite easily, to my NAS RAID drives. I have about 30TB of storage available to my home and the projector was easily able to play back all the files I had available from MP4 to MKV and ISO files. The issue with the ISO is that it plays the 'largest' file, which isn't always the main movie, so a few hiccups came up and I'd like to avoid that in the future.

MKV has a lot of information out there, but it is easy enough to find out how to make Fair Use copies of your media and to store them in the MKV format as a lossless file. I would not add new encoding/compression to a professionally encoded disc. But, to reduce the clutter/extras you may not want or need makes a lot of sense. Taking it from 40GB to 20GB also gives you twice as much storage to make use of.

Putting together a RAID of sufficient size I think is critical. A single 4 or 6TB drive is nice, then you do all that work... then the drive fails and you are back at square one. You can build a RAID for not a lot of cash if your are enough of a tecchie. I am not. So, I picked up some Thecus units online. I think I picked one up on Newegg and the rest on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thecus-N4100PRO-NAS-SATA-3-5-Hard-Drive-Storage-Array-NO-Hard-Drives-Pwr-Cord/112705043742?hash=item1a3dbe7d1e:g:yn8AAOSwzlZaPO1Z

$150 for the RAID then you will need to populate it with hard drives.

I can run at least two movies from it at the same time without any issue at all across my network.

I used 4TB drives in my most recent unit and it gives me a bit over 10TB of storage in the one chassis. Once it is setup and mapped on my network it is easy to get to and my Dune media players, computers, and other compatible devices work well with it.

 

[KenM10759]

Glad to be a very infrequent, casual movie watcher who doesn't mind storing a few Blu-Ray disks in their cases and popping them into the LG UP875 player when I want to watch one. Simple, no copy-protection issues, and bullet-proof. If the player fails, it's almost as cheap as a smaller hard drive to replace.

Is it just the convenience that attracts folks to setting up a big RAID and controlling it, or is there some other advantage? Do the files play smoother or something?

 

[pwlong]

I made this switch to MKV a few years ago, when I discovered the MakeMKV software. MakeMKV allows you to rip only the data streams you want from the source -- I usually choose 1-2 audio streams, plus video and subtitles -- then store it in a MKV file. I then import the resulting files into my Kodi movie library, which makes them available to all devices in my home. My current client-end box is the Amazon FireTV 2 running the ARM version of Kodi.

This is nice because you no longer need to handle or swap the physical media (BR disks), you skip all the forced previews and ads you get with settop BR players, and the content is available to all devices served by your media server -- I have 4 TVs and a half-dozen phones/tables in my house, and they can all view any of the content.

If you want to keep lossless copies, the above method will work fine. If you prefer to downsize some movies to save on disk storage, HandBrake works to transcode to x264 or x265. I've done this for several dozen of my kids' movies, which don't need to be stored at full quality. I then remux the transcoded video back into a new MKV container with the same audio and subtitle tracks, often with 75-80% space reduction (and corresponding quality reduction, of course).

I've got almost 900G of movies on my media server, so a fairly small collection, I think. I use snapraid on Linux to guard against hardware failure -- it's not as robust as a backup solution, more of insurance against the inevitable disk failure.

This method has worked fine for my family. However, as more streaming sources come online, there seems to be less of an urgency to buy and store titles, but I'll probably keep doing it, since I don't like to always have to rely on online sources.

Tools mentioned above are MakeMKV, Kodi, Handbrake and MKVtoolnix. Let me know if you have any questions.

My home theater construction blog: http://havingfunlongtheway.com/basement-home-theater-design-construction-series/

 

[DigitalDawn]

Can Plex use MKV files?

 

[KenM10759]

I guess I'm a dinosaur. No interest whatsoever in watching a movie on my phone or tablet so no need to have my small library of movies available to all devices. I don't even like watching them on the 32" TV in the bedroom, but nor do I have a huge screen and projector.

 

[pwlong]

For some, it may be the enjoyment of managing (controlling) their digital media library. For others, it may be a means of learning the technology behind the scenes. I won't claim those aren't factors in my decision to do it.

But for me, the primary motivation was to find a way that my (then much younger) kids could watch their DVDs without having to handle the discs, which invariably became dirty, scuffed and eventually cracked due to excessive handling by not-so-careful hands.

After buying the second replacement title, it occurred to me to check into how to store the content online, to eliminate the need for media handling. No more media handling, no more forced ads or previews? The rest is history.

Along the way, new tools that streamlined the 'online media library' made the process easier. And I've gotten the rip-and-store process down to a procedure that takes ~1 hour to complete, so it's not cumbersome -- at least for me. Others may say even that is too much trouble, and I see the point. My tolerance for hassling with this stuff is rapidly dropping, so it needs to be simple.

I also think it's also a 'phase of life' thing. As my kids grow up and move out, I expect I'll give up the entire process, as streaming content "just works". At least until the big content providers start embedding non-skippable ad content within even the paid streaming plans...

 

[php111]

I was reading over the replies:

I apologize but maybe I should of worded my OP a little different.

For DVDs, I was hoping to keep them uncompressed
For Blu-rays I was hoping to keep them uncompressed
Do not worry because these DVDs and Blu-rays are mine that I bought. Some I bought in stores like Best Buy. Others I bought online like from Amazon or eBay or both at times.

I prefer not to convert anything to MKV because as I mentioned I prefer uncompressed. Maybe using Imgburn and and putting everything into an ISO like one movie or one show at a time?

Than it comes to the part for playback on my TV. In that case maybe external drives would be the best solution? I am not sure.

One I have ripped my entire collection than I want to try to sell everything as used.

 

[panteragstk]

I was reading over the replies:

I apologize but maybe I should of worded my OP a little different.

For DVDs, I was hoping to keep them uncompressed
For Blu-rays I was hoping to keep them uncompressed
Do not worry because these DVDs and Blu-rays are mine that I bought. Some I bought in stores like Best Buy. Others I bought online like from Amazon or eBay or both at times.

I prefer not to convert anything to MKV because as I mentioned I prefer uncompressed. Maybe using Imgburn and and putting everything into an ISO like one movie or one show at a time?

Than it comes to the part for playback on my TV. In that case maybe external drives would be the best solution? I am not sure.

One I have ripped my entire collection than I want to try to sell everything as used.

MKV is a container not a compression codec. I store all of my blu-rays in .mkv format totally uncompressed. Picture and sound is identical to the hard copy.

I use plex/kodi to play them on my TVs and in the theater room. I use Android TV devices of one sort or another since I also use Netflix and a multitude of other apps. HTPCs have pretty much died for me. The upkeep and inability to smoothly switch between apps did it for me when I started using multiple apps and streaming services. Never thought the day would come when I wouldn't have an HTPC in my house.

My main reason for storing on my unRAID server vs using the physical media is for protecting the media. If the disc won't play, you have to get a new one.

I do think it's funny that people with physical discs and players don't think copy protection will ever affect them. I don't know how many complaints I've heard about a player no longer getting firmware updates and losing the ability to play newer movies. This happened to me even before blu-ray. Non issue when using something like Plex for playback. As long as the ripping software keeps up, there won't ever be a problem.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yes, you can store everything as an ISO, but it is rare for players to handle ISO files properly, and many players just play back the 'longest' title, which isn't always the movie. Using AnyDVDHD you can copy the discs without issue to ISO format, but you then you are stuck with a media player which really can't handle the ISO properly, or a player which can, but plays back all the advertisements and everything else with no good way to skip them (DuneHD for example).

MakeMKV can covert the movie without recompressing it. So, you still have that 25GB movie title, but you aren't stuck with the trailers and previews and extras. You can keep your HD audio and subtitles (I believe) but you drop the rest.

A TON of media players can handle MKV properly because it's designed much more as a open standard of playback. I know my Android player built into a projector I'm using has no problem with the Blu-ray MKV titles I have, but the VAST majority of my collection is in ISO format. I now feel like I'm dropping the ISO format in favor of MKV format to ditch the extra junk I don't care about at all. I keep the important stuff and I don't (won't) recompress the HD video that was professionally encoded.

At the end, I still recommend the RAID solution, as described above, to ensure you don't lose any of the work you go through backing all your titles up to hard drives.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I guess I'm a dinosaur. No interest whatsoever in watching a movie on my phone or tablet so no need to have my small library of movies available to all devices. I don't even like watching them on the 32" TV in the bedroom, but nor do I have a huge screen and projector.

I think Plex may allow for playback on a phone or tablet, and Android devices are more flexible about playback than Apple stuff is, but this is really about keeping hands off of discs and making things user friendly to everyone. In my home you press a button on the remote called Dune 1 (or Dune 2) and you are greeted with a nice screen that asks if you want movies or TV shows. Then you can browse through by title, genre, etc. to pick what you want to watch. With over 1,000 titles available, there is almost always something for anyone to enjoy. Meanwhile, my discs are safely stored away in containers in their original cases. If I want to grab a movie to take to a friend's house, then I have to dig through those containers, which obviously could be painful, but otherwise, I just enjoy the movies on any of my TVs (or projector) at any time in my home.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Can Plex use MKV files?

Really just something you should Google, but it appears that Plex will handle MKV files. You should do a lot more digging about Plex though as MKV is a container to hold the video, audio, and subtitles. It may not be universally compatible with all of the different formats which could be stored within the MKV container.

 

[panteragstk]

Really just something you should Google, but it appears that Plex will handle MKV files. You should do a lot more digging about Plex though as MKV is a container to hold the video, audio, and subtitles. It may not be universally compatible with all of the different formats which could be stored within the MKV container.

Plex has yet to not play back something I've thrown at it. This includes the dreaded 1080i VC-1 files I have. Almost nothing can play that back properly. Plex has zero issues with .mkv and as you stated it is a very open widely supported format. Plex at this point is limited to what the device you're using supports. Android TV works best, but they have clients built into TVs as well (Samsung, Vizio, Lg, etc) and while they work, they aren't as good as a separate box just in the aspect of speed alone.

I have a Sony TV that has Android TV built in and it is crap compared to a dedicated box like the Shield TV.

I used to do the same and store my Blu-rays and DVDs in the folder format that is used on the .iso. Once Plex stopped supporting this I had to make a decision. This led me to MakeMKV and it's batch companion. It worked great since I only stored the main movie it didn't have to guess what title to choose for encoding.

If anyone is worried about MKV compressing their stuff they could always use the .m2ts container that is native to Blu-ray. Virtually no difference other than the mkvs are smaller in file size. Chapter support in the mkv container is very good as well.

 

[Montucky]

Is it just the convenience that attracts folks to setting up a big RAID and controlling it, or is there some other advantage? Do the files play smoother or something?

There are multiple factors for me, aside from keeping my discs nice and safe. It makes for a fun user experience to browse the library by genre, title, whatever. Then there's the added bonus of zero warnings or trailers, so you can just get straight to the movie.

One of the biggest things for me is that I've moved a LOT over the last decade. Instead of unboxing my movies every single time I'm holed up somewhere temporarily, as I am now AGAIN, I always have my entire beautiful library totally accessible.

Now that I'm into Kaleidescape, I've upped this discless game to a whole new level! It ain't cheap, but it is so much fun for a movie fanatic like me.

And as said above, being able to entrust your children to browse and play movies on their own is a total game changer. Nice that I can 100% control the content, too!

 

[php111]

MKV is a container not a compression codec. I store all of my blu-rays in .mkv format totally uncompressed. Picture and sound is identical to the hard copy.

I use plex/kodi to play them on my TVs and in the theater room. I use Android TV devices of one sort or another since I also use Netflix and a multitude of other apps. HTPCs have pretty much died for me. The upkeep and inability to smoothly switch between apps did it for me when I started using multiple apps and streaming services. Never thought the day would come when I wouldn't have an HTPC in my house.

My main reason for storing on my unRAID server vs using the physical media is for protecting the media. If the disc won't play, you have to get a new one.

I do think it's funny that people with physical discs and players don't think copy protection will ever affect them. I don't know how many complaints I've heard about a player no longer getting firmware updates and losing the ability to play newer movies. This happened to me even before blu-ray. Non issue when using something like Plex for playback. As long as the ripping software keeps up, there won't ever be a problem.

How do I setup plex/kodi on my TV for playback? My understanding is my TV is not supported? I have Insignia and the model is NS-40D510NA15

 

[Montucky]

How do I setup plex/kodi on my TV for playback? My understanding is my TV is not supported? I have Insignia and the model is NS-40D510NA15

The answer's easy! Nvidia Shield. I haven't used one yet, but I'm hearing a LOT of great things about it. Seems to be one of the most compatible device out there. I might have to give one a whirl one of these days.

 

[php111]

The answer's easy! Nvidia Shield. I haven't used one yet, but I'm hearing a LOT of great things about it. Seems to be one of the most compatible device out there. I might have to give one a whirl one of these days.

Thanks so much!!