Digital Storage and Play DVD's

[Wideocean7]

Hi All

I've read some older posts on this and wonder if anyone has found a more recent clever solution?

I'm moving onto my yacht mid-2021 and have around 100 DVD movies that I'd like to store digitally and play onboard. To save space I'd very much rather not have to keep the hard-copies. A great solution would be a box to store the movies (perhaps downloaded via my laptop?) and the same box being able to play back to a TV via an MDMI or other cable.

Does anyone with better knowledge of this stuff than I have any suggestions?

Cheers

[AKA-None]

A tablet or even many phones can do this.

[StuM]

100 DVDs is less than 500GB

Store them on the laptop with HDMI output to TV. If necessary get a USB3 external drive to store them.

[Wideocean7]

Thanks Guys. I know I can play a DVD from my laptop (via internal or external storage) and an HDMI cable to the TV but am wondering if there is a product that can not only store the DVD's but can also play them back to the TV? If it even exists, I would imagine in the first place that I'd need to save the DVD's via my laptop to the memory on my imagined device?

Maybe wishful thinking!

[Shrew]

You can get an external USB drive with 2+TB of storage capacity

You can get a TV with a USB port that can also play media files from a USB device.

[stulk75]

What others aren’t explaining is that you need software to read the vids off the DVD and , turn them into files you can load onto a storage device (aka “ripping”) and then software to play them back from a computer, or a media player.

https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-dvd-ripper

Handbrake (ripper) and VLC (player) are two programs that can help you do this with a laptop.

https://www.amazon.com/media-player/s?k=media+player Would examples of a separate hardware solutions for playback.

A Kodi box may be a good solution. https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/tv-s...w-aFF265I905eN

Keep in mind that there are various opinions on the legality of doing this for personal use.

[ChrisJHC]

As stulk said, you’ll need to “rip” the DVDs.
One benefit of doing this is that reading DVDs directly uses a laser and takes a lot more power than reading the file from a laptop or drive.

VLC can play pretty much any format you can think of.

[PirateGuy]

Directly to the OP’s question - what is a good software program to “rip” (copy to hard disk) existing DVDs? I started doing this with one of my laptops (and a 1 TB external USB hard drive) with mixed results. Many of the DVD movies I ripped ended up losing sound sync.
Watching the original Magnificent Seven (which in itself is a copy of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) with the dialog getting more and more off sync to about 20 seconds was impossible, so I have several hundred DVDs on my boat.
What ripping software works well?

[neflier]

My Blu Rays were ripped with MakeMKV. Handbrake was used to rip and compress DVDs and also compressed Blu Rays ripped with MakeMKV. File size averages about 1GB and the quality is fine on a home TV, so the quality is more than adequate on a smaller boat TV. This means the following USB thumb drive can hold over 500 movies. My boat TV has a USB port, as others have mentioned. The movies are organized into folders for easy navigation. A TV with a USB port doesn't require an external player, saving space, wiring and power. The drive below is so small that it's barely a bump on the side of the TV when inserted.

Someone mentioned having lip sync problems with ripped disks. I never experienced this using MakeMKV and Handbrake and I've ripped well over 100 movies and watched quite a few.

If you go this route, let me know if you want my "boat movie" settings for Handbrake. It took some trial and error, along with research to dial it in.

https://shop.westerndigital.com/prod...CZ430-512G-G46

[Wideocean7]

Thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated. I'll investigate your suggestions to learn more.

Neflier - you said that a TV with a USB port doesn't require an external player. Does this mean that once the DVD's are ripped to a hard drive, those DVD's can be played back on the TV via USB connection with not other software or hardware needed? I'm sure I'm missing something as that would be far too easy!

[Frode]

Originally Posted by Wideocean7

Does this mean that once the DVD's are ripped to a hard drive, those DVD's can be played back on the TV via USB connection with not other software or hardware needed? I'm sure I'm missing something as that would be far too easy!

Some smart TVs will have a media player capable of doing this, others will not. Check the manual for your TV first.

Much more flexible, and with far snazzier user interface, is using Kodi, as someone else mentioned. If you're a little handy, get a Raspberry Pi with Kodi, and connect this to your TV via HDMI, and you've got one of the most flexible, easy-to-use interfaces around.

[Topspin]

Some DVDs are not protected at all, that means, you can directly copy the content to a directory on your computer and play these files with your preferred player (like VLC or Kodi).

Some DVDs may be copy protected. In this case it is probably illegal and impossible to copy the content to your computer. If you dont mind, you have to use a DVD-ripper to extract the movie. Again this may be illegal, depending where you are in the world. A good example of such a software is:

https://www.dvdfab.cn/resource/dvd/r...opy-protection

Regards,



-Richard

[sailcrazy]

I am a movie nut, really enjoy a good movie, and like to have a selection on our boat. Since we often cruise in areas where there is no TV, my movie collection is nice to have. I use a 3TB portable Hard Drive loaded full with movies. I use a program...1 Click DVD Copy 6... to copy the DVD to the computer, and then either burn a copy for my own storage or copy it to my HD. The software allows me to erase a movie I don't like/am sick of, or add movies to the HD until it's full. I also use another software program, ...Cyberlink Power DVD 18..., to watch a movie on my laptop. Note: both programs need to be purchased, but they're not expensive. And we bought a device a few years ago that allows me to plug my HD into it, and then it connects to our TV via HDME and allows me to watch the recorded movie on my (bigger screen) TV without going thru the laptop. No DVDs to store/get damaged, small to store, and works well. We've been using this system on board for the past several years.
I should note...the DVDs that I've copied to my HD are all DVDs that I've purchased and are in my home library. And they stay on my HD/are not sold/traded.
Also, I would be very interested in getting those "boat movie" settings for HANDBRAKE. I've never used that program, but since you have already sorted it out it would be good to have for future use. Thanks

[Davidhoy]

I went through this exact process when I moved aboard a couple of years ago. I bought a 4Tb USB hard drive (two actually, one as primary, the other as a backup exact copy). I used Handbrake, some free software, to rip my DVD collection to this drive, sorting into folders as best I could. I then bought a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (later upgraded to a Pi 4), and installed the Plex media server software on it. Plex scanned and cataloged the files on the hard drive, and allows me to stream movies to any device connected to the WiFi network on my boat. I then added a Fire TV Stick plugged into my 32" TV, installed the Plex client app on it, and can watch movies without squinting at a phone/tablet/laptop.

I also configured the Pi to act as a file server, so I can add movies wirelessly from my laptop.

All the software in the above setup is free, I only had to spend money on the Pi, USB drives, and the Fire TV Stick.

[neflier]

Originally Posted by Wideocean7

Neflier - you said that a TV with a USB port doesn't require an external player. Does this mean that once the DVD's are ripped to a hard drive, those DVD's can be played back on the TV via USB connection with not other software or hardware needed? I'm sure I'm missing something as that would be far too easy!

That is correct, my tv plays movies directly from the USB drive. It is considered another input, like HDMI, antenna, component, composite, etc. My tv calls it "Media". When you select Media, you browse the folders on the drive just like on a computer and when you select a movie, it plays. Yes, far too easy, especially with up to 500 movies on that little drive

You can search online to get an idea of how MakeMKV (Blu Rays) and Handbrake (DVDs and for compression) handle copy protection, as that is a whole other subject that I'm not getting into.