Ripping DVD to iPad and other devices

[Fairweather Pure]

I'm currently re-ripping my DVD collection at higher resolutions and bitrates to play on iPad. My new computer rips a 2 hour movie in 10 minutes so it's going really, really fast. By comparison, my old computer ripped movies in half the quality and took about 1.5 hours+ per 2 hour movie.

It took me FOREVER to track down the proper settings and a good ripper. I ripped the move "Sunshine" about 10 times with trial and error to get the best results for the iPad. So, to save others the trouble, I'll post my stats here.



I use DVDFab 8 as my ripper.

Settings (which can be used for various other rippers) are as follows:

Video:
Codec: H.264
Size: 720x whatever (this changes based on aspect ratio and your selected bitrate. Just pick 720xhighest out of the list of options)
Bitrate: 2500kbps
Frame rate: 30fps
Audio:
Codec: aac
Sample rate: 48khz
Bitrate: 160kbps
Channels: Stereo

File size per movie is around 2ish Gig. The above settings ensure your video look as good as a video download from Apple or a digital copy you get free with a DVD purchase or something like that. That was really my template and what I was trying to achieve as far as picture and sound quality. A digital DL is still about 3-400MB smaller than where my settings are right now, but I don't know where to "trim the fat" from my settings. (Most likely audio)

Just now, while surfing the Net for occult stuff and DLing creepy ebooks for my iPad, I've ripped a dozen movies.

There are free rippers out there like Handbreak, but that requires you to DL another 3rd party app to break the encryption before you can rip the movie. Handbreak also has a lengthy "prescan" that took about 15 minutes before it would even start burning.

I did some test rips and streamed to my iPad and TV at higher resolutions and those look great too, but not enough to justify the file size right now. I'll just *gasp* put the dvd in the player, haha.

DVDFab 8 has presets for pretty much every popular device. or you can just make your own.

[Boogahz]

Reminds me of the early-to-mid 90's when it took several hours to rip/process ONE song from a CD.


I have been wanting to do this for a while, and I have a few programs ready to test it on. I just found that I was streaming content during those times that I might have been watching a movie lately.

[Xatrei]

I don't care about quality of the video on portable devices nearly enough to go through that much trouble to dial things in to that degree. I just use VLC to transcode stuff to mp4 from DVD or other sources when I want to put some videos on my Nook Color. If I'm watching on one of the TV's or my desktop at the house, I just watch directly from the DVD image or whatever other video sources I already have on my media server.

On my PC, VLC can transcode 21 minute TV episodes (what I'm most likely to be watching on a portable) from DVD to 30fps 1024kb mp4 video with 160kb stereo audio in a few minutes and the quality is more than good enough for my 1024x600 display. Each episode ends up being around 175 MB. The default mp4 encoding settings for VLC produce files about half as good (and half the size), but still what I'd consider to be acceptable for watching on a portable device. Sure, it's not really future-proof, but I pretty much convert what I want as I need it, and don't keep them around forever, so if I need better quality in the future, it's no big deal to rip 'em again.

[Bubba Grizz]

I use DVD Fab 8 (or whichever is the lastest version) to rip my movies to my computer. I use VLC to view these movies. I hadn't found any other program that would let me watch them in the state they are in when they are on my computer.

Does VLC have the ability to convert these files to MP4? I didn't know that VLC could do more than just play stuff.

[Fairweather Pure]

I'm not sure Bubba. I only use VLC to view weird video files that only seem to play on VLC.



I'l throw this out there for everyone though. Send me an external drive and you can have everything I have. Just PM me.

Here is my DVD Profiler link (which I have not updated in awhile and is missing a shit ton of kid movies): http://www.invelos.com/DVDCollection.aspx/silleyeskimo

I'm doing movies first and will eventually move to my series, so those aren't available yet. You can pick and choose. I still have my iphone quality videos and that entire collection is only 220GB in size and has hundreds of movies including all the 007s, Firefly series, Strangers with Candy series, as well as American Dad 1-3 and South Park 1-6. (Not sure the last 2 are converted to iPhone yet, but they're in there!).

I really enjoy organizing and fiddling with my movie collection. Every time I start ripping again (officially my 4th time!), it's like discovering your collection all over again!

[Xatrei]

No, it can't do any video format conversion (transcoding), which is why I said that I use it to convert videos to mp4. Kidding... VLC does much more than play media, including transcoding various video and audio formats.

You can find tons of how-to info online, but the short version is:

• Advance Open File / Open Network / Open Disc / Capture Device and choose the source you want to convert. (with DVD discs or images as a source, you'll need to check "no DVD menus" from the dialog and figure out which title you wish to extract by trial and error - just play them until you figure them out before proceeding to the next step.)
• Click the down-arrow on the play button in the lower-right corner and choose "Stream"
• See that the full path to the source video you chose is listed as the source, then click "Next"
• Choose "File" and then click "add" from the destination box and provide a destination file name/location. Note: don't check "display locally" unless you want to watch the video while you convert it, which means it will take you the full run-time of the video to convert instead of just 5-10 minutes).
• Make sure "Activate Transcoding" is checked, and choose the output format profile you wish to convert to (you can edit existing output profiles or create new ones.
• Click stream and let VLC do its thing.

You can also use these steps to rip CD's or convert audio formats (e.g. flac to ogg), capture mp3 streams (I use this to automatically save a few radio talk shows that stream as MP3's to files that I can carry around on my phone and listen to whenever. One of my favorite bits is that you can do all of this from the command line and automate it to do some specific tasks, like saving the talk radio streams I mentioned. You may need to edit the output profiles to get the exact result you want, but this is a fast, free and "good enough" solution for 90% of this sort of thing that I might want to do.

[Xatrei]

Also, in my first post, I may have overstated the ease of getting these to work with the Nook Color. I've transcoded a ton of videos from DVD (and other sources) to .mp4 for other devices, and they've worked fine, but the Nook's video support is retarded picky, and some videos that seem to play fine abort 1/2 way through or begin to manifest other problems, or sometimes they work just fine. I hadn't realized this problem yet when I posted yesterday because I have only watched a handful of videos on that specific device so far, and didn't encounter any problems until last night while watching a ripped episode of Archer season 1. Since the support for video playback on other devices like the iPad is far better than on the NC, you shouldn't have to futz around with it too much (the default h.264 profile should work, though you may want to boost the frame rate and bit rate to your liking).

One other note about the profiles for VLC transcoding output - a 0 in the scale/width/height boxes on the video codec tab (when editing or creating a new profile) indicates that it will automatically detect the source size and use that for the output. You only need to provide one of these values and vlc will automatically determine the appropriate values for the other fields.

[Fairweather Pure]

VLC was also a very important tool that I used while fine tuning my video settings. Since it's possible to have multiple instances of VLC up and playing simultaneously, I could do side by side comparisons of video quality for the various bit rates and dimensions I was using during my initial trial rips. At one point I had 10 versions of the movie Sunshine open.

[Fairweather Pure]

I grabbed a 3T external on sale at Best Buy for 150$. Pretty nice deal IMO and frees up space on my other drives by letting me consolidate. 3T gives me plenty of room for this project.

DVDfab 8 is a great ripper. I'm able to rip movies that my other rippers could not due to copy protection. I've only had problems ripping 1 movie, which is a double feature of Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood. I've only tried once, but it ripped the movies and didn't dump them into their folder when it was finished. It may be the fact that it's a double feature. I don't own another one to test that theory, but I look forward to trying to figure it out later after I've ripped more stuff.

After ripping an insane amount of horror movies, I'm concentrating on kid movies for awhile. I have 20 Disney animated features stacked up next to me atm. After that, it's on to Pixar and the CGI Disney movies.

[Fairweather Pure]

So far, 242 movies are clocking in at 490 GB. Looks like the 3T drive was a great investment. I'll really be able to put the majority of my collection on there with room to grow.

[Winnow]

So far, 242 movies are clocking in at 490 GB. Looks like the 3T drive was a great investment. I'll really be able to put the majority of my collection on there with room to grow.

It's a good investment if you have it mirrored or back it up occasionally!

[Fairweather Pure]

I upped my Netflix DVD que to 3 out at a time. If I rip the movies when I receive them (I get my mail around noon), I can then drop them off at the mail at work (last pick up is at 4). In this way, I've gotten 9 movies a week max, 6 at a minimum. It's working out so well, I was considering bumping it up even further for the next month or two. I'm ripping goddamn everything!

[Canelek]

When I eventually get around to picking up a iPad, I may just take you up on that offer, sir!

[Fairweather Pure]

Currently at 366 movies @ 752 GB and growing!

[Winnow]

Currently at 366 movies @ 752 GB and growing!

Are you mirroring your hard drive or are you just going to do it all over again if your hard drive crashes?

[Fairweather Pure]

I have 3 friends that have my entire movie collections. If something should happen to my HD, I would just buy a new drive and copy my collection again.

[Winnow]

I have 3 leeches that have my entire movie collections. If something should happen to my HD, I would just buy a new drive and copy my collection again.

Nice. Offsite backups.

[Fairweather Pure]

I'm also fully aware that I'll very likely be ripping the collection agin in 3-5 years at an even higher quality, likely for the last time.

[Canelek]

Offsite backups are the shit! That is why I share also...well, not financial stuff, but movies/music, sure!

[Fairweather Pure]

983 GB with 476 files and growing. It looks like my 3T HD will hold about 1428 movies. I think I'll get an extra external just for TV shows when the time comes. Well, I have a spare 1.5 TB around here somewhere. I have yet to try any TV shows, so it will be interesting to see how this software handles multiple episodes on one disc. I have decided that the Simpsons will be the first collection I rip. I have 14 seasons on DVD. That will give me a good start to learning the best way to organize all of my other TV shows.

I think I'll do it like this:

S1E1-Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire
S1E2-Bart The Genius
Ect.

I'll leave out all the disc # nonsense. This way, it should be easy enough to find episodes based on season, and also by searching for the name. All episodes will be kept in a single Simpsons folder.

I also decided to rip my foreign movies with English dubs when available, which was not an easy decision to make! I'm all caught up to current with every single movie having a movie poster for it's cover. Xbox shows the cover when looking through the files to stream, so it looks nice and finished when searching through my collection. I think I'm going to move all my kid's movies to a separate folder too. They can scroll through the movies on the iPad and Xbox with no problems, but I'm kind of worried about them clicking on a horror movie by accident since I have so many.

One day physical media will be a thing of the past so getting something to rip later will be much harder (especially rare movies!). Even Netflix wants to dump physical media ASAP. Get movies while you can!

[Winnow]

I think I'll do it like this:

S1E1-Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire
S1E2-Bart The Genius
Ect.

The standard is S01E01, so can have up to 99 seasons as long as there's not more than 99 episodes in a single season.

You're numbering scheme is going to get screwed up with season 10 if you only use one digit to start with for seasons.

[Winnow]

Sources

CAM
A cam is a theater rip usually done with a digital video camera. A mini tripod is sometimes used, but a lot of the time this wont be possible, so the camera make shake. Also seating placement isn't always idle, and it might be filmed from an angle. If cropped properly, this is hard to tell unless there's text on the screen, but a lot of times these are left with triangular borders on the top and bottom of the screen. Sound is taken from the onboard microphone of the camera, and especially in comedies, laughter can often be heard during the film. Due to these factors picture and sound quality are usually quite poor, but sometimes we're lucky, and the theater will be fairly empty and a fairly clear signal will be heard.


TELESYNC (TS)
A telesync is the same spec as a CAM except it uses an external audio source (most likely an audio jack in the chair for hard of hearing people). A direct audio source does not ensure a good quality audio source, as a lot of background noise can interfere. A lot of the times a telesync is filmed in an empty cinema or from the projection booth with a professional camera, giving a better picture quality. Quality ranges drastically, check the sample before downloading the full release. A high percentage of Telesyncs are CAMs that have been mislabeled.


TELECINE (TC)
A telecine machine copies the film digitally from the reels. Sound and picture should be very good, but due to the equipment involved and cost telecines are fairly uncommon. Generally the film will be in correct aspect ratio, although 4:3 telecines have existed. A great example is the JURASSIC PARK 3 TC done last year. TC should not be confused with TimeCode , which is a visible counter on screen throughout the film.


SCREENER (SCR)
A pre VHS tape, sent to rental stores, and various other places for promotional use. A screener is supplied on a VHS tape, and is usually in a 4:3 (full screen) a/r, although letterboxed screeners are sometimes found. The main draw back is a "ticker" (a message that scrolls past at the bottom of the screen, with the copyright and anti-copy telephone number). Also, if the tape contains any serial numbers, or any other markings that could lead to the source of the tape, these will have to be blocked, usually with a black mark over the section. This is sometimes only for a few seconds, but unfortunately on some copies this will last for the entire film, and some can be quite big. Depending on the equipment used, screener quality can range from excellent if done from a MASTER copy, to very poor if done on an old VHS recorder thru poor capture equipment on a copied tape. Most screeners are transferred to VCD, but a few attempts at SVCD have occurred, some looking better than others.


DVD-SCREENER (DVDscr)
Same premise as a screener, but transferred off a DVD. Usually letterbox , but without the extras that a DVD retail would contain. The ticker is not usually in the black bars, and will disrupt the viewing. If the ripper has any skill, a DVDscr should be very good. Usually transferred to SVCD or DivX/XviD.


DVDRip
A copy of the final released DVD. If possible this is released PRE retail (for example, Star Wars episode 2) again, should be excellent quality. DVDrips are released in SVCD and DivX/XviD.


VHSRip
Transferred off a retail VHS, mainly skating/sports videos and XXX releases.


(HD)TVRip
TV episode that is either from Network (capped using digital cable/satellite boxes are preferable) or PRE-AIR from satellite feeds sending the program around to networks a few days earlier (do not contain "dogs" but sometimes have flickers etc) Some programs such as WWF Raw Is War contain extra parts, and the "dark matches" and camera/commentary tests are included on the rips. PDTV is capped from a digital TV PCI card, generally giving the best results, and groups tend to release in SVCD for these. VCD/SVCD/DivX/XviD rips are all supported by the TV scene.

TVRip (analog), DSRip (Digital Satellite), PDTV (Pure Digital), HDTV (High Definition), HR.HDTV (High Resolution High Definition), 720p HDTV (High Definition - 1280x720 resolution)

DDC
Digital Distribution Copy is a version of a movie that has been obtained from a Downloadable movie site such as Netflix and others.

PPV
Pay Per View, this is where the movie is capped(captured with Digital Recording Equipment) from Hotels and other Organisations which provide a PPV television service.


WORKPRINT (WP)
A workprint is a copy of the film that has not been finished. It can be missing scenes, music, and quality can range from excellent to very poor. Some WPs are very different from the final print (Men In Black is missing all the aliens, and has actors in their places) and others can contain extra scenes (Jay and Silent Bob) . WPs can be nice additions to the collection once a good quality final has been obtained.


DivX Re-Enc
A DivX re-enc is a film that has been taken from its original VCD source, and re-encoded into a small DivX file. Most commonly found on file sharers, these are usually labeled something like Film.Name.Group(1of2) etc. Common groups are SMR and TND. These aren't really worth downloading, unless you're that unsure about a film u only want a 200mb copy of it. Generally avoid.


Watermarks
A lot of films come from Asian Silvers/PDVD (see below) and these are tagged by the people responsible. Usually with a letter/initials or a little logo, generally in one of the corners. Most famous are the "Z" "A" and "Globe" watermarks.


Asian Silvers / PDVD
These are films put out by eastern bootleggers, and these are usually bought by some groups to put out as their own. Silvers are very cheap and easily available.


R5
R5 refers to a specific format of DVD released in DVD Region 5, the former Soviet Union, and bootlegged copies of these releases that are distributed on the Internet. In an effort to compete with movie piracy, the movie industry chose to create a new format for DVD releases that could be produced more quickly and less expensively than traditional DVD releases. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing common on DVD releases, and without any special features. This allows the film to be released for sale at the same time that DVD Screeners are released. Since DVD Screeners are the chief source of high-quality pirated movies, this allows the movie studios to beat the pirates to market. In some cases, R5 DVDs may be released without an English audio track, requiring pirates to use the direct line audio from the film's theatrical release. In this case, the pirated release is tagged with ".LINE" to distinguish it from a release with a DVD audio track.

The image quality of an R5 release is generally comparable to a DVD Screener release, except without the added scrolling text and black and white scenes that serve to distinguish screeners from commercial DVD releases. The quality is better than Telecine transfers produced by movie pirates because the transfer is performed usingprofessional-grade film scanning equipment.

Because there is no scene release standard for pirated R5 releases, they were variably tagged as Telecines, DVD Screeners, or even DVD rips. In late 2006, several release groups such as DREAMLiGHT, mVs, and PUKKA began tagging R5 releases with ".R5" or r5 line (the line meaning it has direct english line audio) and suggesting that other groups do the same.


Formats


VCD
VCD is an mpeg1 based format, with a constant bitrate of 1150kbit at a resolution of 352x240 (NTCS). VCDs are generally used for lower quality transfers (CAM/TS/TC/Screener(VHS)/TVrip(analogue) in order to make smaller file sizes, and fit as much on a single disc as possible. Both VCDs and SVCDs are timed in minutes, rather than MB, so when looking at an mpeg, it may appear larger than the disc capacity, and in reality u can fit 74min on a CDR74.


SVCD
SVCD is an mpeg2 based (same as DVD) which allows variable bit-rates of up to 2500kbits at a resolution of 480x480 (NTSC) which is then decompressed into a 4:3 aspect ratio when played back. Due to the variable bit-rate, the length you can fit on a single CDR is not fixed, but generally between 35-60 Mins are the most common. To get a better SVCD encode using variable bit-rates, it is important to use multiple "passes". this takes a lot longer, but the results are far clearer.


XVCD/XSVCD
These are basically VCD/SVCD that don't obey the "rules". They are both capable of much higher resolutions and bit-rates, but it all depends on the player to whether the disc can be played. X(S)VCD are total non-standards, and are usually for home-ripping by people who don't intend to release them.


DivX / XviD
XviD & DivX are the most commonly used codecs for encoding movies. DivX used to be the most popular, until it went from open source to a corporation that bought the rights & started charging for it (although the crack can easily be obtained for the DivX encoder, most people have switched to XviD, not only because it is open source, but also because it is superior in many ways). In the last year or so, many stand-alone DVD players have been released that are capable of playing DivX/XviD movies (even on CDRs), which has made this the most popular form of encoding. The majority of XviD/DivX rips are taken from DVDs, and are generally in as good quality as possible that can fit on one 700MB CDR disc, which is why most XviD/DivX movies are almost exactly 700MB, so they can be burnt onto a CDR & played in these new DVD players (which can be purchased just about anywhere for as little as $30-$40 USD). Various codecs exist, the most popular at the moment being the new XviD 1.2 codec. DivX encoded movies will definitely play on these new DVD players, & it only takes a little simple tweaking by the ripper to ensure XviDs will play on them as well, but it is therefore not guaranteed. (If you want to learn more about XviD/DivX encoding so you can make your own DVDrips, just visit doom9.org)


x264
x264 is a free software library for encoding H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video streams. (More to come.)


CVD
CVD is a combination of VCD and SVCD formats, and is generally supported by a majority of DVD players. It supports MPEG2 bit-rates of SVCD, but uses a resolution of 352x480(ntsc) as the horizontal resolution is generally less important. Currently no groups release in CVD.


DVDR
Is the recordable DVD solution that seems to be the most popular (out of DVD-RAM, DVD-R and DVD+R). it holds 4.7gb of data per side, and double sided discs are available, so discs can hold nearly 10gb in some circumstances. SVCD mpeg2 images must be converted before they can be burnt to DVD-R and played successfully. DVD>DVDR copies are possible, but sometimes extras/languages have to be removed to stick within the available 4.7gb.


MiniDVD
MiniDVD/cDVD is the same format as DVD but on a standard CDR/CDRW. Because of the high resolution/bit-rates, its only possible to fit about 18-21 mins of footage per disc, and the format is only compatible with a few players.



Scene Tags


PROPER
Due to scene rules, whoever releases the first Telesync has won that race (for example). But if the quality of that release is fairly poor, if another group has another telesync (or the same source in higher quality) then the tag PROPER is added to the folder to avoid being duped. PROPER is the most subjective tag in the scene, and a lot of people will generally argue whether the PROPER is better than the original release. A lot of groups release PROPERS just out of desperation due to losing the race. A reason for the PROPER should always be included in the NFO.


SUBBED
In the case of a VCD, if a release is subbed, it usually means it has hard encoded subtitles burnt throughout the movie. These are generally in malaysian/chinese/thai etc, and sometimes there are two different languages, which can take up quite a large amount of the screen. SVCD supports switch able subtitles, so some DVDRips are released with switch able subs. This will be mentioned in the NFO file if included.


UNSUBBED
When a film has had a subbed release in the past, an Unsubbed release may be released


LIMITED
A limited movie means it has had a limited theater run, generally opening in less than 250 theaters, generally smaller films (such as art house films) are released as limited.


INTERNAL
An internal release is done for several reasons. Classic DVD groups do a lot of .INTERNAL. releases, as they wont be dupe'd on it. Also lower quality theater rips are done INTERNAL so not to lower the reputation of the group, or due to the amount of rips done already. An INTERNAL release is available as normal on the groups affiliate sites, but they can't be traded to other sites without request from the site ops. Some INTERNAL releases still trickle down to IRC/Newsgroups, it usually depends on the title and the popularity. Earlier in the year people referred to Centropy going "internal". This meant the group were only releasing the movies to their members and site ops. This is in a different context to the usual definition.


STV
Straight To Video. Was never released in theaters, and therefore a lot of sites do not allow these.


ASPECT RATIO TAGS
These are *WS* for widescreen (letterbox) and *FS* for Fullscreen.


RECODE
A recode is a previously released version, usually filtered through TMPGenc to remove subtitles, fix color etc. Whilst they can look better, its not looked upon highly as groups are expected to obtain their own sources.


REPACK
If a group releases a bad rip, they will release a Repack which will fix the problems.


NUKED
A film can be nuked for various reasons. Individual sites will nuke for breaking their rules (such as "No Telesyncs") but if the film has something extremely wrong with it (no soundtrack for 20mins, CD2 is incorrect film/game etc) then a global nuke will occur, and people trading it across sites will lose their credits. Nuked films can still reach other sources such as p2p/usenet, but its a good idea to check why it was nuked first in case. If a group realise there is something wrong, they can request a nuke.

NUKE REASONS :: this is a list of common reasons a film can be nuked for (generally DVDRip)

** BAD A/R ** :: bad aspect ratio, ie people appear too fat/thin
** BAD IVTC ** :: bad inverse telecine. process of converting framerates was incorrect.
** INTERLACED ** :: black lines on movement as the field order is incorrect.

This is a guide for Canadians, that can't get shows like Star Trek legally, so they know what to download off newsgroups and torrent sites.

[Fairweather Pure]

I copied the movies of several of my friends this weekend. I now have over 1000 movies and my files are backed up in 5 different offsite places. It takes a long time to transfer 2.5 TB of data!

I'm taking a little break from ripping. In a week or two, I'll start working on my various TV series.

[Fairweather Pure]

I just finished ripping about 120 movies from my dad that I didn't already own. Lots of Godzilla movies, westerns, kung fu, and war movies that I otherwise would not have owned. Actually, the majority of the western movies were already in my Netflix list. Now I can clear that space for other movies! I think he had almost every Clint Eastwood movie, which is great! He had an amazing assortment of "lesser" movies that I'm happy to now own. Movies like "Dude, Where's My Car?", "Strange Brew", "Ghost", and loads of 80's action movies and comedies. The only downside is that he has a lot of fullscreen movies. Not many, about a dozen or so, but still... On the plus side, he had 2 movies that were remastered and had much better picture quality than my original releases (The Thing and Christmas Vacation), so I re-ripped those and replaced my old versions.

I should finish copying these by tomorrow. Then I'm copying all the new additions to my friend's HD and shipping it back to him in New York. He and I have agreed to exchange a HD every 6 months or so to share our collections (and to act as off site back-ups!).

[Aabidano]

Ever rip\transcode anything with subtitles? Having trouble getting a usable version of The Seventh Seal made w\subtitles

[Fairweather Pure]

Yes. The DVDFab interface is really simple. As a matter of fact, my only real annoyance is that subtitles are clicked "on" by default. I have to uncheck that box every rip. It also has language options, which default to English. As I mentioned previously, I decided to rip all of my foreign language movies with English dubs if I had the option.

I have the 7th Seal on DVD (and ripped too!). I'll check later and see if it even has subtitles as an option. A surprising amount of movies do not even have that feature!

[Fairweather Pure]

I've started down the road of ripping all of my Simpson DVDs. I have seasons 1-14 and season 20 (they released them out of order like idiots). I think that is around 330ish episodes total, or 7,590 minutes, or 126 hrs, or 5.27 days worth of nothing but Simpsons. It takes about 3.5 minutes to rip a 23 minute cartoon, so around 15ish minutes for a disc with 6 episodes on it. Then I have to name and move each episode. Each episode is just shy of a GB. This is quite an undertaking!

I'll be ripping all of my Tales From the Crypt DVDs next and probably Seinfeld after that!

[Fairweather Pure]

I'm now beginning the process of selling off my DVD collection. It's not easy for me to do. I love my collection. However, I said the same thing when I ripped and sold all my CDs over a decade ago and I never actually missed them. I still own them after all.

My wife is selling them through Amazon trade ins and taking them to stores and pawn shops. I'm averaging about 1.33$ each with the real surprise coming from what is selling and what is not. Some sell for .25 and my most expensive has gone for 20$ (Night of the Creeps!). I just told her to put all the money in the joint savings. By the time I have absolutely everything ripped and sold, we should have a good amount of money saved up. I own about 1,100 movies and around 100 series. I haven't sold any of the TV series yet. I imagine those will get more money on average. It's a drop in the bucket when you count how much I spent over the past 12 years, but like I said, I still own em

My Blu Ray collection is around 60 movies. I am only double dipping on sale items (like Kill Bill 1 and 2 for 5$ each!) and I am really going to limit what I rebuy. I may and up with around 120 or so and then it's only new movies from there, likely on sale as well.

[Winnow]

I'm now beginning the process of selling off my DVD collection. It's not easy for me to do. I love my collection. However, I said the same thing when I ripped and sold all my CDs over a decade ago and I never actually missed them. I still own them after all.

Sell them all! Movies are no big deal, they really don't increase in value for the most part and for convenience, having them digitally on a sever is much more convenient than physical media.

I do regret selling my comic book collection sometimes. I bought Avengers #1 for $117.00 when I was 13 years old (saved up for it!) The comic store owner took pity on me. He was asking 125.00 but all I had was 117.00. As a kid, it was a really happy day, riding home, staring at my prized possession. It sold recently for $250,000.00 (mine wasn't the highest grade so would have sold for less but still a boatload more than I paid)

oops!

I bought Giant Sized X-Men for $60.00 (prestine copy, would have rated out at 9.8 CGC Certification). It sold recently for $8,800.00. I had plenty of others, the most valuable stored in mylar study sheets with acid free boards.

Other than missing out on the value of the books, I can read any of those digitally on my iPad any time I want and don't have tons of comic long boxes all over the place.

So what did I sell my collection for? I bought a $1,500 Sony Camcorder in the 80's. I ended up filming some of my college years, friends, parties, etc. In the long run, those memories are more precious than comics...well maybe not $250K precious! Nowadays you can do what I did using your phone's camera. Also, my 8mm cassette tapes might be so far gone I can't transfer them 20-25+ years later.

[Bubba Grizz]

I put most my dvd's up for sale at our rummage for $3 each or 5 for $10 and sold most of them. Some guy offered $20 for the whole box (about 40 dvds in that box) and I told him flat out he was on crack. Shocked my mother in law. He bought 10 dvds though. After the rummage I took the remainder to one of those buy and sell cd/dvd/games places and got about $80 for the rest. I still have about 20 actual disks left and about 3-4 TB of movies. I'm finding myself wondering why the hell I need to collect these movies. I don't have an answer.

[Fairweather Pure]

Not sure I can part with this!

[Aabidano]

I'm finding myself wondering why the hell I need to collect these movies. I don't have an answer.

A big pile of DVDs you'll never watch again has some emotional attachment I suppose, I don't have many so the storage space is trivial.

After a long disagreement with the wife I binned our VHS player. Almost none of the tapes we have actually worked at that stage and it's very unlikely the remainder would ever get watched again. This isn't high art, it's 80s and 90s kids movies, any of which we can pop up on Netflix or buy via Amazon at a moments notice for next to nothing.

A digital "collection" of anything you aren't ever going use again (or even once) seems a bit silly to me but whatever floats your boat

[Boogahz]

Don't they have TV shows for doing stuff like that? hoarders!

[Lynks]

Funny, I just recently brought my DVD collection from 300+ to 100. I don't buy anymore ever since I got a PVR + all the movie channels my dish provides. I'll only buy disney/kid movies and the really really good action ones that I can watch 100 times.

[Aabidano]

Don't they have TV shows for doing stuff like that? hoarders!

My grandfather had an entire barn turned into storage space/workshop. Amazing amount of really cool stuff in there.

Likely a good thing granny went off the deep end and sold everything without telling anyone. (Then disappeared for 6 months). I'd have loved his O gauge train collection but it would've taken a medium size truck to move it all and I've no place to put it.