Question about Movie/Music Storage

[Pwndenburg]

This is the closest forum I can think to ask this question in. I was wanting someone to recommend a service that I could legally purchase movies and/or music from that would allow local storage on my own drive(s). I believe itunes actually does it, but frankly I'm irrationally against apple for some reason. I won't even attempt to justify it. Just looking for an alternative. Any recommendations?

 

[Sabrewings]

Google Play allows local storage, I believe.

Edit: Hmm, looks like that works on mobile devices only. I couldn't figure out how to make it store locally on my desktop.

 

[smitbret]

This is the closest forum I can think to ask this question in. I was wanting someone to recommend a service that I could legally purchase movies and/or music from that would allow local storage on my own drive(s). I believe itunes actually does it, but frankly I'm irrationally against apple for some reason. I won't even attempt to justify it. Just looking for an alternative. Any recommendations?

Vudu does, but you have to download it to each device. You can't download it to your desktop and then copy it over to another PC or tablet.

I thought about going this route for awhile but it really doesn't cost less than just buying the Blu-Ray and then ripping it.

 

[Pwndenburg]

Thank you both for taking the time to respond to my question.

 

[Annisman*]

I rip all my blu rays and DVD's to .MKV files with MakeMKV, imo this is your best way to go.

 

[Mark_Venture]

This is the closest forum I can think to ask this question in. I was wanting someone to recommend a service that I could legally purchase movies and/or music from that would allow local storage on my own drive(s). I believe itunes actually does it, but frankly I'm irrationally against apple for some reason. I won't even attempt to justify it. Just looking for an alternative. Any recommendations?

One thing to keep in mind... any service you can PURCHASE movies from will include some form of DRM.

DRM will limit your play back abilities. i.e. device you download it to and play it on will have to be authorized. You can't say.. download from Vudu to your PC, then copy the file to another device to play it back. So like I redeem all my Ultraviolet copies through Vudu, and can download the files to my PC, but can't play them back on my Amazon Fire TV (even using an app like Plex or Kodi/XMBC), and I can't copy them directly to my iPad or phone as the DRM gets in the way.

As Annisman mention, buying the DVD or Bluray and ripping is a good option.. however, you have to circumvent CopyProtection/DRM to do so. There are rippers and programs out there to do this, as well as shrink them (re-compress to make them take up less space). If you do that, then you can copy the files to other PC's or devices without worrying about the DRM/Copy Protection.

When it comes to music, if you purchase MP3 copies of songs, they wont have DRM/CopyProtection, so you can copy/move them around easily. But format/drm/copyprotection depends on the seller.

 

[larryccf]

as Annisman mentioned, MakeMKV will allow you to circumvent the DRM (Digital Rights Managment) or copyright controls on blu-ray or dvd disks.

I use it and like it - do not fall into the trap of buying DVDFAB - it is the biggest crapware fraud - it will work, but never work consistently, with 3 updates to correct one issue and introducing 2-3 new issues. And don't get me started on their business model of charging for another pc of crapware that will allow you to do something you'd expect to be able to do with the crapware you just paid for. Go to amazon and read the reviews on DVDFab. I bought it, spent the bare minimum of $120 to be able to rip DVDs and BDs, and kept hoping it would straighten out - i threw it out, with the distinct impression whoever wrote that software had simply learned enough to rip off someone else's software but not enough on how to make it work. I kid not

there's other software, BD Clown and AnyDVD that i've been meaning to check out but between MakeMKV and Audials One, i've been happy. MakeMKV has a full use 30 day free trial before you purchase.

i also use Handbrake to reduce my file size - when i copy a Blu-ray, the actual movie file can be anywhere from 15 to 38 GB - compressing to mp4.H264 i can reduce it down to 7 to 15 GB with no noticeable quality loss.

For copying streaming video, Audials will allow you to copy whatever is playing onscreen, and has worked well for me for copying Comcast, netflix etc

One warning - it is legal for you to keep a copy of a movie you have rented or viewed on your computer, for archive or library purposes for your own use. DO NOT MAKE COPIES to send out to your friends etc - there is software code hidden in the recording that will identify who copied it, and distribution is extremely verboten.

With Audials i can generate 1916 x 1080 copies of whatever i'm viewing - problem is Netflix, comcast etc don't always generate 1080 video streams. And Audials is not as consistent in performance - occasionally i get "hiccups" in use, ie it will unexplainably quit copying a movie 1-10 minutes into the movie, and will do that 2-3 times in a row, until the 4th attempt will be successful, ie a complete un-interrupted copy of the movie.


and just remembered, there's another software program available for streaming videos called either PlayOn or PlayLater - but only offers a free trail version that allows a few minutes of video copying per movie - that was a turn off to me so i never went further.
fwiw

 

[OlyAR15]

Personally, I use iTunes Store to purchase my movies. They do come with DRM, although there is a way to circumvent it.

 

[Dave3000]

I rip all my blu rays and DVD's to .MKV files with MakeMKV, imo this is your best way to go.

I used to do this with my blu-rays but it sometimes got complicated because of multiple duplicate playlists showing up in Makemkv for a few blu-rays and subtitles can sometimes get tricky and sometimes require additional steps. A few months ago I started buying digital UV codes off websites and off a forum, buying movies from Vudu that were on sale, and D2D'ing some of my blu-rays and a few DVDs, in addition to redeeming the UV codes that came with the blu-rays. I deleted most of my Blu-ray rips from my 6TB hard drive and mainly use it as a game drive now. I now only keep the rips that I could not D2D on Vudu, don't own that movie on Vudu, or there is only SD version on Vudu for a particular movie that I won't bother D2D'ing until there is an HDX version, and just use Plex on my Roku or Kodi on my PC to play those rips if I ever want to. With my movies on a digital service such as Vudu, I don't have to worry about losing my movies on Vudu due to hard drive failure and reripping them, buying hard drives especially buying more hard drives when I need more capacity, wondering if I selected the correct playlist in Makemkv, or wondering if I selected the correct subtitle to be the forced subtitle with another tool.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I'd like to collect solid blu-ray DVDs as a movie fan.

Used to do that as well, but has since changed my mind. Still have two full shelves double/tripple stacked with DVDs, HDDVDs, and Blurays. It's nice to look at, but it takes up too much space, the ads/previews are too annoying, and realistically speaking, unless it's a rare exception (Predator) I don't watch most of those movies more than twice so the discs are just collecting dust. Having every movie at the tip of your finger in digital medium on your local file server is just sooooo much more convenient.

 

[larryccf]

.........It's nice to look at, but it takes up too much space, the ads/previews are too annoying, and realistically speaking, unless it's a rare exception (Predator) I don't watch most of those movies more than twice so the discs are just collecting dust. Having every movie at the tip of your finger in digital medium on your local file server is just sooooo much more convenient.

DING DING DING - man wins a cigar

i actually built a custom cabinet and filled it, before realizing it was sooooo much easier to store them on HDDs

 

[phillyman36]

DING DING DING - man wins a cigar

i actually built a custom cabinet and filled it, before realizing it was sooooo much easier to store them on HDDs

lol I know what you mean. When I started collecting dvds I brought a 30 disk shelf from best buy. When I got past 30 dvds I went to a 150 dvd shelf, then to almost 300. That got tiresome really quick. Now they are stored on my NAS. Ripped to my Nas and put in a box.

There was once instance were a movie seemed to disappear of my NAS and it took a long time for me to find it in the boxes I have.

 

[Dave3000]

Ripping a blu-ray to a hard drive does not solve the clutter caused by physical storage of 100s of blu-rays. You still have to find a place to store the blu-rays even if you won't watch directly from the disc anymore. So in my opinion reducing physical clutter is not one of the advantages of ripping blu-rays to the hard drive.

 

[larryccf]

deleted - sorry - mis-post

 

[rchunter]

Ripping a blu-ray to a hard drive does not solve the clutter caused by physical storage of 100s of blu-rays. You still have to find a place to store the blu-rays even if you won't watch directly from the disc anymore. So in my opinion reducing physical clutter is not one of the advantages of ripping blu-rays to the hard drive.

Even if you do keep the originals at least you don't need to have stacks and stacks of them right in your living room. Once you get them all ripped you can keep them up in the attic or garage or something. When you're talking hundreds of discs it's a big deal. I used to have a fancy custom cabinet also to hold all my disks. Ended up getting rid of it. Bought a server rack.

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 4TB hard drive WD would be good.

 

[jkauff]

I'm probably legally obligated to keep the original disc once I've made my copy, but I don't. Selling the disc is definitely illegal so I give them away to my local library. If I ever need to re-rip a disc, I can just borrow it from them.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Ripping a blu-ray to a hard drive does not solve the clutter caused by physical storage of 100s of blu-rays. You still have to find a place to store the blu-rays even if you won't watch directly from the disc anymore. So in my opinion reducing physical clutter is not one of the advantages of ripping blu-rays to the hard drive.

+100 agree. The single biggest advantage is the convenience of having all the movies in one location ready to be watched.

 

[queequeg99]

Google Play allows local storage, I believe.

Edit: Hmm, looks like that works on mobile devices only. I couldn't figure out how to make it store locally on my desktop.

You can download music to a local location on a PC an album at a time or a song at a time (but apparently not by artist, genre, playlist, etc.). Just click on the three little dots on the right side of the icon for whatever album you're interesting in and you'll get a pulldown menu with some context appropriate options (add album to queue, add album to playlist, edit album, download album). If you select the download option, you'll be prompted to select a local folder for storage.

From what I've read online, there are limits on the number of times this can be done (not sure if that's per song or per PC or whatever). But I believe this limit does not apply to mobile devices.

EDIT: Here's a screen shot of what I'm talking about. The three little dots are not shown in this picture because they don't pop up until you hover the cursor within the album info section (in the right portion of the rectangle in which the album title and number of songs is listed).

 

[mw8t]

Dave3000 works for the movie industry LOL

 

[KingFatty]

I'm probably legally obligated to keep the original disc once I've made my copy, but I don't. Selling the disc is definitely illegal so I give them away to my local library. If I ever need to re-rip a disc, I can just borrow it from them.

I thought you could sell a tangible CD, or DVD, or Blu-ray, similar to how you can sell a book or photograph? I don't think it's illegal to sell your physical disc.

As for making a copy of your disc, I think that's likely illegal, or violates the terms of the license agreement for the media itself. Even if it's an archival copy.

 

[Dave3000]

Dave3000 works for the movie industry LOL

No.

 

[mw8t]

No.

Yes

And when I say movie industry I mean u sell blu rays at local supermarket

 

[Mike64]

I thought you could sell a tangible CD, or DVD, or Blu-ray, similar to how you can sell a book or photograph? I don't think it's illegal to sell your physical disc.

You can sell (or give away, lend, etc.) the original (purchased) disc.

As for making a copy of your disc, I think that's likely illegal, or violates the terms of the license agreement for the media itself. Even if it's an archival copy.

No, it's legal in the US, anyway. (Well, strictly speaking I'm not sure about making a physical copy (disc-to-disc), but it is, for example, perfectly legal to rip CDs you personally own to a hard drive and copy it to your MP3-player-of-choice.) I assume, without having researched the specific question, that it's not legal to keep, or at least use, the copy if you sell the original though. Strictly speaking, you're probably not supposed to even listen to an archival copy if you've lent someone else the physical disc either. Obviously enforcement of either of those two latter situations is more or less impossible, at least on the individual-use level. (I assume, again without knowing for sure, that if you actually dispose of/destroy the original disc, you may keep and continue to use the copy.)

It's not legal to rip your friends' CDs for your use, nor ones you borrow from a library, etc...

I don't know what the deal is elsewhere in the world. Over the past couple of years, the UK has done some extreme legal flip-flopping with respect to the legality of ripping your own CDs but I'm not sure which side landed "up," so to speak, the last time around. (Originally it was illegal, then I believe it was legal for a little while at least, then I think it became illegal again. But at that point I got vertigo and stop paying attention.)

 

[jkauff]

It's legal to make a backup copy, but the movie industry goes to great lengths to make that difficult or impossible to do through the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. Impeding my legal right to make a copy should be illegal, but there's no way Congress (which gets a lot of money from the movie industry) would pass such a law.

MakeMKV can circumvent most DRM schemes and is free (while it's in beta), but it can't copy the disc file structure. AnyDVD HD is constantly updated to defeat the latest DRM technologies and can make a perfect DRM-fee backup, but it's on the expensive side. I bought a lifetime subscription and it was money well-spent (and less expensive than updating PowerDVD every year).

To the OP: AnyDVD HD has a free trial. Give it a try.