I think this has been covered, but I couldn't find any specific threads.

I own somewhere around 1100-1200 DVDs, all legally obtained and owned. I'm not looking to skirt any laws or anything, just a way to store them digitally and watch them in my home, or at least see if it's possible.

A very wealthy friend of mine (who works in the movie industry and knows his stuff) says that he's putting a media server in the new home he's building that can digitally store all of his DVDs and is having them output to all the rooms in his home, accessible through some kind of media hub (I forget the exact name). I'm pretty sure money isn't a hurdle for this guy, so he's not worried about space requirements or anything, but I've never heard of this even being an option at this point.

Is there currently a way to digitally store hundreds (thousands?) of DVDs legally? And if so, any ideas on what that would cost?

No. Not really.

There is the Sony 400 disc changer, and there is software than can control at least 3 of these at once.

I seem to remember something that was supposed to legally do this for over $20K, Kaleidoscope, maybe.

At an average of 5GB/movie, 1000 DVDs is roughly 5TB on hard drive. That's assuming you want full quality and leave out the extras. At current quality HDD prices , that's around a grand just for the space. You'll also need means to control them, which may mean a new computer, probably for another grand or two. Not too bad, really.

While your intent may not be to skirt any laws, you would be. I seem to remember the Kaleidoscope being in trouble. Oh wait I found this, but don't know if it is the final word (maybe the industry appealed)

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/29/1913251

The fact that you "legally" obtained the DVD's is meaningless. The "use" policy of DVD simply prevents it. Well doesn't prevent it, but prevents it from a legal standpoint.

The Kaleidoscope is what he was getting now that I hear it, 20k though?? Doesn't surprise me for him, but DAMN.

Do you know where you would find the software to control multiple Sony 400 DVD players? I actually have two of them now, didn't know there was any way to combine them.

And it is an issue when talking about it on the internet, but to actually DO it, well, it's no one's concern but the person looking to store them.

If I want to store all my CDs digitally, or DVDs which is as mentioned very expensive and problematic, I'd be more concerned about HOW to go about doing so, rather than get into some kind of ethical debate regarding if it SHOULD be done.

So if that's a problem, Google is there to help.

Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, the idea appeals to me in theory, but in practice I don't think it's worth it. Now BD has come along, and the storage requirements for those are probably an average of 25GB per movie. The disc changers are too expensive too, IMHO.

Disc changers also don't address a requirement I would have to make this worth it. If I have movies on a server, I want instant startup. That means when I select a title from the interface, the movie starts right away with no copyright screens or menu, so disc images would be out. Well, there would be a menu, but it wouldn't come up by default. The preferred audio track would be stored in a database and would already be selected, and it would have automatic bookmarking, so there wouldn't really be a need to go to the menu that often anyway (except maybe for supplements or alternate versions). Anything that has to be spread across two discs would be in one piece.

Escient is the control system, I know little about it past that. There are probably systems by the house control companies: Elan, Crestron, etc.

CD is a totally different situation. It is 100% legal to make yourself a digital copy of any CD. iTunes has become popular for this, you may have heard of it. Sonos would be another if you like to spend money.

The instant start is possible, but a shitload of work.

What you're talking about is something I'll have for myself in the future. What it will take, is editing every single movie yourself if you want those particulars of your movie (favorite audio track, instant movie intro, etc.).

Disc changers really aren't the way to go. You might as well experiment with a few hard drives on your own home server PC (which can be built for rather cheap--or even bought rather cheap if you're not particular about your components), and then go from there, expanding your movies as you buy another hard drive.

Your Blu-ray collection won't be as large as your DVD collection, so if you have the money, I'd even invest in an external upconverter. Run your movies through it, and you might be surprised.

True, this is a lot of money, but it's small steps which in the end, will be rather beneficial (and save you a lot of space) over time.

That's true for now, but that won't last. I'm not of those people who had 1000 or more DVDs; I had "only" about 450. I'm up to over 100 HDM titles now, and within a few years they should surpass the DVDs, since I remove the replacement titles from the DVD count.

I realize the instant start and preferred audio track selection would be difficult with existing media, but I was speaking hypothetically, as in, this is what I would want in a media server. I wasn't thinking of whether it would be easy to do now.

I wouldn't really want to remove the other audio tracks anyway, since I would want to keep the commentaries and sometimes alternate mixes. I would just want to set the default track for each title.