Topic: Best options for a digital movie library?

[W7RE]

I've been wondering about this for a long time. I haven't bought a movie in years. I don't have any Blu-rays, don't own anything digitally, and have a box of DVDs... somewhere. I'd like to just skip Bru-ray and go straight to digital, but everything seems so spread all over the place, I guess I've been waiting for something I know I'll have as much access to as possible.

I guess the one way to guarantee you wouldn't lose anything would be to just buy movies, rip to a hard drive and encode them. The problem there is that you have to know how to do it, you have to take the time to do it for each and every movie you buy, and the hard drive usage would stack up eventually. I wouldn't mind using an account type service that lets me stream my movies, but is there anything comprehensive enough to have anything I'd want, and stable enough to not worry about losing it or not being able to access it? I don't just mean the worry of a service dying out, but also, will my Xbox 360 stream it? What about PS4/XB1? Other devices?

I guess this is on my mind again now because I'm probably getting a new console in a few months, and it will be my first Blu-ray player. (lol yea, I've yet to own one) I've watched them with others before, and the commercial/trailer situation is just as bad as as it ever was on DVD. If going digital allows me to bypass that bullshit, and gives the convenience of not needing a shelf to store it all, it seems worth it. I don't know what services to trust though.

[Cobra951]

One issue is getting all your movies in a good digital format.  The other is how to get them from digital storage to your TV/media center.  I think nothing beats a reasonable PC with HDMI output, and a huge HDD, coupled with a modern TV/monitor capable of handling PC input at its display panel's native resolution.  That would allow you to have movies encoded in a variety of formats and resolutions, and still have the capability of displaying them with the best possible quality.  VLC is what I use as a player.  It seems to handle everything, and it's extremely versatile, allowing things such as aspect-ratio fixes and resynchronizing the sound to the picture.  To add more space, you could use external HDDs.  I like the idea of enclosures or docking bays for internal SATA drives, rather than prefab externals like WD MyBooks.  Those things tend to give up the ghost too often, and the latest ones can't even be salvaged out of their enclosures because they're encrypted (for the very purpose of preventing this sort of salvage).

As for how to get the movies from your collection to digital format, sure, you could rip them with a number of tools.  Or (and I realize this is contentious) you could find torrents of good rips of movies you already own.  Movies are now routinely released in HD and multi-channel sound on bittorrent.  That would save you the encoding hassle on all but the most unpopular movies, those which no one bothers to release.

And don't forget backups if you want longterm peace of mind. 

[Xessive]

If you've got multiple PCs or media devices and you're basically going to be streaming to yourself I would recommend going for a network hard drive. AS Cobra mentioned, the external HDDs are a great idea and given network functionality you can really enjoy their benefits across your home network more fluidly than manually sharing folders from a specific PC.

I've got a 3TB Seagate network drive hooked up directly to my router effectively acting as a media server. It has some streaming functionality provided your device can handle the formats, it works great on my HTPC, my PS3, my phone, and my Vita. The only issue is file sorting, so I generally prefer to browse by folder. However that issue is easily resolved on my HTPC by using XBMC and letting its library features sort movies from TV shows and music etc.

If this is the path you prefer to take I can help you setting it up and enjoying personal streaming. However, for digital distribution I can't really make any recommendations because none of the providers give any services here except for the one option from my ISP which is, for all intents and purposes, not much more than "a digital TV channel and on-demand package." I've heard great things about Netflix, which I'm sure some of the guys here can enlighten you on as well. Other alternatives I've heard about in a relatively positive light are Amazon Instant Video and Hulu+. I haven't used them myself so I can't attest to their quality or performance.

[W7RE]

Well for the few things I do have on my PC, I use Windows Media Player's library sharing, and point it specifically at my video and music folders. Anything placed in those folders gets shared automatically and I can stream them from my Xbox 360, even if I never actually open WMP. Though some files won't play (unsupported codecs/file types). Using PS3 Media Server fixes compatibility issues, but has to be manually run on the PC, and I've only got one PC so I don't have dedicated hardware for it.

I guess I know how to get started on the storage and streaming of my own files, I'm more curious about streaming them off the net using whatever services I can get hooked up to my TV. I want something with a pretty comprehensive collection, that will allow me to buy movies, or just give me access to so many that I won't ever need to buy (I want to be able to think of a random movie, and watch it, not worrying about availability. I can (mostly) do that with Blu-ray, but I want digital). Since I will likely always have a gaming console, and those are supporting things like this more and more, I assume that is the route I would want to go. But, VUDU (Ultraviolet)? Amazon Instant Streaming? Something else? And if I start purchasing movies through one of these services, what's the chance it will be available on my new console? Just opening up the video app section on the Xbox 360, there are 54 apps... Most of which I don't even know what they are.

Netflix I've used. I'ts good for browsing and finding something to watch, but they usually don't have much that's new, and they cycle what they have all the time. Hulu+ is basically TV shows, but not many popular ones, always significantly delayed behind normal air dates, and half of them aren't available on TV connected devices (so PC browser only).


EDIT: I guess specifically, I'd like to know if anyone has experience, or has heard about experiences with some of these apps/services. Amazon/VUDU I've heard about a lot, and may be a safer bet. I don't know anything about any others.

[scottws]

Buy/rip is a good option but is complex.  Another option is Vudu.  Firstly, if you own a Blu-Ray that has an Ultraviolet copy, you can link the Ultraviolet copy to your Vudu account and you can stream it or download it from there.  You can also pay Vudu to convert disc copies to digital video file.  I'm not sure if they use DRM on their files.  I am guessing yes.

But it's a pretty nice service.  Very flexible and they have apps for just about everything:  Android, iOS, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, etc.

[Cools!]

Unfortunately all this modern complexity has caused me to stop collecting movies in the first place. If I want to watch a movie I torrent it. The only movies I buy on Blu-ray are as gifts or for my mom's animation collection.

[W7RE]

Amazon digital purchases seems pretty good, but I think Vudu might win out. Even though I'm not really interested in collecting Blu-rays, with Vudu I would have the discs if anything happened to my digital library. In the meantime, I could just store them somewhere and not use them.

Still, I'm going to wait until the next-gen consoles are out and see what apps they have, since that will be my Blu-ray player.

Unfortunately all this modern complexity has caused me to stop collecting movies in the first place. If I want to watch a movie I torrent it. The only movies I buy on Blu-ray are as gifts or for my mom's animation collection.

Yea, I used to buy DVDs all the time. Because of Blu-ray and digital, and not knowing what to to, I've bought maybe a handful in the last decade or so, and that's only because they were dirt cheap. I actually pop discs in so seldom that my DVDs are in a box in another state. The only discs I have on hand are my Xbox 360 games. (PC is 100% digital at this point)

[Xessive]

I found this article on TechRadar which is focused on TV shows but might shed some light on the services and their options.