I am in the early steps of a very time consuming process. I own somewhere around 2000 DVDs (including TV shows and kids DVDs), and I want to eventually convert the entire thing to digital. I bought a 2 terabyte external HD yesterday, because my poor laptop only had about 6 gigs of space left, and I started moving all my digital films to the hard drive. It's formatted to be read by my PS3 and I believe it can also play directly on my HDTV (though I haven't tried it yet, I assume the formatting will allow the TV to read it). I'm organizing it by film types and TV shows get their own folders.
Now, the point I'm really trying to get to is this: I cannot find a program to reliably digitize these films. The ones I find make the files really big in size, sometimes several gigs for one film and I have to find a program to condense them. Also, the ones I've used so far convert the films into several different video files and aren't able to convert the film into one file. This isn't the fault of the programs, that's just the way DVDs are made.
So, after all this, it turns out that downloading copies is easier than doing what I have been doing. However, I am not endorsing the act of piracy, but it seems simpler than the fiasco that my endeavor has turned out to be! To keep myself honest, though, I've done this the hard way thus far. But it does suck.
Which leads me to my real point. Will Hollywood ever actually give us, fans of digital media anyway, what we really want? What I want is my video collection on a hard drive that I can plug in at a friends/family members house and watch my movies. I want a film collection that can be carried around with me and I want it at non-obscene prices. I'd gladly pay for a digital copy of my favorite film if it's reasonably priced (under $10, anything over is ridiculous for something that requires no physical media) and it's portable.
Now, I'll gladly take the cloud version. I don't need the actual video file as long as the copy is formatted to play on multiple platforms. I don't want my films to be stuck only playing on Apple devices, etc. I want plug and play ease for my film collection and i just don't see Hollywood doing this any time soon.
Is there anyone else who wants what I'm talking about? Will Hollywood ever figure this out and make it happen? What are some of the solutions they could do to give pirates what they want without making the problem worse?
Now, the point I'm really trying to get to is this: I cannot find a program to reliably digitize these films. The ones I find make the files really big in size, sometimes several gigs for one film and I have to find a program to condense them. Also, the ones I've used so far convert the films into several different video files and aren't able to convert the film into one file. This isn't the fault of the programs, that's just the way DVDs are made.
So, after all this, it turns out that downloading copies is easier than doing what I have been doing. However, I am not endorsing the act of piracy, but it seems simpler than the fiasco that my endeavor has turned out to be! To keep myself honest, though, I've done this the hard way thus far. But it does suck.
Which leads me to my real point. Will Hollywood ever actually give us, fans of digital media anyway, what we really want? What I want is my video collection on a hard drive that I can plug in at a friends/family members house and watch my movies. I want a film collection that can be carried around with me and I want it at non-obscene prices. I'd gladly pay for a digital copy of my favorite film if it's reasonably priced (under $10, anything over is ridiculous for something that requires no physical media) and it's portable.
Now, I'll gladly take the cloud version. I don't need the actual video file as long as the copy is formatted to play on multiple platforms. I don't want my films to be stuck only playing on Apple devices, etc. I want plug and play ease for my film collection and i just don't see Hollywood doing this any time soon.
Is there anyone else who wants what I'm talking about? Will Hollywood ever figure this out and make it happen? What are some of the solutions they could do to give pirates what they want without making the problem worse?
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