media than ever on our iPads and mobile phones, neither of which can read discs, and many of the sub-compact netbooks don't even ship with a DVD/CD drive. Netflix is ditching DVDs in favor of streaming subscriptions. Apple is launching an app store for Macs, and the MacBook Air, which Apple just refreshed with new models, has no optical drive. Cloud-based storage and giant hard drives that plug into your home network are pennies per gigabyte, and reusable flash memory drives can hold more data than a Blu-ray disc.

Blu-ray players and disc-based game consoles will likely be around for a few more years, but the writing is on the wall: DVDs and CDs are not long for this world. Here's how to transition to a future free of shiny plastic disks.

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Pick a storage solution

Ripping and storing those giant stacks of DVDs and CDs is going to take a lot of time, and it will eat up a lot of hard drive space. You're probably going to need to buy some new drives to house your digital files. And you're going to want to future-proof your library so you won't run out of room for a long time.

Start with an external hard drive -- a USB 2.0 drive or some sort of Network Attached Storage device (NAS). Ideally, you should pick something you can leave plugged in all the time so it's always accessible to every computer in your home.

How much space?

Buy the biggest drive you can afford. If you have a few hundred CDs and several dozen DVDs, you can probably get by with 500GB, but go ahead and double down and get a 1TB drive.

Everyone's collection is different, so your decision should be based on your own calculations of how large your library is going to be. After you rip a few CDs and DVDs at the level of quality you're comfortable with, you can extrapolate and make an educated guess about how much data you'll end up with when you're done. Our advice is to find that number and double it.

Rip your CDs

For most everyone, this will not only be the most time-consuming part, but also the part that requires the toughest decision.

How much of an audiophile are you? If you demand the best, you'll want to rip your music to a lossless format. We'd recommend Apple Lossless or FLAC. Apple Lossless is an option in iTunes (it's in the drop-down in Import preferences), but FLAC isn't. FLACs are CD-quality and the codec is free, and there are multiple free software programs that can rip FLACs for you. Songbird is a free, iTunes-like application that can rip straight to FLAC -- you just need to install the CD Rip add-on to do it.

Of course, lossless files are much larger than even the highest quality MP3s. You'll save massive amounts of disk space if you go the MP3 route. If you're not an absolute stickler, consider ripping MP3s with the highest quality settings available.

And if you've gotten this far, you're probably already familiar with the differences and you've found a setting in iTunes (or whatever you use) that you're comfortable with.

Rip your DVDs

Take a hard look at your DVD player and your television. Do you see USB ports? Most home theater components have them now. If so, do an experiment -- rip one DVD, convert it to an MP4 or MKV file, dump it onto a USB stick, and try watching it. If it worked, you can start phasing out DVDs.

For all your ripping needs, we recommend DVDShrik for Windows and MacTheRipper or DVD2oneX (a commercial product) for Mac. Once you've ripped your DVD, you'll need to convert it to a playable file. For that we recommend the free, open source, cross-platform app Handbrake.

If you have an iPad, or a smartphone with a high-def screen, chances are your TV, computer and your mobile device will all be able to display the same video file. So, you can make one rip that looks good on any screen in your home. We have articles on the How-to Wiki on how to rip a DVD and how to encode your videos as files that will play back on multiple devices.

Handbrake doesn't have any built-in code for circumventing DVD encryption (unless you're on a Mac and you also install VLC) but you can use it in conjunction with a good DVD ripping program to create excellent-looking video files.

The only tricky part is settling on a quality and resolution level. DVDs max out at 480p, so if you keep your files at a native HD resolution (like 720p), you should be sufficiently prepared for the future.

Mac users should check out the awesome RipDifferent forums for additional advice.

Just like with your CDs, the balance between size and quality is something you'll have to determine based on your own tastes. Full length movies range between 700MB and 5GB. So if you're aiming for the highest quality possible, you'll need way more storage.

Rip your Blu-ray discs

While there are many free options out there for ripping DVDs and CDs, there are far fewer free and non-commercial software packages that can handle Blu-ray. That will likely change over time, but for now, the best option out there is MakeMKV.

The software is currently available as a free beta, and it will be a commercial application once the kinks are ironed out. But it's available now in a mostly-stable form for Windows, Mac and Linux, and it's incredibly easy to use.

Movie-length Blu-ray rips can be huge (close to 50GB) so you'll want to compress them down into a more manageable file size. Handbrake can get them down to 8-10GB, and the results still look great. Either way, plan your storage needs accordingly if you've got a lot of Blu-ray discs.

Back it up

There are two ways you could go with a fool-proof backup plan -- a local data-saving system like a RAID array, or a cloud-based backup service. Ideally, you'd do both.

Protected storage

When choosing a storage drive, aim for some sort of protection against drive failure or massive data loss. Most NASes and large-capacity storage devices come with software to manage a RAID array for you. Alternatively, get a pooled storage device like the Drobo, which protects you from drive failure and can be expanded as your collection grows.

Cloud-based storage

There are a multitude of cloud-based backup services aimed at consumers, and you should pick one and keep it up to date. Think of it this way: what if your house burns down? What if kitty knocks over that 40-ouncer of High Life and it shorts out your NAS? You can restore all of your data from the cloud if you have to. It will take a few days to restore a large collection, but you won't lose anything permanently.

Check out disaster recovery options from Backblaze, Mozy or Carbonite, all of which are around $50-60 a year.

To get more utility out of your cloud-based backup, consider something like Dropbox or Box.net. These services work more like a hard drive in the cloud, so you can access your files from any computer, upload files, share files and keep multiple computers in sync. They are more expensive, though -- between $5 and $20 per month, depending on how much space you need.

What to do with the old stuff?

• Sell your DVDs and CDs on the used market.

• If you want to keep your media for backup, pull the discs and artwork out of the jewel cases, then organize them in a binder that you can store in a bookcase. Freecycle the plastic cases.

This page was last modified 21:32, 25 October 2010 by howto_admin.

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