I quickly outgrew my Atlantic Elf double storage rack and have been looking for the right storage solution for me. I wanted capacity for at least 2000 DVD’s. Did not need anything fancy, just something sturdy that would use as much vertical height as possible so I could fit more storage per linear foot of width.

My solution:

http://www.atlantic-inc.com/INFOCENTER/SMALL/38435418_Oskar1080_expresso.jpg

Atlantic 1080-Disc Customizable Multimedia Storage
Product Details
Warranty Terms - Parts 1 year
Product Height 71-1/4"
Product Width 40"
Product Weight 73.7 lbs.
Product Depth 9-1/10"
Assembly Required Yes
Capacity Up to 1080 CDs or 504 DVDs
Material Laminated wood, MDF and particleboard

Retail price is $140.00, however at least one major electronics retailer currently has it on sale for significantly less.

The claimed 504 DVD capacity is an honest number. Configuring the shelves for DVD gives you a 3 wide by 8 tall matrix of shelves. Each shelve holds 21 DVD’s with a small amount of slack so that your DVD’s are not jammed in there – they are easy to get out. There is 1 inch of vertical space open above each DVD – easy to get a finger in there and pull out a DVD. After assembly the rack is sturdy. The fairly small shelves in a grid setup means that there is not a large amount of weight on each shelve – no bowing. I bought four of these to reach my 2,000 storage goal (2,016). Don’t forget the bonus space you get with this style rack – the space above the top shelf. I put my HD disks up top flanked with some box sets as bookends. You can put at least 50 more DVD’d up top with some bookends. Placing all four racks together on a wall takes less than 14 linear feet. There were very slight differences in the color of the finish (espresso) and the height of each unit (+/- 1/8 inch). These difference are not noticeable unless you are looking for them. Assembly took about one hour per rack.

Pros:
Inexpensive
Sturdy
Good use of vertical space
Available locally through major retailer - no shipping cost
Box is small enough to get in the backseat of any car - don't need a truck to get it home. I put three in my trunk (Towncar).

Cons:
Particle board – not real wood (if you care about that)
Slight manufacturing differences between units

Nice if you need it, but I have given up on physical media entirely. It just doesn't make sense to me anymore. Of course you have to be a little more tech savvy and spend the money you would otherwise spend on the bookcase and media on a decent computer (I use my diminutive Mac-mini with a large capacity external USB drive that cost me about what those bookcases cost and takes up the space of about one book.

You could rip all those DVD's onto a hard drive and it wouldn't take up so much physical space. I mention this not so much because I'm space constrained (although it seems like every nook and cranny around the house is already in use :eek: ) although there are plenty of folks who are. It's also a lot easier to access the media. You could then store all those DVD's in a few boxes under the bed (e.g.)

I applaud you on having the relative good sense not to spend a fortune on exotic cabinetry to store them in though.

I haven't gone the whole house distribution route yet, but it wouldn't be that much of a jump at this point. I've looked at the Apple TV, and in the process discovered that my existing Xbox 360 will hook up (802.11 or ethernet) to my Macmini and allow me to access the stored content. I've owned the Xbox for almost a year, but I'm really not that big a gamer, so I haven't exploited the Xbox to anywhere near it's usefulness. It might turn out that the ability to access my videos remotely and wirelessly thru it will be my biggest use of it to date.

Enjoy.

Hey, that's Ok. I looked into the Rip and Store way, and it just is not for me. There is something about having the cases all in sight at one time that makes for a fun movie choice thing. Friends come over and stand before the racks with a beer or glass of wine and pull out various films and we talk about them and decide on one to watch. The four racks are in a common space between the theater and the lounge, and it just works out well. I see the attraction to a networked storage system, but there is something social about the having the racks of physical media - and they are almost like a piece of art in themselves.

I have a library too. It would take toooooooo much time to import all the DVDs on a hard drive or hard drives. Imagine when people will start storing HD-DVD and BRs on their hard drives. They are going to need goobs of space. I would need backups of my backups if I put all my DVDs on HDs. If one of the hard drives died, I'd be really PO'd.

I have a library too. It would take toooooooo much time to import all the DVDs on a hard drive or hard drives. Imagine when people will start storing HD-DVD and BRs on their hard drives. They are going to need goobs of space. I would need backups of my backups if I put all my DVDs on HDs. If one of the hard drives died, I'd be really PO'd.

Agreed. Except for the backup part - the original disks are the backups. The reson I decided not to go with Rip and store are:

1) Cost. if you assume that half the DVD's are DVD5 and the other half are DVD9 - that gives you an average data size of 6.75GB per DVD times 2000 equals 13.5TB. The cost of the drives alone for an array that size is significant, not to mention the cost of the rest of the computer hardware + the electricity to run it and the cooling + software + terminals + etc.... If you want any redundancy - add more drives/cost.

2) Time to rip and catalog

3) Usability - how many terminals do you need to view the data for 4 plus people to look at catalogs and decide on a film.

4) HTPC video issues - I have tried all the FFDshow / Dscaler / etc... stuff, and frankly it does not match the latest SO Reon / Lumagen scaling stuff.

For me - old school wins on this one.

Agreed. Except for the backup part - the original disks are the backups. The reson I decided not to go with Rip and store are:


I meant backups of my hard drives. Meaning if my hard drive crashed, I'd want a backup of the ripped hard drives on another hard drive so I wouldn't have to re-rip the movies again. I guess I'm kinda thinking if money was no object.

3) Usability - how many terminals do you need to view the data for 4 plus people to look at catalogs and decide on a film.


Again, I'd never do the ripping part because it takes too much time and I'd never buy extra hard drives to backup existing ripped hard drives because I'm too cheap. If money is no object a person could use the projection screen to view the catalog. Something like Theatertek or Meedio Pro should work.
I'd like to know why many guys/girls that have HTPCs are keeping backups of their ripped movies on other hard drives in case of a hard drive failure? I think I'll post this question on the HTPC forum. I'm just curious.

have you considered making your own shelfing system? a weekend project. get some wood from home depot or local lumbar yard, a circluar saw, some screws and a paint of your choice. it will be completely to your specs and it will be the fruits of your labor so it will be 10x better imo. just my .02

I like the idea of hard-drive storage, however, backups would again be a concern for me.
The DVD itself does not provide adequate backup solution. (I can't believe the govt has appoved this media over micro-fiche for long term storage!)
I have some DVDs that have succumed to "DVD rot" I suppose that's what it's called. For instance, some DVDs that were only watched ONCE, in my collection, cannot be played now. No scratches, no damage, pristine, stored vertically in a bookcase for two years, in the home, normal humidity/temps, yet they wont play. On HTPC, DVD, Bravo, Panasonic, Magnevox, Honda car-player, etc.
There is something wrong with some DVDs where for some reason, the data cannot be retrieved after time. :(

Nice if you need it, but I have given up on physical media entirely. It just doesn't make sense to me anymore. Of course you have to be a little more tech savvy and spend the money you would otherwise spend on the bookcase and media on a decent computer (I use my diminutive Mac-mini with a large capacity external USB drive that cost me about what those bookcases cost and takes up the space of about one book.

You could rip all those DVD's onto a hard drive and it wouldn't take up so much physical space. I mention this not so much because I'm space constrained (although it seems like every nook and cranny around the house is already in use :eek: ) although there are plenty of folks who are. It's also a lot easier to access the media. You could then store all those DVD's in a few boxes under the bed (e.g.)

I applaud you on having the relative good sense not to spend a fortune on exotic cabinetry to store them in though.

I haven't gone the whole house distribution route yet, but it wouldn't be that much of a jump at this point. I've looked at the Apple TV, and in the process discovered that my existing Xbox 360 will hook up (802.11 or ethernet) to my Macmini and allow me to access the stored content. I've owned the Xbox for almost a year, but I'm really not that big a gamer, so I haven't exploited the Xbox to anywhere near it's usefulness. It might turn out that the ability to access my videos remotely and wirelessly thru it will be my biggest use of it to date.

Enjoy.

Quick question from another Mac user: what are you using and what are the process steps for ripping a DVD? Are you just ripping the movie or all content? And how are you cataloging and accessing the media?

Thanks,

Randy