The Digital Packrat Manifesto | DRM and big tech's war on ownership has led me to make my own media libraries, and you should too
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I've been doing exactly this and for even longer than this guy.
Then again almost 3 decades in the Tech industry (which amongst other things means seeing several comes and goes of "providers") have long taught me to be suspicious of being dependent on 3r party providers, and even more so of having my stuff hostage to their wills (either hosted in their machines or wrapped in encrypted envelopes which I cannot remove).
There is no actual good consumer reason for a seller of digital goods to keep it in their systems or in your own storage but encrypted, without letting the buyer have free access to what they bought.
Back when they started a lot of people went for the convenience of encrypted Apple music on their iPods, encrypted books on their Kindles and buying videos that they could only stream never get and, inevitably, they got screwed and here we are.
I, for one, didn't got screwed with that stuff.
Exactly.
I started with downloading mp3s on dial-up, then movies on CD-Rs.
Netflix came along and music streaming services but they always did things that seemed intentionally designed to ensure that they can leave you media-less at a moments notice. That felt very manipulative to me and so I've never not hosted my own media.
I'm glad people are finally tech literate enough that they're starting to understand why controlling your own digital life is important.
It's certainly a lot easier now. Linux offers easy access to high quality server software, tiny cheap computers and storage make the barrier to entry incredibly low.
It only takes a willingness to learn.
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Many people that have large digital libraries run something like jellyfin and let their friend stream the content
Yes, this. I’m kinda my families personal Netflix. I use Plex but I’ve been meaning to try Jellyfin.
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This is something I’ve always wanted to start but it’s so intimidating to think of getting a library started.
Do people offer their libraries as downloads to friends? I’d assume there’s torrents of movies and book packages of genres or something, but how difficult would it be to copy them over to a group of hard drives.I'm uninterested in piracy, but if you have a bunch of physical media, I'm happy to share my rips. And I'll take your word on what you own.
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I’d imagine that’s the case for a lot of people actually. People don’t just pirate to get things for free. Lots of people buy easily pirateable games on GOG because it doesn’t have DRM. Lots of people buy and rip Blu-rays instead of torrenting movies.
Yup, I buy and rip Blu-rays, but I'll probably buy and torrent them instead at some point because ripping them is a pain.
If there's a reasonable legal avenue to get something in a format I can use, I'll do that. If not, I'll either pirate or go without.
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Safe storage is still expensive just in relative terms.
I bought 4x 16tb drives at 240€ each.
While yes, I could save every album under the sun on there, I still curate what I download/rip because I don't wanna trash the collection with spam.
Also if you want other stuff like video files it will get tight very fast with space. Especially if you collect stuff that was hard to come by.Yeah, high-res video will eat those TB quick. I started to clean up my collection - if something really was not good, I stopped watching or lost interest, it goes into the bin. Collecting is great, but there is no reason to keep some mediocre Netflix shovelware around that was canceled after one season.
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Yup, I buy and rip Blu-rays, but I'll probably buy and torrent them instead at some point because ripping them is a pain.
If there's a reasonable legal avenue to get something in a format I can use, I'll do that. If not, I'll either pirate or go without.
You can use programs like Ripper or Automated Ripping Machine to watch for inserted disks and rip them automatically. You can even add remixing or transcoding into the workflow so that all you do is insert the disk into the drive and after some time out pops the file in the exact format and size you want, even directly into your media library if you want.
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You can use programs like Ripper or Automated Ripping Machine to watch for inserted disks and rip them automatically. You can even add remixing or transcoding into the workflow so that all you do is insert the disk into the drive and after some time out pops the file in the exact format and size you want, even directly into your media library if you want.
I got all my media ripped, so I'm good for now, and incremental updates are pretty easy.
But I can forsee a time when my bluray drive dies or something and torrenting is easier.
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Safe storage is still expensive just in relative terms.
I bought 4x 16tb drives at 240€ each.
While yes, I could save every album under the sun on there, I still curate what I download/rip because I don't wanna trash the collection with spam.
Also if you want other stuff like video files it will get tight very fast with space. Especially if you collect stuff that was hard to come by.My collection just isn't in very good quality. For example, all the music is mp3, and the movies are 1080p max (my laptop's creen is only 1080p anyway). I would not fill even one 16 tb disk in a lifetime.
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Yup, I buy and rip Blu-rays, but I'll probably buy and torrent them instead at some point because ripping them is a pain.
If there's a reasonable legal avenue to get something in a format I can use, I'll do that. If not, I'll either pirate or go without.
If I were buying a disk just to rip, I would rather buy a digital copy just to correspond to the downloaded file. I do that with Steam games. I would throw the disk out immediately after anyway.
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My collection just isn't in very good quality. For example, all the music is mp3, and the movies are 1080p max (my laptop's creen is only 1080p anyway). I would not fill even one 16 tb disk in a lifetime.
Already achieved almost 7 tb in movie files (mid/high 1080p and some rare 4k releases)
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If I were buying a disk just to rip, I would rather buy a digital copy just to correspond to the downloaded file. I do that with Steam games. I would throw the disk out immediately after anyway.
A physical copy means:
- I have proof that I own it
- I can rerip if my NAS dies
- I can loan it to friends
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A physical copy means:
- I have proof that I own it
- I can rerip if my NAS dies
- I can loan it to friends
Instead of reripping, I can just recopy from a backup drive, which is easier. And I can loan it to people too if I load it onto a USB drive or, y'know, just send the file online.
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I'm uninterested in piracy, but if you have a bunch of physical media, I'm happy to share my rips. And I'll take your word on what you own.
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How big of a library do you have? I have a goal of buying an HD tower plus 6 more HDD to host everything.
Yes, my physical library is pretty decent but my current digital one can fit on just a few external HDs.
Something in the 100-200 range, so reasonably sizeable, but not huge. Most are DVDs, but we have a bunch of Bluray as well, and I've ripped them all.
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