With the increase in digital streaming services, DVDs are becoming obsolete. Many people are ditching their DVD and Blu-ray players in exchange for smart TVs. DVDs can take up a lot of space and digitizing your collection allows you to keep the films without having to store all of the physical copies.
Digitizing your DVD collection may sound like a painstakingly long task, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. There are many programs available to help convert your DVDs to digital files and to organize and store the files for all different levels of technology users.
Choosing a Program to Digitize Your DVDs
The first step to digitizing your DVD collection is to choose a DVD ripper program. There are many options to choose from. The programs vary in cost, usability, and speed.
One of the highest-rated programs is the WinX DVD Ripper. A year subscription for WinX is $39.95. It is user-friendly and advertises that it can rip a DVD in 5 minutes. They also include a digital handbook with step-by-step instructions to use the program.
If you have a mix of DVDs and Blu-rays, a good program to use would be VideoSolo. A year subscription is currently priced at $59.95, which is slightly higher than WinX, but it has the ability to rip both types of discs. Like WinX, they have an easy-to-understand instructional page.
If you are looking for a free option, you can try Handbrake or MakeMKV, but these options are less user-friendly and will take longer to digitize your collection.
How to Convert Your DVD to a Digital File
Once you have chosen your program, you can begin ripping the DVDs and creating the digital files. Each program functions differently, so you will need to follow their guide to correctly digitize the DVDs.
If you have a large collection, it can be overwhelming when you first start to digitize. Both WinX and VideoSolo offer year-long subscriptions, which gives you plenty of time to complete the process and allows you to convert your DVDs in batches.
Where to Store Your Digitized DVD Collection
Converting DVDs to digital files helps free up physical space in your home, but the files still need to be stored somewhere. There are many storage options you can use and the decision may depend on the size of your collection and how you plan on watching the films later. Options include your computer, a cloud service, external hard drives, and digital cataloging services.
You can store your DVD files on your computer, but you don’t want to use up all of your storage space. You may want to consider a cloud service like Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive. You can also purchase an external hard drive to store all of your DVD files on.
There are many cataloging services online that you can use to store and organize your digital collection. Some popular programs include All My Movies, Plex, and Collectorz. These will allow you to store the DVD files in their database and easily organize and search for titles. A catalog program is best if you have a large collection that you want to digitize.
Alternative Options for Digitizing Your Collection
If you have a DVD collection you want to digitize, but you don’t want to go through the work of ripping DVDs and storing the files, you could consider Vudu as an alternate option. Vudu was one of the first on-demand movie services and has a large collection of movies available via their streaming. However, they also offer an option to digitize and store your movie collection within their app.
Rather than ripping DVDs, you would scan the barcode on the case through their app on your phone, and they will add the movies to your streaming account. Once you add the movies, you can watch them anytime through the Vudu app on your computer, phone, or smart TV. This service costs $2 for Blu-ray to HD files or DVD to SD files and $5 for DVD to HD files. For a larger collection, this cost can add up, however it could be a great alternative for someone with a smaller collection who wants to digitize without the extra work.
Regardless of your DVD collection size, it is a good idea to consider digitizing the collection. DVDs are becoming less popular as movies and shows move to streaming platforms. They take up space in your home, are fragile, and require a separate player to watch. By digitizing, you will be able to keep your collection and watch from anywhere. With the many different software options, you can easily convert your DVDs with any level of experience.