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Blu-Ray Megachangers?

The DirtMerchant

The DirtMerchant

Well-Known Member
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I know Sony used to make a 400 disc or so Blu-Ray changer.
Are these available anymore? Does anyone make a high-volume changer?
 
Based on quick browse of Sony's site it doesn't look like they are produced anymore. I don't believe they sold all that well. Tee and I saw them in action at CEDIA and based on the clunky performance, I can't say I'm surprised at all. You'd be better off buying a few TBs of storage and start ripping your BDs if you have that many. It's quicker and easier in the long run than waiting for a machine to access your chosen movie. And for what sellers are asking for the Sony changers, it'd be cheaper too.
 
I have a 400 disc DVD changer and it works reasonably well.

I remember seeing the BluRay version and thinking it was pretty cool you could link up to 4 of them together to create a mega-jukebox. From what I recall the prices were a little too high for me.

D
 
I'm gradually converting my library to Ultraviolet for extremely close to Blu-Ray quality video on demand that I can access from anywhere, so clunky, expensive mega changers just don't appeal to me anymore. Cinema Now and Vudu/Walmart are both offering HDX Ultraviolet copies of many movies for just $2 if you own the Blu-Ray and $5 if you own the DVD. I honestly can't rip them and store them in comparable quality for less.
 
Batman said:
Based on quick browse of Sony's site it doesn't look like they are produced anymore. I don't believe they sold all that well. Tee and I saw them in action at CEDIA and based on the clunky performance, I can't say I'm surprised at all. You'd be better off buying a few TBs of storage and start ripping your BDs if you have that many. It's quicker and easier in the long run than waiting for a machine to access your chosen movie. And for what sellers are asking for the Sony changers, it'd be cheaper too.
Click to expand...

How do you rip BDs?
 
Haywood said:
I'm gradually converting my library to Ultraviolet for extremely close to Blu-Ray quality video on demand that I can access from anywhere, so clunky, expensive mega changers just don't appeal to me anymore. Cinema Now and Vudu/Walmart are both offering HDX Ultraviolet copies of many movies for just $2 if you own the Blu-Ray and $5 if you own the DVD. I honestly can't rip them and store them in comparable quality for less.
Click to expand...

I still have nearly 200 Blu Rays that I would really like to reduce the space used. That's even more clunky than the changer.

Ah well...
 
Dirtmerchant, this is how I do it. :text-link:. I access my entire collection via appletv (you'd need one at each tv and I'm not sure which other media set top boxes are compatible, maybe Haywood could chime in) the movie queues up in about 5-10 seconds, no menus to navigate etc. it's awesome!!
 
I believe you can use a PS3 or Xbox 360 to stream rips from your hard drive too, but you could have 2 or 3 appletvs for the price of one game console...(sorry to keep referencing the appletvs, I'm just not sure of the capabilities of streaming devices like roku for example).
 
I've done some experimenting with ripping Blu-Rays using the method Batman linked above. It works for DVDs too. I start by ripping the disc to .mkv using MakeMKV. Then I convert it to .mp4 using Handbrake. One important caveat is that this will result in a Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack, NOT a lossless soundtrack. When I ripped the new Star Trek movie to high-quality 1080p, I ended up with a 12.5GB file. When I ripped it to 720p, the file size dropped to 3.5GB. I am currently ripping a huge library of children's programming on DVD, which runs about 400MB per hour.

I do not use iTunes and Apple TV to distribute these rips. I use Plex Media Server. I use Plex, because there are Plex client apps for Roku, Android, iOS, OSX, Linux, Windows, Windows 8 (modern UI) and Windows Phone. It is also DLNA compliant. That means that my entire music, movie and TV library is available to my three Roku boxes, two PS3s, two iPads, three Windows Phones and one Google Nexus 7 Tablet. Plex is truly the one media server to rule them all and it just keeps better all the time. There are versions of the Plex Media Server for Windows, OSX, Linux and Netgear ReadyNAS.

Why Roku? Because in addition to working very well with Plex, it has excellent client applications for Netflix, Amazon VOD, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Vudu, Drama Fever, Crunchyroll and a bunch of other streaming services. Vudu is part of Ultraviolet, so our entire Ultraviolet library is available on our Roku boxes. I can buy a 1080p HDX Ultraviolet copy of many DVDs that I own for a $5 upgrade fee, which is often far less than I would pay to repurchase the movie on Blu-Ray. If I already have the movie on Blu-Ray (and its on the list), I can get an Ultraviolet copy for $2. When you factor in how time consuming it is to rip a Blu-Ray and how much storage it takes to store a high-quality 1080p Blu-Ray rip, it makes more sense to just go Ultraviolet where available.
 
12.5GB? Schnikes...That would eat through my 3TB NAS pretty damn fast.
Plex is free? May eventually give it a shot...I built myself a freeNAS box, but am having issues with the miniDLNA plugin (PS3 recognizes the share but no files are available/shown).
 
Even if every movie took up 12.5gb that's still 200+/- movies on that 3tb drive. A couple of those is a lot cheaper than a $2500-3000 mega changer.
 
I can get a 4-Bay ReadyNAS appliance with four 3TB hard drives for a total of 9TB RAID 5 storage for somewhere in the $1000-1200 price range (depending on the price of drives at the moment). ReadyNAS devices support the direct installation of both the Logitech Media Server (Squeezebox) and Plex Media Server. It would hold about 750 movies ripped to high-quality 1080p with Dolby Digital sound. That's why I determined that it is actually less expensive to take advantage of the fact that Best Buy and Walmart currently make it possible to convert a large selection of movies to HDX quality Ultraviolet for as little as $2 each. I will then use my local NAS to store only those movies that are not available through the Ultraviolet digital-to-digital program. This approach makes even more sense when you realize that Ultraviolet copies are rapidly replacing the nearly useless Digital Copies (which basically only work well with Apple). A huge percentage of the new Blu-Ray movies I buy come with Ultraviolet copies and I am growing a nice library that I can access through multiple providers, such as Vudu and CinemaNow.
 
Batman said:
Even if every movie took up 12.5gb that's still 200+/- movies on that 3tb drive. A couple of those is a lot cheaper than a $2500-3000 mega changer.
Click to expand...

Which would be good, except my NAS already has >25000 RAW and jpg files. And the total cost was ~$500. Might be time to add some HDDs and switch to RAID5
 
Haywood said:
?.. I can buy a 1080p HDX Ultraviolet copy of many DVDs that I own for a $5 upgrade fee, which is often far less than I would pay to repurchase the movie on Blu-Ray. If I already have the movie on Blu-Ray (and its on the list), I can get an Ultraviolet copy for $2. When you factor in how time consuming it is to rip a Blu-Ray and how much storage it takes to store a high-quality 1080p Blu-Ray rip, it makes more sense to just go Ultraviolet where available.
Click to expand...

Where do you get the upgrade for the ultraviolet? Is that through Vudu?
 
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