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What should I do with my audio CDs?

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edbro:
I've been looking at the Squeezebox now that somebody mentioned it in this thread. It looks like you can stream from a standalone Network Attached Storage (NAS). You don't need a PC running. See here for somebody that did it:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=14977

Others complain about the high price of NAS units and advocated building a cheap, silent PC as a dedicated server. If you had someplace to put it besides the living room, this might be another good option. I am seriously considering a NAS solution using ethernet. I would rather use flac files and I wouldn't want to stream those large files over wireless.

f0dder:
RE: fileservers vs NAS, power consumption might be something to keep in mind... although some of the NAS'es I've been looking at seem to have more or less standard PC components inside.

For me, choosing a fileserver over NAS was an easy choice, since it enables me to run a subversion repository and a decent torrent client among other things.

J-Mac:
I just purchased a few Merax CD cases at Newegg and ALL my media are going into them - I'm in the middle of doing that now.  (Taking long becasue anal as I am I'm trying to catalog by number where everything is!)

Music CD's, original DVD's, saved data, archived pictures, etc.  I always rip my audio CDs, but later I find myself backing them up to several places with the rest of my data and media files. So why not keep the original CDs?  Same with DVD movies - I always copy them to DVD and I only play the copies.  If any go bad, from sitting in the car getting too hot or too cold, whatever, I simply burn new copies.  I lost several original music CDs that way; sitting in my truck console in the summer they actually warped and wouldn't play - back before ripping was as common. I got the original Nero and went to town on all the rest!

Movies - if one purchased DVD bombs out for some reason, try getting it replaced!  Nope!  I copy each and label it.  At first I made two copies of each: one for home and another for a second home we have in the mountains.  Prior to that I was always trying to remember to bring them to the mountains or back and some were always in the wrong place. WE rarely stay in the other house long now so I just make one for home and use the copy.  Original stays stored and in prime condition to recopy if the everyday copy goes bad.

Get a couple of the Merax cases - they hold 510 CDs or DVDs in hanging folders. Less in their original cases.  You may need to re-rip them someday.

Jim

app103:
Music CD's, original DVD's, saved data, archived pictures, etc.  I always rip my audio CDs, but later I find myself backing them up to several places with the rest of my data and media files. So why not keep the original CDs?  Same with DVD movies - I always copy them to DVD and I only play the copies.  If any go bad, from sitting in the car getting too hot or too cold, whatever, I simply burn new copies.  I lost several original music CDs that way; sitting in my truck console in the summer they actually warped and wouldn't play - back before ripping was as common. I got the original Nero and went to town on all the rest!
-J-Mac (January 18, 2008, 02:54 AM)
--- End quote ---

I have been doing this since the days of vinyl. Back then I was copying it all to cassette and playing the cassettes. Then bought a dual cassette deck to copy cassette to cassette.

I have even copied CD's to cassette for my husband's car. (he can't be trusted with cd's)

There are some albums in my collection, like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, that I have owned originals in every format: vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD...and now ripped to mp3 so I can listen on my pc.

Before I owned a computer, I was really into the copying to protect my investment from damage. Now it's for both protection and more control over how I enjoy my collection.

And in an odd way, to save space: If I rip all the CD's to MP3, and I burn the MP3's as data back to a CD-RW, I can carry around about 6-10 albums on a single disk and play them in my portable MP3 CD player, and burn a new set of files when I get tired of what is on the disk. Much better than carrying around all those disks. (no, I don't own an MP3 player)

I wish there was a practical way to rip magazines to pdf. I'd sure love to have digital versions of a lot of my older stuff from the 70's & 80's. Crochet & x-stitch magazines tend to get mangled while doing projects.

iphigenie:
I ripped most of my cds and stored them in the basement in boxes.

I always thought that CDs look quite ugly (DVDs are even worse) and CD racks are often awful, so as soon as I could afford the time and storage space I did it.

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