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Last post Author Topic: Ripping My DVD Collection  (Read 18120 times)

wraith808

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Ripping My DVD Collection
« on: July 27, 2012, 08:14 PM »
I have quite the extensive DVD collection, and though I've put this off with Disksox (which I'd recommend to anyone... they're great!), I have outgrown my space for DVDs, and have had to look at some alternatives.

So, a bit ago, I bought a NAS - the Synology Diskstation DS211J.  I bought a 2TB drive with it (thankfully before the drives died), and also bought an Asus O!Play really cheap, and it connects to it better than I thought, in addition to two .  I also converted one of my machines to a Windows Home Server, and it has plenty of room also, and I'm using it to burn the DVDs.  As a last bit, I use POE to wire all of my devices as wireless hasn't been good for me in the house.

So I have my whole infrastructure in place.  Now to the task of Ripping the DVDs.  My primary concern is to rip the DVDs so I can get them off of the shelves in the living room and into storage, but still be accessible to be seen.  To that end, I want something that's watchable on my 46" large screen, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

I'd heard so much how easy this was and how I would be able to do it for free.  Not so much.  I downloaded Handbrake and MakeMKV (I already had VLC).  For my test, I used the movie Serenity, and made several different attempts at ripping the first 3 minutes.  The first technique I used was to make the MKV file in MakeMKV.  This was pretty straightforward.  Then I tried to create test files in every different format that Handbrake allowed.  In each case, there was tearing and terrible pixellation.  I figured I must be doing something wrong, so I tried several different forums and several different google searches.  But nothing helped.  So I figured I'd try to rip from the source since I had VLC installed to decrypt the DVD.  Nothing.  All day I spent trying to get the software to encode just 3 minutes in a format that would work.  But nothing worked.

Finally, I started to get tired of trying Handbrake, and decided to branch out into commercial offerings.

Before when I toyed with this, I tried Xilisoft DVD Ripper.  I have an older version, but figured I'd see how things had changed.  Against this, I stacked up AnvSoft's Any DVD Converter Pro, Magic DVD Ripper, and WinX DVD Ripper.

Again I used the first 3 minutes of Serenity, and tried on a variety of formats to see which one gave the best results and was easiest to use.  The first thing that I noticed was that for default settings and such, easiest didn't really come into it- they have different user interfaces, but one thing was common- each was created for non-computer users.  They even had the steps on the user interface!  Like handbrake, they had different conversion profiles, but unlike handbrake, in each case, the default profiles worked.  I tried to do a straight rip because that's what I was used to - ripping for the computer in MPG format.  But I quickly discovered that the media player formats were better suited, especially when I copied tests to the NAS to look at them on the TV.  But other than that, the quality of all of them were similar.  Some boasted about speed, but they were pretty comparable.  So in the end, the only thing that swayed me was price - there was a Bits Du Jour promotion for anvsoft's Any DVD converter, which put the price at $27.  As all of the others were uniformly around the $40 range for what I needed, in the end, price was the reason that I settled on that software.

I didn't write this up as a review, because I really didn't go indepth into the software- I had a simple need, and though all of the offerings have more functionality than that, I don't think I'll need it.

Now that I can actually rip a whole DVD, I'll see how it stacks up and post an update later, but has anyone else had any experience in these matters?

Shades

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2012, 08:41 PM »
Till now I have been very happy with MakeMKV and Handbrake. The default profile from Handbrake rips as far as I know in the .m4v format. From memory that format is associated with Apple hardware. But it plays fine on my PC with PotPlayer (portable) or KMPlayer or VLC with hardly any artefact.

A lot does depend on the player and the codecs that are included with it, though (with regards to the artefacts). From experience I can tell that you will get a mess when you have a shrinked DVD that you use as original source with Handbrake.

wraith808

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2012, 08:53 PM »
The formats worked with any of my players.  It's just how they looked- tearing and artifacting galore.  I tried increasing and decreasing the fps and the bps but nothing worked.  Very frustrating.

4wd

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2012, 08:57 PM »
Depending on the final format, I use either:

VidCoder which a more user-friendly version of HandBrake, (using Normal profile but changed for MKV container), or
StaxRip if I want to end up with an AVI.

Outputs from both look fine on my WDTV Live.

40hz

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2012, 09:19 PM »
Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.

With audio files and media, I'm very comfortable with what I need to do. (In my case use EAC to rip to lossless FLAC for archive, and optionally "distill" down to MP3 if/when/as needed.)

But I'll be the first to admit I'm one step down from a total noob when it comes to video formats, containers, and codecs. And there seems to be a good deal of contradictory recommendations on how to best do things when I google the web.

So...anybody have a strong recommendation for what's optimal? It doesn't need to be product specific. As long as the "settings" are given I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to do them on whatever I end up using. (I generally do RTFM for most things if an FM is available.) And I'm also willing to try things out using different recommended products if I need to.

Any 'real world' feedback (or the title of a good book or a good website) would be greatly appreciated. :)

4wd

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2012, 03:05 AM »
Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.

Just out of curiosity, exactly how much less concerned about file size are you ?

Optimal video/audio quality will be retained by not doing any trans-coding at all, this means up to 8.5GB for dual layer DVD or 4.7GB for single layer.  ie. Ripping your DVDs to either a standard DVD folder layout or to a single MPEG program/transport stream file for the main movie.

DLNA media servers will trans-code to suit the DLNA client specifications.

The next best format, (IMO), would be MPEG4-AVC (High Profile/Film) + passthru audio, (ie. whatever audio format is on the DVD - DTS, AC3, etc), in an MKV container.

For ripping to a folder, the only program I've used for the last 5 years or so has been RipIt4Me, from there I either drop it onto VidCoder for MPEG4-AVC MKV or use VideoReDo TV Suite to create a MPEG-TS/PS.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2012, 06:47 AM by 4wd »

tslim

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2012, 06:19 AM »
Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.
IMHO, if quality is your utmost concern, then ripping without video conversion is the key.

Why not you rip your DVDs with DVDFab into ISO files, by doing so, you will have zero loss in quality. To play any of the ripped movie, just mount its ISO with either Deamon or Alcohol 52% (both are free), then play the movie as though you are playing the original DVD.

wraith808

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2012, 08:44 AM »
Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.
IMHO, if quality is your utmost concern, then ripping without video conversion is the key.

Why not you rip your DVDs with DVDFab into ISO files, by doing so, you will have zero loss in quality. To play any of the ripped movie, just mount its ISO with either Deamon or Alcohol 52% (both are free), then play the movie as though you are playing the original DVD.


I wouldn't use Daemon Tools anymore- not only is it no longer free, but it's packaged with stuff that makes it not so free.

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=29940.0

While true, you can disable this- the fact that it is enabled by default (and now costs money) makes me go elsewhere.  A good free one is MagicDisk from the same people that make MagicISO.

Also, one reason not to do this is if you aren't using a media pc - most tvs that allow you to connect to Media Servers don't support mounting ISOs or BINs AFAIK.

skwire

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2012, 09:01 AM »
As 4wd and tslim have mentioned, if space is not a concern, just rip straight to ISO format.  FWIW, my Boxee boxes will play an ISO file just like the actual DVD, i.e., menus and all.  No extra mounting required, either.

wraith808

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2012, 09:17 AM »
...

I just found out that my media player supports ISOs.  But I guess having 100s of DVDs to burn, I couldn't put all of them in that format.  That would be a lot of space.

...at least, that's what I'll keep telling myself. :(

superboyac

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2012, 12:28 PM »
Just out of curiosity, does anybody have a recommendation for what a very good (or hopefully best quality) procedure would be for ripping a commercial movie DVD for storage on a home media server to be played on a hi-def TV? I'm less concerned about file size than I am about picture and audio quality.

With audio files and media, I'm very comfortable with what I need to do. (In my case use EAC to rip to lossless FLAC for archive, and optionally "distill" down to MP3 if/when/as needed.)

But I'll be the first to admit I'm one step down from a total noob when it comes to video formats, containers, and codecs. And there seems to be a good deal of contradictory recommendations on how to best do things when I google the web.

So...anybody have a strong recommendation for what's optimal? It doesn't need to be product specific. As long as the "settings" are given I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to do them on whatever I end up using. (I generally do RTFM for most things if an FM is available.) And I'm also willing to try things out using different recommended products if I need to.

Any 'real world' feedback (or the title of a good book or a good website) would be greatly appreciated. :)
Makemkv:
http://makemkv.com/
one button solution.  Stick your dvd in, press the button, a couple of wizard nexts, and you're done.  Just be aware: there is no compression, no modifications at all.  fbi warnings are removed, advertisements are removed, you're just left with the movie in one mkv file.  Chapters, subtitles, and alternate audio streams are all maintained (beauty of the mkv format).

If that doesn't work, you'll have to consider the other more complicated options, of which I have recommendations also.  The only real issue with Make mkv is going to be file size and if you're computer is not powerful enough to handle the playback.  A bluray disc will become a 30-50GB mkv file, a dvd movie will become a 4-8GB file.  Any regular computer more that 3 years old will probably struggle with these.

40hz

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2012, 03:32 PM »
@sb - Makemkv seems about my current speed (i.e. 1-click) so I'll definitely give that a try. Thx! :Thmbsup:

Once I've got a few successful rips under my belt maybe I can then play around and see which transcoding options offer an acceptable trade off of file size to picture quality.

@4wd/tslim/skwire - ISOs are a definite possibility - although I'd hate to waste so much disk space saving things beyond the main movie and (possibly) the English subtitles. So I guess a straight ISO is last resort for me right now. But thanks for the input. As I said, I'm less than a beginner when it comes to video. So any information, ideas, advice, or recommendations anybody would care to share is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all. This is what makes being part of the DoCo community so great! :)

Shades

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2012, 03:54 PM »
@superboyac:
The PC I use mainly, is an AMD64 3200+ single core that is 7 years old. The mainboard is an Asus K8N which is similar in age. Then it has a 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600 AGP videocard, a SATA2 320GB Seagate harddisk and 2Gigabyte of RAM...and guess what, it plays .mkv files just fine with a resolution of 1920x1080.

No hiccups whatsoever. I think it would be able to run Windows 7 (Aero-less) just fine as well. And I am planning to keep using it untill the hardware gods claim it for themselves.

superboyac

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2012, 04:20 PM »
@superboyac:
The PC I use mainly, is an AMD64 3200+ single core that is 7 years old. The mainboard is an Asus K8N which is similar in age. Then it has a 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600 AGP videocard, a SATA2 320GB Seagate harddisk and 2Gigabyte of RAM...and guess what, it plays .mkv files just fine with a resolution of 1920x1080.

No hiccups whatsoever. I think it would be able to run Windows 7 (Aero-less) just fine as well. And I am planning to keep using it untill the hardware gods claim it for themselves.
That's very interesting.  I was going to start a thread last week about this issue.  I want to know, very exactly, what are the main factors in 1080p playback smoothness/responsiveness.  Is it the RAM?  GPU? CPU? And what are the most resource-intensive types of files to play back, because in building a system, you want that file to play very easily.  Over the years, I've found that mp4 is probably the most resource intensive, and after that it gets complicated because of all the formats, containers, etc.

Like, you can get a brand new laptop for $500 or less that seemingly has far more "specs" than SHades' old computer, and it won't really be able to play a 1080p video file in mp4 format.  Or an uncompressed 60GB mov file.  And I'm not just talking about simply playing it, that's just the first step.  Is the computer struggling with it?  Is it easy to seek back and forward?  Is it a decoder issues, sometimes there are third-party decoders that are better than others (coreavc comes to mind)?  How about solid-state drives vs. regular?

40, video stuff is very complex.  When I first started getting into it, I had no idea how difficult it would be to wrap my mind around these questions.  And it's become sort of a hobby of mine.  The end goal: I want to know how to build a desktop pc super cheap that can play the biggest files you can reasonably expect to throw at it.  I logically thought the GPU would be the main important piece, but it doesn't appear to be the case.  It would be a fun experiment to see on different hardware configurations how different files behave, and then make a matrix out of the results.  Then people would be able to really see which hardware components they would need for certain playback goals.

40hz

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2012, 08:21 PM »
^It might surprise you. People have been reporting the Raspberry Pi can handle 1080p just fine through the DMI plug although I don't know what file type they're playing or at what size.

4wd

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #15 on: July 28, 2012, 08:27 PM »
I was going to start a thread last week about this issue.

Short memory?

You did start a topic   ;)

FWIW, a decent GPU will compensate for an underpowered CPU, example: AMD E350 CPU with integrated GPU and, of course, the Raspberry Pi.  In the case of Windows, this comes down to whether or not the playback software utilises the GPU either via DXVA or directly via AMD/nVidia drivers.

A sufficiently beefy CPU will compensate for a underpowered GPU, in this case the playback software isn't so important since the CPU will take up the slack.  But then why use a CPU when GPUs that can do the job are so cheap, (<AU$50), allowing the CPU to do something more useful, (or just run quieter/cooler).

Then you have a case where the GPU/CPU are balanced, (power-wise), to perform the task, something like the system at Newegg you mentioned.

RAM is not so important, it's just the amount required to run the OS efficiently - take the Raspberry Pi as an example again, 256MB is all it has and 1080p playback works fine.  For Windows, the today's base standard of 4GB would be more than enough.

EDIT: 40 jumped in ahead of me - there's videos on YouTube of the RPi playing 1080p, eg. RPi playing Big Buck Bunny

superboyac

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #16 on: July 28, 2012, 09:36 PM »
^It might surprise you. People have been reporting the Raspberry Pi can handle 1080p just fine through the DMI plug although I don't know what file type they're playing or at what size.
That's precisely why I want to do a bunch of experiments with it.  I'm also looking for a forum/blog/website that talks about playback issues in a clear way.  Far too much techno mumbo jumbo that is largely meaningless unless you are a video producer or video programmer, and not enough playback centered discussion that I can find.

people throw the term 1080p out there, and it's a confusing term.  I just found out there's 1080p with 30fps framerate, and 1080p with 60fps framerate.  I just bought a video camera that can do 60fps, we'll see what that really means.

I was going to start a thread last week about this issue.
Short memory?

You did start a topic   ;)
Yikes!  Thanks 4wd, totally forgot.  I'm all over the place lately, trying to do far too much probably.  I feel like I need a life secretary.

yksyks

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #17 on: July 29, 2012, 01:17 AM »
If you want a plain copy (not ISO, just the plain file structure) and without any recoding/transcoding, you can use the good old DVD Shrink. It removes the encryption and UOP as well. Re-authoring is also possible (extracting just the main movie).

MilesAhead

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #18 on: July 29, 2012, 01:42 AM »
For a free tool to rip DVD to an .iso file I've found this works well:

BDlot DVD ISO Master

It may not decrypt some "ancient" encryption schemes. I always put the output .iso through DVD Shrink to make sure. Usually I only want the main movie anyway. For episodic dvds, (my WD set top box does not handle these well) I use MakeMKV to output episodes to a folder as .mkv titles.


Curt

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #19 on: July 29, 2012, 02:24 AM »
, you can use the good old DVD Shrink.

Shrink is okay, but I was upset to see that the following line was presented as part of the articles text - it truly is an advert, even one I dislike:

Before you download! Click here to optimize your system performance and have it ready for DVD Shrink!

-the link goes to Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC  :(

Curt

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #20 on: July 29, 2012, 09:49 AM »
I've found this works well:
BDlot DVD ISO Master

I don't know if BDLot are maintaining their programs, but they surely aren't maintaining their site
- or maybe they merely confused Seasonal with SeasonAll:


navngiv.gif


The Christmas tree let me win 3 programs!,
until I realized they should have been registered half a year ago...


J-Mac

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #21 on: July 29, 2012, 11:29 AM »
I have a Samsung HDTV that can only play certain formats. E.g., it cannot play DVD files nor ISO files, however it can play MPEG files. I use AnyDVD-HD along with CloneDVD2 to rip my commercial DVDs to HDD as DVD files (VOB and IFO files within Video_TS folders) and then I use another of their products, CloneDVDMobile, to convert the DVD files to MPEGs.

The first rip, to DVD files using AnyDVD and CloneDVD2 takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes depending on the size/length of the features, but the conversion to MPEG files can take longer; one took me over 1½ hours just for the MPEG conversion.

I did get a suggestion from someone on the Slysoft forum that I may try to implement: He says he is running 4 DVD writers & 1 Blu-Ray writer in external USB enclosures. Each one connects to a separate motherboard USB port (no hubs) and he has not removed any riplock speed settings or updated stock firmware. Claims he can rip 20-24 movies per hour using AnyDVD/CloneDVDMobile to a 10k rpm Raptor drive. I purchased a new computer from Puget Systems in January but my old Falcon-NW box is just sitting there waiting for me to do something with it. Hmm....   8)

I already have AnyDVD/AnyDVD-HD and CloneDVD2 - I purchased lifetime licenses for both in late 2003 and have used them ever since with much pleasure!! I purchased their products that I didn't yet own - CloneCD, CloneDVDMobile, and the HD upgrade to AnyDVD (for Blu-Ray) - back in January 2009 when they finally did away with selling lifetime licenses; they offered lifetime licenses for a few more months then. So the software didn't cost me anything more for the conversions.

BTW, I previously transcoded a number of my DVDs to HDD using AnyDVD/CloneDVD2 into DVD files. I rip them at 100% quality and DVD-D/L size (DVD9). Most regular length DVD movies - fully cloned with all special features, menus, etc. - are taking up about 6.5 to 7.5 GB each. Surprisingly converting them to other formats reduced the size significantly. E.g., "Watchmen-Director's Cut" ripped to DVD files is 6.75 GB, while the AVI conversion is only 3.49 GB; "The Hunted" (The one with Tommy Lee Jones & Benicio DelToro) ripped to DVD files is 7.12 GB, while the MP4 conversion is only 1.6 GB. Of course neither MP4 nor AVI supports menus or chapters so the special features, etc. aren't on those files. I converted those two just recently and I've watched a good bit of each on my computer and 27" ASUS ws monitor - they played very well full screen on that! However I have not tried watching them on my Samsung HDTV yet. I'll post back after I watch them on there to let you know how it looks on there. If it works on there!

Thanks!

Jim

MilesAhead

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #22 on: July 29, 2012, 01:45 PM »
I've found this works well:
BDlot DVD ISO Master

I don't know if BDLot are maintaining their programs, but they surely aren't maintaining their site
- or maybe they merely confused Seasonal with SeasonAll:

...




I don't think Feb this year is all that out of date for a free decrypter. That's the latest release I'm using. If you want latest greatest to decrypt against new blockbusters you'll probably have to pay. If you want to rip DVDs that have been in your collection for years this app in combination with DVD Shrink will do the job for most of them.

edit: Also it's good to look here:
http://www.videohelp.com/

You can find things no longer available other places. For example the author of Imgburn is proscribed from hosting DVD Decrypter that he wrote. If for some reason you still have a use for this old app, such as other no longer developed tools that expect to use it, you can still download it from videohelp.

Tinman57

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #23 on: July 29, 2012, 07:41 PM »
  I've ripped with DVDSmith Movie Backup many times and it has worked like a charm.  It will remove copy-protection and real simple to use.  Best of all it's free (Last time I checked anyhow).....
DVDSmith Movie Backup

Carol Haynes

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Re: Ripping My DVD Collection
« Reply #24 on: July 29, 2012, 08:15 PM »
+1 for DVDFab

You can rip directly to ISO files or if you prefer to VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS folders.

You can also rip just the movie (no extras or menus etc.)

OK it isn't free but it works quick and only requires about 2 clicks to do the job.

There are also addons for ripping BluRay (no data loss) or BluRay to DVD format.

Finally there is an addon to convert to mobile formats.

I have the same problem - too much crap in the house (DVDs, BluRay, Books and CDs - not to mention computer crap) but I haven't found a solution I would be happy with - ripping DVDs to HD wouldn't do it for me as I would still have the DVD!!

Another alternative is book storage for your DVDs - you can buy storage solutions that pack hundreds on indexed CDs and DVDs into scratch resistant and chemically stable sleeves together with inlay cards and booklets. You do have to be organised (I'm not and that is why I gave up on it) but it can reduce the clutter enormously.

How about these:

http://www.amazon.co...pacity/dp/B004CYR166

(this isn't the storage system I was thinking of, as it doesn't store the paper work, but it stores lot of disks in a small space).