Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Listen up, mediaphiles, because this might just be the last time we tackle the preservation of physical media in the hallowed pages of Maximum PC. Yes, the times are changing. Yes, we've cut back on purchasing CDs, DVDs, and BDs lately. Yes, we still have plenty of discs lying around in jewel cases on dusty shelves or in enormous three-ring binders. And yes-most definitely yes-we want to be able to access all these movies and songs from our PC, television, and our shiny new smartphone."

It's hard to imagine anyone today not having an ever growing collection of digital media. While much of that media is now originating in an electronic format that you can download directly, you likely still have many old favorite DVDs and other media sources stored in a physical format. At one time we heard and read regularly about ripping and converting digital media. While not as common a topic as it once was perhaps, it is still an important issue and one that can confound even the most experienced people. Maximum PC has done a very nice job of over viewing and presenting the in's and out's of ripping, watching, and converting all things digital. The article covers video and audio file formats, target playback devices, storage devices, organization strategies, streaming, and more. It would be a great site to add to your bookmarks list, and to refer to when you need a refresher or advice on handling your digital media.

"Now, ripping DVDs is our great challenge. Copying and transcoding the disc’s video into more efficient formats involves math an order of magnitude scarier than what’s required to rip audio CDs. A machine that will rip the latest Miley Cyrus CD in mere moments could take hours to extract and convert your copy of Alien vs. Predator to an iPod-friendly format. But with the right software, a quad-core-equipped PC, and a little know-how, you can cut your disc-rip time from hours to 30 minutes. Plenty of tricks and traps still await first-time rippers, but we’ll show you the basics and then walk you through some of the most valuable power-user ripping secrets."

I actually don't see ripping DVDs as a great challenge, but I have had the pleasure of going through lots of different programs over the years to back up my library. For those of you just getting into the whole process, either for backing up, or to create an instant access media library for your home theater, Maximum PC has put up a fairly good tutorial that will probably save you a lot of time and effort. It's quite thorough and even covers Blu-ray discs if you've got any. It even touches on how to stream your new library around the house. The only part I find lacking is that it doesn't provide you with any instructions on how to stream outside of your domicile. All I can add to that is to consider services like orb.com, which can take your media library and make it available to you anywhere so long as you have an internet connection.