OK, I think I am going to do this: put all the DVDs in a folder, but keep the cases for display purposes. That way I could have them all lined up on a shelf, but the actual DVDs would be organized in a folder.
If you’re going to do that, then why not keep the actual DVDs in their cases? Why even bother moving the DVDs into a separate folder if you’re just going to keep the cases?
Just try it. Throw your DVD’s in a folder, and pack the DVD cases off in a box in the back of your closet. If you haven’t felt compelled to pull the box of cases out by the time you move in a couple months, then pitch it.
Sorry about a quick hijack
I would LOVE to do this. But I was under the impression that coping a movie onto a hard drive was illegal.
Any additional info?
And just so that it’s not a total hijack - I have about 70 DVD’s and I throw out the plastic and put it in my DVD folder as soon as I get home. It’s super nice to just flip pages to look for movies you want. Plus if a friend asks you to bring a movie over you don’t have to decide what you want before you leave the house.
There really isn’t a good reason. I’ve thrown most of mine out and keep all my CDs in one of those storage things that has dozens of individual plastic envelopes for each CD. If I care about keeping the printed matter from the jewel case, I just take it out and slip it into the holder along with the CD.
This is what I do, with DVDs as well as CDs and video games (I think at this point I have four 256-disc books and several smaller ones). Having everything in the wallets is really convenient, and the cases are all lined up on the bookshelf to satisfy my collector’s mentality.
Bingo. CDs/DVDs get opened twice after I purchase them. Once to remove the disc and rip it, and one to replace the disc and toss it in the closet. I still have all the physical copies, mostly because I’ve yet to be that squeezed for space. But if I had to, I’d easily be able to toss almost all of it, saving a few that were especially important to me.
Depending on how much compression you can stand, you could get a lot more. I’ve compressed 2-hr movies into a 700Mb .avi and it looks good enough on a 17" LCD monitor.
I use them for recovered data/backups/etc, looks all spiffy when I return a customers stuff in a nice case. We bought a few packs of slim DVD cases for this and the customers always seem very impressed.
I did this with my CDs long ago, and I wish I hadn’t. While at the time I was proud of myself for organizing my music and saving space, there’s lots of music I never listen to any more. If I still had the cases, I could sell them to a used music store and make $50, or give them away as gifts. But, without the cases and liner notes, the cds have essentially 0 resale value.