I was ripping all of my DVDs and BluRays to .iso for a long time. I now have everything in boxes in the garage and a lot of hard drives.
LOL!
Sounds exactly like me. :=)
Years ago I did a major move and decided to chuck all my physical media, confident in the digital collection I had amassed.
Didn't realize external USB Hard drives have a shelf life, but found out the hard way when several died without warning (around the ten-year mark).
I lost a lot of irreplaceable video and audio content!
So now I not only keep all my physical media packed away, but also make digital backups on at least two separate Hard Drives. Sheeesh!
Ok, that may be overkill...
I'd like to know what everyone's best practices are for storage and quality.
I'm a stickler for having the best quality video possible, so .iso's of my discs are what works for me.
I take the hit in needing more and more storage capacity, but to get the best quality - and retain all disc extras - it's worth it for me.
... what does everyone like for CD's?
I'm even more adamant about the highest audio quality than I am about video.
So for me at this point there are only two music solutions.
I create .iso's for all my CD's.
But that's the
lowest quality audio I retain. If I can find a high-definition equivalent online, from somewhere like HDTracks, I purchase and download those.
They're usually 96kHz/24-bit flac files -- or better.
Oh, I forgot...for portable audio, like for the phone, I use those high rez files -- and lossless flac files ripped from the CD's.
I'll never do iTunes again.
I tossed the one and only Ipod I ever bought the minute I found I had to load my collection into iTunes.
Never looked back.
T