The Inherited Media Mountain: A Modern Digital Dilemma
You've just inherited what feels like a small library—2,000 to 2,500 physical discs spanning your parents' entire media collection. DVDs, Blu-rays, maybe even some old CDs mixed in. The sheer volume is daunting. Where do you even begin? How long will this take? And perhaps most importantly, how much storage are you going to need when it's all said and done?
This isn't just about backing up media anymore. It's about preserving family history, about digitizing memories before the physical media degrades (and it will), and about creating a searchable, accessible digital library. But here's the reality check: ripping discs one at a time while watching progress bars crawl would take literal years. You need a system. You need optimization. And you need to think about this as an engineering project, not just a weekend task.
In 2026, we have better tools than ever, but the fundamental challenge remains: optical media was never designed for mass digitization. The good news? The data hoarding community has been solving this exact problem for years, and their collective wisdom is about to save you hundreds of hours.
Understanding Your Media: What You're Actually Dealing With
Before you buy a single piece of hardware, you need to audit that collection. Not all discs are created equal, and the type of media determines everything about your approach.
DVDs are relatively simple—they typically max out at around 8.5GB for dual-layer discs, but most single-layer movies come in at 4.7GB. Blu-rays are a different beast entirely. A standard Blu-ray can hold 25GB, with dual-layer versions hitting 50GB. And if there are any 4K UHD Blu-rays in the mix? Those can be 66GB or even 100GB. The difference in rip times between a DVD and a 4K Blu-ray isn't linear—it's exponential.
Then there's the copy protection situation. Most commercial DVDs use CSS encryption, which has been broken for decades. Blu-rays use AACS, which gets updated periodically. In 2026, you'll need to ensure your ripping software has the latest keys. Some particularly stubborn discs might have additional protection like Cinavia, which can be a real headache for certain playback scenarios.
Here's a pro tip from someone who's been there: sort your collection first. Separate DVDs from Blu-rays. Check for any obvious damage—scratches, disc rot (that weird bronzing on older DVDs), or cracked cases. You don't want to discover a bad drive or software issue 500 discs into the project because of one damaged disc that keeps failing.
The Hardware Setup: Building a Ripping Rig That Won't Quit
This is where most people get it wrong. They try to rip thousands of discs with a single drive connected to their everyday computer. That's like trying to mow a football field with a push mower. You need specialized hardware if you want to finish this project before the next decade.
The absolute game-changer? Multiple optical drives. I'm talking about building or buying a system that can handle 4, 6, or even 8 drives simultaneously. In 2026, you can find external USB 3.2 enclosures that support multiple drives, or you can build a dedicated ripping station with internal SATA connections. Each additional drive doesn't just add capacity—it multiplies your throughput.
But here's the catch: not all drives are created equal. For Blu-rays, you want drives that support the latest standards and have good error correction. Some drives are notoriously slow with certain types of discs. The data hoarding community has favorites—drives from manufacturers like LG, Pioneer, and ASUS often get recommended because they handle problematic discs better.
Your computer matters too. Ripping, especially transcoding (which we'll get to), is CPU-intensive. A modern multi-core processor will save you countless hours. RAM is less critical, but 16GB is a good minimum. Storage speed matters during the initial rip—you're writing large files constantly. An NVMe SSD for your working directory makes a noticeable difference compared to a mechanical hard drive.
And let's talk about the physical setup. You need space. Those disc drives need to be accessible for swapping. You'll want some kind of organizational system for "to be ripped," "ripping," and "completed" piles. It sounds trivial until you're 800 discs in and you can't remember which stack is which.
Software Stack: The Tools That Actually Work in 2026
The software side of mass ripping has evolved significantly, but some classics remain essential. Your workflow will likely involve two main stages: ripping and transcoding.
For ripping, MakeMKV is still the community favorite in 2026. It handles both DVDs and Blu-rays, deals with most copy protection, and creates exact copies of the video and audio tracks. The key advantage? It's relatively hands-off once configured. You can set it to automatically start ripping when a disc is inserted, choose which tracks to keep (usually just the main feature and desired audio tracks), and output to a specified directory.
But MakeMKV creates massive files—exact copies of what's on the disc. That's where HandBrake comes in. HandBrake transcodes those massive MKV files into more manageable sizes using codecs like H.265 (HEVC), which in 2026 is even more efficient than it was a few years ago. The quality-to-size ratio is excellent, especially if you're willing to use slower, higher-quality encoding presets.
Here's where automation really shines. You can set up scripts or use tools that watch a directory for new MKV files and automatically queue them in HandBrake. On Linux, this is straightforward with cron jobs and CLI versions. On Windows, you might use something like HandBrake's built-in queue system combined with folder watching.
For the truly ambitious, there are automation suites that handle everything from disc insertion to final file organization. These can rename files based on metadata, fetch cover art, and even update media server libraries. They require more setup but can turn your ripping station into a true "set it and forget it" operation.
The Storage Question: How Much Space Will 2,500 Discs Actually Need?
This is the million-dollar question—or at least the several-hundred-dollar question. The original poster was right to be concerned about storage planning. Underestimate, and you're buying more drives mid-project. Overestimate, and you've wasted money on capacity you won't use.
Let's do some math, but remember—this is highly variable based on your choices.
If you keep the raw rips from MakeMKV, you're looking at the full disc sizes. For a mixed collection of 2,000 DVDs (average 6GB) and 500 Blu-rays (average 30GB), that's roughly 27TB. That's just the raw rips.
Most people transcode. Using HandBrake with reasonable H.265 settings, you can get DVD-quality movies down to 1-2GB and Blu-rays down to 5-10GB while maintaining excellent quality. Now your same collection might be 5-10TB. That's a huge difference.
But here's what experienced data hoarders know: you need working space too. You can't transcode directly from the rip to the final destination if you want to verify the file is good. So you need temporary storage equal to your largest file (probably a 4K Blu-ray at 100GB) times the number of concurrent transcodes you're running.
My recommendation? Start with a RAID array or a NAS with room to expand. In 2026, 20TB hard drives are common and relatively affordable. A four-bay NAS with 20TB drives in RAID 5 gives you 60TB of usable space—more than enough for your transcoded collection with room for growth.
And don't forget about backups. RAID isn't backup. You'll want at least one additional copy, preferably offsite or in the cloud. Backblaze B2 or similar services are popular in the data hoarding community for this exact purpose.
Workflow Optimization: The Real Time-Savers
Now we get to the heart of the original question: shortcuts. Not cheating shortcuts, but intelligent workflow optimizations that shave hours off the process.
First, batch processing. Don't rip one disc, transcode it, then start the next. Have one system (or multiple systems) dedicated to ripping, dumping the MKVs to a shared network location. Have another, more powerful system handling the transcoding queue. They can work in parallel. While eight discs are ripping, the previous eight can be transcoding.
Second, smart queuing. Some discs rip faster than others. If you have multiple drives, don't let a slow or problematic disc hold up the entire operation. Most ripping software will let you eject a problematic disc and move on to the next in the queue. Come back to the problem children later.
Third, metadata automation. Manually renaming 2,500 files and fetching cover art would be torture. Tools like FileBot, TinyMediaManager, or media server plugins can automate this. They use online databases to identify your media and rename files consistently. This is especially crucial if you plan to use Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby.
Fourth, quality checking. You don't want to discover a bad rip 1,000 discs into the project. Build in spot checks. Watch the first minute of every tenth movie. Or use automated tools that can detect common encoding artifacts. It's slower upfront but saves massive headaches later.
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Everyone makes mistakes on their first large-scale ripping project. Here are the big ones I've seen—and made myself.
Underestimating time is the classic error. Even with multiple drives, ripping 2,500 discs takes weeks or months of continuous operation. A single Blu-ray can take 1-2 hours to rip, plus another 2-4 hours to transcode (depending on settings and hardware). Do the math: that's thousands of hours. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Poor organization will kill your momentum. Label everything. Have a system for tracking progress. Use a simple spreadsheet or database to note which discs have been ripped, which failed and need retrying, and which are complete. Trust me, you will forget.
Ignoring ventilation is a hardware killer. Multiple optical drives and a CPU running at 100% for weeks generate serious heat. Make sure your ripping station has excellent airflow. Consider external fan setups if necessary. Overheating leads to drive failures and corrupted rips.
The "set it and forget it" trap is real. Yes, you want automation. No, you shouldn't let it run unsupervised for days without checking. Discs get stuck. Drives need cleaning. Software crashes. Check on the system at least once a day.
Finally, not verifying your backups. I know someone who ripped 1,500 discs only to discover their RAID array had been silently corrupting files for months. Regular checksum verification and test restores are essential.
Alternative Approaches: When DIY Isn't Worth It
Let's be honest: ripping 2,500 discs is a massive undertaking. For some people, the time investment just doesn't make sense compared to the monetary cost of alternatives.
One option is professional digitization services. These exist, though they're not cheap. You ship them your discs, they rip them, and return the discs plus hard drives with the data. For a collection this size, you're looking at thousands of dollars—but you get your life back.
Another approach is selective ripping. Do you really need every special feature, every commentary track, every language dub? Probably not. Ripping just the main feature with one audio track (maybe the director's commentary if it's important to you) cuts the storage requirements and processing time significantly.
Or consider a hybrid approach. Rip the truly important, irreplaceable content yourself—home movies, out-of-print films, personally significant media. For common commercial releases that are easily available digitally, maybe just buy the digital version if it's affordable. In 2026, many films are available in 4K HDR digitally for less than the cost of the physical disc.
If you do go the professional route, be careful about who you choose. Look for services with good reputations in the archival community. Check their privacy policies—you're sending them your entire media collection, after all.
The 2026 Landscape: What's Changed and What Hasn't
As we look at disc ripping in 2026, some things have evolved while others remain stubbornly the same.
On the hardware side, optical drives are becoming niche products. Fewer manufacturers make them, but the ones that do are catering to professionals and enthusiasts. This means better build quality but potentially higher prices. USB-C has completely taken over, making multi-drive setups cleaner.
Storage continues to get cheaper per terabyte. In 2026, 20TB drives are mainstream, and 30TB+ drives are available for those with deeper pockets. This makes storing raw rips more feasible than ever before.
Software has seen incremental improvements. MakeMKV and HandBrake both receive regular updates. The encoding efficiency of H.265 has improved slightly, and new codecs like AV1 are becoming viable for archival, though they require significantly more processing power.
What hasn't changed? The physical limitations of optical media. Discs still spin. Lasers still read pits and lands. The maximum read speed of even the fastest Blu-ray drive is a fraction of modern SSD speeds. And discs still fail—disc rot affects even well-stored media eventually.
The community knowledge, though, has never been better. Forums, subreddits, and wikis are filled with people who have solved exactly the problems you're facing. The collective wisdom of thousands of data hoarders is your best resource.
Getting Started: Your First 100 Discs
Don't try to boil the ocean. Start small. Rip your first 100 discs before you scale up to thousands.
Begin with a single drive setup. Get MakeMKV and HandBrake working smoothly. Dial in your encoding settings—do test rips of different types of media (DVD, Blu-ray, animated vs. live action) to find the sweet spot of quality versus file size that works for you.
Develop your organizational system. How will you track what's been ripped? How will you name files? Where will they go? Work out these kinks on 100 discs, not 2,500.
Test your backup strategy. Rip 10 discs, back them up, then practice restoring them. Is the process smooth? Does everything work?
Only after you've successfully ripped, transcoded, organized, and backed up 100 discs should you scale up. Order additional drives. Set up your multi-drive enclosure. Build your automation scripts.
Remember: the goal isn't just to copy data. It's to create a usable, reliable digital library that will last. Quality matters more than speed, even when you're optimizing for efficiency.
Preserving More Than Just Bits
As you embark on this project, remember what you're actually preserving. It's not just movies. It's your parents' tastes, their memories, the films they watched together. That terrible comedy your dad loved unironically. The foreign film your mom discovered on a trip. The collection tells a story about them.
In 2026, physical media is increasingly obsolete. Disc players aren't in every home anymore. But those plastic circles contain cultural artifacts, personal history, and shared experiences. Digitizing them ensures they remain accessible as technology evolves.
The process will test your patience. You'll encounter problematic discs, hardware failures, and software quirks. But when you're done, you'll have something remarkable: a complete, searchable, shareable digital archive of a physical collection that would otherwise slowly degrade in boxes.
Start with one disc. Then another. Build your system as you go. Learn from the data hoarding community—they've been where you are. And in a few months, when you browse your new digital library and see every film your parents collected over decades, all accessible with a click, you'll know it was worth the effort.
Now go find those external drives on sale. You're going to need them.
