I ripped my DVD collection before the discs started to rot, and now it streams to every TV in the house

The author decided to digitize their outdated DVD collection before the discs began to deteriorate. They had long forgotten many of the 20-year-old movies stored on DVDs and believed it was time to preserve these forgotten films. The author explained that optical media such as DVDs and CDs generally last up to 100 years, but this is not always the case for factory-pressed discs, which can develop a phenomenon known as 'disc rot'.

This disc rot is caused by various factors such as oxidation, layer separation, and poor manufacturing, which can render the discs unreadable. The author started the process of ripping their DVD collection to add it to their media library on self-hosted server platforms. This way, they can watch these movies on screens throughout their home without worrying about the discs rotting away.

They also mentioned that modern streaming devices and 4K TVs upscale the file resolution, but the results may vary depending on the device and set. The author saves the ripped DVDs as MKVs without re-encoding, removing unnecessary extras, subtitles, and audio tracks to save space. They keep a backup copy of the ripped files on a local drive and servers like Plex and Jellyfin.

The author expressed that now that they have digitized their old DVD collection, they can relive memories of their favorite films, and they can easily control the quality and longevity of their movies.