I check out what they want to watch to make sure it's safe. So far, we've never had a problem. They tend to lean in the direction of Looney Toons and Hannah Barbera. Sometimes Sesame Street, but mostly the cartoons. :)

Last count about two years ago was right around 3000 DVDs for our house. I'm sure there are more shows and movies than DVDs. We have quite a few that are collections. Like ten, twenty, fifty, etc. of a certain type of movie, then there are the series that usually have at least a couple episodes on each disc.

When I started collecting it was VHS, but then DVD came out and I switched over. Switching was fun...NOT. lol

3000?!  :-O

How are you storing all of them?

Any plans to move everything to blu-ray?
 

What I've already got on DVD I'll probably just keep. When blu-ray came out I started buying new stuff on it. So I've actually got a mix of regular DVD, HD DVD, and blu-ray. If I see something on blu-ray, that I already have on one of the previous two, and it's cheap, I might switch it out. If I find a set in a single case, and I've got it in individual cases, I'll usually buy it and switch them out, but it's just a space saving. One thin case holding multiple discs versus multiple cases holding one disc each. However, I don't have plans to switch them all out. I don't think it would be very cost effective. Besides, blu-ray players play all three. So as long as everything works, I'm good.

I have a large craft room with floor to ceiling shelves on three of it's four walls and I have them on them. We also have an office with similar shelves two walls and some are in that room, the rest are on the shelves on the livingroom wall. We keep the ones we watch the most in the livingroom. :)

They're all in alphabetical order in each room, starting with zero to nine then from A to Z. I thought about doing the alphabetical order throughout the house, but it would mean a lot more shifting when I bought a new one. So I opted to do it for each room instead.

If we want to find a particular show or movie, we just look in an index I put together for each room. It makes finding things very easy. Even if it's a part of a movie or show set. :)

I've done something similar with our ~1500 CDs. We've just decorated an attic room and I've filled a large alcove with shelving and whacked them all in there. I've had to alphabetise them otherwise we'd never find anything.

Can blu-ray players read HD DVDs then? Never had an HD DVD to experiment with.

Perhaps I should have specified our public library. Our personal collection is probably in the range of 50-60, of which a good half are dispensible (we'll never watch again). The public library has a huge collection of obscure foreign and art house flicks you would never even find for sale (or otherwise know exist), as well as most hollywood theatrical releases going back to the early days of the industry. Current 'in-demand' tv series are a bit thin, they might e.g. have only one season. Also the chances of getting previously-loaned disks that are scratched unplayable is somewhat high, especially with the more popular titles (as you might expect).

I have regular DVDs, HDs, and blu-ray, and it plays them all. One of the reasons I like it that you don't have to replace your older ones with new ones. Save you a ton.

Some people collect key chains, rocks, and other stuff. We collect movies, shows, and music. :)

I've been collecting movies, shows, and the old man has been at it with music for years. We've also got a nice book collection. I have a ton of those old Reader's Digest hardbacks with a bunch of stories in each one.

Even if the internet goes down for some reason, we've got a lot to choose from for entertainment. :)

I know the library here has DVDs and such, but I've never gotten anything like that from it.

Well, I did just buy a Reservoir Dogs + Bad Lieutenant dvd for five bucks. Gotta own the classics.

Will you actually use the CDs? Are they ripped anywhere?

I've got quite a few CDs still stuck at my parents. They're all ripped to decent quality MP3s so I can't be bothered bringing them here. I've already got too much clutter, but I refuse to get rid of them.

I've ripped them all as FLAC files and can stream them all via the RPi to the TV <still not sorted a new amp out yet> so I'm getting lossless quality to the TV, but having to use the TV's speakers. :C So, I'm still using them at the moment to get the best sound quality. When we get an upgrade, I dunno... I like that I can have the case art/sleeve notes/lyrics to flick through when listening to something, so there's still something to be said for having the physical CD. I don't know how good the DVDA and SACD rips will be either, so need to check those out when I do get a new amp.

Plus they look nice. We've invested a lot in our music collection, and I'd hate to get rid of any too.

In case you're wondering, we're getting a new carpet a week on Saturday, I've spent some time today screwing loose floorboards down so they don't bounce, and speaking to the plumber next door when I put a screw through a plastic pipe and started a leak.  :-$

Edit - the shelves are also straighter than that picture would have you believe.

I'm thinking of setting up my other downstairs room as a place to listen to music, rather than a dining room for the time being. Put all the CDs in there on display.

I don't sit down and listen to music like I used to.

I've got a reasonably decent old HiFi and an RPi running Volumio with a better USB sound adapter. Means I can turn it all on and control all my music from a phone/tablet. Could do with a big beanbag.

That HiFi is the only thing I have at the moment that can take a CD.

We've got a few other CD players around the house, so we're keeping the discs for those non-networked places too, also the car.

I'm doing something similar to you, using the PI to stream the media from my PC (a NAS is on the cards as part of the upgrade too) and using yatse on my phone to control everything.

What's volumino do, does it act as a DAC?

It's a distro based on Raspbian/debian that is designed for using the Pi as a music player. It runs MPD in the background and has a nice webUI. Supports a number of high quality DACs since the normal audio on the Pi is rubbish.

You could go all out and buy an expensive DAC if you like that sort of thing but I got one of these (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221164319758) which has a CM108 chip in it. For 99p I'm more than happy and it does the job well enough for me.

This page gives a nice comparison of what's cheap and works - http://www.george-smart.co.uk/wiki/USB_Soundcard_Tests

I've seen some DACs at vast prices, but I suppose it's all in keeping with the high price of a lot of high end kit. I'll have to listen to music through my setup when I get a new amp and if there's no discernible difference between a CD and the FLAC file I can't see the need for one.

When you say the audio on the Pi is rubbish, do you mean via the 3.5mm jack?  

Yeah the 3.5mm jack. Can't remember the specifics but it hasn't got a proper sound "card" so used PWM to create sounds which is poor.

I think sound over HDMI is fine though.

Aye, that's what I thought. Even through the TV speakers via the HDMI, there's a marked difference in the quality of the FLAC files compared to the MP3s.

Does the Pi2 have better sound or is it the same? I have my amp hooked up through the HDMI via a SPDIF converter. I wonder if I'd notice a difference using the 3.5mm jack.

There's definitely some improvements but I don't believe it's that great.