"we've all got to start somewhere" is pretty condescending.
If the author is in the united states, torrenting the videos would violate copyright (when you torrent (if you don't have uploading disabled somehow), you redistribute without authorization). Transcoding DVDs you've already bought is not distribution.
In the United States, ripping the DVD's to a drive violates the DMCA. You are illegal either way, just by transcoding you are violating a grossly unjust law instead of a disproportionate but justifiable one. And no one will catch you for ripping discs, except possibly if you brag about it on the internet.
.... IANAL but yeah I think you're right. walp
Okay, putting aside the legality (although in Australia there's some provisions for "format shifting"), are you really happy with the "backup" quality provided by most scene groups?
I find I can do a better job (at least to my eyes) than most 4.7/8GB movie rips, and the standards for x265 aren't set yet.
Ripping your own media gives you a lot more flexibility.
Re:Redoing all my home networking
by icebraining on Monday December 04, 2017 @01:25PM
(#15846170)
If you're part of the large segment of the world population that needs subtitles to watch most movies, it can be very difficult to impossible to find well-made subtitles that match your video.
They have a 1TB ingress cap (Comcast)
Unless you pay them $50 more.
The simple approach is to make a list of your physical media collection, stow it away for backup purposes, and download the collection over time. Then eventually you can even move towards torrenting the rest of your media and drop that netflix subscription that's supporting the destruction of net neutrality!