2016 HTPC for Catfisch Cinema (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

More and more, I’m coming to the conclusion that - with limited exceptions, I’m sure - my HTPC setup is going to be the hub for my DVD and BD content, and that I’ll live with a small amount of media shelving to keep my limited supply of 4K UHD discs accessible.

That's a very rational choice. I envy your fortitude.

But I don’t really have the desire to go through the technical headaches of maintaining a 4K database. Some of the discs don’t want to play nicely with the drive. Plex/Infuse for AppleTV doesn’t like disc-based Atmos tracks - not really an issue for my 5.1 setups - and the whole point of me using Plex/Infuse on an AppleTV was to make a HTPC work within the confines of what I already had, rather than an invitation to add more hardware to the rack.

Most of the 4K discs I buy include digital copies and some also include BD copies - those will be my backups in case the 4K disc ever fails.

Don’t get me wrong, I love how the HTPC has simplified my media setup, particularly with TV on disc titles. There’s no reason for me to shut it down or abandon it. But I’m starting to think of it as a legacy content server more than something that I will continue to upgrade to handle the latest and greatest innovations. If anything, I’m looking at 5 years of data on there showing me what I’ve watched and not watched in that time, and using that as a starting point to get rid of things in my physical collection (and on those drives) that just aren’t being watched at all. At what point do I just have to say to myself, “I blind bought this disc because it was cheap and I liked the cast, but I never was in the mood to watch it, I’ve boxed it and unboxed it through three or four different moves, I’ve paid for hard drive space to keep it on, and I still don’t want to watch it - just let it go”? I don’t want to own copies of every single thing I’ve ever seen. I no longer see the value in curating a collection to show off to others my knowledge of film and television. I no longer feel the need to own “important” titles that I don’t actually enjoy watching. I’d rather sharpen my focus a little and try to pare it all down so that everything on my HTPC and my shelves is a reflection of what I actually enjoy watching and what I hope to revisit over the years.

Otherwise I worry I’ll just fall into this trap of buying new and expensive hard drives every year to hold on to data that I honestly don’t care about simply because I’m already in the habit of doing so.

I don't see shutting down my media server until it dies of its own accord. But insofar as I still succumb to the temptation to buy and own some few discs, I think I'll continue ripping them. For it would be simpler to not buy anything, simple wait for streaming, since I subscribe to almost everything throughout the year. And most movies we watch are streaming, not from discs I bought or ripped. And for buying, it would be more rational and simpler for me to buy digital / cloud library specifically.

But here I am. I have never bought discs in the volume that many HTF'ers do. But I still buy some discs that seem special in some way.