Just using a Playstation sounds like it won't work or will be a huge time sink.
Blu ray optical drives are way more expensive than I thought
The copy protections on Blu rays are exceptionally annoying, to the extent where there is really only one closed source software -- MakeMKV -- that can work around them. This post goes into some interesting details.
Finding a drive that is known to work with MakeMKV is a pain. There's a brand called Pioneer that seems promising but they have stopped producing bluray drives ~~went out of business last year~~. I have no idea which model works, and it's common that secondhand sellers will swap enclosures and pass it off as a different model.
Sometimes you need to flash the firmware on the drive to make it work with 4K UHD discs.

I was going to try ripping a Blu-ray that I bought recently, since I couldn't find a quality rip anywhere, but I'm pretty turned off from the whole prospect at this point.

Anyway I'm not really asking for a specific reply, I just thought this topic was interesting and I'm curious what people think about Blu rays and optical media in general. Does the future seem bleak? Are we going to be stuck with shitty WebDLs for most new content? Or is physical media here to stay?

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[–] Mobile@leminal.space 24 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I recently got into the rabbit hole of digitizing my DVDs after discovering that disc rot is very real. I bought an LG blu-ray external driver, followed steps to flash firmware, bought a MakeMKV license to support the software, and bought a NAS to run a RAID 1 configuration to hold the backups of the DVDs.

I do think with Netflix buying out Warner Bros, optical media will take a hit. But companies like the Criterion Collection keeps optical media alive. Also CDs are alive and well when it comes to music.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

How are you storing the DVDs? Bit rot is unavoidable, but optical media should be much more resilient to it compared to magnetic and flash storage (~100 vs ~10 years)

[–] austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 9 points 6 days ago

They might be referring to the Warner Brothers disc rot issue announced earlier this year (affecting some mid 2000s dvds). Ideally, things are made well and last a long time when stored properly.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Still haven't discovered any in going on two decades of storage.

[–] Mobile@leminal.space 2 points 6 days ago

I've stored them in a TV cabinet for years. Nothing special. I've created a Jellyfin server so if I was burning my DVD and blu-ray already, I may as well back up to files. And to point out austinfloyd's comment, disc rot was the other reason to back up the DVDs.

Also don't go with an Asustor 1102TL. I can't access the BIOS so I can't flash open media vault. I had a whole plan to have an automated Borg backup script running on the NAS but alas, I guess not. If someone can prove me wrong, please let me know.