Before moving into our new home, The Manfriend and I conducted a stock check of all of our belongings and realised that DVDs took up a shocking percentage of our overall material things.
The space-saving solutions were as follows:
a) Donate them all.
b) Somehow find a solution that reduced their actual physical space (and wasn’t an eyesore).
We found something of a miracle in Plex and Google Chromecast (how I survived before Chromecast, I have no idea). Plex is an app that holds your entire media library in a super easy (and super smart) user interface – movies, TV shows, home movies, and more – for instant streaming.
It is not just lists and file names. It keeps track of episodes watched, theme songs, movie posters, episodic promo pictures, categories (you can sort by ratings, date released, genre, or personally curated lists), and more. The more I use it, the more I love it.
While it won’t replace Netflix for me (I wouldn’t even know where to purchase half the documentaries I end up stumbling across), it is incredible in its own right.
How To Make Your Own Netflix with Plex
1. Download Plex, DVD Ripper HD and DvdDecrypter.
2. Create your Plex account, follow setup instructions, and choose your media server (we’re using an external hard drive plugged into a laptop, but you can use a laptop or computer alone).
3. Open DvdDecrypter, put your DVD in to your laptop/computer, and ‘rip’ it in DVD Ripper HD (following the movie naming and TV show naming guidelines so the information auto-populates).
4. Make sure your fully ripped file is in the folder you allocated during setup.
5. Refresh your app library, plug in your Chromecast, and GET YOUR PLEX ON.
6. Rinse and repeat until your physical movie and TV show library disappears.
Let me know how you get on, beauties.
