I've been buying CDs since 1986, DVDs since 1997. I have a lot of discs. While they're all organized on shelves, I started to think about how much space could be reclaimed if they all went digital. CDs can be ripped to FLAC, ALAC, or MP3 if you don't care about quality (I do). DVDs can be ripped to MKV files and then converted to MP4 for Apple TV. So, that's what I started doing.
I ripped some non-essentials that I won't miss if I lose them, and then found a place to sell them. I got an average of 60c for each DVD (they were crap), and 25c for each CD. That's not a lot. I looked at eBay and Amazon and for some titles, you can still get like $4 for some movies, and $30 for out-of-print discs. However, some DVDs sell for 1c. Yeah, you read that right. Same goes for CDs.
So this made me think about the value of what you have. Is a 10-year-old DVD of "Scrooged" worth anything to anyone? Probably not. It's on TV all the time during the holidays. I love extras on movies, but I don't watch them more than one or twice, depending on the title (read: Star Wars).
Now, I was totally against buying media in a digital format at first, but I've softened a bit about that on the music front. I buy some albums from hdtracks.com so I get the best you can get, but for movies I have to stick with Blu. Have to. You get about 10x the data from Blu than you get from iTunes' "HD" downloads. The video looks like ass. Yeah, there's that article Ars did about it, but screenshots don't tell the whole story. Show many any HD iTunes movie and I'll bet I'll blow it away with a Blu version.
In the last three weeks, I've reclaimed a lot of space. The DVDs I haven't sold are in the garage awaiting some fate which I haven't decided yet. When will I want to watch "Romancing the Stone" again? Probably never. Worth ripping? Unsure. HD space is dirt cheap, far cheaper than what I originally paid for the movie in the first place, so I come out ahead there, I think.
Anyone else move to digital completely?
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