Spinning Up a Media Server

DVDs may be down, but they are not out. In fact, there is a resurgence of interest in owning physical media as people awaken to the realization that streaming services, and even digital “purchases,” typically do not actually grant the buyer ownership of the content. That is enough to get otherwise well-adjusted people raiding the bargain bin at their local second-hand store for old copies of Star Wars and The Terminator.

If that sounds more like you than you’d care to admit, then YouTuber leepspvideo has just released a relevant video that details how you can keep watching your DVD collection long after your DVD player kicks the bucket. In the video, leepspvideo pairs the OSMC media center application with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a cheap USB DVD drive to play movies. Other Pi models will work as well, but in some cases, installing libdvd-pkg is necessary for a good experience. The Raspberry Pi 500+ was surprisingly awful as a DVD player until this package made everything right with the world once again.

While having the physical media is reassuring for the future, actually needing to switch discs to watch different movies isn’t ideal. The streaming experience, where media can be chosen from a large menu of options, is much more convenient. Fortunately, leepspvideo has a suggestion for this problem as well. Using a software tool like Handbrake, discs can be ripped and stored in a digital archive. From there, it is fairly trivial to create a 100%-local media streaming solution with content that will never mysteriously vanish.

For all the details you need to get your media collection in tip-top shape, be sure to check out the video below.