Has anyone considered something like this for in home media management of all those discs?

http://www.escient.com/products/mx311.html
About FireBall MX-311:
Escient's FireBall MX-311 is the new standard for home theater components. There is no better way to enjoy your home theater than with the MX-311’s ability to graphically organize and display your entire DVD and digital music collection right on your big screen! With its large 320GB hard drive and the ability to manage up to 400 DVDs and CDs in an external changer, the MX-311 provides instant access to even the largest music and movie collections through an easy to use and intuitive on-screen interface. No more fumbling through movie jackets, getting up from your favorite theater seat, or worrying about scratched or lost discs - just sit back, relax, and enjoy the power and thrill of the ultimate home theater media manager.

I like the idea, but I'm waiting to see what happens with Managed Copy on the high-def formats. It would be cool to be able to pick my media off of a menu like that, maybe.

I looked into the Escient a couple of years back but thought the $4k something price tag was a little steep, which I now see has dropped to the $2k range. (US$)

Personally, I don't see the value of having my movies stored on a hard drive. It is not that difficult to load a movie from the box when you are watching it for 2-3 hours. What I did but and really enjoy is a digital music server from Olive to load my CD's. Its great that all our music is available to us all the time.

Time and money.

If you have the time to rip everything lossless to any old hard drive, you have many HTPC options, albeit at additional cost of tweaking and configuration. If you don't have the time or inclination, you have to throw more money and technology at the problem.

I'd rather go with one of the Olive media drives. About the same price, but you don't have the hassle of using the changers.

The concept of fast, easy ripping and auto storage is what has me thinking about it, for music anyway.

I'm waiting for this whole copy protection thing to finalize to some degree but I'd prefer a ripped to HD solution over a changer. I can backup a large hard drive but moving parts wear out. At least that seems to be the case with anybody I know who opted for CD changers for their sound system.

In any case, I won't be building such a solution until I have amassed enough spare computer parts to keep the price at a minimal. Actually, I'm never more than a new video card away from building one with all the crap I have laying around.

Two to four Thousand just seems like a lot to prevent a quick walk to change a DVD.