I still keep my DVD archive but I only add to it things that are super important to me - rares from bands I really, really love - everything else just remains for backup purposes and it's on external hard drives.
What I propose you do is use a program like imgburn to turn your dvd format .vob's into a .iso disc image - this allows you to burn them if you're so inclined, but otherwise VLC media player can actually just play .iso files as if they were DVDs. No gaps!
I liked your comment about smoke coming from your dvd burner. Mine literally just stopped being able to burn discs. able to read, but not write. oh well. guess my burning days are over.
Anyways, a fair warning - more recent imgburn versions have come with bloatware and PUP's - older versions are clean and work just fine and can be found here:
https://www.videohelp.com/software/ImgBurn/old-versions
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