Storing DVDs on hard drive/some other gadget to take them away at weekend??

[amazonianwoman]

Total ignoramous alert here...

We have a static caravan in Wales. It often rains in Wales so sometimes we resort to watching DVDs. (yes, it's not glamorous but we love it )

Is there any way we can store DVDs so we don't have to keep carting them back & forth.

On a hard drive? Icy box? We'd still like to watch them on a TV, not on the laptop. I don't want to fill the laptop's memory, but don't mind having to take the laptop if you can run DVDs via the laptop to the TV.

Any suggestions? I'm clueless with things this modern, but not such a technophobe that I can't follow instructions/wire things up if necessary.

External hard drive? Whether you can run your laptop through th TV depends on the TV/Laptop specs.

doesn't really help hugely, but I put all ours on my iPod (Classic - 80gb), and have a portable DVD player that the iPod slots into, and play form there.

I think the DVD player can be hooked up to TV quite easily, to play on a bigger screen, but have never tried it (used mostly for ASD dd1, so we always have her fave dvds with us when life gets a bit stressy for her)

This crossed with my message asking essentially the same thing! So - how do you get them from the DVD onto the external hard drive (yes, I really don't know that!)
madcows

External Harddrives are usually drag and drop. So when you plug it into your pc/laptop you should get a message asking what you want to do. Chose view files/folders and it should open a window where you can drag any info into it and it will copy onto the hard drive.

That's how mine works anyway. But the one you get maybe different.

To get a DVD on there you would first need to use something like Windows Media Player tp 'rip' the film from the disc. Once that is done the file will be in Windows Media Player Library and you can can drag and drop it into your open Hard drive file, iyswim?

great ! thanks, and sorry for sounding so thick. I'll try it tonight...
madcows

if you use the external harddrive option, unless you get on with a streamer built in, will require you to take the laptop - but still difficult to transfer from laptop to TV.
also you need to extract from the DVD to the harddrive and convert to a format that you can then send to the TV.

A nice thing about an iPod (or any other video player, but i have no experience of these so can't advise), is that it combines the storage element + can output the film to an external device.

to convert to iPod compatible format, i use a program called handbrake (google for this). this will extract directly from the DVD and you can create an MP4 (h264) file which you can store on the iPod. There are presets developed in the program that will guide you as to the size/quality that will work with different devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod classic etc).

Once you have the films converted, you can buy a cable that plugs in one end to the iPod and the other the TV.

This is what we use to carry around a load of films/TV shows for the car DVD player, as it also has a video input. easier to carry 140 tv shows/ 20 films on an iPod than the equivalent number of discs!

Yikes! Thanks all. We have an 80gb iPod so will look into that option a bit more. Already have the cable to hook iPod to TV.

Feeling stressed just reading about it, but will investigate further in the morning when my past it brain is working. I'm the wrong generation for all this stuff!

Thanks again.

Looks like a number of the more recent laptops (and nettop machine like the Acer Revo) have HDMI output to feed into a flat-screen TV.

So one question is what can the TV accept ?

SCART ? HDMI ? UHF plug ?

I know there are some fairly low cost media players (30 to 80 pounds) made by Sumvision (Cyclone), LaCie (LaCinema) and at least one player by Western Digital - there are likely to be others.

Such players will cope with MP4, AVI, and a number of other types of file () () sorry, don't have one to recommend, they're things on my 'gadgets to buy before I am much older' list.

Both TV and laptop are about 12 mths old, if that makes a difference? I think the TV can accept HDMI, definitely SCART, no idea what UHF is?

At least I now have some options to investigate further

if you already have cable to hook Ipod to TV, I'd say converting DVDs and bunging them on iPod would be the easiest way.

I use Videora to rip DVDs. It does it all for you - it's a bit confusing at first, but it does have a good help guide with screenshots which is invaluable, and once you've done it a couple of times it really isn't that complicated.

you store them al in iTunes, so syncing not a problem - easy as anything, really, once you take the leap of faith

Ooops - UHF (Ultra High Frequency, compared with Very High Frequency aka 'FM radio') uses the standard 'thick' coaxial cable from a TV aerial. It's what goes into a Freeview box too, these days... HTH

If the TV can accept HDMI then some laptops will feed it direct, but you could consider some dedicated media player

I have no collection of DVDs to know what software may allow you to 'rip' from them (I expected the copyright protection to limit or block that, to be honest) but the media players offer all sorts of options.

Some have a built-in hard drive, and you'd connect the media player to a PC to transfer video and audio to the internal drive. SATA hard drives are the other common option (with a drive 'dock' so you'd need a SATA dock at home, to load the drive with video, then take the SATA drive to the caravan and you're ready to play movies/ music/ have a slide show of photos (nice country views if it is tipping down outside, perhaps?)

Other players use USB (and you can get 16 and 32 MB USB sticks, though they're not cheap) or plug in a big external hard drive (which you seemed to want to avoid - however, you would not need to take your laptop, or one could use the laptop and another be enjoying a film).

buyer.com svp.co.uk scan.co.uk and ebay will all have players like those available. Just another idea if your laptop has no HDMI output.

If the laptop has a HDMI or TV Out port you should be able to hook it up like a second monitor, thats the first thing to check, and if not could you tolerate watching films on the laptop?

As for getting the films onto a portable hard disk, try a piece of software called AnyDvd, they have a free trial, you can google it, and it will take about 20 mins to transfer to your portable hard disk.

You can then use a free program called VLC player (google it), point it at the folder you put the DVD in and play it.

Of course, I must put a disclaimer to my advice, that your are yourself responsible for abiding by copyright law, and I beleive this is classified as format shifting, I know it's not fair, but bear it in mind.

Another option which is les hungry on disk space is to first go to DIVX.com and download and install the DIVX pack (it's free), then try a bit of software from Xilisoft which converts DVD's to DIVx format, you wil be able to play them through most things like media player as you have the DIVx pack installed, and they only take about 1gb each.

Again, remember to be responsible regarding the copyright laws on this!

Apologies - just refreshed page and saw previous response to mine - if you have an iPod with 80 GB hard drive, it's surely a "no brainer" - no need to spend out on lots of other gadgets as you have something to hand already... easiest option seems to follow what silverfrog suggests.

silverfrog - do you use Videora for decrypt DVDs too as it doesn't seem to do that, it talks about using DVD decrypter.

i have used DVDFab in the past (there is a free decrypter available) but to decrypt/convert in one step requires you to buy the software. Also windows only.

Another option is using handbrake (which i currently use), but this requires vlc to make it a one step process (i.e. decrypt and convert). windows and mac. also nice in that it has profiles defined for different ipods.

Have also used Nero to convert (windows only)

as you can see lots of options available. Take you pick as to which you get on with best

MrCSWS, no I use a programme which is helpfully entitled "DVD Decrypter" on my desktop I followed a link form Videora DVD conversion guide to get that, i think

so I use that first, then videora, and bob's your uncle.

I am not hugely technically minded, and it all works ok (which was a great relief - dd1 is ASD, and I looked into all this originally to be able to have her dvds readily available on our holiday flight to Oz. the answer was an iPod touch, for total ease of use.)

silverfrog - so you do a similar process to one i have used, just using videora instead of handbrake. both seem a viable solution

one thing for everyone to note (can i see i am a bit obsessed with this ) is to choose the best format/size for what you are going to use the file for/on.

if you have an older iPod (v5/5.5) you need to be careful that you create a file that will work. they old work with less complex file formats. iPod touches and iPhones have more processing power and can have a better file.

i have attached a link here that explains it better than i could, but is a bit techy.

as far a space goes, i would assumes approx 800Mb/file - therefore on an 80Gb iPod, approx 100 DVDs!

I'm humbled by all your collective knowledge

Think I'll (try) to pursue the Ipod option...

Thanks again.

Re copyright - am I OK to save/copy DVDs for personal use only?

Funny you should ask this, I went into Mappin, the electrical and computer shop today. They have portable hard drives on off 1 terrabyte was about 46 pounds, 1.5 64 pounds and 2 terra about 80 quid which seems like good value.
A terrabyte is very big so you could put quite a few movies on it. At that price, you may want to drag the movie onto your lap top as the access speed may not be as fast enough to watch directly from the extra hard drive.

Don't forget the pop corn.

Jo

re copyright:

technically not legal in UK to convert to a different format (applies to both music and video). there are moves to have it changed. for personal use it has not been enforced. i would not worry about it.

also, if you are going to go for the iPod option, you will need the equivalent space on your laptop (or an attached external drive) as to the iPod. (i.e. in the case of a 80Gb iPod, you will also need 80Gb+ on the laptop free.

i would go for the external option. 1 Tb will store loads of movies. i have one, so i can take all my movies when working abroad. this is a 320Gb ad has 200+ movies. if you are going to get an external drive, go for a laptop (2.5") version that doesn't require an external power supply. ;ess space but more convenient