I'm trying an iPad (and iPhone/Touch) app which seems quite promising. "Air Video".
You set up their free server software on a Mac or PC, and it streams to a padform device. It can play many more formats than iTunes can, and usually can also convert on the fly (if not, conversion is fast, and can be queued*). And of course it's space you save on the smaller device.
(Streaming over the Net is possible, but experimental and slow.)
I have a hard disk I don't use, with a terabyte free. That's almost 1000 converted DVDs. That's a lot of shelf space I could regain. (I don't even have that many I'd want to get rid of but keep, as it were.) (Update: I recalled wrong: it has 1.9TB free!)
* That's actually the spelling. Ridiculeuse.
Maybe since I'm a geek, I'm used to it. That's the way I've spelled it for 40 years.
ReplyDeleteI save my CDs in mp3 format at 256K rate mostly, with a few at lower rates. I've got 17,000 tracks that came from about 1200 CDs, and it takes up less than 100 GB. So, your 1TB drive should be able to hold a lot more than you said.
Not CDs, DVDs.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be generally 1TB to 1.5TB.
I have an "ooops" too, I mean one converted film is one to one-and-a-half gigabyte, not terabyte, of course.
ReplyDelete'one converted film is one to one-and-a-half gigabyte'
ReplyDeleteThink you;ll find that it's easy enough to actually drop the size of a 'typical' DVD movie down to 650 - 750MB?
I've LOADS like this on a 1TB drive that plugs directly into the TV and plays straight from there.
"Think you;ll find that it's easy enough to actually drop the size of a 'typical' DVD movie down to 650 - 750MB?"
ReplyDeleteWithout noticable quality loss?
I wouldn't know which parameters to adjust.
Eolake, you can use Handbrake to rip DVDs and also convert numerous videos formats to an iPad/iPhone/iPod acceptable format. I have successfully ripped quite a number of the DVDs I own and also converted a few educational videos I purchased via direct download, to an iPhone friendly format. Handbrake includes various presets that are intended to create optimal files for the target platform.
ReplyDeleteI don't own an iPad yet but it is on my birthday wishlist (my birthday is in May! :)) and I plan to re-rip various DVDs. I understand from various forums that the iPad happily plays the AppleTV format and the quality is good. Guess I will get to test it soon.
I also have AirVideo and it works great with my iPhone over WiFi.
iSkysoft iMedia also has a million options for various popular devices, including Apple's. The default format though is Advanced Streaming Format, so I'm guessing it's a good one.
ReplyDelete(But maybe I'll play around a little with it.)