Backup playback

[Yippy_Kiyey]

I use DVD Fab Platinum to backup my movies. I am thinking of instead of burning them on DVDs, I'll just save them on a 2TB external drive. My question is, is there a gadget to play the movies back on TV aside from a PC or laptop? It would be nice if I can just hook up the 2TB hd to a player and run the movies from there?

Thank you.

[signals]

There are many such devices, some work better than others. Some of the users can give you better advice on the choices than I can. I am moving your thread to General Questions since it is not a DVDFab problem or question.

[W&B]

You may want to check out WDTV. I have an external hdd with a usb 2.0 type connector that simply plugs into the WDTV (my external is only 330GB in size but I have nearly 280 movies stored on it with quality equal to the original DVD).

I don't think the WDTV supports 2TB drives though, the largest it supports is a 1TB or maybe 1.5TB. Use DVDFab to convert to a mobile format, WDTV will not support menus from a DVD like a stand alone DVD player.

Also when I purchsed mine they only had one version of the player (it's referred to as "Gen1" and they now have a "Gen2" that may be more feature rich and also a WDTV live version that connects to the internet but I am not familiar with these last two versions so some research on your end would be wise.
Lots of options out there as signals mentioned.

[Yippy_Kiyey]

Than you for your reply but I have couple more question. All of my backups are image files in customized mode with menus. Do I have to convert them to a mobile format to watch them on WDTV Live?

[W&B]

I think there's a couple members that have that model and can provide a better answer.

The gen1 will play iso format but as mentioned you won't have the DVD menu, it's not officially supported but it will play the movie in that format but you'll have a WDTV menu to select different languages and subtitles (it also won't recognize the chapter stops but you can skip at 10 minute intervals with the WDTV remote. It acts like a DVD player for the most part but does have some restrictions) but again I only have the gen1 so I can't say the WDTV Live version is the same.

I would strongly recommend converting to either avi or mkv format with DVDFab following GregiBoys Best Practice: DVD to Mobile to save disc hdd space but it's your choice what format to stick with.

Be sure to research it and make your own educated choice, compare other choices there may be something out there that better suits you.

[AGJ]

The WDTV live will play ISO files but like already mentioned can not play menus which sucks. I do not have any of the WDTV versions but have read a lot about them and do plan on buying the Gen1 version and the WDTV live version soon

[Yippy_Kiyey]

Are you implying that with Gen1 version, WDTV will play the menus. That would be great.

[W&B]

No the gen1 (or any WDTV model) will not support DVD menus, I've also read support for that will never happen because of some licensing issue but then again never say never.

[Yippy_Kiyey]

I got you. Yeah, never say never. Thanks.

[billbell52]

I have the WD TV Live (gen2). I have it wireless connected to my network (802.11n). I have experimented with XVID, mp4 and iso (main movie only). They all work. Menus do not work. I have tried attaching a local disk and streaming from a disk on my pc and it works. I tried streaming from Tversity and Orb and it works. Writing to the disk attached directly to the WD TV from my PC is slow. I recommend streaming. Overall, this is the best media box for the money.

[Yippy_Kiyey]

Thank you. As I have said in my original post, all of my backup movies are in ISO, customize mode with menus. I like the WDTV idea. Do I have to re-rip them without the menu option in order to use WDTV?

[GregiBoy]

Yes you will have to, unfortunately.

[billbell52]

I would like to mention WD TV Live appears to be the best box today. It seems like everyone is releasing a media box this year. So the landscape will be completely different in 6 months.

http://gdgt.com/syabas/popbox/

http://www.boxee.tv/box

[Yippy_Kiyey]

I went ahead and bought the WDTV Live. It's great and I can use the ISO files that I already have (with menus). The files are playable but no menu option, which is fine with me. I don't have to re-rip them all. Thanks for all your help.