DVD to Mobile Back to Fully Functional DVD

[IPopov50]

WD TV baby, is way to go!!!!! $89 in Sam's Club or WD TV Live - $109 in Costco

[GregiBoy]

I think Maineman has an Astone but I use a variety of players (up to 10 at any one time).

My favourite at the moment is a Measy E8HD ()

[IPopov50]

C'mon GregiBoy, what is wrong with you!!!! Where is your loyalty to WD TV!!!! Shame on you!!!

[GregiBoy]

As far as I am concerned all the WDTV models are POS's !!!!

Just have a read of their forum.

My current favourite player that I referred to, besides playing nearly everything in full HD at full HD that I can throw at it, acts as a Network Attached Storage and a BitTorrent client.

When WD get to that stage, I'll have another look.

[maineman]

I was about to buy a WD for what was then about $120-130, but stumbled across this one...
Argosy HV335T Mobile Video HDD Media Player for $89, no tax, free shipping to boot.
It seemed to be a bit more versatile as far as file formats, but I really don't know...never having fooled with the WD.

It's the cat's meow...

[GregiBoy]

I think the same of the Measy E8HD.... It is the duck's guts!!! ( = Oz for the cat's meow)

IMHO, WDTV is highly overated and I prefer a unit where I can install an internal hard disk with the option to attach either external USB or ESata drives.

[emagine]

I think the same of the Measy E8HD.... It is the duck's guts!!! ( = Oz for the cat's meow)

IMHO, WDTV is highly overated and I prefer a unit where I can install an internal hard disk with the option to attach either external USB or ESata drives.

how does all this compare to the roku?

[GregiBoy]

The way I understand it, the new Roku HD & HD XR do not have any USB ports and rely on network storage to play the data from. I always like the flexibility of being able to just plug in a USB drive if I wish.

Also, from what I have seen and heard of the Roku's, they appear to only support 720p output whereas the ones we are talking about support full 1080 HD.

I cannot vouch what formats the Roku will play but in my opinion H264 MKV is now a player must-have.

[maineman]

I was about to agree with GregiBoy, but as I just looked at the Roku site, I see that the XR now has a usb port.
News to me too.

I have an older Roku, used for streaming Netflix to my main tv and my son's PS3. It works wonderfully. I have access to about 11,000 movies and tv series free of charge with my Netflix account.
It's fast, easy to FF, RW, will remember where I was and will prompt me when I return....do I want to restart?...play where I left off?...etc.

Keep in mind, this is very much dependent on how big a pipe you have. I'm on a fiber optic cable with time warner, so my bandwidth and speeds are excellent.

I can't speak to the Roku's capabilities outside Netflix; its capabilty to handle various file formats such as MKV.
I suspect that it falls short of the media players suggested by IPopov50, GregiBoy and myself

[emagine]

The roku hd-xr does have USB support, but so far, it has no use yet. You can not play content from a usb flash drive. Many people are wondering why they put it on there. Roku will probably make functionality for it in the future. Also, you can not stream your own media to the roku like you can with the ones you guys are talking about. Everything is streamed via internet. Where do you guys get your media originally. Do you purchase the DVD's then stream them via WD TV?

[IPopov50]

Everything is streamed via internet. Where do you guys get your media originally. Do you purchase the DVD's then stream them via WD TV?

Well, everybody having their own way of doing it, I can only speak for myself. Like everybody else, my source is coming from a store in form of Blu-ray (I do have DVDs too, but I'm not in DVD game anymore). First what I do is ripping that BR to my HDD. After that my BR goes back to the shelf - this is my "backup" now. Using ripped BR on my HDD I then convert Main Movie to BD9 and burn on my beloved Verbs DVD+R DL from Sam's Club (these days they are $29 per 50 bundle). I have no idea why am I still making them. In a past, when DVDFab couldn't produce MKV out of Blu-ray, it was my way making good MKVs by re-packing these compressed BD9s. I guess I still making them just in case...
Next, I converting my source content on HDD into MKV using "Blu-ray to Mobile" mode, MKV option. This file then goes to external HDD and become "the source" for all my movie viewings at home. I'm using WD TV to play it on my 56" Sharp TV.
Also, same source content on my HDD, using "Blu-ray to Mobile" mode, I converting into mp4 file for my iPod/iPhone(s). I have bunch of those in a family. These files goes straight to my library, and I (We) loading them up to our devices before traveling. All my mp4(s) I store on external drives (WD My Passport) which I can carry with me if I want to.
So, this is my saga. But, as I said before, everybody having their needs, quality requirements, etc. DVDFab offering a remarkable variety of options, it's up to you which one(s) to pick to fulfill your needs.
Good luck

[maineman]

Excellent points by IPopov50. There will be a variety of ways to handle media based on needs, desires, budgets...and then you have everyone's personal bias thrown in for good measure.

I'm not a big fan of Blu-ray, but not opposed to it.
My son and I own about 6 BR discs total.
Maybe when I get my retirement home theater system set up and I shell out 5-6k for a new samsung I'll feel differently.
My 42" Vizio looks great for now.

Currently, purchase of standard dvds is my primary source.
I've archived to blank discs for a long time and while I still do, I'm very much a fan of Mobile conversions and media players.

Like IPopov50, I do quite a few mp4 conversions for our iPods...just can't beat 'em for travel and when you end up in a hotel/beach house for 1-2 weeks, you can run a $6 patch cord from the iPod to a dvd player or TV.
This way you can watch your flicks on the big screen.
It's not up to the quality of the conversions for the media players, but it is very watchable.

[IPopov50]

This way you can watch your flicks on the big screen.
It's not up to the quality of the conversions for the media players, but it is very watchable.

Hahahaha. Or some movies (for me it's Die Hard(s) ) I don't even have to watch, just listen. I saw those movies so many times, I don't need video - just close my eyes and listen. Needless to say it's my favorites..... All my family and myself are puzzled - why??? I have no idea.

[emagine]

Ok guys-

This is my first time doing a dvd to dvd full disk copy. I don't know if this is supposed to happen, but I did not get the chance to change bitrate or other options that I got to tweak for DVD to MOBILE. Is this supposed to happen? I only got the option to remove FBI warnings and at the bottom there were two options. DVD 5 and DVD 9. DVD 9 takes up more space so I assume that is higher quality? Also, it said it was going to take up 6,789MB -> 6,789MB. Am I doing something wrong, because I know DVD's cannot hold that much info. Please help.

[GregiBoy]

That is totally correct.

You cannot alter bitrate in DVD to DVD,

DVD9 CAN hold approx 8100Mb