advice on external multimedia HDD
when I came to the US last year, I didn't want to carry my DVD collection with me - so I ripped them to AVIs & got them as 3-4 movies per DVD (approx 1-1.5 GB per movie). & i can watch them on my macbook with VLC.
but when i put these DVDs my DVD player (Toshiba) it does not recognize/play these AVIs. I'm not really too keen to go through the whole process of re-encoding each one of them to compatible DivX format that can be played.
So now I have a couple of options:
(1) play the movies on VLC with my macbook hooked to my TV via miniDVI-DVI-HDMI
(2) copy the movies to an external HDD & play them on VLC to my TV as above in (1)
(3) buy one of these external multimedia HDDs:
(a) Iomega ScreenPlay
(b) LaCie LaCinema
the first otion: I use my mac + TV but I can play all file formats & involves an investment of not more than $40 for the miniDVI-DVI and DVI-HDMI cables from the apple store...
the second option: as above & a couple of $100s for the external HDD... & reduce the load on the optical drive
the third option: my mac stays free all the time & i can also use the multimedia HDD to backup my other files as well...
but... there's a risk of some AVIs not playing - apparently some AVIs & the newer DivX6 encoding is not supported, but I don't know for sure how this would affect my collection. otherwise $250 is not a bad investment for 500GBs & support for most AVIs!
this is one of those situations where i get confused! so I would like your recommendations, opinions & possibly if you have any experiences to share with the external multimedia HDDs...
thanks in advance, folks...
but when i put these DVDs my DVD player (Toshiba) it does not recognize/play these AVIs. I'm not really too keen to go through the whole process of re-encoding each one of them to compatible DivX format that can be played.
So now I have a couple of options:
(1) play the movies on VLC with my macbook hooked to my TV via miniDVI-DVI-HDMI
(2) copy the movies to an external HDD & play them on VLC to my TV as above in (1)
(3) buy one of these external multimedia HDDs:
(a) Iomega ScreenPlay
(b) LaCie LaCinema
the first otion: I use my mac + TV but I can play all file formats & involves an investment of not more than $40 for the miniDVI-DVI and DVI-HDMI cables from the apple store...
the second option: as above & a couple of $100s for the external HDD... & reduce the load on the optical drive
the third option: my mac stays free all the time & i can also use the multimedia HDD to backup my other files as well...
but... there's a risk of some AVIs not playing - apparently some AVIs & the newer DivX6 encoding is not supported, but I don't know for sure how this would affect my collection. otherwise $250 is not a bad investment for 500GBs & support for most AVIs!
this is one of those situations where i get confused! so I would like your recommendations, opinions & possibly if you have any experiences to share with the external multimedia HDDs...
thanks in advance, folks...
Comments
no one?
I am in a similar situation, however i have on crucial difference. I ripped my stuff in h.264 format (.mp4). So what i have done is bought a regular hard disk and have it on there. I can add these files to itunes, and they show up in front row etc.
What i currently do is just attach it via video out to the tv, tho i am thinking about buying an appletv soon.
Hi
I am in a similar situation, however i have on crucial difference. I ripped my stuff in h.264 format (.mp4). So what i have done is bought a regular hard disk and have it on there. I can add these files to itunes, and they show up in front row etc.
What i currently do is just attach it via video out to the tv, tho i am thinking about buying an appletv soon.
<wishful thinking>now if only appleTV had .avi playback... & probably 500GB hard drives... sigh! </wishful thinking>