So heres the shizzle. I am trying to compile movies and TV shows onto DVDs to save room during travel, with an acceptable level of quality loss. I've read a fair number of tutorials on the net but I'm still confused as hell and all of my rips are terrible, as I keep ****ing up the settings. Also they will be played in europe/the middle east, so region 0 and PAL is important I guess.

Anyone done anything like this before and have advice?

You can always go for an external hard drive and put them all there. If you have the right format and an xbox 360 it should be able to play.

Also: I have the best burning experiences with Nero 7.

Yeah that will help with playing it on foreign DVD players!

Thanks you're so awesome!

I don't know of any articles in particular, but Doom9 tends to be one of the best places for AV stuff as I understand it.

Have you checked around Doom9.org? I ripped Aliens last year...I'm pretty sure I used a program they have called DVD decrypter.

Anyways, they probably have some good answers for you.

stupid emon

yes, stupid emon. But your post was more informative:D

Definitely go with Doom9. They'll tell you how to use all the important tools properly and get you set up nicely.

Also, I suggest trying to uh...acquire your stuff in already-PAL format if you can. Makes everything else a lot easier.

I would get a portable or basic dvd player that plays divx/xvid.

For some reason when I read this I thought of literally burning (in fire) DVDs, and got confused when the posts in the thread didn't agree w/ that @_@ @_@

Pommy hit his head one too many times bboying.

Thanks for this new lead friends, hmm.

I'm taking these videos when we deploy. We tend to spend hours waiting in busses and flight decks between areas, and when we were in Israel we must have watched "Running Scared" 20 times, as it was the only region 0 dvd anyone had.

My brother got a gift from a friend for Christmas that's a portable hard drive and XviD/DivX/other player as well. Basically it looks like a normal 2.5" hard drive enclosure except it has VGA, composite (and maybe others, it has a breakout cable) and audio outputs to go to a TV or monitor. It's got a maximum resolution of like 800 something by 400 something I think. Really a clever device, it's from somewhere in Asia but we don't know where. He got it from Geeks.com he said.

Edit: Ah, I found it! This thing is more capable but three times the price.

Just out of curiosity, why are you using foreign AV equipment? We all tend to bring our own stuff with us.

If you're going to just try and compress DVD movies into smaller sizes for playback on basic dvd players, your results are almost always going to be terrible. MPEG2 is not a forgiving codec.

I still don't understand how I ended up in an Israeli barracks outside Tel Aviv with 13 full magazines and a copy of Purple Rain in my buttpack. Weirder things have happened and the Marine Corps, and in particular infantry companies, seem to allow us to take less stuff with us. What I'm trying to do is make sure my friends don't lose their minds when we have a little time. If I can take a laptop I will probably do it, but it looks more and more like the stable living situation that lots of other units have seen isn't going to come my way.

EDIT:To clear up my rambling, when I am teaching classes I am usually using our company notebook/projector. However, it's no bueno with my chain of command to play movies on that computer.

The big thing is riding on foreign buses that we contract out. Now, deploying to asscrackistan, I doubt we will be watching many movies, but on the way there, on the way back, and in the large number of training evolutions we're supposed to do overseas we tend to wind up in a lot of rec halls, buses, and places with a random TV and DVD player in a closet.

That hard drive might do as well though I guess, since I wouldn't have to bother with a huge laptop every time there is a hole in our schedule. Whatever can get me playing on most input/output hookups. I guess I'll have to set up a bunch of cables and **** too.

Thanks Emon, that's really cool. Does it look pretty well on whatever he uses it on?

http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/Products/3500tvisto.html

So, uh, anyone who knows more about AV connections than me! I looked through what it lists and it makes me think it will hook up to most anything I want, but I am not sure. Just how universal is the output on that thing? I wish this sort of stuff required less back knowledge to get up to speed on, but I just don't know what kind of connections most screens/projectors use...

I don't know, Spook, I haven't seen it in action. I'm also not sure if it does PAL.

To update, I'm probably going with the Tvisto. God damn I hate spending that much more money. Anyway, I am not hard drive savvy, and I was wondering, what is the best option?

I will probably have a lot of money coming my way to get ready for deployment, and the Tvisto holds up to a 1000gb 3.5" drive. I don't know if I want to go that big but it would sure be awesome.

Anyway, any calls on what I should use?

Get a 750 or something. Movies take up a LOT of space man. If nothing else, 500 gig harddrives are under 200 now I think. Check [url]www.newegg.com[/url] and as for brands...well Maxtor's owned by seagate now, so I'd just go with the cheapest one, personally.