Living in an RV no matter what the size there is always a limited amount of room to store items. One must also take in to consideration the added weight of the items chosen to store. Simple items like DVDs can add up in weight, not only the actual DVD but the case although light add up in volume.
We chose to convert all 681 of our DVDs movies to AVI format and place them on a 1TB hard drive. The benefits this offers us is there are no DVD disk/cases to store and locating a certain movie is super fast. We use either Windows Media Player or VLC Media Player to view our movies in full screen mode on our 22 inch flat screen no glare monitor.
How we did this:
First we copied a DVD to our hard drive using a program named DVDFab. This program rips the files from the DVD so they can be copied to your hard drive. DVDFab can be found on the internet for downloading and installing.
Next we converted the DVD movie file to AVI movie format using Prism Video Converter. AVI movie format take up a lot less disk space than DVD format. Example: 3:10 to Yuma in DVD format uses 4.3 GB, in AVI format it uses 0.7 GB and plays at the same quality as the DVD format. Prism Video Converter can also be downloaded off the internet.
Some DVD movies are over 4.7 GB so when converting to AVI format the program will split the AVI movie in to 2 separate files. These two files will need to be reconnected in order to view the full movie without interruption. (starting the second half of the movie).
To connect the two halves of a split AVI movie we use VirtualDub. This program can also be downloaded off the internet. Example: Waterworld in AVI format was split into two 0.7 GB AVI movie files. Using VirtualDub we were able to connect both parts into one AVI movie file that is 1.4 GB
2 comments:
Great info... Thanks! How long does it take to convert and store 681 DVDs?
It took a little over 5 months to convert 681 movies. Most of the time I had the computer working while I was either asleep or out and about town.
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