movies on ext HDD

I have purchased a new netbook but still want to watch my movies. I can load movies on external hard drive, but what program will allow me to watch these movies? What file type should I use for the movies? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi,

for ease of use

1) configure the HDD to NTFS
2) you can use VLC player ( free )
3) file type, your preference, iso or vob

hope this helps


Jo

 

Well, netbooks... Hm... I don't have any experience with those, but if it's possible at all to install your own programs on them, then I'd suggest, like bryston said, either VLC Media Player or Media Player Classic. VLC is much easier to use, in my opinion, but MPC can be customized... or so I've heard. I dunno; I haven't used it much myself.

That said, the movies can be anything you want, so long as you can play them.

If you rip your DVDs to your hard drive as ISO files (ie "disc images" or direct replicas of your DVDs), then you can play them by mounting the individual ISOs onto a virtual drive and playing them with whatever media player you want. If you decide to rip just the main movie, though, you'll end up with a .vob file that you can play in Windows Media Player, VLC, etc.

If your movies are DivX/Xvid stuff, though, then VLC should be able to handle them fine.

...but yeah, I know next to nothing about netbooks and your questions are both very, very vague. Still, I hope I helped you somewhat.

 

Notebook, PC, doesn't matter. As long as you have the proper player/codecs installed on your machine, you should have no problem playing the videos.

You would play them same way you would play them off your main hard drive or a partition; or a USB stick, memory card. Just go to My Computer, browse your external HDD and double click the video. VLC will play about anything, including ISO. Same with MPC if you have the right codecs( if you want to use MPC, I'd install ffdshow). Mplayer is also another option.

All this time I assumed your notebook was running some Windows...not sure how Apples work. As for the file format, depends how much space you have, and how much time you want to invest in the process. If you want to save spac, I'd convert them to Avi/mpeg4(Divx/X.264).

 

cyprus, I think he (she?)'s talking about "netbooks," not "notebooks." From what I glossed over on Wikipedia, the biggest difference is that a) netbooks use lots of Internet programs (would that mean stuff like VLC?), and b) they only currently have Windows XP or Linux OSes.

But VLC can play ISOs? As in disc image ISOs? As in I can rip one of my DVDs and it'll play fine in VLC?

Interesting...

 

@KajNrig
Thanx, I miss read it, it is netbook indeed(that'll teach me to sleep at 2:AM instead of chasing spammers on AD...)!

And yes, VLC can play ISO.