HandBrake looks a little austere, but it offers myriad options for converting and formatting your movies for smartphones, tablets, HDTVs, and more.įinally, choose a preset for the conversion. Now select Browse, and choose a destination and filename for the video file you’re about to create-a file named with the film’s original title in the Windows Videos folder would be the obvious choice. If the runtime seems way too short, open the Title drop-down menu and look for an entry that has an appropriately movie-length runtime. When HandBrake has completed its preliminary work, the Source field should display the name of the movie, and the Title field should list something with a runtime that matches the movie’s length. After installing the program, you have to obtain a file called libdvdcss-2.dll, which you can download from this public archive site. It, too, converts DVDs, though it needs a little help to remove copy protection. You can buy a commercial ripper like DVDFab DVD Ripper ($50) or WinX DVD Ripper Platinum ($40), both of which circumvent most copy protection schemes and convert the discs to the mobile- or home-theater-friendly format of your choice.īut a free option works nearly as well: perennial favorite HandBrake. That said, you’ll need a DVD-ripping utility that can remove the Content Scrambling System (CSS) or similar built-in protections that prevent straight-up copying. Digiarty Software If you want the solace of having a tech support team to call in case of technical difficulties, you can buy decent DVD-ripping software like WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. Still, as long as you’re not sharing movies on BitTorrent or selling copies on the street, it qualifies as fair use-just as ripping CDs (which is technically legal) does. One quick caveat: Though the police won’t break your door down for ripping DVDs that you already own, the process does technically violate copyright law. In order for this to work, obviously, you must have access to a PC with a DVD drive. As with ripping CDs, you’ll copy the contents of a DVD to your computer, and then convert those contents to a cloud-friendly format. Imagine paying extra to access YouTube, you fanboys love it.To turn a real-world DVD into a digital file that you can stream to the viewing platform of your choice, you have to rip it from the disc. Nothing will work unless you pay Microsoft an extra $80 a year for their so-called "Gold" service. If you are thinking about getting an Xbox instead: don't bother. PS3 is the only machine that plays Blu-Ray, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, Hulu Plus… and because the hardware was built for games - it's so much smoother and faster than any stand-alone box I've played around with. Roku 2 also doesn't really play local content (it doesn't even support AVI) and what kind of box doesn't support YouTube?īased on the $70 retail price and its functionality, at least to me, it seems like my next streaming box that I will purchase.Ĭurrently, the only media box that does it all is my PS3, which I'm quite happy with - but there is a huge $300 price to entry that is off putting to most people. Note: Roku 2 is the only box that works with Amazon Prime, but I'm sure Amazon will eventually make their way to WD. You can read more about UltraViolet here. Apple TV is the only one that supports iTunes purchased movies and "Air Play", but if you don't live in the Apple Universe, a workaround is with UltraViolet (via Flixster or Vudu). So here's the breakdown: WD TV is the only one that supports DLNA. YES (Bluetooth support for Apple Wireless Keyboard) YES (Bluetooth version 3.0 - enabled for Roku remote only) For the most part, I'm lumping Flixster and Vudu together as one item. What that means is movies you own on UV can be accessed on Vudu - unless there are rights issues (some movies are exclusive to Vudu or vice-versa). NOTE: Flixster (Ultraviolet) is compatible with VUDU if you link your two accounts together. The box often delay playing by pre-downloading content via DLNA and can take up to 3 minutes to play back a 720p file.Īnyway, Western Digital just entered into the market for streaming media box… so how does it stack up against their competitors? I've put together a checklist of things I'm interested in (Amazon Prime, DLNA support, YouTube…), everything else I don't really care about. After Sony updated their software, it now supports H.264 streaming - but it's very slow. I was rather disappointed in Sony Media Streaming for $50. As you know, I'm always looking for 'the next thing' when it comes to watching my video content on the big screen at home.
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