Store your DVD movies on efficient DivX format players! : eBay Guides

 palm sized DivX player for your large screen TV                                                 

put a hundred or even more movies on it and sit back and relax with your remote

(with 3.5inch HDD models you could stretch to 500 movies loaded on one of these!)

 Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance                      Last days of disco

in White Mischief - own it!

The most efficient way to enjoy your movies in this day and age is to go with DivX conversion. ebay is a great place to find great movies many of which are rare and even altogether out of print such as "The last days of disco", or "White mischief" (pretty much only available on ebay!).  Once you have your movies in hand, you may wish to experience them in a more efficient maner than the original format allows for.

Many DVD players now available (if not most) allow for DivX format playback. In fact I would argue that players that dont support this format are in fact now obsolete.  

A great new invention is the multimedia DivX player being sold on ebay in several models. Potentially for under a couple of hundred dollars you could put a hundred and fifty or so of your favorite movies in a palm sized 2.5 inch hard disc based 160gb DivX 6+ player and attach it to your TV (large screen or portable DVD model) and enjoy your movies without flipping discs.

In order to get this conversion accomplished (a single layer DVD disc could hold between three and five full lenght DVD movies which are usually shipped in an inefficient format using VOB files instead - this may change soon) you need to download some free and reasonably priced programs.

To start with you need a free copy of "DVD Shrink" avalable for free download through such websites as that of the well known "PC World magazine". Beware those on the internet selling this program for $40 the publisher warns clearly that the program is voluntary donation supported and is not to be sold in any way by anyone out there. If you cannot find a free download email me and Ill be happy to send you a more current link or perhaps Ill email you the tiny program itself in zip format. This program will take any DVD you own and put a copy of it on your computers hard disc often in half the original size they are contained on the original disc. The program is decoded during this process for you so that you may proceed to the next step of conversion.

Next download a copy of divx conversion software at divx.com (free for 45 days then it currently costs only about $15 including the mpeg II plug-in - well worth the investment). 

It can take a few hours to convert your favorite movies this way however once done they may be placed on your discs in efficient DivX format (many movies shipped in expensive double layer format easily fit in a fraction of the space on a single layer disc) once converted to divx using dvd shrink plus divx converter. DivX format files take up a quarter of the space of an equivalent original DVD VOB file. It wouldnt pay to purchase one of these units without DivX6 capability, there are some obsolete models out there which only support DivX5 and below however tits not as efficient and converters to this older format standard are scarce and a rarity indeed.

Once your collection is fully converted place them into your hand held or portable/mini multimedia player or place them onto good quality (I suggest HP brand exclusively) single layer discs for more efficient storage and viewing on a "video on demand basis". Your original discs remain safely stored - free of scratches.

This process will even allow you to make use of your PAL movies. You will find programs such as Nero (from a German based developer) great for placing your content onto discs in DivX format, and indeed this program is often included free of charge with almost every DVD burner on the market from most major manufacturers. At this time such drives cost approx $35 in Cdn retail outlets and include this software in OEM version format. These drives will read your NTSC or PAL content and allow you to use the programs indicated here to store your entire collection in the most efficient format which is now being adopted by the industry - DivX!

Watch for the newer DVD players which not only support DivX disc playback, they even allow for a USB device to attach so you could use an external mini hard disc loaded with DivX content derived from your collection using conversion software available for free or very little in the way of an investment in pleasurable viewing for all!