When DVDs Need Not Be DVDs

There were two things that I learned on the trip out to visit Sean in Seattle:

1. DVDs are essential on a plane trip,



2. DVDs take up too much space if you transport them in their packaging.

It was great to have some movies around on the plane (especially the small ones that have no in-flight movie) and in the hotel room. But unlike my brother, I like to carry around the DVDs in their keep cases, so that I always have the disk together with the critical documentation. Plus, playing DVDs in your computer saps the battery terrribly, so your "5 hour battery" winds up lasting maybe 2 hours. If you are lucky.



Well, I have found the solution for me. Mac the Ripper is a FREE program (based on Open Source software) that lets you rip DVDs to your hard drive. Then you can play any of those ripped DVDs straight from the hard drive, through the Apple DVD Player! It even includes all of the Menus and Extras (though you can use options to only save off the Main Feature, if you do not care to use up gigabytage saving useless extras). I have ripped 4 such DVDs to my new MiniBook so far, my favorites that I am always in the mood to watch. And running the hard drive is FAR less demanding than running the DVD-ROM Drive, so battery life can be greatly extended in the meantime.



What are the downsides? Well, your average DVD is between 4 GB and 8 GB. So you use up hard drive space quickly. Luckily, my new 'Book has 20 more GB than my old one, I can afford the extra space wasting. Also, not every DVD I tried to rip worked. And finally, you must be aware that legally you can only rip DVDs you actually own. That is called "Fair Use." Still, these downsides are ones I can definitely live with for the joy of easy movie watching.