Jean W said:
Java Jack,
I need to ask a few questions.
What is s/w?
the s/w would do the rest
What is HDD?
I have 4 seasons of Big Bang Theory on a HDD
I have 5 seasons of Big Bang Theory DVD's that I would love to transfer to a jump drive.
Once on a jump drive, does the DVD index still work?
Would the jump drive work like on long movie?
How would I jump from season to season and episode to episode.
My laptop does have the media center.
Thanks,
Jean
Sorry, as an Engineer working in the PC industry, sometimes I forget that I am speaking in PC lingo. So topics like converting (aka ripping) DVDs is starting to open a larger can of worms of which the topic is heavily debated. I will try to provide some insight into the topic but will limit any details and/or instructions.
S/W = Software
H/W = Hardware
HDD = Hard Disk Drive
DVR = Digital Video Recorder
Bit Torrent (aka torrent) = File distribution s/w and/or sites. People often use these sites to share content such as videos, TV shows, and more.
The s/w in this case is media center and any application or drivers the USB tuner might require/install. Usually, the tuner will have a s/w widget that you would install and it would talk with the tuner to tune to the appropriate channel you select. Basically, it would have a grid or something of the channels, you would use the remote (or mouse/arrow keys on laptop) to select the channel and the tuner would then change to that channel.
Msft Media center does something similar. Now, there is typically setup required for both the tuner s/w or media center as you have to tell it what zipcode or something and then it would scan the airwaves to see what signals it can detect. This is similar to when you buy a new TV and hook it up...it has to scan the airwaves and program the channels in. So, this would be required for each stop you make.
The nice thing about the PC is that it can be a DVR and record shows and/or pause live TV just like a Tivo or your cable/sat box (assuming you have a capable box).
In Media Center, once the channels are programmed, you open media center and go to TV and you will see recorded TV (if you recorded shows), channel guide, etc. Here are a few links to Media Center images that show how the guide and such work.
http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/...n/9249a311-e477-45a5-bd15-4f3d31c2b652_53.jpg
http://www.microsoft.com/library/m...family/mediacenter/setup/screenshot_guide.jpg
http://www.buydvb.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/tv-channel-scan.jpg
This is where topics can become quite sticky. Converting your DVDs to a jump drive (assuming you mean USB flash drive) is not really viable. Typical flash drives are not large enough to hold much video content unless it is seriously compressed and resolutions lowered, etc. Putting them onto a HDD (even a portable USB HDD) is perfectly doable assuming you have a good size drive. Each 30 min show in HD could consume several GBytes of space. So, the larger the drive, the more room you have. As for maintaining the index, it all depends on how you rip the DVD but yes, you can maintain the index if you so choose.
The process of converting DVDs over to a HDD so they can play on media center or other player can be somewhat tedious and complex. It has gotten substantially easier over the past couple of years however, some places may consider it illegal (copyright issues). Per my comment above, I will not document the process but if you really want to know, there is a ton of information on the internet along with free apps that will take you step by step through the process. Just search on ripping a dvd and you will find all the info you could ever want, even the most novice user could figure it out fairly quickly.
Someone mentioned Torrents earlier. There are people that rip the DVD content and upload it to Torrent sites. You can find just about any movie, TV show, etc. already ripped on various torrent sites. The legality of this could be questionable though, especially when you are talking about copyrighted and/or protected content like movies, etc. I personally do not use torrent sites for several reasons...one of which is security. Torrent sites are often managed by the user community and therefore, there is little quality control or security. Someone that might wish to inflict widespread, malicious code (aka virus) could bury code in a torrent rip and when you run it, it could infect your computer causing serious problems.
As such, I recommend people I know to stay away from torrent sites for that reason alone. Virus' have been spread through torrent rips on more than one occasion. Others will tell you it is safe but as someone that has worked in the PC industry for 25+ years, my opinion is that any user managed community that is sharing apps, files, movies, etc. is far from secure or safe.
OK, stepping off my soapbox now.
