I've played around with the 1 Terabyte Iomega media hard drive (currently unavailable), and it's a one-package solution, and is portable.  Once you rip DVDs to it, it reads the DVD folders and executes them like the source DVD.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GGI7ES/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

The replacement drive is not as good as the Western Digital Live (per reviews), and I'm not sure if it's available locally. 

http://www.amazon.com/Iomega-ScreenPlay-Plus-Multimedia-Player/dp/B002PY7LM4/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

I think they're formatted as FAT32, but you can always reformat it by connecting to a PC through USB.  Most DVD VOB files are only 1 Gigabyte in size, so FAT32 should be able to access them.  Asante.
Erick



On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 8:21 AM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:


On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 3:41 PM, B Lusiola <lusiola@gmail.com> wrote:
2010/1/25 Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com>


On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com> wrote:
You have two options
  1. Clone the DVD in its entirety -- so everything is preserved
  2. Rip the DVD to some suitable container (MP4, DIVx)
I would personally go for the latter, and in fact is what i am doing. MP4 is a pretty good format in terms of quality and has the additional benefit that most devices will accept MP4s as is (iPods, Zune, etc)

As for file systems the ideal would be FAT32 as all OSes read them natively, But FAT32 has problems with files bigger than 2GB. What you could do is use any native OS file system on the storage (ext, HFS, NTFA) and then avail the files as a share using SAMBA.



Rad!

By availing the files via Samba shares, what device are you using to play them? I guess some computer running some OS.
Suppose I'd like to be able to play the files using a TV with supported interface, or a DVD player with such capabilities, what equipment (in the current technology market) would this be?
 

--
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"If you have nothing good to say about someone, just shut up!."
              -- Lucky Dube



Hi Wash,

I believe this can be of assistance to you. http://tinyurl.com/yefbky3 I think you might have to import it though. I don't know if there are alternates.
Else you can just use a moded xbox(seen it on the old one, I'm pretty sure the 360 can do it too) if it will support the drive(not so sure about TB Hard disks)



Some things I'd seen on the net and took for granted came haunting me again. So I decided to consider them today and here is what I've found out so far (there could be better/sleeker alternatives):

I have taken a good look at NetGear Digital Entertainer Live (DELive)which then led me to their Digital Entertainer Express (DEExp), and finally to Digital Entertainer Elite (DGElite) - which looks like what I really needed. So once I rip to NTFS or whatever file system, I can connect my external TB drive via USB)directly to the DGElite, which has software to organize my media. Connecting DGElite to the TV should complete the equation.
Then again, I got to see the WD TV Live which appears to compare competitively to DELive because it supports more digital image formats, and I hear that all I have to do is rip the DVDs into .iso format and it will automatically know what to do with the files, which is great, since no format conversion is involved. I'm coming closer to the solution. Now what remains is to get some reviews and then commit the cash to whatever device that wins!
Ability to play directly from an ISO image really counts though. Playing subtitles is another.

That's what i have so far... and you (the others)?? :-)


--
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"If you have nothing good to say about someone, just shut up!."
              -- Lucky Dube

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