movie storage

[dtappy3353]

I went to the archives only to discover that there is not much information on how and what devices folks store movies that they download on.

Here are a few questions I have:

1. What device do you download movies to for playback on your tv when camping?

2. Where do you download movies from? Are they paid for or free?


I am looking for a device which can handle 25-30 movies if that's possible. Am not a techie! Simple is best. I do have lots of other computer experience though.

Thank you for the help.
dt

[Robin1953]

MrWizard wrote:

Robin1953 wrote:
I use a network attached storage (NAS) drive that has a built in media server that is DLNA compliant. I have a Samsung Blu Ray player that can attach to the media server to play movies off the NAS as well as stream movies from NetFlix, Hulu Plus (among others) and music from Pandora. So with two devices I have the ability to play DVDs, music CDs, stream movies/music from the Internet as well as stream music/movies/photos from the DLNA media server. It sounds moire complicated than it is.

This is in your RV ?

I don't have NAS but I do have three external hard drives
A Sony media player, and a digital tuner PVR

But the OP is asking about movie storage to take in his RV

Yes it is in my RV. It is a 1TB NAS, I cheaped out and just bought the NAS shell since I already had the SATA drives for it, attached to a PepWave SOHO router. The NAS has the media server built into the firmware and it is Twonky Vision software. All of this is stored in a small cubby hole in the closet where the antenna booster is located. It also has the outlets for the sat/cable connection there for the bedroom TV as well. Since there was a 120V electrical outlet already there it made it the logical choice for the NAS/router. I have another 1TB NAS that I bring into the RV occasionally and duplicate the NAS that is on board the RV. This second NAS is stored off site. The NAS that I keep in the RV can be expanded to 4TB by changing out the two 500MB drives for two 2TB drives.

BTW the SOHO can tether a hotspot and also has the WiFi as WAN capability for Internet connectivity in addition to the access to the NAS where the OP could store his movies as well as serve them up to his players.

Like I said it all sounds more complicated than what it really is.

[MrWizard]

Robin1953 wrote:
I use a network attached storage (NAS) drive that has a built in media server that is DLNA compliant. I have a Samsung Blu Ray player that can attach to the media server to play movies off the NAS as well as stream movies from NetFlix, Hulu Plus (among others) and music from Pandora. So with two devices I have the ability to play DVDs, music CDs, stream movies/music from the Internet as well as stream music/movies/photos from the DLNA media server. It sounds moire complicated than it is.

This is in your RV ?

I don't have NAS but I do have three external hard drives
A Sony media player, and a digital tuner PVR

But the OP is asking about movie storage to take in his RV

[Tom_M1]

Many newer TV sets have the ability to play video files from a USB hard drive. Getting movies onto the drive is the major challenge. DVDs can be ripped using a computer. The problem with this is that almost all DVDs are copy protected. There are ways to circumvent this and the consensus is that it's legal to do for DVDs that you own.

If you have access to services like Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime you can stream movies and TV shows to a computer, TV, or devices like Roku or DVD/Bluray players. The problem though is that this does not get saved for viewing later. Here's an article from PCWorld discussing ways to save streaming video: How to download streaming media and watch it anywhere, anytime

[Robin1953]

I use a network attached storage (NAS) drive that has a built in media server that is DLNA compliant. I have a Samsung Blu Ray player that can attach to the media server to play movies off the NAS as well as stream movies from NetFlix, Hulu Plus (among others) and music from Pandora. So with two devices I have the ability to play DVDs, music CDs, stream movies/music from the Internet as well as stream music/movies/photos from the DLNA media server. It sounds moire complicated than it is.

[Army11Bravo]

Having a few DVD's on hand is nice, but we have had great luck with downloading movies onto an iPad and playing it to the TV. You can buy movies and even rent them on iTunes. I sometimes rip my purchased movies on my iMac and drop them in iTunes for my iPad.

[fj12ryder]

Trackrig wrote:
When home, we get two movies per day from Net Flics and copy them to a small 1T drive made by Western Digital from Costco. The drive will plug directly into the back of the newer TVs making it very easy to use.

Bill

"Two movies per day from Net Flics"?

[JimBollman]

Bought two 1TB USB powered drives for $50 each shipped from Amazon on sale a couple of weeks ago. I bought them for offline backups but it shows the prices are falling on the smaller drives now that 4TB are becoming common.

We don't watch TV in the camper but if we did I with proper compression (yes you loose some quality but you're camping rough it 🙂 you should be able to get them down to less than 1 GB each so you could put a bunch of them on a thumb drive. I bought a cheapy 32GB thumb drive off eBay for $8 shipped a few weeks ago.

[Trackrig]

When home, we get two movies per day from Net Flics and copy them to a small 1T drive made by Western Digital from Costco. The drive will plug directly into the back of the newer TVs making it very easy to use.

Bill

[dtappy3353]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[MrWizard]

Amazon prime
Has legal digital purchase / download

i back up all my DVD's to external Hard drives

[Oasisbob]

I made a small DVD rack that hangs aside the television. It is the kids job to load and rotate. I find the kids like to look at the cases to decide. I do like the idea of down loading from a legal source however. Best of luckWe only watch one family movie per night

[wa8yxm]

I use a very large (half terabyte) USB drive myself.. Movies are recorded off the air in my case, I will not burden the campground with streaming and can not afford that kind of bandwidth myself even if I had a cell connection.

[Tennessee_Nomad]

We keep our collection of dvd's (movies/tv shows) in the camper for when the Satellite or OTA is obstructed by trees or whatever.

[Gonzo42]

Rather than deal with yet another electronic device, I select a couple dozen DVDs to take along. Easy to sort through, read the propaganda, etc.

[fj12ryder]

I store mine on the DVD they came on. Doesn't take up that much space for a couple hundred movies. Pull the ones I want to watch when in the toyhauler and I'm good.

And I don't believe in pirating or copying movies I don't own, so that really limits what is available online.

And AFATG there really aren't that many movies I care to watch more than once other than a lot of old classics. Most modern movies cater to the younger, sophomoric crowd and I usually can't stand to watch them once, and sometimes can't even finish them. But that's just me.