Movies to Go

[Daninski]

Ok I have a 500gig hard drive I load movies onto I put in a portable USB box. I also have a WD media box I plug my USB hard drive into so I can watch movies anywhere I go on anyones TV/monitor. It's actually really cool as I thought I was going to have to build a computer to pull that off, instead a $150 box the size of two packs of smokes does the job. I plan to put a monitor in my car that can be moved around (keeps the kid quiet). Is there any problems with what I'm doing as it seems straight foreward to me. I just need to buy one of those 12V to 120v converters and as the adapters take minimal power it should be easy. Using AVI format each movie is about 7-800megs so I can store like 600 plus movies on this drive. Thanks axxo. Comments?

[Nd4SpdSe]

What's this device that's the size of a pack of two packs of smokes?

I'm honestly not sure exactly what you're asking...do you want to put a CarPC in your Mx-3?

[Daninski]

It's a Western Digital media center unit. Best Buy has them for $149. You can load movies to a hard drive them play them on your TV. So much simplier and more compact than Cd's. If you have Vista then the media center will apply icons to each movie. Kinda cool. I use AVI format as it's the 'MP3' for movies format.

[Nd4SpdSe]

You sure about that? Looks like just a fancy external hard drive.I think it still need a PC to interface with it.

What do you mean AVI? That's just a generic term. I take it your using DIVX and XVID movies (commonly refered to as MPG4)? Mp3 isn't a movie format, it's just for music, but MPG4 movies use the Mp3 codec for the audio portion

[Mad Cow]

Well if he's talking about axxo rips then they're XVID. And yea, that drive is pretty much just an external hard drive with a USB hub and card readers, so it won't work for what you want.

[Savin]

That western digital converter doo-hicky should work for what Dan needs. All you simply do is hook up a monitor or TV to it (not sure on the monitor). Its like one of those DVD players that have the USB support on it (hook up an external HD to it and play movies), but this simply doesn't have the DVD player in it.

[Mad Cow]

But there are no audio/video outputs. I googled what he wrote and it just came up with what I said, a fancy external HD.

A 500gb hard drive with audio/video outputs and the required processing power to play videos for $150 is impossible. Whereas a 500gb external HD for $150 sounds just about right.

[Savin]

Its not an external HD though. Its just a converter.
There's no storage on it. You plug your HD into it.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=4030" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It has A/V jacks on the back..... Dan was just saying he plugs his 500gig HD into it.

[neli_nael]

yea all he needs is a tv/monitor in the car hooked then he's all set. not sure what he's asking.

[Daninski]

I was just making a comparision when I said MP3. So you can either buy a hard drive already in an enclosure or buy a box to put the hard drive in. I plug the USB from the hard drive into the Western Digital box and it then sends the signal to the TV. Of course if you have a laptop with Windows Vista you can do the same thing. Use an HDMI cable to connect to your monitor. The audio goes into my surround sound so if I installed this in my car I would need to use the stereo deck for the audio. Anyway I have around 70 movies on my drive and it's nice just to sit back and scroll throught and decide what to watch. No Cd's to screw with. I plan on building a box to hold both the hard drive and WD box. I may use a computer power supply box with the guts removed and incorperate the cooling fan in it as well. Oh and you can of course load music on the drive and play that in your home or car as well. I don't think there's any sound quality loss but I'm not 100% sure on that.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Well CarPC's have been done in Mx-3's a few times, and for a while now It's definitely doable, but I think that maybe your complicating things a bit. You can get totally enclosed mini-pc's that wouldn't require a second box. Literally do a Google image search for "mini pc" and you'll see many different options. That you may be interested would be the "ITX" based PC's since that's the small form factor layout for them

That media center idea with the remote makes sence in a way since you don't need an OS, nor a touchscreen LCD since you're using just a remote. But in the end, it comes down to what you want to do. if you want the flexibility of a PC, or the simplicity of a media box.

My Mx-3 setup uses desktop PC components, but in the Xterra, I used an ITX system. Here it is with a 160GB 2.5" laptop hard drive. This system is shoehorned ABOVE the glovebox, between it and the passenger airbag.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Get the info you're looking for?

[Daninski]

That's a cool idea and there's no need for a case so you save room there. My WD hard drive with box cost $110 and the Western Digital media box was $150. I want portability so weather I travel or if at home I can watch what ever. I plan on loading MP3s too. Those mini Lap Tops are around $350 but they don't come with very big hard drives. I could of course add to it with an external hard drive. Umm how did you power you car PC? I will admit I'm about 2 years behind on the PC tech thing.

[Nd4SpdSe]

Ya, they probably use the 1.8" hard drives, which I don't believe you can upgrade yet either.

The one in the Mx-3 is a 250w full-sized ATX power supply, but it's a DC-DC made by Orbitz Micro. That thing cost me way over $300 to buy and get to me door but 1) it was literally the only and most powerful option out there and 2) it's exactly what I needed, solved my instability issues when I was running it through an inverter.

This is the one for the Xterra. I don't need the power requirements of that in the Mx-3, and that one is the largest one in that form factor, 160w I believe.

[Daninski]

$300 for a power supply, wow. I may be retiring next year so I need to balance my books and put a little cash aside so everything I do this year has to be on the cheap. I am however ordering some new tail lights to match the new spyder head lights and I need to paint two cars (I'll do that myself). That's why I'm doing this video/music thing the way I am. It's CHEAP. What are you using as a monitor?