Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dvd and entertainment

Let's make a portable play station for a baby.

HopStopDon'tShop — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:05:21 -0800

1x 1 year old daughter, 1x Sony Vaio and 1x IT Team that will do whatever I ask them to (nicely). How can I turn my old Vaio into a mini entertainment and gaming system for my little fairy? My daughter loves to mess around with phones and computers and has already figured out how to use a mouse and, of course, an iPhone. (Okay, she doesn't "use" it but she enjoys playing around with it, moving photos etc.)

She doesn't watch any tv shows at the moment but will shortly and I'm sure there are cute little games out there that she'd enjoy on the computer.

What can I do to strip my old laptop down to basics, install only the necessary software so that it runs whatever we'll need to run and make it fun for her over the next year or two? What games do you know of that entertain 1-2 year olds (for 2 minutes or more)?

Laptop is basic from 2006: 80GB of memory, 500Mhz and about 1GB of RAM. I think.

Help me build my perfect home media machine.

Afroblanco — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:43:06 -0800

Help me build my perfect home media machine. It must play blu-ray discs, browse the web, and stream HD video from internet sources. I have no interest in video games, and little interest in cable TV. Is this something I can buy? If this is something I must build myself, what kind of computing muscle will I need? I know that a lot of devices will hook up directly to Netflix and other services -- however, this feature alone will not satisfy me. This machine must host an actual web browser capable of viewing all of the popular websites -- so yes, the latest version of Flash is a must. It must stream HD video from internet sources flawlessly and without a hiccup. Additionally, I must be able to plug in a wireless keyboard and mouse.

It would be nice if I could play music and video files that live on another networked computer, but this is by no means necessary.

If this is something that I must build, what kind of hardware would I need? It's been several years since I've built a PC, and I can't even tell if one chip is faster than another anymore! Will any old HD video card work, or is there a memory requirement? How much RAM should the system have? What is the processor requirement? I don't want to spend any more money than I have to, but the hardware must be adequate for the purpose -- I don't want any slowdowns or noticeable delays.

Cosy times wanted!

dance — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:32:44 -0800

Different ways to watch movies aside from unplugging and moving a rather large iMac around the house? My partner and I like to watch downloaded movies, series and DVDs from time to time. At the moment we either sit rather uncomfortably in front of the iMac in the office, or we unplug it and sit it on a chair in the bedroom, for example. Often the external hard disk comes along for the ride too. This is impractical and by the time everything is powered up with cables strewn everywhere, my partner at least is quite cross and it doesn't feel cosy and nothing like a home cinema. It was actually easier when we just had an iBook between us.

What solutions are out there that would allow us to watch more easily on a screen that we could position in the living room, but would still allow for the possibility of watching downloaded films and DVDs. We're not so into the TV.

I saw this on Thinkgeek, but it may well be overkill. What about buying a mid-size TV and neatly running a HDMI cable to it from the iMac? Any suggestions, ideas or anecdotes welcomed!

Baby Video Recommendations?

zarq — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:12:33 -0800

Can anyone recommend baby videos for nine-month olds (and up)? My two nine-month old twins (boy and a girl) watch approximately half an hour of television a day. I'd like to expand their viewing selection.

What worked for your kids? Were there videos they loved? Hated? That you loved... or made you want to toss the dvd player out the window? Would you recommend the Baby Einstein series or not, and why?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We're based in the US, but I'm open to hearing about non-American productions. Videos that are specifically aimed at kids under a year old would be great, but I'm totally open to learning about videos for any age. After all, they're gonna grow up!

We have Bounce videos from PBS Sprout. (I find I'm singing that ^%$%! earworm of a "Hello Song" at all hours. I suppose that's normal. *sigh*) We also have HBO's Classical Baby series.

Why can’t my movies be as convenient as my music?

arniec — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:06:24 -0800

DVDs and Blu Ray discs are such a pain with their ability to be scratched and the need to find where a disc is, is it in the right case, etc. I find myself often drawn to standard definition “on demand” movies on cable (free ones) instead of searching my own high definition or DVD movies. Is there a way to have the convenience of “on demand” and the quality of the original media? We have sold off many of our DVDs with the intent of rebuying the movies on Blu Ray, but we still have about 100 DVDs and maybe 20 Blu Ray discs. What we’re looking for is a way to have those all perhaps ripped to a hard drive that we could then navigate to play the movies. I’m not interested in additional features, deleted scenes, commentaries, just the actual video itself (if I want the others I’ll grab the disc).

I know we can rip the standard def DVDs, but if I bought a Blu Ray drive can those discs be ripped at 1080p quality? If so, how much storage is involved, and what device will play it back at best quality with 7.1 surround sound? Do any media centers do HDMI?

We currently have in our house a 4TB Drobo (2.7TB actual storage space), and I have a Mac Mini that I know many people use as a media center; but if we can get this functionality we would not be opposed to buying Apple TV or some other device. We are a mixed PC/Mac household so software and hardware on either platform will work. Mostly we want easy-to-rip, easy-to-play.

Any suggestions?

Help me find some good movies that give you the warm fuzzies

GlowWyrm — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:54:07 -0800

moviefilter: Can you recommend a movie(s) that has fairy tale type magic in it. By magic I mean movies like Secondhand Lions and Big Fish for example. Movies where what seemed at first a fairy tale ended up being the truth or things of that nature. Finding Neverland and Hearts in Atlantis also have that particular type of magic. I guess another way to describe it would be magical things happening in an otherwise normal, realistic setting; nothing animated or set in an alternate universe. Not sure how else to describe it so I hope this makes sense. :)

Help me make a DVD.

BigBrownBear — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:18:45 -0800

Help me make a DVD. I want a program to make DVDs. Nothing to fancy - I just want to load some avi files, create a menu, and play the disc on a standalone DVD player.

I've tried several programs, but I either have problems with multiple files or the aspect ratio options are limited (want to copy widescreen). Does anyone have any suggestions?

Would certainly appreciate some opensource options (tried AVI2DVD but can't get it to work right, especially with multiple files).

(P.S. Not doing anything illegal)

Movies for Mom

*burp* — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 07:46:22 -0800

My mother is in her late sixties, and her kids just bought her a DVD player for her most recent birthday. Now she wants to know what movies we'd recommend she'd buy or rent. [More inside.] So? What do you recommend from the past ten years (the time, roughly, over which she's been somewhat out-of-touch with film)?

Any genre is acceptable, preferably without any graphic rape or torture scenes. "Foreign" (for her, non-English-language) films should probably be excluded as well, unless they're dubbed. (Subtitles don't tend to work too well with her current ocular abilities.)