dvd

Get a 9-inch portable DVD player for $59.99

For long car rides with kids, nothing, but nothing, beats a portable DVD player. (OK, an iPad comes close, assuming you're willing and able to rip all your DVDs ahead of time--and pay $500+ for an iPad.)

If your minivan didn't come with a built-in player, try this: today only, 1 Sale A Day has the Haier PDVD9KIT portable DVD player for $59.99, plus $4.99 for shipping.

The player features a 9-inch wide screen that can swivel--which may not seem like a big deal, but believe me when I say it comes in handy--plus stereo speakers … Read more

Addressing DVD Player error -70012 when using external drives in OS X

Apple's DVD Player is the default option for viewing DVD movies in OS X, and is set up in the "CDs and DVDs" section of the system preferences to automatically launch when a video DVD is mounted and recognized by the system. While a good tool for viewing DVDs, DVD Player does have some quirks, one of which appears to be the requirement for a properly recognized DVD player to be present in order to play DVDs. If not, then even though the external drive may read and mount DVD media, DVD Player will issue the "… Read more

Get WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Kung Fu Edition free

Do you like pandas? Movies about pandas? Movies about pandas who do kung fu? That's great, but it's not important right now.

Starting today, Digiarty Software is offering WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Kung Fu Edition free of charge. It normally sells for $49.95.

What's the "kung fu" part all about? According to a Digiarty rep, this version of the program is "branded to hail the release of [the] long-awaited 'Kung Fu Panda 2' film. It is designed with [the] new addition of 'Kung Fu Panda' image on the interface--while [retaining] all the advanced … Read more

Reviewed: Blu-ray setup discs for your HDTV

If you've never adjusted the settings on your TV, it's a good bet it's not performing as well as it could. While it's possible to get the picture settings close just by using your eye, the better option is a Blu-ray setup disc.

Beginner to expert, there's one for every skill level. All will get your TV performing much better than before.

Get WinX DVD Copy Pro for free

Over the years I've shared a variety of DVD rippers, but most of them were designed to copy your movies to other formats: iPod, Android phone, MPEG-4, and so on.

Digiarty Software's new WinX DVD Copy Pro was built for DVD backups. It can clone a disc, turn it into an ISO image file, or convert it to MPEG-2.

The program normally costs $35.95, but today only, you can get WinX DVD Copy Pro absolutely free.

The software comes courtesy of Giveaway of the Day, a great source for freebies like this one. There are no strings … Read more

A Kwik way to manage media

Nero Kwik Media is a light and free media manager with which you can organize, edit, and share your music, photos, videos, and data. Imagine iTunes and iPhoto rolled into one, then trimmed in half. While this download is technically "free," there is one caveat: you'll have to purchase some of its functionality in the form of "apps" listed in Nero's built-in store. Sure, most of these add-ons aren't too expensive, but it's a shame that a few of them (like Nero Kwik Play, a video decoder) don't come with the … Read more

Digital vs. analog audio: Which sounds better?

The analog vs. digital debate has been raging for nearly three decades, and there's still no clear winner, because it's really just a matter of personal preference. I'm fine with that, but there's a lot of sniping in the analog/digital wars, and each side never misses an opportunity to put down the other side as misguided, deaf, just plain stupid, or worse. Each side claims its chosen format is superior and the opposite's is garbage.

I'm an analog guy, but I'd admit that analog's distortions, speed variations, and noise/hiss make … Read more

Survey shows DVD dominates home video

Here's some more data that shows Web TV still has a long way to go before unseating DVD and Blu-ray discs in the home.

In a survey of consumers in March by The NPD Group, the research firm found people "are still using DVDs and Blu-ray discs to watch movies more than all digital-video options combined." In the past three months, 77 percent of consumers reported watching a movie on a DVD or BD, which is unchanged from last year.

The survey of the more than 9,600 people found that 78 percent of home-video budgets were … Read more

Best Buy: Delays on DVD rentals boost sales

The agreement by Netflix and other top video-rental services to wait 28 days before renting newly released DVDs appears to be boosting disc sales--as much as 30 percent in some cases, say two national retailers.

Representatives from retail chains Best Buy and Hastings Entertainment told CNET during the past week that disc sales and even rentals are up for movies that aren't available at Netflix or Redbox during what has come to be known as the "sales-only window."

"On sales of specific titles, we've seen our market share go up over time and degradation of … Read more

Easy DVD creator

Burning your videos to DVDs is easy, right? You just convert them to a compatible format, create an ISO image, and... wait! Don't go: we found a program that actually gets your saved videos from your computer to DVDs without an engineering degree. You can watch the DVDs it creates on any DVD player. And you don't have to burn them to disks to enjoy the files ConvertXtoDVD creates; you can watch them just like DVDs on your computer. VSO ConvertXtoDVD automatically adds chapters, menus, play buttons, and other DVD features.

ConvertXtoDVD's compact console holds a tree … Read more