It is no longer possible to play CDs or DVDs on your desktop or laptop computer as standard. Just look at current generation Chromebooks and MacBooks. So if you want to watch a movie, it will be difficult without the streaming service. What can you do if you still want to play DVD on your PC or laptop?
1. Copy all your DVDs to a PC
If you don’t want to do anything with these (old-fashioned) discs anymore, copying and digitally saving all your movies is a good option; whether it is on a hard drive or in the cloud.
Just a warning: The police won’t be knocking on your door right away for copying some DVDs you already own, but technically you’re breaking copyright law. However, it’s considered ‘fair use’ as long as you don’t distribute the movies through BitTorrent or sell copies.
Of course, to convert DVDs to a video file, you must have a DVD drive and the necessary software to perform the process. So, of course, it’s best to do this on a desktop computer if you have one.
HandBrake is a useful program for ripping DVDs. You will still need to bypass the security of the DVDs. You do this by manually creating a file named libdvdcss-2.dll To the folder where Handbare is installed. Only then can you start ripping DVDs.
If you don’t like Handbrake, you can also try DVD Rip Pack. In this way, you will have the necessary tools at once. The package includes some versions of the well-known DVD Shrink (for example, to convert a DVD9 to DVD5), software for working with image files (iso), and programs for editing VOB files.
If you want to get started with DVD ripping, read our comprehensive guide. Note that this is a time-consuming process and will take up quite a bit of disk space if you’re going to be converting dozens (if not hundreds) of DVDs. Once you’ve done that, you’ll never again have to worry about a DVD drive being lost on your Macbook or Windows laptop.
To play the files, you must have a suitable media player depending on the file format you are converting. We recommend VLC; A free media player that can not only play all video files, the software is also available for smartphones and tablets. Useful if all your files are in the cloud and you want to view them on your mobile devices.
Although VLC started out as a powerful media player, many features have been added over the years. So you can convert files, download YouTube videos and record videos. There is a good chance that you will not use all functions for a long time. It’s time to bring them to the fore once again.
2. Use an external DVD drive
Of course, the most obvious option is simply to buy an external DVD drive. You can already get such a box at home for a few dollars, so you always have something handy when you want to watch an old movie or play that classic game again, for example, on your modern laptop.
Connect the external DVD drive to a USB port on your laptop and it should probably work soon after the necessary drivers are installed automatically. If for some reason this is not the case, please visit the manufacturer’s website and download the necessary drivers for the hardware.
Fly
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on an external drive, an inexpensive alternative is to repair a DVD drive from an old laptop or PC. If you remove the DVD drive from your old computer, you will need to purchase a suitable enclosure for it; can be found in various webshops for very little price. Make sure that this cover is the right thickness and fits the connections of your DVD drive (SATA/IDE, etc.). This way, you’ve built an external DVD drive yourself relatively inexpensively and easily. You can do the same with an old laptop’s straight-line DVD drive.
3. Use a USB stick or cloud
Do you miss a DVD drive especially for copying files and media? Then consider doing this with a USB stick from now on. Not only is this much faster than writing to a physical disc, but it will save you a lot of money in the long run.
Another option is the cloud. Services like Dropbox, SkyDrive, Mega, and Google Drive make it super easy to upload files to their servers and access them from any device, anywhere. Convenient: You can also share files with most of these cloud services. If you only want to send files occasionally, Dutch WeTransfer is also a great service for sending files (up to 2GB max free).
Other options are DropSend, SendAnywhere and TransferXL, which sometimes offer slightly more capacity or keep files longer. In another article, we’ll cover the various options for sending files.
Source: Computer Totaal
