Farscape-to-Go...Jealous?

[amrcanpoet]

Wanna know how I can watch Farscape anytime, no matter where I am and keep it in my pocket?

I own a Sony Clie NX70V (a Palm device), which has a nice wide-screen LCD display that was designed for multimedia applications. I downloaded the free DVD Rip X program, ripped my Farscape edisodes to MPEG files, then put them on a Memory Stick, put the stick in my Clie, and voila! I have Farscape anytime, anywhere!

On a 256mb card, you can get about 3 episodes with viewable quality. This is great for when you're on a lunch break, at the DMV, or it's most recently perfect use: Jury Duty!

If anyone owns a Sony Clie and does not know how to do this, just e-mail me and I'll help you out!

[BaseLine]

Which dvd ripping program do you use? I unfortunately don't have enough space left on my Dell Axim X3i to store episodes. I'm planning on buying a 256 mb memory card though. I'm going to Beijing next month, so perhaps they'll have those things there for a very nice price. If not I'll buy it here.

[blueaeryn]

I can watch Farscape at home or work because I have every ep on DVD and have a personal DVD player. At work I just minimize the screen on my laptop and have them playing while I am doing my game notes.

BA

[MySideYourSide]

I'm working on completing my DVD collection of the series, so I just pop a DVD into my 12" Powerbook when I want to watch an ep. It's not as compact as your Clie, but it's Powerbook (de facto cool).

I'll admit that having a few eps in your palm is pretty cool, though... ;)

[gastrof]

I've heard of people using palmtops to watch TV, such as digitally recording a sitcom and then watching it the next morning on public transit while on the way to work.

Neat.

I of course am still using a used laptop with a PII 300 processor and have just bought my first CD burner....an old Iomega 650! LOL!

Neat that this is possible now, tho'. Makes sense you should be able to record TV onto much smaller media.

Next I want them to devise a way to micro store digital info, so we can have at least a whole season's worth of a show on something the size of a memory stick with resolution that's at least viewable on a regular size screen.

I also want the sun, moon, stars, and sixteen dancing pelicans that will bring me diamonds and cheeseburgers on demand.

[witchdoctor]

The November or December issue (I think) of MaximumPC has a step by step article on exactly how to do this, though for a PocketPC system (such as a Dell Axim) rather than Palm operating system. The neat thing is, it is legal and still considered fair use, if you don't have to defeat copyright protection to do it. I checked my Farscape DVD's and the actual video files are not encoded, so all you have to do is reformat and compress the video files (into wma format) so that they can be read by the PocketPC windows medai viewer. It does have to be PocketPC and Windows Media Viewer 2003 though. It takes 3 different programs to do so, but they are all free for download from various sites on the internet. The article talked about taking a movie from a DVD (around 4 GB) and getting it to fit onto a 256 MB flash memory card, so getting 2-3 Farscape episodes onto the same 256 MB card sounds right. I still have to get around to reformating a FS episode, but I do have some of my favorite FS music videos on my Dell Axim X3. WMA files are ready to go as is and require no re-formating. The magazines are at home, so I can't give more exact referrences now.

[Roland]

Big is better... ;) Nothing less then a normal tv is worthy of Farscape! :D

[witchdoctor]

Originally posted by Roland
Big is better... ;) Nothing less then a normal tv is worthy of Farscape! :D

Yes, the bigger screen is better, but I don't think anyone here is disputing that. Plus, by the same reasoning, nothing less than a 40 inch (101 cm) plasma screen TV will do. That isn't always available though, and neither is a TV. Having an episode of Farscape ready to go on a handheld just has a high coolness factor. It is also convenient if you are trying to scape someone. I actually met another scaper this way. I was showing someone that you could play music videos on my Dell Axim and of course all the videos I had were from FarscapeFantasy. Another person at the table recognized Farscape and joined in the conversation. I probably wouldn't have found out they were a scaper otherwise.

[mrfobar]

I wish I had a Sony Clie NX70V, I could probably get away with that, currently they don't allow laptops in my college classes. So if I want to watch FarScape I have to memorize episodes, which reciting episodes and trying to pay attention....not a good idea.