I'm looking for true high-speed internet, which is like 300 times as fast as DSL. What are the options out there? Satellite? Wireless Internet? Some kind of super duper DSL? Cell phone internet?
I'd like to boost my Cell Phone reception at home. Someone I talked to suggested that you can get an antenna to mount on your house to boost reception. Anyone know about this? Could I use this for internet access? Who has the best or fastest network?
My wife buys dvd's. It's a pain to find a dvd and with my 5 dvd player, it's slow to load a dvd and to play the right one. Years ago I looked into DVD players that could store 300 dvd's. Recently I saw at Sam's Club a 2TB hard drive for ~$90. Whoa! Why not copy the dvd onto the hard drive, then play the dvd's from there. How should I go about this? Get a dvr and had the hard drive to it? Play dvd's from the computer? I'd like to be able to load all the dvd's, search by actor, title, genre, etc., then play the dvd. I've had problems copying dvd's to the computer before. Any ideas?
I can answer all your questions, but you should really take them to the relevant Internet forums. Perhaps I can say a prayer for your rabbit...?
You have DSL?! Then you aren’t that rural, my FRiend. : )
We’ll be able to bump the dial-up maybe around 2024 where I’m at.
Those antenna for cell phones DO work, but they are a bundle, start at around 300+ bucks, depending on what kind of cell service you have. My neighbor has one and is tickled to death that he can access hi speed net now via the cell phone. Most Radio Shacks carry stuff like that. I think that’s where he got his. They are all over the innernettubes, too.
If you’re griping about 50 bucks for pokey DSL, then skip satellite internet, it ain’t worth the bucks.
1. FIOS or a fiber based cable Internet provider will be your fastest choices. I don’t have any experience with Sat Internet, but my understanding is that it is slower than DSL with the average download rate being about 1Mbps. Hughes.Net has a 2.0 Mbps/300 Kbps plan for 89 bucks a month, which may or may not be faster then your DSL.
2. Your best bet for boosting cell reception around the house is to get a mini cell site from your cellular provider (I know Verizon, and T-Mobile offer them) they use a little of your internet bandwidth when you are are on the phone. My experience with boosters is that they suck.
3. Rip DVD’s with DVD Decrupter http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/ Rip them in ISO format. (Mode/ISO/Read) This will rip them to one big file which you can mount with a virtual DVD drive like Daemon Tools lite. Both programs are free. Once you mount the image with Daemon tools lite you can watch it normally with Windows Media Player or your favorite DVD player.
Of course you will need to hook your computer up your TV if you want to watch them on a TV.
DSL - http://www.dslreports.com/
Cell Phone Boosters -
http://cellphoneboosterstore.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Extenders-YX500-Cel-Booster-Coverage/dp/B000E14G7S
DVD - put Itunes on your computer. Load all DVDs on your hard drive. Shouldn’t take more than 35gb for 5000 songs. Got more than that?
As for needing to load the full video before it will play, that is likely a setting or codec problem.
Depending on the model cellphone you have, you may be able to get an external antenna for it. This will work the best, the boosters are more expensive and performance leaves much to be desired.
DVD ripping to your hard drive requires software to remove the encryption, or a capture device that doesn't care, or can be fooled.
re: DVD’s
Several companies have media boxex that can connect to your TV (assuming it has appropriate plug-ins for components or HDMI). The box can also connect to a USB hard drive.
I have an older WDHD TV box from Western Digital. It reads most of the common video formats and has the appropriate codecs onboard. The DVD format is actually an mpeg format, which is a common video format.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/
Also Google “media box for tv” for additional brands.
You can also connect a laptop to the tv, if the tv has the appropriate video connector and supports being the ‘monitor’ for the laptop.
I’m in the same boat so I’ll check back to see if anyone has a solution.
Seems cell phone internet should be possible...
FWIW what I do is download movies after I go to bed.
Using ‘orbit downloader’ (there are several free downloaders, I like orbit) I select 4 or 5 movies- when I’m in the mood- from the sites below and let them download overnight.
http://www.archive.org/details/movies click movies, click feature films; clixk television, click classic tv.
These have lots of ads so I assume they’re legit:
http://www.movie2k.to/movies-all.html
http://watchseries.eu/letters/A
That's not an uncommon price. But you don't say what the actual speed is (use dslreports.com.) If you are getting above 1 Mbps down you are OK.
I'm looking for true high-speed internet, which is like 300 times as fast as DSL.
That is not so. The fastest Internet available to a common man (cable) is about 25 Mbps, and a slowest common DSL is about 1 Mbps. The difference is not 300x.
I'd like to boost my Cell Phone reception at home. Someone I talked to suggested that you can get an antenna to mount on your house to boost reception. Anyone know about this?
I have the Wi-Ex extender (which I don't use currently) and I have an AT&T microcell. The latter is pretty good. It requires semi-decent Internet link, but any DSL will do. Wi-Ex may also work for you; it requires some physical distance between the two antennas (otherwise it will oscillate.)
Why not copy the dvd onto the hard drive, then play the dvd's from there. How should I go about this?
DVD publishers don't want you to do it, so this is kind of an underground activity. DMCA is not helping here. But there are tools on the Net that help you to rip DVDs. Note that BlueRay disks have better encryption, and it had been broken only recently. But I'm not very familiar with these issues because I don't watch movies (I read books instead.)
We tried the Hughes Net satellite because I was ticked at our local cable company and the phone company over their high speeds and what we paid.
Hughes Net was as slow as molasses, similar to dialup although a little faster. And of course when I called Hughes Net with questions before ordering I was told it was awesome. Well yes, for ‘awesome’ speed it was $350 per month and I wasn’t willing to pay that.
So Hughes Net was a big mistake here.
I can’t help with hints regarding your internet service, or cell phone; but I can hopefully offer some ideas regarding dvds.. some here have mentioned DVD-Decrypter..this was a great software..when it was continually updated. However, DVD-Decrypter has not been updated for YEARS now; in reality, it’s a dead software. Sure, it may work for dvds that were released 5 years ago. But there have been many new encryption schemes developed since DVD Decrypter was last updated. I’d stay away from DVD Decrypter.
A poster has recommended ANYDVD; this is a great software, continually updated, and works well with all fairly new releases. ANYDVD is PAYware. Sure, it’s free to use for 21 days. Then it locks, until you PAY their fee. ANYDVD is available on a SUBSCRIPTION basis only. I think it’s 55 dollars per 3 years. More for use of ANYDVD HD. Yes, it works well, and is highly recommended. But it IS payware. (ANYDVD and ANYDVD HD is essentially a driver..it will allow the clean transfer of DVD and Blu Ray content (movie only OR full dvd) to your hard drive.) Here is their website = http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html
The only OTHER software worth considering is DVDFAB. (www.dvdfab.com) It too is PAYWARE. This software is not considered to be as good as ANYDVD. However, it is continually updated, so anyone is able to cleanly copy movie only or full dvds and blurays to the hard drive. Their priceing structure is sort of convoluted. The website says that the cost is 50 dollars. But it’s not clear if that is merely a cost of subscription. I think it’s free to use for 30 days, then it also locks. DVDFAB can rip the dvd, then “Shrink” it to fit a blank dvd, then burn the content to a dvd. HOWEVER, after the FREE TO USE period of 30 days is up; DVDFAB can STILL be used to rip dvd content directly to the hard drive for FREE. This is a great thing, especially if that is what you intended in the first place.
Many people are doing what you’ve suggested, placing dvd content on hard drives, then watching this content on their tv sets. however, most dvd CONTENT can be anywhere from 5-8 gigs PER DVD. So, many people COMPRESS this content to a manageable level. A LOT of people use the MKV container to do this. Many people use a software named MAKEMKV to do this. While this software is in BETA mode, it’s free to use. Here’s the website = http://www.makemkv.com/
There are other MKV softwares available. Do the research. The best site to learn how to do video is www.videohelp.com One word of recommendation.. if you wish to watch these videos on your HDTV set..please use a HDMI cable..you may well have to install an HD VIDEO CARD that has a HDMI port in your computer, then you can use the HDMI cable to transfer the video to your tv set, to see great looking video on your HDTV set.
I’ve suggested software that will work for standard dvds. A lot of people are also storing BLU RAY content as well. If you have a BLU RAY player in your computer, you can rip Blu Ray content to your harddrive, then use MAKEMKV or BDRebuilder to convert the blu ray content to different containers.
Yeah, this is a lot of information to digest. However, it’s fun, and easy to do IF you follow instructions well. Again, the BEST place to learn about video is www.videohelp.com
Have fun with your video projects ! :>)