How Do You Watch Your Dramas

I am interested in how different people usually watch the dramas they download. What I mean is that while many people simply watch the shows directly on their computer, there have to be other people who prefer the experience of watching the dramas on their televisions.

For instance while all the computers in my house are Macs, we use a Modified Xbox (first gen, not Xbox360) hooked up via componant to our Sony CRT HDTV to play dramas and anime fansubs. We use a program called Xbox Media Center to play the files and it will handle just about any media file type (although it does not much like .rmvb, playback can be choppy) including softsubs. Mostly I burn shows to DVD to save harddrive space but we can also play the shows streaming over our home network from the Macs to the Xbox.

My brother wanted to be able to play shows on his television but needed a simpler solution so we found a upconnverting LG DVD player that will also play Dixv (.avi) files including softsub support. Not nearly as versatile, since you have to burn to DVD first and it will only handle a limited number of files types, but very easy to use and only cost about $80.00 at a big box retailer.

I am real curious about the methods people have come up with to watch their dramas.Particularly several friends of mine are interested in a set up of their own, but it is hard to know what to recommend for a given person with so many different levels of interest and tech savvy between each of them. I figure the more solutions I can find out about the better I can help.

Thanks to anybody who takes the time to reply. Glare

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:09 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I also watch the majority of dramas via my modded xbox1. I stream the 350MB versions and ftp the 700MB+ files to the HDD.

I'm hoping for the day that I'll be able to mod my xbox360...hopefully it'll support higher resolution (720p) that the dramas are being uploaded as recently.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:18 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

My flatscreen tv is connected to the internet so I can watch my dramas on the television. I download my dramas/movies I also watch them on streaming sites. It sounds sort of complicated the way you watch yours. I wonder how I could do that for my friends pc tho. I use external hard drives for files i can't fit on my pc drive, but I should start burning them so I can keep track of them. I don't know why, but I prefer watching it on my pc more than on my tv even tho im able to. The disadvantage of internet on the tv is that the keyboard is freaking big and weird size.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:22 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I watch it in my computer because the screen 21' is bigger than my tv! pinch

D anb better resolution^^ Sometimes I burn it on a DVD to watch it on tv although I have a DVD player with Divx subs are really small and I ended blind pinch

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:32 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:41 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Actually there is not anything particularly complicated about the set up we use with the Xbox. I download shows to one of two Macs. If I want a hard copy of a show (which I pretty much always do) I burn it off to a DVD. I can pop the DVD in my Xbox and play any shows as simply as playing a conventional movie DVD. If I do not want to mess with DVDs the Xbox can access any media from our Macs' hard drives and play the file over the network. The Xbox is set up to boot directly into the Media Player when you turn it on so watching any show is just a click or two away. The Xbox controller works as a remote (we use a wireless one). The really nice thing is that our Macs are free to do other things (usually look up stuff on dramawiki) while a show is on. The downside of it as a solution for others is that costs at least $180.00 to set up and involves soldering and a complex software installation process. Although I love the way it all works Ithink most people would want a more casual solution.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:49 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I have Dell's 24" widescreen monitor. Perfect for the 16x9 aspect ratio that a lot of dramas are airing at.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:53 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

i dump them onto my usbkey(i have a couple of 4gigers) and then pop it into my ps2 and watch them; output onto my plasma.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:15 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Steam,

I asume it is a modded ps2. What software are you using to playback the files on a ps2? Does it require having a hard drive hooked to the ps2 or is the software on a chip? Your solution is exactly the type I am curious about since I am unfamiliar with how it would work using a ps2. Please explain if you have a chance.

To anybody, is anybody using WIndows XP Media Center Edition or VIsta to output shows to their television? Having used Macs since the same year XP came out I have not had a chance to try this funtionality out. I have not, however, heard good things (ease of use mainly) about Windows Media Center.

A solution one friend of mine occasionally uses with his ibook is to plug it into his Sony CRT HDTV (same model as mine) via a minidv to hdmi cable with the sound pluged from his ibook directly into his surround sound system. The he just tells the Mac to treat the television as a second display and plays shows with VLC. The solution works but is seriously inelegent. Plus the sound is less than ideal since the ibook lacks optical audio out.

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:19 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:29 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

He's just saving them to a USB(universal serial bus) a portable drive that you can put on almost any pc, video game console, and PDA's and just runs it on the PS2. lol why haven't I thought of that? That sounds so simple and I never thought to use my USB's for that hahaha forget burning I'm going to use my USB's

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:37 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:43 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:46 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:56 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0