Don't hold your breath, Apple won't put a DVD player in an iPad. Too much bulk and no need, they would rather sell or rent yo a movie from the iTunes Store. I often RIP a DVD to digital to put it on my iPad. It takes less than an hour for most DVDs.

The tablet is where it's at. You got form factor, battery life, screen size, light weight, ability to browse the web, read books, play games, email, facebook, all in one device! I don't remember the last time I bought a DVD. I thought I would miss having a physical copy, but I realized that I haven't watched most of the DVD/Blueray disks I bought over the years. I stream movies now with AppleTV (the original version), I hear the Roku Box with Netflix is pretty good.

By the way, VLC will play most non-Apple videos on the iPad. ;)

Don't forget that most of these portable DVD players have a video line-in. So, rip your content, store it on your iPhone or iPod, and hook it up to the sweet 9" screen of your $80 DVD player. Much cheaper than an iPad too :D

Portable DVD players are cheap for a reason. Who wants to lug that around and have limited selection of DVD's?

I'd get something with digital media storage. iPad or something similar. Netflix is great on flights with WiFi on the iPad... $10/month.

I'm definitely in favour of buying a netbook instead. True full-functionality in terms of codecs, awesome battery life, and you can browse Flash websites. :D

If you really have to, you could hook up a portable DVD player. Or, rip your DVD's using any number of free tools to easy DivX/XVid avi files.

can someone post an Idiots guide or a link to taking a DVD with copy protection and region protection and ripping it to a smaller digital file that I can play on my Netbook or a smart phone or even burn it on another DVD and play it in another region,

I am using windows XP

and how long will it take to convert a 2 hour DVD ?

I can rebuild your car motor but this has me stumped !

thanks

Rally

This is, in my opinion, the most useful feature of a portable DVD player. In the semi-pro video game, portable DVD players make great on-tripod monitors, particularly when you're using some kind of depth-of-field adapter, most of which flip the image.

For watching movies, either in the hotel room, the club room or on the plane, my laptop is a much better solution. The batteries last longer, and there are all manner of external extended-life batteries available. The picture resolution is better AND I can play Blu-Ray content, as well as standard DVD content.

Frankly, I'm waiting for a Verizon-compatible iPad (not one that must be used in conjunction with a MiFi hub). I think that's probably the best solution to portable video entertainment, plus a lot more. When I see these things in use on long-hauls, I positively salivate with envy.

Okay, there are a number of considerations here.

First, it is illegal to distribute or use copy-protection defeating software. This isn't to say that there isn't a lot of it around, but some is better than others. I like AnyDVD, which is a painless way of ripping anything, whether DVD or Blu-Ray, and is well supported by its manufacturer. It's the only product I've found that works transparently on everything and it's a single click to rip. It does, however, cost money. There are shareware products around, but they are either obsolete and unsupported, or rather complex to use. How long it takes to rip depends on CPU power. On my media computer, a standard DVD takes around 10 minutes, a Blu-Ray up to 80 minutes.

The problem with AnyDVD is that all it does is rip content and remove copy protection. Shrinking the file size is another issue. DVDShrink is an unsupported free shareware product that, like the name implies, can shrink DVDs (it can also rip-and-shrink but, as I noted, it is obsolete and there are newer copy protection schemes that it, by itself, cannot defeat). It does this in two ways. First, it lets you remove unwanted material, e.g. foreign-language audio, previews, extra features, etc. Second, it can recompress the material at a higher compression rate. This, of course, results in some degradation of quality -- the higher the compression rate, the less the quality.

Another option is to transcode the video into another format. DVDs use mpeg, but there are more efficient codecs available, e.g. mp4, divx, etc. I don't bother doing this, so I can't direct you to anything specific, but a Google search should reveal many options.

Finally, you'll need a player that is compatible with the codec you've chosen. Microsoft Media Player will handle most things, but I prefer a product by Arcsoft called Total Media Theater. It's the most versatile player I've found, offers lots of tweaks and control to maximize the viewing experience, and can handle anything I've thrown at it, including Blu-Ray. There's a nice free player called Video LAN that offers a similar amount of control. It has, however, some minor bugs and doesn't play Blu-Ray.

Note that it is not a foregone conclusion that your netbook will be able to play full-screen videos. The primary concern is the built-in graphics card. I have an Asus Aspire 1 that can do this very well. On the other hand, I have another Asus (I don't recall the model number at the moment) that cannot.

I find the easiest solution is either to rip directly to my laptop's hard drive without recompression or ripping to a portable USB drive without recompression.

Search "DVD Fab Decrypter" and look for the free downloads. Within the free downloads page is another free software that makes your DVD drive region-free. I should mention DVD Fab is updated all the time and works where lesser ripping programs fail.

Unless you need to save space, you can play this directly on your netbook.

If you need to convert, One of the easiest and fastest (and free) software for Windows (IMO) is XVid4PSP. The paid version of DVD Fab Decrypter can do this, as well. Do NOT use Handbrake as it sucks for Windows. However, I will say one of the saddest things I witnessed was some guy holding up his iPod for an entire long-haul flight watching a movie. As for encoding speed, it really depends on your specs.

Use VideoLAN (VLC Player) on your netbook to play the DVD or avi files. Best free software out there. You're not going to play Blu-Rays on a netbook. There's no point as the screen resolution isn't good enough.

Yeah, I still can't figure out who's buying all those discs. I mean $10 to $20 for a movie you are unlikely to watch more than once or twice. What's the point? But I digress.

Redbox - Quick, Easy, Cheap
 

If you fly with your portable DVD player or optical-drive-equipped laptop, you can rent a DVD from a Redbox in your departure airport and return it at your destination airport. Just a dollar per movie, and no need to rip it ahead of time.

You can determine at http://www.redbox.com/Locations/LocationSearch.aspx?l={0}&movie={1} if an airport has a Redbox.

The point is (1) having the movie in your collection; and/or (2) watching the movie more than once or twice. Millions of people do this, obviously, but I guess it's just not your thing.

I never recommend traveling with original disks, after having forgotten disks on planes before. With the tools mentioned, it's easy to make a backup and use that instead. ^

Portable DVD players will be for people who aren't tech savvy.

The minute I got my first iPhone (a 3G), I learned how to convert video files to iPhone format, load them and then watched them on the iPhone when traveling. I have an iPhone 4 and the 32GB are great for music and video. Last cross country trip I caught up on all the Modern Family episodes I had missed.

Free format converters like Format Factory are very easy to use and have a list of mobile devices and convert to that format when you select it. Just make sure to unclick the Ask.com toolbar when installing!

Yup, tablet market will take off and there will be models under the price of the iPad which are capable of good video viewing on a much better screen than you're likely to get on these portable DVD players.

Of course, most of the other tablets are using 7-inch screens so you may have to pony up for the iPad and then use apps. like Handbrake to rip and AirVideo or Zumocast to stream or transfer videos.

Just wait until tomorrow...there will be dozens of new 7-10" tablets announced at CES.