Media Playback Tablet including DVD support?

[Algus]

Well I am now using a Chromebook as my laptop and I am quite happy with it but one area Chrome OS fails horribly in and probably is not interested in rectifying is the lack of DVD/BD Drive support. I suppose I could jury-rig it via Linux but with the chromebook's paltry 1366x768 resolution, it doesn't seem worth it.

So I'm not really in the market for a Windows laptop but looking at my current devices, my G1 Nexus 7 is getting pretty long in the tooth. I was thinking that perhaps a Windows tablet would be a smart upgrade, especially since I now use a Note 3 and it really hits all my Android needs. My big question though is can any old Windows-based tablet support a DVD/BD peripheral? The whole Windows RT/Windows 8/Windows Phone etc. designation is a bit confusing and the googling I've done has provided mixed results.

The Nokia 2520 interests me but I'll take a look at any device that has a true slate format. Transformer, detachable, true tablet, etc. my goal is a 1080p touchscreen that I can use for ebooks, comics, and video playback. Secondary would be any device that would support display out for plugging into my 24'' monitor if I've got some heavy work to do. 10'' mark is about what I'm looking for as the 7''-8'' is a bit small for doing video for my taste.

 

[RajeevT]

Any tablet running Windows 8.x (not RT) such as the Surface Pro line-up will have no problems whatsoever with external DVD/BD drives.

 

[Alphageek_UK]

Have you considered ripping your DVD/BDs and then you could play them on pretty much as any tablet. A Surface 2 RT would fit your requirements if you did.

 

[Algus]

I certainly can rip. The only reason I am hesitant to do so is that I have a massive DVD collection: somewhere along the line of 2,000 discs. So ripping what I may want to watch ahead of time might not be practical lol.

I've been eyeballing the Dell Venue Pro 11 since I made this post. From what I've read it should tick all my boxes.

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[onlysublime]

well, the ripping process is pretty quick nowadays. under 5 minutes. since you aren't watching all 2000 discs at once, you rip as you go... of course, a basic rip is the full exact copy of the DVD files so it'll be huge (5-9 GB). That's why people convert them to MP4 files which will take it way down to 1 GB. But conversion to MP4 is where there's a time investment because it's not fast even if you go the transcoding route.

 

[Algus]

I'm not overly thrilled about the thought of converting a bunch of DVD rips down to a format that isn't a space monster, though I should probably look into ripping some of my collection, if for no other reason than to make it accessible on my phone and chromebook.

I was talking about this on another forum I frequent and dug this thread up after doing some googling. It looks like CyberLink Power Media Player might be the software I need to get this job done on Windows RT, which sounds great since I'd love to get my hands on the Lumia 2520, at least for a test run.

Thanks for the feedback guys. There's an MS Store on the other side of town from me so I might have to pop in tomorrow and see if I can't get a better idea of which device I want.

 

[RajeevT]

I was talking about this on another forum I frequent and dug this thread up after doing some googling. It looks like CyberLink Power Media Player might be the software I need to get this job done on Windows RT, which sounds great since I'd love to get my hands on the Lumia 2520, at least for a test run.

Power Media Player (PMP) can play back ripped VOBs but commercial DVDs have DRM, region coding and so on which the app doesn't support since Windows 8 itself lacks DVD support without the Media Center Pack, which of course is not available for Windows RT. If you do manage to lay your hands on an external DVD drive that Windows RT recognises and your DVD VOBs are directly accessible via PMP (not all are), you'll still be faced with the tedium of having to play back each VOB individually with no menu support, chapter support, subtitle support or anything else you've come to expect from your DVDs. For an all-round less irritating and more trouble-free experience I'd recommend a tablet with full Windows 8 if ripping all the discs is not viable, but if you can rip then PMP for Windows RT can handle the playback. In fact if you have MP4s (H.264 video and AAC/AC3/MP3 audio) you don't even need a paid app since the included XBox Video app can handle them just fine, and there are other free apps too that provide support for subtitles and other features if required.

 

[onlysublime]

all the rippers out there strip the copy protection.