Which netbook?

leo2moss

Hi - hope someone can help? I'm wanting to buy an inexpensive Netbook, mainly for use on holiday to check emails and to watch films. (For years I've had a (great) 10" portable DVD player but it weighs 5kg and with the increasing weight restriction I thought that a Netbook weighing 1 or 2kg would be a better option as it would let me do all the other usual stuff too.)

The trouble is that I can't find anything to tell me how I'd go about watching films on one - do I need to buy separate software/upgrade hardware as they don't seem to have a DVD-drive? I'm not very technically minded so apologies if I've phrased this over simplistically?

Any advice you could offer would be great.

Thanks

macman

No netbooks have optical drives-the whole point is to reduce weight and bulk. You can plug in an external USB DVD drive and use that, though it rather defeats the point of a compact, go-anywhere machine. Any retail external drive will come with the necessary software to play DVD's.

isofa

Better to buy a good but light laptop/notebook as it'll have the drive you need built in, ultra-portable/netbook won't fit your needs. Dell, Samsung, Acer etc.

Some good Dell deals always listed here: www.dmxdimension.co.uk
(Avoid the Mini/netbook, Samsung and others are much better)

leo2moss

isofa wrote: »

Better to buy a good but light laptop/notebook as it'll have the drive you need built in, ultra-portable/netbook won't fit your needs. Dell, Samsung, Acer etc.

Some good Dell deals always listed here: www.dmxdimension.co.uk
(Avoid the Mini/netbook, Samsung and others are much better)

Thanks. The trouble is that I'm trying to save weight as well. Apart from avoiding the whole excess baggage charges, I have a permanent shoulder injury and anything that reduces the weight I carry on holiday is a help (travelling on my own so no-one to assist there.) I suppose if I could find a notebook that weighs the same as my current DVD player, then I'd at least be no worse off and could still check emails, play games, etc.

Lazee_Wolf

You could rip your dvds into movie files and then transfer those to the hard drive on your netbook and take them with you like that but only for DVDs you actually own.

That way you you can carry more movies without adding their weight to your luggage as well.

aerostar

I have an Asus EEE PC 901 all solid state with windows xp (no hard disk) and put dvds onto 16GB SD card using my normal PC. I can get 4 films on the SD card. Very Light PC and have been very pleased with the netbook

Donnie

ACER A150 1GB RAM 120GB HDD



Still available for between £150 & £160

Weighs a kilogram or so.

Only problem for you may be when you need to install programs, such a VLC player . The OS may not be familiar.

I haven't attempted to install anything on mine, as I have Windows XP to install.

I'll be using it for storing and listening to my music collection whilst travelling and general Internet browsing on the move. Might watch the odd film or two on the plane if their selection isn't up to scratch.

Bowling_4_Gold

I recommend the Dell Mini 10:
It is very small (as you can see from the pic) but is quite well specked for a netbook and of course, is from Dell so you know it is well made and you get a very good warranty with it. You could just buy a £20 USB DVD drive to go with it and you can watch all your movies easily on the 'Truelife' display (which is apparently much better than bog standard LCD's)

Skeksis

I am writing this on the above sexy Acer which I've had for nearly 6 months without a problem and love it to bits, but I've just had an email from oyyy.co.uk and they've got a Lenovo netbook for £200 with XP and 80gb hard drive, it's on their front page. Hope this helps!

-TangleFoot-

macman wrote: »

No netbooks have optical drives-the whole point is to reduce weight and bulk.

The Eee PC 1004DN has a DVD±RW drive... but according to Pocket-lint we won't be seeing any in the UK.

leo2moss

Thanks everyone. This has certainly given me something to think about. Storing the films on the machine or on a portable USB drive seems to be the best option - saves the weight of carrying the DVDs too!
I'm afraid I don't know what SD means?