Kindle for books, iPod for music, ??? for movies?

[Roamin Cat]

In preparation for eventual fulltiming, we are letting go of lots of unnecessary stuff; but there are some essentials, for us, that take up lots of space:

Books! Kindle will be FT substitute, just wish I didn't have to buy downloads of things we already own
Music, lectures, audio - iPod has that covered

movies, documentaries, educational DVDs, etc. (we have hundreds): what to use to consolidate visual media?

any suggestions?

[65CV]

Cats-

I was thinking about the same thing for a big trip next year. I'm not going to spend the $$ for a year, hoping that prices continue to drop while storage volume rises -- but here's what I'm thinking.

Rip our movies to avi format using the divx codec. See DivX Video Player - DivX Video Codec - DivX Converter for software. Once the dvd's are on the new format, store them on a portable hard drive like this 100GB copy2go Drive (USB) - Backup Solutions - CMS PRODUCTS .

It would require you to use your pc or mac to view the movies. It also looks like a lot of work to load your current dvd's.

Another alternative is Apple TV -- Apple Store (U.S.) - Apple TV

A friend of mine, who is close to Apple, says to wait until after September to look at the new version. This looks like a better solution for newer videos that you download with an iTunes account, not your current library.

If you have a flat screen and a good budget, you could use both. AppleTV should let you play videos from your computer on the flat screen.

If you try one of these options, please report back. Knowing this forum, someone has probably tried them.

John

[overlander63]

We have a 300 Gb external hard drive I am consolidating our video collection onto, using a program called DVD shrink.
Another way to save room is to get a dvd/cd carrying case (the one we have holds 320 dvd's), put the dvd's in it, and throw away the hard shell cases.
As far as an Ipod to store your cd collection on, you will need to keep the collection on the hard drive your Ipod syncs to. I've been thinking about getting a car stereo with a usb port to charge the Ipod, as well as play the Ipod through the speakers in the trailer. It's relatively inexpensive, only about $150 or so, plus install.

[AlaskaSafari]

I've loaded a good number of our favorite movies onto my laptop... it has substantial dual hard drives and a 17" screen. We watch movies on it all the time.

Great idea on the carrying case Over'63. That would hardly take up any space at all.

[wheel interested]

I think I would like to treat myself (as part of my unspent seasonal camper bonus working Amazon's Peak 2010) to a Kindle. I am cocked and ready to pull the trigger on two books, Nickeled and Dimed and then Scratch Beginnings as I simultaneously begin my new career as a Wal-Mart associate and cashier. Steinbeck has always been my favorite and a look at the economically challenged of this generation with humor and as a social experiment of getting by in America (or not) is far more compelling to me than watching eposodes of Housewives on cable that we no longer pay to subscribe to, (thanks Hulu!)

Should I get the Wi-Fi or the 3G Kindle? Can I look up an encyclopedia and Wikipedia on the 3G and still keep the dictionary function? Presently I have Wispersync for PC and that is the only familiarity I have with the Kindle applications and devices, except for stowing, packing, and sending out gazillions of them this past Christmas at Amazon.com

Also FYI you all may want to download Airstream Life, Rich Luhr's and Brad Cornelius' new e-book The Newbies Guide to Airstreaming! Love those nostalgic graphics guys!!

Amazon.com: The Newbies Guide to Airstreaming eBook: Rich Luhr, Brad Cornelius: Kindle Store

[exthemius]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

I think I would like to treat myself (as part of my unspent seasonal camper bonus working Amazon's Peak 2010) to a Kindle. I am cocked and ready to pull the trigger on two books, Nickeled and Dimed and then Scratch Beginnings as I simultaneously begin my new career as a Wal-Mart associate and cashier. Steinbeck has always been my favorite and a look at the poverty stricken of this generation with humor and a social experiment of getting by in America (or not) is far more compelling to me than watching eposodes of Housewives on cable that we no longer subscribe to.

Should I get the Wi-Fi or the 3G? Can I look up an encyclopedia and Wikipedia on the 3G and still keep the dictionary function? Presently I have Wispersync for PC and that is the only familiarity I have with the Kindle applications and devices, ecept for stowing, packing, and sending out gazillions of them this past Christmas at Amazon.com

Also FYI you all may want to download Airstream Life's Rich Luhr's and Brad Cornelius' new e-book The Newbies Guide to Airstreaming! Love the graphics guys!!

Amazon.com: The Newbies Guide to Airstreaming eBook: Rich Luhr, Brad Cornelius: Kindle Store

Nicki and I both have just the wifi versions -- but we also carry around a verizon mifi where we go, so we always have access to the internet so we didn't see the need. In all honesty though, you can always go the parking lot a most mcdonalds and pull a wifi signal there (and starbucks, and.....etc).

[NicheVintage]

I will chime in.... Why not buy and I pad that can do all of the above in one device? We love ours and never leave home without it. We are a mac family tho. Also, you could do an external hard drive and an internet app ready tv. This would allow you to connect an apple tv or connect to your netflix accounts.

We just purchased one a few months back and it is great! You can plug into it with hdmi or usb. We take our flip cam out on mountain biking outings then come back to the Airstream, plug into the usb connector on the tv and watch what we just recorded.

[Aviator]

I've been really happy with an iPad 2. It is large enough to watch movies on, holds my music as well as functions well for other apps and email. It does cost more than a kindle, but it also does a lot more and combines several devices for me.

[wheel interested]

The IPad does seem like THE wonderful and cool alternative albeit at higher cost, the Kindle is now going for $114.00 with the addition of advertisements (which I would not care for) then the regular Wi-Fi Kindle at $139.00 and $189.00 for the 3G version. The Ipad is larger and heavier and does what my laptop or IMac does, so personally I may want to try the smaller less expensive of the various options much like my beloved paperbacks, but I would like to have encyclopedia look-up in addition to the dictionary. Is that possible with the 3G or only with the IPad? I enjoy reading the internet and feel I have learned a wide variety of information with both dictionary and wikipedia accessability on PC. Reading books and viewing movies is a great asset but being able to fully research topics easily and instantly is an even better utility in my opinion and my immediate objective and interest.

http://www.amazon.com/

[Airbiscuit]

I have been extremely happy with my sony reader for our electronic books and newspapers. We use an ipod for our music and when we get sick of that, we have smart phones with pandora, youtube, etc. For DVD's we have purchased a small HD tv that we can hook the ps3 to and play the DVD's there or directly from the laptop (we have an external hard drive with all music and movies on it)

[wheel interested]

Also if you have covers or night lights I would love to hear which ones and what your review on them would be.

Lauren does the Sony have color? Or is that the Nook? I can use my old generation Ipod for much of the transfer or even my WD Passport for movies and music also. For streaming movies we just connect the laptop through home wi-fi and connect to the larger flat screen tv at home. In the Airstream it is much the same only a much smaller flat screen tv or over the air broadcast with antenna. Have not had the luxury of cable in the AS much.

I am thinking of getting a digital usb tuner for the IMac if possible since it is a much larger screen and we do already have it. Apple sure does make an attractive electronic!!

I would like to gain encyclopedia access to whatever device I next acquire. Think poor man's college and higher learning for those with limited resources... Perhaps someone with 3G would try to see if they have that capability, please let us know.

[wheel interested]

What you knew: Kindle can access Amazon.com and the Web to search Wikipedia via its free wireless connection.
What you didn’t know: You can just surf the Web in general. Kindle comes with a Web browser called Basic Web, which supports cookies, JavaScript and SSL, but doesn’t support plug-ins like Flash or Shockwave or Java applets. Basic Web lets you type in a URL, click on links and generally surf the Web like you would on a PC.
What you knew: You can download and read any of the 88,000 books from Amazon.com — and the list is growing.
What you didn’t know: You can download a much larger selection of free e-books using the Kindle’s Web browser — many in Kindle-friendly .MOBI and .PRC formats. Text-based books are available, too. And if you don’t like how these look in text-format (which you won’t), you can convert to .MOBI and .PRC formats on your PC using free or cheap tools available online.
What you knew: Kindle connects free to Sprint’s EV-DO 3G network.
What you didn’t know: Where EV-DO isn’t available, Kindle connects via a second protocol called 1xRTT, which is an older 144Kbit/sec. standard. The addition of 1xRTT increases the number of locations where you have wireless access.
What you knew: Kindle’s Search feature lets you find words or phrases on Wikipedia, the Kindle Store and the Web.
What you didn’t know: Kindle gives you access to an experimental and free service called Kindle NowNow, which is a search engine powered by actual humans. You send any question, and a human being will research it for you, then send the best three answers, usually, Amazon says, within five minutes.
What you knew: Kindle’s wireless service works only in or near the U.S.
What you didn’t know: You can buy books from anywhere in the world from your PC, and sync to the Kindle.
What you knew: The Kindle can read only four text-document file formats: .AZW (Kindle-specific), .TXT, .MOBI and .PRC. In addition, every Kindle gets its own e-mail address for receiving Amazon-converted Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP files for 10 cents per document. You send the original to your Kindle’s address and your device receives the converted document (only e-mail addresses you authorize can send to your Kindle).
What you didn’t know: If you have Amazon send converted documents to your regular e-mail account instead of your Kindle account, the conversion is free. You then have to download the attachment and sync via USB.
What you knew: Amazon keeps a copy of all your subscriptions online so, if you upgrade or replace a Kindle, you won’t lose purchased books, newspapers or magazines.
What you didn’t know: The Kindle also automatically and wirelessly backs up online all your notes, bookmarks, clippings and even “last location read.”
What you knew: Kindle is an e-book reader.
What you didn’t know: Kindle is also an audiobook reader and MP3 player, and has both speakers and a headphone jack. Amazon lets you buy audiobooks directly from Audible.com by going to a dedicated Web site where you can download and install Kindle-specific software for connecting to and buying from Audible.com. You can listen to music while reading, although only in “shuffle” mode.
What you knew: The Kindle comes with a built in dictionary — The New Oxford American Dictionary.
What you didn’t know: If you prefer another dictionary, you can buy it from Amazon.com, then tell your Kindle via an option setting that the new dictionary is now your “preferred” dictionary for instant lookups.
What you knew: You can subscribe to newspapers and magazines.
What you didn’t know: Your subscriptions arrive hours or, in the case of some magazines, days before print subscribers get theirs.
What you knew: Newspaper and magazines are not retained permanently by default on Amazon’s Your Media Library. Amazon’s contract with these content providers typically allows just seven issues, although the number varies.
What you didn’t know: You can download periodicals to your PC or Kindle and retain them forever. Amazon can’t retain them beyond seven issues, but you can.
What you knew: You can read for about two days on a single charge (which takes two hours).
What you didn’t know: If you turn off the wireless feature, you can read every day for more than a week on a charge.
What you knew: The Kindle is sold out already.
What you didn’t know: You can order now, and they’ll ship it to you after Nov. 29.
What you knew: You have to pay for books and magazines downloaded from the Kindle Store.
What you didn’t know: You can try before you buy. Magazines and newspapers come with a 14-day free trial and can also be purchased one magazine at a time without a subscription. You can read the first chapters of books free.
What you knew: Amazon charges $2 per month to subscribe to each RSS feed.
What you didn’t know: You can read any RSS feed, including those they charge for, free of charge via the Kindle’s Web browser by going directly to the sites.
What you knew: Amazon does not support PDF files for conversion.
What you didn’t know: Free PDF-to-Word converters exist, and Amazon will convert those to its Kindle format, so PDF files on the Kindle are merely inconvenient, not impossible.
What you knew: You can “dog ear” pages to bookmark them, save “clippings” (copies of entire pages) and notes on Kindle, all of which are backed up as part of your books.
What you didn’t know: You can also “highlight” text — like using a highlighter pen, but without the bright color. Highlights are also backed up.
What you knew: The Kindle Store is functionally similar to the Amazon bookstore.
What you didn’t know: You can use Kindle’s keyboard and wireless connection to write book reviews on the Kindle Store.

I am thinking from the various things I have found so far is that all Kindles have the capability of looking things up on Wikipedia, but that the difference between the models is Kindle with ads, Kindle without ads and Kindle with wifi only or wifi and 3g without subscription.

We have home internet and wi-fi but no phone or secondary wifi features so I think the 3G would be a good addition to our electronic devices for what I would like to accomplish which is live time look-up on location rather than only download and play. That location being next to the water sitting in a lounge chair, yup that's the new elusive dream for the future. Give me e-ink with no reflection because I am in hot pursuit of R&R and SUNSHINE!



This also was a very informative article about the comparison between Kindle, Nook and IPad.



Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad: Which e-book reader should you buy? | Crave - CNET

[J5MM]

I had the ipad for the longest time and swore up and down, left and right that there was no way I would need a Kindle. Well I was wrong, I bought one because when I was using my Ipad, I was always so distracted with all of the apps and games and online sites that I never made it over to the books.

That being said -- reading on the Kindle is much easier on the eyes (especially outdoors) and the batteries last forever.

[KerriO]

Having both a Kindle and an iPad, I'll say that I *much* prefer reading on the Kindle's eInk screen. Much less eye strain, and feels much more like reading a regular book. Though I love my Kindle, if I had known more about recent advances in eBooks, I'd have gone with a Nook (not color—again–love the eInk) or a Sony reader. The Kindle is the most "proprietary" of all three, and it's harder to get other types of eBooks other than Amazon into it. With both the Nook and the Sony, you can check out books from the library. And now there's Google's eBooks with a vast library of free reading— I actually haven't looked into how easy or possible it is to use Kindle with Google's eBooks.

Back to the music, someone had mentioned that you need to have your music on both your iPod and your hard drive. This is not true—it just depends on how you set up your syncing. (Although, I highly recommend you have your music *somewhere* else, because your iPod could die on you at any unexpected moment, then there goes your music collection. I have mine on an external drive and the iPod).

Video: I do what overlander suggested, and throw out all the cases, but keep the liner notes and DVDs in a carrying case. Doesn't take up much room, and it's much less of a hassle than ripping all those DVDs then hoping you're always set up with the right technology to play them.

[overlander63]

I have a wifi Kindle, and I think it's great. It costs about 1/7 what an iPad does, and it can go for months without recharging. I've had mine since Christmas, and have recharged it three times. I read with it daily, usually for an hour or so per session. Try doing that with an iPad. Just turn off the wifi (it drains the battery faster when it's on). I have about 1200 books on it now, and at current rate of reading, it will take me at least 3 years to read what I have. I downloaded all the books while at home, and used our wifi here to load it.
You don't have to use the Amazon account to download ebooks, I have them sent as attachments to an email account, and download them from there. Amazon will charge you a nominal amount for using their servers to download, but it is not needed.

[jimmickle]

I went from a kindle to a nook so that I could borrow books from the library and save a bunch of money! Take a look at the nook before you buy.

Jim Mickle

[eubank]

One nice part about ebooks is that many classics (pre-1923) are available for free online. Amazon carries many of them and has links to other locations that carry them as well.

Lynn

[wheel interested]

I have downloaded books from Gutenburg in mobi and read them on Kindle for PC. Can epub files be converted to mobi?

Amazon lists Gutenburg as well as other e-book collections that are free on the internet. I have also downloaded free classics from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link...d_i=1286228011

Where do you download library e-books from? epub books?

I really like reading the first chapter of books and being able to download immediately.

[DreamStreamr]

We have all our music on a 4th gen iPod and play it through our trailer's radio. We replaced the original radio with a $120 same Sony but newer version to add front input jack.

All our movies (collection slowly built up from Wal-Mart's and Circuit City's $5 bin and from gifts from family) and episodes are in CD wallets, played in our 17" Toshiba television with built-in dvd player, sound piped through the Sony's front input jack. Just doesn't seem worth the bother to rip movies and we like having the movies' cover info we keep stored with the dvd in the wallet pocket.

Our 16gb wifi iPad is great for browsing, reading, navigation, and is tops for email. Our iPod Touch, iPad, and Macbook calendar and address book all stay automatically synched all the time -- make a correction in any and it hits the others.

We have a couple of dozen books on the iPad and they work well enough. Both Kindle and eBooks work well on the iPad. The iPad definitely doesn't match a Kindle for usability including weight, screen view, and battery life but we are sort of deviced out without adding a Kindle and the iPad is adequate for books we want to download. Latest book is the Bible, in KJV and ASV both. Free app for the iPad and it works really well. Even red letter edition!

The Macbook is the best for writing, reading, and many on- and off-line tasks. Our Dell laptop burned us badly last year and is starting to get flaky again this year so we're glad we have the Mac and aren't putting Windows on the Mac to try and keep it clean.

XM radio pipes also pipes in through the Sony front input jack, especially important during NCAA March Madness -- our television probably won't have the games but XM has most major conferences for basketball and football. Oh yeah, and nice music and NPR programs too.

We use a Windows laptop for Quicken (Apple version of Quicken really sucks) and several ham radio applications that aren't available for Macbook.

We use a Verizon USB modem (760 but switching in next week or so to the 4G version) in our Cradlepoint CTR-500 mobile router. Just works so nicely. We can leave the router in the Airstream on towing days and pick up the wifi in the truck as we head down the road. Stronger signal if we plug the router into 12vdc in the truck and put it up in the back window on travel days. Rest of the time our Airstream is a mobile wifi hotspot with support for any express card or usb modem device. Signal strength is adjustable and wifi security is robust.

The iPad isn't a replacement for a laptop, in our experience so far. Some sites don't work with the iPad, including ones with Adobe Flash applications. The iPad is great but we find most comfort having it with the Mac lurking nearby somewhere when we're mobile.

Paperback books can't be beat -- we keep 6-12 of them on hand and swap for ones we haven't read when we stop in campgrounds or laundromats. Paperbacks don't weigh much, we find great titles sometimes, and they're easy to carry. And they cost us the same as our books so far downloaded to the iPad -- all free.

Would love to shed the Windows laptop but without running Windows on our Mac we'll have to keep some kind of Windows machine for the foreseeable. So, two laptops, an iPad, a Touch, an old iPod. And, of course, they all use different wall-warts (at least all the Apple stuff uses the same cords).

[vswingfield]

A great open source freeware program for managing eBooks of all formats is Calibre. You can convert formats, assign cover art, manage syncing, and lots of other things. You can also use it as a reader on your computer. It's also multi platform, OS X, Windows, and FauX. (What I call Linux—it's not really Unix, it's faux Unix, but that's another forum entirely )

I read eBooks on my iPhone. I have Nook, iBooks, Kindle, and Stanza apps. I have eBooks in all four apps in different formats. Each has strengths and weakness. The ability to use multiple apps for reading is one plus for a iPad or iPhone. However, like Terry pointed out, battery life is much shorter.