secure storage recommendation for all of these fitness downloads?

[bubbles76]

Originally Posted by in paris

I use Handbrake -- but that is to burn as MP4 and use them on my computer (though they also work with Apple TV).

I have Apple TV. This is sounding good

[Missiscipi]

Originally Posted by acta5534

I have 2 external hard drives and store my workouts on both drives. One is a spare and the other one, I plug into a media player and use it to play my workouts in lieu of using a dvd player. I got that idea from someone on this board. It's very convenient.


I bought my external hard drives from Amazon. These are inexpensive but the quality is great.

http://www.amazon.com/BLACK-Universa...d=8ZJW5XBUAR4A

That is EXACTLY what I do!

[in paris]

Originally Posted by bubbles76

I have Apple TV. This is sounding good

The application is free (what more could you ask?). The parameters for Apple TV are off to the side, so you don't have to worry about setting those.

The only thing is, though, on some dvds you have to go chapter by chapter. I personally love this because I can get rid of the fluff -- intros and adverts (Beachbody, I'm talking to you). It also allows me to be more creative: legs from one dvd, arms from another, etc.

Most dvds don't have this problem, but some do and I wanted warn you... On the other hand, I've started seperating *all* new dvds because I've found I really enjoy mixing and matching sometime.

(And, either way, you can get rid of the nonsense and never have to fast-forward again )

[acta5534]

Originally Posted by Rozy

That is EXACTLY what I do!

I LOVE this system. It's cumbersome and tedious ripping DVDs and setting up, but once it's done, it's heaven.

I would highly recommend to everybody to backup your files in more than one location. I had everything on one external hard drive and recently backed up everything on a second one. Well, a few months later, the first one crashed and I would have lost everything if I hadn't backed it up on the second one. I don't just keep my workout files on there, but my pictures and music as well.

[Eibhinn]

Ideally you should have both a local (external hard drive) and remote (online) backup of your files. The reason is that not only can your external hard drive fail, but in order to backup with any regularity it needs to be kept in the same space as your computer so if you are every robbed/have a fire or disaster etc., it's likely to get stolen or destroyed along with the computer. So bye bye to all your data.

I believe Mozy.com is the standard/most popular online backup service.

Crashplan is a very versatile program you can use to set up backups for a number of locations. They also offer an online backup service. Here's an article on lifehacker about it:
http://lifehacker.com/5299993/crashp...d+based-backup

Lifehacker is a good site to find out practical tech-y stuff, unfortunately their searchability went in the toilet with the site redesign this year. But it's still worth a try if you want to learn more.

[kat_b]

I also keep two backups: one at the house, one at the office. Hard drives have become dirt cheap ($30 for a 1 TB drive at Target when on sale).

My problem with the drive at the office is it's become just a backup for my laptop, not all my archived & media files (too much of a pain to bring it home). So I'm now looking at other "cloud" options. I can tell you from experience don't EVER rely on iDisk if you're on a Mac. It just plain doesn't work right. Dropbox is really good and has proven reliable for my personal use (several of my clients are concerned with the potential security & virus risks when sharing files that way). There are several other services coming online these days, including the new Amazon S3 service, which is where I'm leaning, but I've heard good things about Mozy, too.