Computers and technology are supposed to make things easier, right? Yeah right.

Today's task is to prepare for the next apologetics society meeting where we will view one of my favorite DVDs: Tactics in Defending the Faith by Greg Koukl.

Just as an aside, Greg has a talk radio program and you can grab the radio shows really easily via podcast. (The best way to do this is by way of Apple's most excellent iTunes.) He is a very clever, very gracious Christian and a mentor in the faith for myself. His clear thinking Christianity is something I aspire to!

But back on topic here.......

The problem to solve is that DVDs (and CDs for that matter) are prone to damage -- scratches, cracks, old age and all that. This is a disaster waiting to happen for a public meeting  So let's grab the data off the DVD and store it on the hard disk in MPG (mpeg) format so that Windows Media Center in Microsoft's Vista Ultimate or Windows Media Player can play them. This way, the meeting will go smoothly as the DVD won't be there to fail. 

So how did I do it? Since Tactics is not a protected DVD, I simply downloaded VOB2MPG and installed it on my laptop, then told it where to find the video files on the DVD and where to put the converted MPG files on my laptop. Later I will store the MPG files on my Windows Home Server (best piece of Microsoft software ever written imo) ready for streaming to any computer in the house!

Note: Please respect copyright laws and authors rights.