Netbooks might be handy productivity tools, but they also make great portable DVD players.

Of course most netbooks don't have a DVD drive, but it's easy to copy movies to your netbook. You'll need an external DVD drive, or else another computer with a DVD drive. A fast processor with lots of RAM is best, but still allow at least an hour per movie.

DVD Decrypter will rip your DVD to the hard drive as a disc image, but this doesn't apply any compression so you'll need around 4GB per movie. A more storage-efficient option is to covert your DVDs to a format such as DivX, XviD or H.264/AVC, which will get the file size down to under 1GB without a noticeable drop in picture quality on the netbook's small screen. The trade-off is that you lose the menus and extras, although you can copy those separately.

On a Mac your best option is the free Handbrake, although you might need to install the free VLC player in order to copy commercial DVDs. Handbrake chooses the longest title on the disc by default, on the assumption that this is the actual movie. Pop out the Preference menu and opt for the Basic/Normal setting, but feel free to experiment. You've also got the option of setting a specific file size.

By default Handbrake will create H.264 .MPV files which will play on Windows or Mac in iTunes, QuickTime or VLC. You can also opt for Xvid .AVI files, which will play in VLC. To play MPV or XivD files in Windows Media Player, try the K-Lite Codec Pack Basic.

The Windows version of Handbrake supposedly can't copy commercial DVDs, it worked for us on some discs but the results were flaky. Try installing VLC or else use DVD Decrypter first. FairUse Wizard <fairusewizard.com> is another all-in-one Windows solution, with the free Light version capable of ripping a DVD and converting it to Xvid. Give your project a name then call up the options screen to set the file size and subtitles track. Click 'Next' to load up the DVD or disc image and it will automatically target the longest video file. Now check the results, auto-detect the field combination and then you're away. The software also warns it can't copy commercial discs, but it sometimes does the job (if not, use DVD Decrypter first). You'll need to pay for the full version of FairUse Wizard to create MP4 files for iTunes. If you run into trouble, alternatives include Videora and AutoGK.

All that's left to do is copy the files onto your netbook. If you've got a high-capacity USB stick or SD card, you'll extend your battery life by playing files directly from the stick or card.

By Adam Turner