The Steel Guitar Forum

I am thinking of getting a portable DVD player to watch instructional videos, with the DVD player placed on a music stand in front of my guitar.

Does anyone else use one of these like this? I would appreciate any recommendations anyone might have about what to buy.

I use my laptop on a folding table. Works for me. The table is one of those wooden tv tray dinner types from Walmart for $10.00.

Thanks, Larry. My trouble is that I don't have a laptop.

I was thinking of one of those players that people get for their children to watch in the car.

I have one I never use, send me a private message if you're interested in buying it. I can get it out and take some pictures of it and send them to you.

Darvin, I appreciate your offer. But I actually was thinking of buying a new one. It sounds as if using one like I described may not have been useful for you.

I am asking if anyone uses one of these for the purpose I described; and if so, for any specific models that do a good job.

Maybe I should just get a laptop.

I haven't done what you are asking about, but I was just looking at Best Buy, and there are several name brand units that should be good units. Some even have two screens, one for each eye, I guess

Dale, I used it to watch videos in the car before Ipads came along. My wife usually drives on trips, she loves driving, and I hate to drive. I had forgotten it was in the closet until I saw this post, so I guess is isn't useful to me anymore, but it used to be.

I've got a Sony DVP-FX730 player that works well, and was less than $100 a couple of years ago. What makes it better is a case I got from Case Logic that holds the player, and has adjustable straps to make the case into a shelf to attach the player to almost anything: back of a car seat, music stand, etc.

Darvin, you have a good wife to do the driving while you read. Your mention of the IPad gave me an idea that I perhaps I could use a tablet for this.

I have an Android tablet, but it is WiFi only. I wonder if there is a way to copy DVD's to some kind of file and load them onto the tablet? If so, does anyone know how to do that?

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated.

Does your tablet have a slot for a memory card? You might be able to get the vids onto a card and play them that way. Unfortunately, you will still need some kind of DVD player to get the vid onto the card. Do you already have the DVDs?

Yes, I have the DVD's. No, my tablet does not have a slot for memory cards.

Could I rip the DVD's to a file on my computer and email the file to myself as an attachment which I could download on the tablet?

Or maybe copy the ripped files to my tablet via USB cable from PC to tablet?

If you can rip the DVD to an m4v or other video format, load it up to a cloud storage site like Dropbox, Google Drive (which is my favorite and should work great with an Android tablet). But you still need a WiFi access point. I don't know if you have a cell phone, but most, at least Smart phones, have the ability to turn your phone into a WiFi "Hotspot". I do that a lot. My iPad doesn't have enough memory to load much stuff, so I just set it to use my phone as my WiFi. Works pretty good, as long as you have phone reception where you are.

If you have the storage space on your tablet, you should be able to copy it to the tablet.

Sorry, but I need to rant here. I don't understand why all tablets don't have a memory card slot. That is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. I have a portable USB card reader, but the iPad only supports image files via a card reader plugged into the lightning port (charging/data port). Really SUCKS!!!!

Thanks, Richard. I do have WiFi in my house, so the cloud upload/download should work. Thanks for the suggestion. I will give that a try.

I agree with your rant. Thanks again.

Dale, I needed a bigger screen than what a tablet offers therefore the laptop was the answer. I have a 8" tablet and it's fine up close. My old eyes can't see that well for distance on an 8" screen.

Dale, I have used a portable DVD player for years to watch instructional DVDs. At this point it is practically part of my daily routine as I take it with me to the gym every morning. My gym has book stands that adapt to many of their machines like a treadmill or a similar exercise machine. I watch the instructional DVD or music performance DVD and an hour at the gym speeds by very quickly. Sometimes I have to walk another quarter mile on the treadmill to see the end of some great performance! Bonus for me!. I bought mine at Wal-Mart. They usually have several different models. Expect to pay around $60. The quality is fine. Get an inexpensive headset too. Get the kind that go over your ears, not those tiny earbuds. This way you have an economical solution for watching DVDs and you do not disturb anyone else in the house or elsewhere.

I will say that the portable DVD is probably the quickest and simplest way to go. However, if you're like me and can't live without your tablet...well here you go. (I travel A LOT and my Ipad is my best friend. lol)

I rip the instructional DVD's I purchase to MPEG-4 format using my computer, then transfer them to my Ipad with a USB cable. There is a free shareware program called "Handbrake" that has worked pretty well for me. It took a little playing around and watching Youtube videos to get it to work right, but it does work.

What's really cool is I also use the Fender Amplitube app at the same time the video is playing and run my steel through an IRig into the Ipad at the same time. This allows me play right along with the video through headphones. The tone isn't the best but, it's really great for practice.

I think if you look into it, you can probably do the same with an android tablet.

Disclaimer: Some may say that transferring a DVD to electronic format is the same as copying, but I would never, EVER distribute any of this. If I was to sell a DVD that I had a digital copy of, I would erase the digital copy. It is for my personal use ONLY and if there was a way to just buy the digital download, I would have.

Justin and Karl and Larry,

Thank you. Those are very helpful replies. I guess I just need to decide between easy (portable DVD player) and harder but cheaper (ripping and transfer to tablet).

I have investigated a little bit on the ripping software, including Handbrake, but have not reached a resolution. There seems to be some learning curve with that software - but it is free.

I'm still thinking about it - whether to just spend the money and get a DVD player or do the tablet thing. Thanks again for the info.

One wrench I'll throw in here is how well the controls work and what you need it to do… some programs seem to lock up with repeated pausing and/or rewinding a few seconds, as do a few cheap players I've encountered. I have a really cheap portable player my wife won in a raffle (at my New Year's gig!) that works like a champ, small enough to sit about anywhere and pauses/ fast forwards/ rewinds nicely. I don't use it much but I like how it works. On my computer I've always got to chase the cursor around a bit to get the same stuff done.

Thanks, Mark. That is a good point about the ability to easily pause/rewind. Looping capability would be nice too. I don't usually get it on one pass through.

Is the player that works well for you still on the market?

I found a new Toshiba DVD player on Ebay for about $90. It has a remote control that allows stopping, starting, going back, etc. The sound is poor so headphones are necessary. It also plays CDs.