The beautiful white DVD player I had paid 300 RMB extra to buy because it was beautiful and white has a USB outlet on the side. Initially, I tried to plug in my external hard-disk to see if the player could play all the mp3s and video files that I had downloaded throughout the past months and years. When it couldn’t, I tried with non-volatile flash memory instead, and wouldn’t you know, it worked! I could now listen to mp3s on my DVD player without having to burn them onto a CD or carry my computer into the living room. Of course, I could have simply connected my iPod to the speakers, but c’mon, that would have been too easy. Plus, I really wanted to use that USB outlet for something.
In regards to the video files, after some trial and error, I concluded that the player would only play videos in mp4 format. I went online and spent hours trying to figure out how to convert .avi files and .real files into mp4, but only succeeded with avi. Unfortunately, most of the episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “24″ I downloaded were in Real Player format, and thus unconvertible.
I spent a few more hours researching online, and learned that there was software out there for my Mac to take DVD’s and rip them into mp4 format. Perfect! So I went out and bought DVD seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “24″ and “Lost” and spent hours and hours ripping them into the right format. Then I uploaded them onto the flash memory sticks, and plugged them into the DVD player through the USB slot. Finally, I figured out how to use that fancy feature on my new, beautiful machine.
And then it hit me: I had basically spent all that time converting my DVDs to files on the computer for the sole purpose of watching them on my DVD player, when I could have just watched the DVDs instead. Men truly are rational beings.
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Speaking of rational beings, this is Rusty’s last weekend in Shanghai. He’s heading back to Louisiana on Sunday for higher education purposes. Rusty, I never knew thee well, but you were fun to drink with, your gumbo is so good that I leave it in my fridge for a week and eat it until I find maggots in it, and you’re an upstanding fellow who likes to take care of his buddies. And I liked beating you at poker. Happy trails and best of luck to you!
