External HD and ipod

[avx]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if any of you have used an external HD and laptop to transfer movies on and off an Iphone and Ipod touch.

I've seen a few people take external HD's loaded with movies and stuff and use their laptop and itunes as a hub for filling their iphone or touch with new stuff whenever they are full.

Im going on a big deployment soon and I would like to get my own setup like that. I did some looking around and found handbrake to rip some of my dvds to my laptop. But I havent used any of these new external HD's. Anyone do this kind of media loading? And wouldnt mind giving me a few pointers or name some good software to use.

[pam123]

Handbrake is a good choice, provided you have the necessary decrypter, and Western Digital's portable usb hard drives (500GB size) should work well for you.
Remember that the drive is not a backup so you still need to do that (Buy two).
Here's the "how to" instructions, one for moving the library and the other for backing up :

iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder

The Complete Guide to Backing Up your iTunes Library | iLounge Article

edit : I may have jumped to conclusions, you don't need iTunes to do what you want, but you have to tell us what playback software you intend to use.

[davemyers]

If you want to move files on and off your iPod or iPhone, you can simply rip your DVDs to your computer using something like HandBrake or even simpler, VidCoder actually streamlines HandBrake and makes it waaaay simpler.

Then once you have the digital form of your movies, you can put them into iTunes (unless your iPhone is jailbroken, you will have to use iTunes to put files on or off your iPhone or iPod Touch) and then perform a sync. Movies will be huge, so keep that in mind as you decide what goes on and what comes off. Also, if you get a Netflix account, there is an app for iPhone and iPod now, and there's also Hulu Plus - lots of ways to get TV and Movies on your iDevice nowadays.