Hey guys, I just converted from windows to apple recently. I just got a macbook and it's awesome. I'm not sure if this has been posted before but I tried searching and nothing came up. I just want to know which would save more battery life. Watching a movie from your computers hardrive or watching a movie from the optical drive?
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Battery life
- Thread starter alexlam
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The battery will last a lot longer if you watch the movie from your hard drive, rather than from an optical disk. The reason is it takes more power to spin the DVD than to spin the hard drive platters. You can use a program like Mactheripper (http://www.mactheripper.org/) to extract your DVDs to your hard drive. Then, when you are on battery power (on the train or plane or whatever) you'll be able to squeeze more time in. Note that using this program is of questionable legality, depending on what country you live in.
Also, if you really want to maximize your battery life, turn down the screen brightness, shut off unused applications, turn off wireless internet (i.e., AirPort) and Bluetooth, and have computer set to "spin down hard drives" after a period of inactivity. You might be able to get two movies in there!
This is 100% true. When I watch movies off my MB I turn off my Airport, Bluetooth, and turn the screen brightness down as much as possible. At this point my battery shows over six hours if it was at full charge. Also, make sure to turn off ALL programs.