{Love/Hate relationship with vtech}

The little boy got a Innotab2 for Christmas this year. He doesn't call it that however, to him it's an ipad and in his presence that is what we call it also ;). However, I have had a long standing love/hate relationship with Vtech. I was leary about even purchasing this tablet because I had some other console from them and it ate batteries and came with crappy games. Of course that was when G was about 3 years old. So I figured I'll do some research and see what's up. Everything I read said the Innotab2 was a great buy. Not only could you play games and download full new ones right to the system (without having to have the cartridge) but you could put actual movies on here as well! I was so excited I could have peed right there lol! The little boy loves movies and he absolutely loves video games. This is a win win situation. I purchased it. Of course he loves it. He plays it all the time. It still eats batteries like there's no tomorrow, but it also comes with an wall charger/adapter thing and a car charger. I figured it had an internal battery too if it had a charger (it apparently does not). So we invested in rechargable batteries. Everybody is happy again. 

Until I go to convert the DVD's to AVI format. What a bitch that is! I found a program (dvd catalyst 4) but the trial basically only downloads half the movie. What's the point in that?? *sigh* So thanks to youtube and this video I found 2 programs that would help me. I started off with Robots, that wasn't going to happen. The first program wouldn't read it and the 2nd didn't find it on the CD drive *gah*. No luck. I switched to Thumbelina (a personal favorite ;) ). It converted it but it would only play in the 2nd program and not in any other video program I have on my laptop. At this point I'm almost ready to smash my laptop. I decided to try one more to see if I could get that one to work. Chipmunk Adventure is a favorite of all 3 of my kids! Low and behold it worked! Well, the 1st program picked it up as did the 2nd anyway. It's still converting as I type this lol. But I'm really hoping that it'll work. 

I want to get as many of these movies converted as possible so that I can save them on my laptop and switch them out regularly. The trial only last so long and I don't want to have to purchase it yet lol. Plus, with the vacation this summer I want to have a stock of movies ready to go for him so if he wants to sit with his headphones on and watch a movie or 4, he can. And it doesn't have to be the same movie over and over. He'd just get bored with it.

I'm also thinking of purchasing a new game for him but not putting it on the Innotab until the day we leave ore maybe the day before. So that he has a new exciting game to play on the way there. Smart right? All these blogs on tips for traveling long distances with kids say to have a surprise waiting for them. Well, I don't know about other parents but I don't want 1 more bag of stuff when I'm traveling. It's hard enough packing everything we need let alone things to surprise them with. I figure I'll grab some DS games for G and the drama queen to play also. She can take her laptop which I *think* can play movies. If not, I'll put these on hers also. G can either watch what she's watching or he can hold my laptop :). Whatever works. Oh! That reminds me I need to find an adapter for my laptop to charge in the car. Hmm...off to Amazon I go!

 G with his v-smile :)

 

Little Boy with his Innotab