How To Watch A Movie On Your PC, The Fun Way

I recently discovered VLC. VLC (www.videolan.org) is an open source media player application which can handle just about any kind of file you can throw at it, such as VOB (DVD), DivX, XVid. One of the neat things it knows how to do is to play movies at higher rates than normal, with sound.

So, take your average pompous over written Hollywood crap-fest. You want to get through the story but you don't want to waste 2 1/2 hours to do it. Throw the DVD (or DivX, or whatever) into your computer, fire up VLC, and watch it at 2x or 3x. Slow it down for the important parts, the ones that actually advance the plot, then speed it back up again for the filler. There's also comedic value in watching people deliver their lines sounding like chipmunks.