can i write a comuter file of pictures, e-mail items, on-line maps and files saved from google searches and find a portable dvd player that will display them from te written cd?

I won't say it can't be done; but it would involve so much effort and trial and error that it isn't practical.

It depends... unless you want to do a lot of work.

The portable dvd player we have will play music cd's, MP3 files, will display jpg's. I'm not sure how it would render emails unless they were scanned into a jpg file.

Cheaper or older players only play dvd's.

It's an interesting idea though - we'll have a portable dvd player for the kids, on our trip... It is an interesting idea to put copies of the documentation onto a cd or dvd to view on the player.

DVD has to be able to read the file format. Most new plays will support music (mp3), photos (jpg) and video (mpeg4, DivX) file formats. I don't know of any that can display some type of common text format such as HTML or even txt. As Katie and John said, you would have to convert your text into jpg to display. Then there would be the problem of making it readable on the small screen.

You might be better off using some type of PDA for the text. Or store the text documents and email in some type of web based program that you can access via the internet. Some people will forward copies of all their documents to web mail. Other ideas have been to use programs like Backpackit or Google Wordprocessor.

thanks everyone for help. i am a novice tech guy. have pc laptop and use internet and thought a portable dvd player and a cd or two would be better than lugging a laptop and all the paper and books i got saved up for our trip to italy this fall. i have email confirmations, trip journals where we are going, maps to where we are staying and a lot of site info. trying to lighten the load. thanks again jimbo