Tech Challenged

It is a good thing that I can live well without all of today's technology because I really suck at it.
Admittedly, part of sucking at it is being too cheap to invest a lot of money into newer stuff.

Here's where I am:
I've been going through some of my old magic stuff. I've got hundreds (more like a couple thousand) of dollars tied up in books, VHS tapes (yes, they are that old), and DVDs. I do have an old player that I can connect to a TV to watch the DVDs, but would rather have something more portable. I was going to look for a portable DVD player (they still make those, right?) but thought that I have a couple of old laptops with DVD players (remember those) and I could probably use one of those.

Holy crap! Those old machines are heavy enough to anchor a barge!
Anyway, the ten year old technology is as slow as a slug, takes forever to boot up, and is more than a little frustrating to work with. I eventually did get the DVD player to work, but will probably end up just buying a portable player. 
However, there were a number of old video files stored on the hard drive that I want to retrieve and save. I found a thumb drive, eventually got the old computer to recognize it and was able to transfer the files to the external drive.
BUT...those old files are in a format not recognized by the technology of my current Chromebook! Ugh!
I don't know if the files would be recognized by any other current technology or a contempory laptop, but I guess I'll do a little research (with my limited knowledge and skills) and see what I can come up with.

If it turns out that I can't figure it out - maybe I'll just fire up another cigar, pour another drink, read a real paper and ink book, and learn magic the old fashioned, tech-free way.

heavy sigh

John