To paraphrase Steven Spielberg, there is simply no saving Meg Ryan. The videotape of her most recent film, Kate & Leopold, is flickering so badly on the airplane monitors that the blonde, cutie-pie movie star is giving everyone on my cross-country flight a migraine. At last, a flight attendant puts Meg out of her misery, apologizes to the passengers for the poor quality of the tape, and begins issuing refunds.

While most everyone else is disappointed by the in-flight entertainment interruptus, I contemplate an enormously challenging quandary: Should I pass the time watching Woody Allen's latest movie? The classic comedy Some Like it Hot? An episode from the first season of The Simpsons? I decide to try all three, as I have 5 hours to kill, a DVD-equipped notebook, plenty of battery juice, and a handful of discs.

Watching the videos you want to see can make a long flight pass quickly. Here are some tips to getting the most out of DVD entertainment on your next business trip.

Rent discs from Netflix. With charges of $3 or more per day, it's expensive to rent discs from video stores to take on a trip. That's one reason why I joined Netflix, a Web-based DVD rental service. For $19.95 a month, you can have up to three DVDs checked out as long as you want, with no late fees. The discs are mailed to you; when finished, just return them in prepaid envelopes and Netflix automatically sends you the next three titles on your wish list. Netflix offers other monthly service plans, too--the Lite membership, for instance, lets you have two discs out for $13.95 a month. You can cancel a membership at any time. And with more than 11,000 titles, Netflix offers plenty of variety. One complaint: The site can be skimpy on movie details, such as cast listings.

Pick up a last-minute disc at the airport. If you've dashed out of the house without discs, you're in luck if there's an InMotion Pictures kiosk nearby. InMotion Pictures is a DVD rental service currently operating in 16 U.S. airports. You can pick up a disc or portable DVD player at one airport and return them to the same airport, or to another. If your trip ends at an airport without an InMotion Pictures kiosk, you can return discs and players using prepaid UPS packaging. InMotion Pictures rents portable DVD players with 5-inch screens for $12 a day and 7-inch screens for $15 per day; rates include one free movie rental, high-quality headphones, a fully charged battery, and a canvas tote bag to carry it all. If you want to rent multiple movies for your flight, you'll pay $4 per disc.

Recently, I rented a player and discs from the InMotion Pictures kiosk at the Atlanta airport and returned them from my San Francisco home via UPS. The process was convenient, easy, and reasonably priced. But if you're hungry for selection, look elsewhere: InMotion Pictures currently stocks only about 180 titles, mostly recent releases, and many of the titles I wanted were checked out.

Watch DVDs on your notebook. Admittedly, portable DVD players from Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony and others are sleek, compelling, and versatile--you can hook them up to home entertainment centers or hotel TVs, too. But they're expensive, ranging from about $500 to $1500, and they're yet another piece of equipment to carry. Most importantly, their screens are small (usually 5 to 7 inches, or 9 inches in newer high-end models), compared to the 12.1-inch to 15-inch displays most notebooks offer.

Portable DVD players do have their place. If you don't travel with a notebook as a rule, you're a movie buff who is particular about the movies you watch, and you have some extra cash, a portable DVD player may be just the ticket. Though many airlines offer in-seat video terminals with multiple movie channels, particularly in business and first class and on international flights, you're at the mercy of their programming--hence the need for your own DVD player. If you're so inclined, take a look at Panasonic's DVD-LA95 PalmTheater, a feature-rich player with a 9-inch screen.

Your discs won't play in an airline's player. Instead of in-seat video terminals, some airlines provide passengers with portable DVD players on selected flights. On its Boeing 767 planes, for instance, American Airlines offers Panasonic DVD players with 7-inch screens to first- and business-class passengers on international flights and to first-class passengers on domestic routes, according to Todd Burke, an American Airlines spokesperson. American stocks 20 DVD titles for each player as well--and that's important, because you won't be able to watch your own discs on an airline's DVD player.

The reason? Hollywood devised a regional coding system for DVDs and players, making discs sold in one region (such as North America) incompatible with players sold in another (such as Asia). The idea is to minimize international video piracy. DVD titles and players offered by the airlines conform to Regional 8 coding, Burke says, while DVD titles and players in North America conform to the incompatible Regional 1 coding.

Invest in high-quality headphones. Airplanes are noisy beasts, and a $10 pair of headphones isn't going to protect you from that constant whirring noise. Instead, consider a pair of noise-canceling headphones. They're not cheap--the Bose QuietComfort Acoustic Noise Canceling headset sells for $299--but based on my experience, you'll enjoy the ride a lot more (particularly if there is a wailing infant or a chatterbox seated nearby).

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