Playing DVDs on laptops

[wesleyw]

We've got several makes of laptops for staff over the years. More and more teachers are using them as dvd players but we've had several that just keep jerking during the playback i've turned off the hareware acceleration annd this has helped a little but they stilll have this problem. The main culprits are acer 290 travelmates these have 16mb graphics but i can't find a way in the bios for this to be increased so i think i'm stuck with it. we're using power dvd any ideas?


Wes

[kerrymoralee9280]

...

[Geoff]

You can't do that. That's a copyright violation.

[maniac]

We've given every whiteboard and projector setup a DVD player so they can play DVDs that way. Much easier for staff to use than playing them back on their laptops.

The acer 290s should play DVDs with no problems, you don't need a mega powerful processor or graphics card to do it really. I've been playing DVDs on computers as slow as a celeron 300MHz in the past, and it managed (just!)

Have you tried playing them back in windows media player?? Once you have the DVD decoding codec on your PC, media player should play DVDs with few problems, and it's less memory hungry than power DVD.

Mike.

[wesleyw]

Right I'll try that.

@kerrymoralee9280 and @Geoff: if the DVDs are from BBC, ITV or others that create them for education establishments you can phone them and ask for their wirtten permission to do this most I should think would allow you to. If however you are doing this with FILMs thats a real no-no.




Wes

[Geoff]

if the DVDs are from BBC, ITV or others that create them for education establishments you can phone them and ask for their wirtten permission to do this most I should think would allow you to.

I know, but it's a whole load of hassle. Also, a lot of TV programs are not produced by these entities directly. So you have to go find the correct content owner and contact them.

It's easier not to bother and just buy a standalone DVD players for classrooms.