Win 7,VGA Splitters and DVD playback

[nathan]

I installed some teacher pc's last week, before installing i tested (amongst other things) that DVD playback was working fine. Knowing this was the last week and they would be playing plenty of DVD's.

Issue i have is that when there connected to the projectors via a VGA splitter WMP moans about copy protection and won't play. Plug the same PC straight into the monitor and it works fine. I've tried different DVD playback software (Cyberlink) and i've tried Videolan that bypasses the HDCP checks - this plays some DVD's (i'm guessing based on the type of protection)

This is happening on two different types of desktops (dell and acer), does anyone know how to get around this?

[witch]

Have you tried an alternative to WMP? We find VLC plays pretty much anything with no issues. I do have a couple of splitter setups as you describe and I haven't seen this issue.

[nathan]

Have you tried an alternative to WMP? We find VLC plays pretty much anything with no issues. I do have a couple of splitter setups as you describe and I haven't seen this issue.

Videolan is VLC, that will play a few DVD's, just not all of them and it can be pretty slow sometimes. I've also tried Cyberlink PowerDVD, this one complained about TV out not working correctly (i don't beleive this is the case).

[nathan]

I've just done a test whilst the class was out of the room. going through the splitter powering both monitor and projector i can't play the dvds. Take the splitter out and have either the projector or monitor plugged in then it works fine.

These are the splitters we're using;
WP_20121221_001[1].jpg

[3s-gtech]

To be honest, I gave up on splitters (though I have one active one in use like yours above). I use graphics cards with dual outputs, which seems to negate these problems. Could be an expensive option if you need loads, but they're less than £20 each + VAT so not far off splitter money anyway, might pay to do some.

[chazzy2501]

you can loop VGA through most projectors, failing that you can use a straight Y cable with VGA.