OLD DVD COPYING / STREAMING

[Fontayne56]

Hi all after a bit of advice

 

Now laptop DVD drives are becoming increasingly scarce with new laptops we are coming across a problem when a lot of our teachers are wanting to watch a typical types of film for GCSE work like Macbeth. We have been lending out usb DVD drives for them to be played on, but these go missing break ect.

 

Is there a platform where we can buy 10 DVD's keep them in a cupboard and stream a version across the network for 10 users to watch at a time or something similar ??

 

Any advice or products ?

 

Many Thanks

[AuXDubz]

You could look into pulling the media off the DVD into a file so that you can store it on the network, but beware of any legal implications of doing this - as for DVD players going missing it may be worth doing what we do which is labeling all of the DVD players with unique numbers and singing them out so you have track on whereabouts they are/go - if they go missing charge the department who signed them out, simples

[3s-gtech]

I think legally, with the UK's current stance on copyright and format shifting, it's a no. You can play the DVDs fine (educational context - not the complete film in one go - is covered for schools even without the licenses needed for public showing) but you can't rip them to do this, and streaming them will count as broadcast and format shifting.

[chazzy2501]

if the dvd is copy protected copying the files will result in useless data. I was thinking that legally you could setup a PC with 4 or 6 dvd drives and offer them up as shared drives. Haven't tried this with copy protected films yet. I'll give this a shot later today.

[HarryMonkey]

What's wrong with a good old fashioned DVD player?

[nadeem]

What's wrong with a good old fashioned DVD player?

 

^This

 

We just have cheap blu-ray players in our classrooms - much simpler

[Fontayne56]

If its recorded from the Tv what are the copyright protections then ?

[Norphy]

If it's recorded from the TV, you should be covered by your ERA/ERA+ license if you've got one.

[chazzy2501]

mapping a dvd drive with the film in it and streaming the data directly does not work maybe this is a case for the Windows Media Centre (the green button thing)

[Andrew_C]

What's wrong with a good old fashioned DVD player?

Also good for the days when the network/PC says "Nope..." for whatever reason.