DVD's Media etc

[KWestos]

We have big problems with playing DVD's on teachers computers and generally have the odd problem playing videos from the internet. What I'm after is a more robust method for playing ANY type of media. We have tried the usual media player, VLE, etc. What I would like is maybe a corporate media player to play dvd's etc. I don't mind paying for a media server and software (as long as its not too expensive).

 

What do other people use?

 

Many thanks

 

Karl

[Ric_]

I've set up a media server (Windows 2003 and the free Unreal Media Streaming software) and converted many of our educational programmes to small xVid files which are streamed to the teacher's desktop.

 

Was there not licensing implications in doing this?

[Andrew_C]

It is covered by the ERA licensing scheme.

 

We use ClickView, which is still NEARLY brilliant.

[Domino]

Videolan VLC is always my fav

 

plays just about anything and is stable as you like.

[LeMarchand]

It is covered by the ERA licensing scheme.

 

As far as I can see, that only covers "off air" recordings - not distributing DVDs via the network. Am I missing something? I was asked to "put a DVD" on the network just today, and was pretty sure that it wouldn't be legal - if there is a license that covers such use it would save turning down all those annoying "Can you copy this DVD because we don't want to buy more than one copy and are incapable of scheduling our lessons to ensure that resources are available?" requests.