Working hard to get a result!
Quote:
Originally Posted by confus-ed
Ummmm ... much confus-ed-ness .... I think you are short of some encoder/decoder codec (this is the bit you don't get free & why you really have to pay for DVD s/w - there are ways around this, but we'll put them aside for now) ... this is the bit that 'translates' DVD stuff into a stream that your IDE interface can handle. (that's a 'pants' explanation, but for now its all you are getting :D ;) )
Lets have a bash with some 'other' software & see if it persists ...
try this - 'free trial' or
there's a 'huge' list here (some of them 'must' also have 'trial' offers?)
This :-
May very well hold water, but trying some trial or other, that hopefully isn't hardware tied, should clear up whether its that or not.
OK Friday night spent a long time with a mate having a bash to make the ruddy thing work. Via DVD express, we opened up the the video folder (titles video_ts) of the dvd in question "princes bride" (well known dvd that should be able to played by any dvd player on the market). In the video_ts folder of the dvd, all the video files with the suffix .vob and .bup had a generic windows icon next to them and were not being recognised ie you could click on one of these files, press open, hear the disk going round and then nothing. Also , the dvdexpress programme automatically looked for MPEG files, you could point it to other file types via the drop down list of files of type and there was a category for DVD files but only those with suffix .ifo.
Via Windvd, when looking in the Video_ts folder of the dvd, the same files had the generic windows icon against them and could not be opened. Unlike dvdexpress there were no suffixes listed after the file names. Windvd only listed "media files" in the "files of type " category.
Secondly we tried to add .bup and .vob files to the registered file types under settings/folder options/file types. We clicked new "file type" and put .vob in the associated extension box. However we were unsure what to choose from the drop down menu for content type (MIME) - there were a number of video file types listed. Of those that were not mpeg or quicktime, video avi, video/x-ivf, video/x-la-asf, video/x-ms-asf were listed. We chose one of these four at random and put in "play" under action and used browse to locate dvdexpress as the the application associated with this file type. We tried a number of permutations with content type and between dvdexpress and windvd and at one point I was able to open one file in dvd express which turned out to be a still image but we were never able to play the dvd using play buttons in either program. It would be helpful to know category under content type I should put for .bup and .vob.
I am pretty sure there is no problem with the software even though the above indicates the software is unable to recognise certain file extensions. The reason is because I have tried with 4 different types of software - 2 which I downloaded and paid for. Powerdvd was one of them!
The two I am currently trying were copied from the original programmes and work fine on another Thinkpad. The dvd express software is what comes with all thinkpads with dvd players on them. I just can't believe that the software is at fault if 4 different programmes are all unable to play dvds on my computer!
getting full picture on the TV
I know this isn't specifically a drivers question. I have posted on Thinkpad forums without getting any answer so thought I would come back here as you proved so expert in your previous advice...:-)
What I wanted to ask was about playing through a TV. I have done this before without any problems. DVD express automatically resets resolution to 800 by 600 but this means that the all the edges of picture on the TV are cut off. So i get the full picture on the LCD but not on the TV. Admittedly I only have a 14" TV (I am in Europe so I have set neo magic advanced tab to PAL) but then my LCD is 13" so I am sure this is not the issue. I have tried to reset resolution to 640 by 480 but DVD express will not allow it even though this is the setting under display/settings/advanced/Neomagic tab that stops the image in preview screen under TV tick box from moving and when one can see the whole of the LCD display on the TV screen without having to move the mouse.
Any comments?
some answers and a further question
I am now pretty sure that the reason I cannot play other dvd decoders is because I reinstalled using a generic windows 98 cd and apparently this is quite a common problem with IBM products despite using supplementary file that IBM provide.
So I am endeavouring to get hold of one of these CDs.
However a new problem has occurred in the meantime. I seem to be losing programs. First it was Microsoft word images from the image library,now I can't open any office program, Acrobat reader has disappeared, also Palm pda program and Arcsoft camera suite. Is this some sort of delayed reaction to my reinstall of a couple of weeks ago????