DVD Driver (decoder?) recommendations
 

My fujitsu wontplay dvds without a decoder or driver or whatever. It appears there are lots of options in the $30-/50 range. Are there any that are superior?

I also understand that there are programs that allow you to copy dvds to hard drive to conserve power while viewing on airplanes. True?

Didn't it come with one? You might check your box of discs that came with it. Fujitsu is usually pretty good about including an InterVideo WinDVD disc that you can install, with all of their laptops.

I've always wondered why they don't just pre-install it.

If you can't find it, email me and maybe I can lend you my disc (if I can still find it).

If your laptop has a DVD drive, then Fujitsu definitely would have included a DVD playback software. It should be on your PC somewhere or included in one of the CDs that came with the laptop. Give Fujitsu tech support a call?

If you you want to get a DVD playing software RIGHT NOW, you could always buy/download either WinDVD or PowerDVD from places like Amazon for about $30. They are about the same. There are also freeware solutions too, like http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

To rip DVDs to your HD, use SmartRipper (free). Be prepared to have about 5 gigs of free space per DVD.

Lastly, you could always 'steal' by downloading stuff off Kazaa or something like that. I don't recommend it though: 1) time consuming, 2) bad quality files, and 3) stealing = bad karma.

Wait a minute. Won't it even play with Windows Media Player?

When I insert a DVD into my Fujitsu, I get this window that pops up where I can select which program to play the DVD with, and Media Player works fine, probably using the laptop's basic DVD driver (Toshiba drive on mine...you can find it in the Device Manager).

Find Windows Media Player, insert a DVD and try to play it with that.

Yes, PremEx is right for once http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Go to www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia or use the Windows Update tool to download Windows Media Player 9. It does DVD's "out of the box".

Ummm, it still needs a DVD encoder installed. This is due to the Dolby license required for DVD playback.

You guys getting WM9 working for DVD's , are you certain you don't have a DVD player installed (hence the codecs)

Windows Media Player, by default, does not come with DVD decoder (technical term is MPEG-2) built-in nor can you download for free. This is true with MP3 encoding as well; WMP cannot rip CDs to MP3 out-of-the-box. As Nick said, this has to do with the licensing and royalty issues.

However, most hardware manufactueres would bundle the MPEG-2 decoder in if their hardware includes a DVD drive. See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e.../02april15.asp and http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...p/dvdplay.aspx for reference.

I still say that Fijitsu bundled it and somehow kokonutz screwed it up. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

dupe post.

[This message has been edited by kyklin (edited 05-22-2003).]

Thanks, WMP is installed but wont play dvds and will only rip music to the .wmp format. I'll look for a cd in the fujitsu stack when i get to the office.

Koko, your Fujitsu comes with a "DVD and CD-R/RW Applications CD"

It contains among other things Intervideo WinDVD.

Nick was correct that WMP9 does not include DVD codecs, sorry...

Good call, Mistah Love. Buried in there with driver restore cds, micorsoft works and windows service packs was a cd that includes Drag'nDrop CD burner (with limited MP3 conversion capability) and my very own copy of WinDVD4 http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

Now off to get SmartRipper...and a good sized external hard drive..lessee, 5 gig per movie, 3-4 movies per transcon trip...that's a 25 gig external at least...guess I'll have to go bigger then thumb-sized.

I heard somewhere that ripping these dvds to external HDs will double the battery life over having the DVD spin relentlessly. But dont externals if this size require their own power source? Any firsthand experience with this?



[This message has been edited by kokonutz (edited 05-22-2003).]

Why external? If you compress it a little it will be 2-3Gb, that's still 10 movies on the sucker... Or 10 copies of Shrek.

Agree with ScottC...you gotta have at least 30 gig on that whatever your new Fujitsu model is. Maybe even 40. Should be room for several movies on there without the need of an external to drag around.

What model did you get, BTW?

It's a P2120 mini deal with all the bells and whitles. And yeah, I've got a bunch of gigs hanging out there, I suppose...plenty for even the special bloopers segment on the Shrek DVD http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif so long as I keep the files tidy.

But this ripping process is turning out to be a bit more complicated then I'd imagined. And lord knows the folks on afterdawn.com are not writing their manuals down to the third grade level that I require http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/redface.gif...

If your DVDs are saved as ISO images on your hard drive, you can use a DVD emulator like Daemon Tools to mount & play them. I think the program is free for non-commercial users.