What really confuses me is that it plays BEAUTIFULLY on my portable dvd player. I had company over once and they had never seen a portable dvd player, let alone Avatar. Well, the colors blew them away.

That's why I wanted to watch this on my computer. Big screen. etc.

Anyway, I have an UPDATE on all this nonsense.

Because I tried absolutely EVERYTHING I know to try, I just took a walk over to the computer guy. I started the conversation:

"Now it's agreed that BEFORE I brought my PC into your store, the dvd thing worked, right? he said Absolutely.

I then walked him through step by step what I did today. He said "and it plays the same way with ANY dvd that you put in?" I said "exactly, and it doesn't matter which player I use, whether it's windows media player, real player, vlc player, ANY PLAYER!!

He said "do you want to do the remote thing?"

I said 'you know, it's just easier if I unplug the whole thing, and bring it in and give it to you. He said "I'll do a diagnostic and we'll get to the bottom"

And he won't charge me because it worked BEFORE I brought it in to him.

So sometime this week, I shall unplug everything. I'm getting it all on my Flip, so when the times come to re-connect, I don't have to drive my crazy saying "Now where does this usb thing go, and where does the printer cable go"

I'm a visual gal. I like to SEE things in order to make them work or connect.

Anyway, thanks very much for all the input.

And I understand why you go to the library.

I only hope that with all this new digital phenomenon going on, that the Library itself doesn't become obsolete.

Take care

melody

Oh I'm going over to the Vitamin D forum to ask you a question on Vitamin D

oh it popped into my head earlier today!!

maybe just take the DVD to the computer guy and see if it plays on one of his computers normally??
before you unplug everything of yours..

Yeah, never thought of that. But they ALL play on my portable dvd player, and they played on my dvd rom thing BEFORE I took it into him.

But of course I had NEVER tested the Avatar one on my dvd rom because I never thought to do that. I got that a few months ago, and then my computer had to be fixed and when I got my computer bak from the repair place, then I tried playing it, THAT'S when I discovered Avatar was not recognized at all and the others skipped frame to frame, (like watching something in slow motion). She he told me 'you need a codec". So I downloaded a K-lite all in one codec package.

No change.

But your idea is a good one.

I'll bring them in later and have him test them. That just might indicate something.

Good idea.

Melody

You are a blooming genius. I took the two dvds which I know play on the portable dvd player. One is Katherine, one of those cheap dvds you get at a store in one of the $2.00 bins. The other one was Avatar (from Blockbuster).

I went to see Ivan, the computer guy. He put in Avatar. It WOULD NOT come up in VLC. I said "Try Windows Media Player". It finally came up. EXACTLY LIKE IT PLAYS ON MINE. With gargling sounds and slow playing.

Then he put in the dvd Katherine starring Art Carney. Played exactly the same way, gargling sounds, slow playing.

He looked at me and said "Well, we now know it's not your dvd rom drive. Look, these are playing the same way in dvd rom drive. This means these dvds are suited for DVD players and nothing else.

So I went hope and made a Flip video just so you can see exactly how these dvds play in my dvd Lightscribe drive thing.

The only solution I can think of is to buy a regular dvd player and hook it up to one of the TVs in my house.

Or.....and I should have asked Ivan this question.

Can he take out my Lightscribe DVD writer thing, and replace it with a dvd player dvd drive?

See, I have no idea if such a thing even exists. The only reason I am looking into this possibility is that I enjoy watching movies on the computer and in the past, while I'm not a big dvd user, I did watch maybe 2 or 3 on the computer.

But the computer is over 5 years old. Uses Windows XP. I'm not about to replace it because it suits our needs.

But it would be cool to know that if I ever wanted to, that Ivan could replace this dvd writer thing with a regular old dvd player. Can he do that?

Anyway, here's the video of how my dvds are playing in my Lightscribe DVD writer drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CGR0F5PeRc

thanks much

Melody

whoo hoo - I love to be called a genius LOL.

Ok - now I wonder if there is a way to hook up your regular DVD player to your monitor if you'd rather watch it on a larger monitor.
Is there extra connectors on the back of it?

With the right connectors / cable I can hook my laptop to my LCD TV.
most things are doable if you have the plugs/ cables available.

most plug and connectors are sized for the specific place they go into nowadays - usb only fits usb, antenna only fits antenna, HDMI only fits in HDMI etc.


or did I mention trying to copy the dvd on to your computer and try playing it that way?

It is legal to make a copy for your own use, only illegal if you sell copies or such.

Here is a little helpful hint for the next time you have to unplug everything...

I used fingernail polish on the cord and the plug in.... using different colors for each cord. Works great...don't have to worry about what cord goes where, just match the colors.

My dad used different colors of electrical tape for his computer.

Hope this helps...

Abbie

I never laughed so hard. I've been doing nail polish on the back of my TVs, VCR,s cable boxes, EVERYTHING, for years. And I thought I invented this system. In my bedroom, I have two complete tv hookups. Separate tv's cable boxes, vcr's (we are not into the dvr thing yet) and I wouldn't because Alan WOULD NEVER learn how to use it, so for now, VCR is doing fine for us. We tape everything. Because I have two panasonic vcrs which share the same remote, how do you think I am able to use it on the right side and not have the remote change anything on the left side?

I'm Mcguyver, that's how. I took a big cardboard box and I cut it to fit over the right side. So when I want to record (I never watch tv using the right tv, it's only for taping), I simply put the box over the left side, and do the programming things and then take the box and cover the right side. It fits over everything, tv, vcr, cable box. Been doing this for 7 years or so. Never failed me yet.

But when I had to move eveything (to replace a tv or vcr), I said to myself, how the heck am I going to remember all these connections? I did the nail polish thing.

But for the computer? Did that too. Right now, my printer connection is pink on the back, the other connectors have their own color. But now that I have the FLIP, I'll just make a video, and hit play on the Flip when I want to reconnect anything on the computer.

I LOVE this Flip.

Anyway, back to decoding, etc.

Guess what Melody learned to do today.

DVD ripping.

I'm going to master it.

Oh, just so you know. The dvds play JUST FINE when they are copied to hard drive.

And I have a challenge for all of you.

Had a major problem with the screen today. Did the
Flip. I'm starting a thread on it.

Mel

Have you tried running it on your PC with appz like AnyDVD or XBMC?

I have a lightscribe that is notorious for incompatibility and both these programs allow my machine to play a lot more variety of discs.

Yeah, I have anydvd. What that did was UNLOCK the Avatar dvd and allowed me to view it. But as you saw on my youtube video, all the dvds that I play on pc play the same way. And all were scanned with anydvd software before opening up. I have K-lite decoder (which is supposed to be good), but even that didn't allow my dvd to play like it does on a dvd player.

I'm not going to go crazy doing this.

I'm learning how to dvd rip. I'm in the learning stages. All these 12 year olds on youtube who give the tutorials, well they talk exactly like, if they got out of the crib, they immediately knew how to use a PC. It's very frustrating to watch a youtube video and see a young kid talk about "avi files, and mpeg, and drag this, and open up in this format".

I just wish I could learn a bit more about dvd ripping. That's what I want to do. I own these DVDs and I should be able to watch them on whatever device I own.

I guess I'll just keep trying.

Melody

P.S. Oh Mrs. D, if you are viewing, I need your EXPERTISE on a diabetic question. I have a problem. Thanks much. I'm going to post on diabetes forum