How can I watch DVD's on my company laptop?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I still can't make VLC work. I have a Goodfellas DVD in the drive. If I go to the DVD drive in My Computer and right click, I get a bunch of files. I have no idea which one is the movie or how to copy it to my computer. There has to be some easy way to do this. What am I missing?

The file structure of a DVD at it's barest is

Audio_TS
Video_TS

Directories. Ignore Audio.

In Video you will see .VOB files numbered sequentially if there are more than one.

Start with the lowest numbered VOB and it will put the rest together.

The individual VOBs are just chapters.

Copy or better yet make a disc image/iso of the dvd and dump that on your machine.

[gtc]

Go to File: Open Disc, and put your DVD drive ID under device name.
Or open VLC and drag and drop the DVD from my computer into the VLC window.
Or drag the DVD icon onto the VLC icon... that should work also.

[Rick Lee]

No joy. Can't save or copy it. When I open VLC, I get a black screen, almost like a DOS prompt. Can't drag the file from My Comptur either. It just gives a black circle and slash sign when I try. Looks like our tech support folks really, really don't want us watching dvd's on long flights.

[porsche4life]

Time to put ubuntu on a flash drive....


How bad do you want to watch a movie?

[Rick Lee]

Ok, downloaded Ubuntu onto a flash drive and still have no idea what to do with it. It doesn't look user-friendly at all.

[LeeH]

What version of Windows?

[Rick Lee]

XP Pro

[LeeH]

You have a PM

[LeeH]

Rick - the error message says "A compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer," right? I'm sure the computer gurus here can point you toward one, but I think that's going to be the key to making it work.

[Rick Lee]

Somehow I got the VLC to make it work. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden it started working. I still don't know how to load DVD's onto the computer, but I'll just bring a bunch and pop them in when I want to watch. No idea how this Ubuntu works at all. VLC is fine though. Thanks.

[Joe Bob]

Use an external drive or download VLC or buy a cheap player......or buy yer own laptop ya cheap bastard....%^)~

[Rick Lee]

I have several of my own laptops. But none have Lotus Notes, my company's email system and my Verizon Blackberry won't work in Europe. I was just told the big secret the other day that we can get our email via webmail and I got it set up. But it's kind of clunky. I don't want to take more than one computer with me, so I want my company one to be able to do everything.