Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I have finally received my new T60 with Vista as the OS:

2007-PBG

and I have noticed it does not have RecordNow or WinDVD preinstalled. Anyone else have it installed or is it just me? My T60 was a custom build by Lenovo, so my may have 'forgotten' to install it.

Not too fussed about RecordNow as I use Nero, but need WinDVD and after paying £1500 for my new laptop I don't want to have to shell out for DVD playing software if I should have it.

Thanks!

The Windows Media Player does it all, playing DVDs and Burning.

- for alternative free DVD-burning software (usable in Vista!), check http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=40790

Regards,

Johan

andyP wrote:The Windows Media Player does it all, playing DVDs and Burning.

Not the version that comes with Vista Business.

You can use the FREE VLC Media Player to watch DVDs. Just remember that Vista support is not 100% with VLC yet, so you may have to tweak the settings a bit.

Hi

Unfortune , Vista Business has no software to playing or burning DVDs. You need to find software to watch and burn DVD.
I suggest PowerDVD and Nero 7 if you canafford to buy that software or search some freeware.
Maybe that: burning software will be fine for you or that

Regards

If you are happy with Windows Media Player i would recommend to just buy a codec to play DVD's using windows media player. The price is about $15. Another option to use freeware like VLC which is pretty good. Then you don't have to install a huge package like powerdvd or windvd just to play DVD's on your computer.
To burn CD/DVD's i used Nero for many years, but i think the latest versions of Nero became very bloated and ended up with UltraISO which can do the same thing, is much smaller and only $30 for a lifetime license. UltraISO does not contain all the other apps that is included with Nero, but i have the impression that most people don't use those parts of nero anyway.

Hi

I gave you links to free burning software here you have links to free DVD player software: Cliprex or AVS DVD Player.
Unfortune have no idea if they work in Vista.

Regards

Well, according to http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/15047 (and other places) AVS DVD Player will work fine under Vista Business!

NB: According to a Danish blog (http://www.jornbo.dk/show.php?id=39) AVS DVD Player will once in a while scroll "DEMO" across the movie if ripping a DVD to e.g. DivX; to avoid that it is necessary to buy some full version. However, I don't think this (annoying "feature"!) will show up if only playing DVD's.

Anybody here having tried AVS DVD Player on a T60? Feedback, please, if anybody here can recommend this program for ThinkPad's!

Best regards,

Johan

nandaiyo wrote:

andyP wrote:

The Windows Media Player does it all, playing DVDs and Burning.

Not the version that comes with Vista Business.

Well that is very strange The T60, (8744-HDG), that I used to test a DVD in before posting was straight out of the box and has Vista Business.
All I did was lay a DVD in the drive, selected play DVD and as I wrote - it worked. There are options to copy files to disk as well.

Does anybody know how to play DVD-movies on a T60 with the DVD-drive being silent?

Reason for asking: I just tried, for the first time, to play a DVD-movie on a new T60 (2007-QPG, UT0QPDK), the DVD-drive being a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4083N, made by LG, I believe. I use Windows Media Player ver. 11.0.6000.6324; the T60 runs Vista Business. The DVD-driver is “cdrom.sys”, ver. 6.0.6000.16386 as of Nov. 2, 2006. This movie-playing unfortunately does not function very well; the drive continues to spin up and down in speed, making a very annoying (and unacceptable high) noise. Compared to the DVD-RW in my T42, this T60 is terrible! The DVD-drive in the T42 is a M a t s u s h i t a UJ-842, capable of completely silent DVD-playback.

From reading here I had the impression that playback of DVD-movies on a T60 should also be practically silent? What am I doing wrong??

The DVD-drive speed is set to “normal” speed in the BIOS (as by default); I have not tried to set it to “silent” (as suggested for T42’s in http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=24371). Should this really be necessary??

… or should I get another program for playing DVD-movies? Which? Perhaps AVS DVD Player? Anybody having experience with this?

Thanks in advance for any hints on how to play DVD-movies silently!

Johan

If you want complete silence when using a dvd drive, how about use a software like Daemon Tools or Alcohol to create a virtual cd-rom device and play movie from it? No spinning noise and I think I actually have a tiny bit longer run time when on battery.

Thanks to everyone that replied. I ended up purchasing WinDVD v8.

Johan, I have the same issue. DVD playing is silent on my T43, but so so noisy on the T60.

@ Tony Chan: Thanks for the hint; the idea is good - but unfortunately I simply refuse first having to copy the entire DVD movie onto the harddisk before being able to play it (in silence). This just ought not be necessary! It must be possible to play the DVD silently, like e.g. on the T42 with the M a t s u s h i t a UJ-842 drive. It HAS to be possible!!

@ cwestwater: Thanks for your reply too. I just downloaded and installed the above-mentioned AVS DVD Player, and it works "well" (under Vista Business on the T60) in the sense that it plays a video. The drawback is that the drive now keeps spinning at a constant high speed (very audibly!).

I can’t believe this!?! On a brand-new $2000+ T60 w/Vista Business there is no pre-installed software which lets you play a DVD without the drive sounding like a small jet airplane?? What a remarkably step back from the T42 w/Win XP!

You mention that you purchased WinDVD v8 – did this solve the problem? Are you now able to play DVD’s on the T60 (under Vista) silently?

What do other folks do?? How do you play DVD's silently on your T60's?

Thanks in advance for any hints – particularly for pointing out solutions that do not require further software investments!

Best regards,

Johan

Have you tried the 'Silent' setting in BIOS?

@ nandaiyo: No, I have not (yet?) tried that - because I fear that it will slow down the DVD-drive speed in cases where I want the high speed (backup etc.). On my T42, the CD-ROM drive speed (in the BIOS) is set to "normal" - and, as mentioned, that drive is so silent!

I might try, just to see if this works (if everything else fails!).

... meanwhile, all ideas are still welcome...

Update:

OK, and with reference to the above, so I tried to set the CD/DVD-speed to "Silent" in the BIOS (in the Power section) - and now it is possible to play DVD's much more silent compared to when the CD/DVD-speed is set to the default "Normal". The drive noise-level is similar in Windows Media Player and AVS DVD Player; not completely inaudible, but acceptable.

I don't know what the penalty might be in terms of (potential) reduced speed if wishing to copy files to/from at CD/DVD at maximum speed.

Is there a difference between the Windows media player that comes with Vista home and Vista business?

I have used both XP home and XP pro, there was no difference.

Did Microsoft do something to disable DVD viewing in Vista business? This sounds very strange.

I do not recommend Windows Media Player under any circumstances. I also recommend that you uninstall it altogether.
The following refers to Windows Media Player 11 (which comes with Vista).

It is not well known but there is a new feature called copy protect music. It is being delivered with that option unchecked currently but there is talk among IT professionals that an update will likely be pushed that will turn it on. When that happens, all of the music in your library will be encrypted with licensing information.
You will not be able to move your own music to a different pc and in many cases, the music that you already have will be limited in the number of times it may be played.

BE ADVISED:
This information is from Microsofts own web portal. It is real.
I do not currently have the link at my finger tips, but I will find it if there are any doubters out there.

peace,

Windows media player has had this digital rights management thing for a couple of versions now. But up till now, there is also the option to turn that off. If Microsoft decides to turn this DRM thing on permanently, that would be bummers...

A good freeware to use is foobar 2000. The only downside is that it's kind of inconvenient to change the volume using this player. You have to change Windows system volume to change the volume of the music being played.

I don't think you understand that this is different. It is an option to automatically copy protect ALL files in your library.

It is new and big news.

Vista Business ships with the DVD codec from microsoft installed.

Home Premium and Ultimate come with it too.

The only way to get it with Vista business is to get Vista on the machine from the vendor, and run the preload.