Thinkpads Forum

I have a 770ED with Windows 2000. I want DVD software that will give me the best performance. Can anyone suggest anything? Thanks.

If you'd like free, there is K-Lite.

The 770ED shipped with the DEVA (DVD Enhanced Video Adapter) card designed to assist MPEG decoding (on DVDs). As I understand it, only a few pieces of software are compatible with this hardware MPEG decoder. When you use Windows 2000, you should be to use Windows Media Player to play DVDs if the installation added all the drivers as it should have -- you may need to add the MPEG drivers, I don't recall, but I think they are installed automatically. My impression is that this was the preferred player for a 770ED/X/Z with DEVA under Windows 2000.

Have you tried to play a DVD yet and checked whether your default program will play them well enough or not?

Phil.

You can download DVD Express, (which came with the 770) here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/ftp_resource.htm

I am not sure that the DVDExpress is fully/properly supported under Windows 2000 in the 770 series.

After you install the version Orevin links to above, you will need to update the software using a patch. The 770 patch is different than the 600 patch, and the 770 patch specifically states "This update works with Microsoft Windows 95/98 ONLY. (This is NOT supported under Windows 2000)". I'm running DVDExpress on a 600X and it works fine in Windows 98SE/2000/XP.

Here is the general ThinkPad patch for DVDExpress:
Mediamatics DVDExpress video player update - ThinkPad General
Note that the 770 series does not appear in the list of the supported machines.

Here is the 770-specific patch for DVDExpress:
Mediamatics DVDExpress video player update - ThinkPad 770
Note the specific exclusion of Win2000.

I have not tried to run DVDExpress on my 770Z or 770ED under Windows 2000, so I cannot say for sure if there would be a problem.

Phil.

Thanks Guys, I was wondering around Lenovo's website and found drivers that allowed me to use the windows 2000 DVDplay program with the DEVA card.

Media Player classic is a free media player that has a built in dvd decoder and uses very little resources. I don' know if your 770 will play dvds all that well, but its worth a try. There are a number of plugins like Quicktime Alternative that plays quicktime files without installing the very slow quicktime player. Do a Google search for the program and have fun.

You won't get good DVD performance under Win 2000 unless you have a fast computer. Windows 98 and Windows XP are much better choices for DVDs.

If I'm not mistaken, the 770ED has a hardware MPEG decoder for DVDs. Try finding the driver on Lenovo's support site for that device and you should be able to get good playback performance from any DVD player software.

To be honest, I'd personally upgrade the machine to Windows XP, and install the IBM DVD Playback software. Your machine should take XP fine, maybe with a small memory upgrade if needed.

I have a 600E on XP with just 96MB of RAM (Yikes!), but DVD playback is still great. I'd give that a go

Alternatively, get the drivers and software if applicable for the hardware acceleration then install PowerDVD or an equivalent program. I like PowerDVD XP4.0, as it doesn't hog resounces and has a nice, clean interface.

mattyprice4004 wrote:To be honest, I'd personally upgrade the machine to Windows XP, and install the IBM DVD Playback software. Your machine should take XP fine, maybe with a small memory upgrade if needed.

I strongly disagree with this assessment of the 770ED, which shipped with a PII 266MHz CPU. I would stick with Win 2000.

mattyprice4004 wrote:I have a 600E on XP with just 96MB of RAM (Yikes!), but DVD playback is still great. I'd give that a go

That's great that you've managed to squeeze such performance out of your 600E, but many people found it difficult to get acceptable DVD performance on the 770E (which is a 770ED without the DEVA card) when it was originally released: there is a significant difference between your PII 400MHz and the 770ED PII 266MHz as far as DVD playback is concerned.

mattyprice4004 wrote:Alternatively, get the drivers and software if applicable for the hardware acceleration then install PowerDVD or an equivalent program. I like PowerDVD XP4.0, as it doesn't hog resounces and has a nice, clean interface.

AlphaKilo wrote:If I'm not mistaken, the 770ED has a hardware MPEG decoder for DVDs. Try finding the driver on Lenovo's support site for that device and you should be able to get good playback performance from any DVD player software.

I don't think so! The DEVA card (which is the MPEG accelerator card that comes with the 770ED) is only compatible with a very small set of DVD players. For instance, I don't think it is compatible with PowerDVD. You can install PowerDVD and use it, but it lacks the necessary"hooks" that tie into the 770ED DEVA card. In order to get the best DVD performance, I would recommend that the original poster continue doing exactly what they are doing: use the built-in DVDPlay program that comes with Windows 2000 after enabling the MPEG accelerator DEVA card. This probably gives the best possible DVD playback under Win 2000.

DVDExpress was designed to support the DEVA card, but as suggested above, it is not clear that it is a good choice under Windows 2000 for the 770 series. My understanding is that the only other DVD players with potential support for the DEVA card under Windows 2000 were the ones from Microsoft: namely the barebones DVDPlay program the OP is using, and possibly also certain versions of Windows Media Player.

The reason for this, I have always assumed, is that Windows 2000 actually ships with the necessary MPEG drivers built-in, and so it makes sense for the default Win2000 DVD Player (and possibly also the Win2000 version of Windows Media Player) to be compatible with it. Other DVD players would have to have specific code snippets or registry entries specifically designed to incorporate support for the DEVA if they wanted to make use of it, but apparently none of them did.

Phil.

[censored], I must have been thinking of another ThinkPad... Definitely stay with Windows 2000 if at all possible. A PII 266MHz will run Windows 2000 nicely but XP would probably be brought to it's knees.

It is possible to make the DVD Express software work with Windows 2000, so others have said in this forum. As of yet all I've heard is

"I got it to work" and other useful phrases. I suggest you Google:

"DVD Express on Windows 2000"

or a similar search phrase, and browse the results.

Good luck, Mat