T22 and DOS of some description as DVD player?

[tpprynn]

Ideally I'd like to install MSDOS or a free alternative and a DOS-based DVD Player program. This laptop compared to my X60s and my desktop pc is pretty grim, so I'd just like to use it to watch films, being one of these people that doesn't have a TV. This seems simpler than getting hold of full Windows 98SE or Windows 2000 legally and wrestling again with VLC as media player. (Despite a brief play with the possibilities once I don't do torrents and 98SE via that method in any case seemed suspiciously three times its expected size, about 650mb.)

Is this feasible? How would I go about it and what are the best options? I did once try to install Freedos but it seemed to fail and do nothing or I couldn't make sense of it.

Linux hasn't been a satisfying option on this machine - the display is nasty to look at, kind of like the saturation is stuck high, with no gradients or smooth blend of hues.

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

The graphics on that machine are so weak, it's not even funny.
Go to a Sally Ann or any auction and pick up a real TV for a song (or two).
You'll never be happy with whatever any DVD program might do.

[twistero]

You may have trouble finding a DVD player for DOS. Also, technically you need a valid license to run MS-Dos too.

If you're feeling adventurous, put a lightweight, console-only Linux distribution on the T22 and try playing DVDs with mplayer, directly from the console. This is probably the least resource-demanding way to play DVDs on your hardware.

(I have Arch Linux installed on a Fujitsu LifeBook B2562, which has a Mobile Pentium-III 700MHz CPU, comparable to what a T22 would have. In console it's reasonably fast, for whatever you can do on a console: edit text files, surf the internet with text-only browsers, etc. With X server and a graphical interface, it's definitely slow, but arguably still usable. It doesn't have an optical drive, though, so can't test DVD playback for you.)

[Neil]

An older version of GeeXboX, Ver. .98 or .99 would be the ideal thing here. Nothing but the Linux kernel and mplayer with a very simple GUI. I think it was either Ver. 2.0 r 3.0 that they started using XBox Media Center, and it got a little bloated. But, those earlier versions are about 16MB total, and while you can install it to a HDD, you don't even need a HDD installed, just boot from a CD, remove the CD, and play your DVD.

[tpprynn]

That's promising, the console-only Linux. I like the sound of that frugalism, after four years of Aero and Compiz. If I could get my 1980s manual typewriter to play DVDs...

The T22 isn't so bad and does actually play DVDs well even with Linux Mint, the latest version, but the rest of the screen just looks revolting and painful.

I'll go hunting for GeeXboX before my mobile broadband credit runs out tonight too. Good, no ned to give this machine to my nephew yet, he's got gadgets coming out of his ears already anyway.

[tpprynn]

Comical finish...

I installed and was delighted with GeeXboX 1.0. I watched half a film and then decided to try a newer version. While my back was turned downloading it the Thinkpad died. Will not turn on, no lights at all. I expect it's a coincidence and that it was the machine's time being eleven years old, but I did also wonder if incomplete firmware or something let the machine cook, though it always ran pretty hot - with GeeXboX maybe it would have done fine with one stick of 128mb instead of two 256mb sticks, as someone here explained that this old RAM gets pretty hot.

But anyway, hopefully the GeeXboX solution will appeal to someone googling or reading here... (I'm separately asking if anything cost-effective can be done to resuscitate the machine elsewhere.) An additional bit of information is that from within the GeeXboX menu options vsync needs to be toggled to 'disabled' to let the picture run smooth.

[Neil]

Bummer! Search the forum for "Blink Of Death". Seems that could be the ailment your T22 has. Sometimes, they will recover, but usually not.

[tpprynn]

Yes, it was dead. And if it wasn't, it is now...

Hopefully the nearly new battery and the RAM will recoup a bit. Next stop, T43/T61...

[Raceboy]

I posted a mod that cures BoD in the BoD thread. It involves soldering a pullup resistor to pwrgood pin of the chip. Mine has worked for a year with this mod.