600E with DVD Drive

[dadgeral]

I just bought a 600E off ebay. I understand that the mediamatic dvd express is the way to go and is currently installed on the machine. I do not have a recovery disk for the machine but would like to reformat it and maybe put XP on it. My problem is I dont want to lose the mediamatic program but I cant find a copy on the internet anywhere. Or if I have a system failure I would be stuck with another program for the dvd decoder.

Does anyone have a source where I could obtain a recovery disk with it on it or just the actual program itself

thanks in advance

[monty cantsin]

I just bought a 600E off ebay. I understand that the mediamatic dvd express is the way to go

Many people would agree that PowerDVD 4 (attn: Version 5 is considerably slower!) is possibly the best DVD player for that machine.

Does anyone have a source where I could obtain a recovery disk with it on it or just the actual program itself

Download the package from Compaq:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp1900 ... p19159.exe

It will install fine on your machine.

If you want to have the IBM instead of the Compaq logo on the UI of the DVD player, continue with downloading and installing the DVDExpress update from the IBM site:
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... GV37K.html

Please note:
Before you can run the IBM update, you MUST have a working copy of MediaMatics DVDExpress on your computer, therefore you will have to install the download from Compaq first and cannot skip this step.

[Guest]

Thank you for the info monty.

You have really helped me out. Could you explain a little more about PowerDVD 4. Is what your saying is that it is better but version 5 in not a good solution? I understand what you meant about having a version of DVD express on my machine before the upgrade from IBM will work.

Many thanks

[Abzstrak]

windvd also works well on a 600e... if you really want to play DVD's though, I'd go pick up a Margi pcmcia dvddecoder card, their something like $15-$20

[MadeInJapan]

Power DVD is the definite way to go! Version 4 was great...version 5 was slower, but still good, but newest Power DVD XP is teh best one yet. It often comes with DVD-rom drives from Samsung and other companies for free.

[dadgeral]

Thanks everyone for all the info. I will follow your advise and will look for powerdvd 4. I have gotten all the info that monty posted the links for.

As far as watching a DVD on it, I thought it would be nice for the trips in the car. My primary purpose is to use it with a gps and where I go fishing it is usally to far in the boonies for tv so maybe a movie before bedtime

[Guest]

Power DVD is the definite way to go! Version 4 was great...version 5 was slower, but still good, but newest Power DVD XP is teh best one yet. It often comes with DVD-rom drives from Samsung and other companies for free.

I'd agree with that - I got a copy of PowerDVD XP when I bought a CDRW/DVD-ROM combo drive for my 600 off of EBay. It was one of the FASTMOTT units, and so far I'm very pleased with it.

Surprisingly, even though I'd read that a 366MHz was the minimum for DVD watching, I've been doing fine with my 300MHz processor and this application. Maybe my 288MB of RAM and Win98SE is helping.

Rob

[sktn77a]

An original version of DVD Express is available on Thinkpads.com (FTP Downloads). You can then upgrade it with the upgrade on the IBM site. This version of DVD Express will not work with Win XP on the 600E. Neither will the Margi card/software. Both work fine with WIN98/Win2000 on the 600E but make sure you have the latest the audio and video drivers and DirectX 9. WinDVD (from some friendly soul's T4X IBMTOOLS folder) works fine with the 600E and WIN XP. I was never able to get the compaq softpaq DVD players to work on my 600E or my Compaq 1900XL (!).

I believe both PowerDVD and WinDVD have downloadable trial versions of all else fails..