--- Forwarded Message from Cynthia Bravo <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:42:24 -0400
>Subject: Re: #7278.1 New computers with DVD drives and regions (!)
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum    <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Cynthia Bravo <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

Greetings, all!

Concerning the issue of "new computers with DVD drives and regions  -

(1)  Has anyone investigated the cross-platform multimedia player VLC (free, downloadable) developed by the VideoLan project (http://www.videolan.org) to deal with the issue of playing various region-encoded DVDs in computer DVD drives?  We have it installed in our eMacs (OSX 10.2.8) in the Boston College Language Lab and it works quite well. 
HOWEVER  -
(2)  We are currently trying to figure out why VLC does not work properly with a professor's G4 (also OSX 10.2.?) laptop.  VLC has been installed in the laptop.  Some but not all Region 2 DVDs play back just fine.  In the case of one such DVD attempted today, the DVD starts to load and plays fine for maybe 20-30 seconds, but just when the DVD's menu screen appears an "unexpectedly quit" error flashes across the display.  So much for watching that DVD on the laptop!  Curiously enough the same DVD plays back perfectly on the Lab's eMacs.

One of  the techs here thinks the problem might be rooted in the different processors used by the G4 laptop and the eMac.  Does that sound like a reasonable possibility?  Any other suggestions as to why this might be happening and more importantly how to eliminate the problem?  Any and all suggestions will be gratefully acknowledged.

Thanks!

Cindy Bravo
______________________________
Cynthia N. Bravo, Director
Boston College Language Laboratory
Lyons Hall, Room 313
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA  02467
Email:  [log in to unmask]  or [log in to unmask]


On Tuesday, October 7, 2003, at 05:21 PM, LLTI-Editor wrote:

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--- Forwarded Message from Carine Ullom <[log in to unmask]> ---

--- Excerpt:
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 15:12:12 -0400
From: Carine Ullom <[log in to unmask]>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)
To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum    <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: #7278 New computers with DVD drives and regions
References: <[log in to unmask]>
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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------------------
Hello,
I talked about the solution to this problem implemented at St. Lawrence 
University at CALICO in May in Ottawa.  Here are some links from that 
presentation.  These focus on a long-term fix that renders the DVD-ROM 
region free permanently (several different  options for accomplishing this).

*DVD Genie http://www.inmatrix.com/genie/index.shtml
*Region Killer http://www.elby.ch/english/fun/software/index.html
*Win2000 & Win XP Registry Hacks 
http://www.inmatrix.com/articles/win2000.shtml
*DVD Region Free http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm
Regards,

Carine Ullom
Director, Language Resource Center/
Instructional Technology Specialist
Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY 13617




LLTI-Editor wrote:

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--- Forwarded Message from Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]> ---



--- Excerpt:
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:24:39 -0400
From: Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: New computers with DVD drives and regions


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Hi all,

When you get new computers in that have DVD drives, do any of you have a 
process for locking the firmware down to a specific region? My 
understanding is that most drives let you change regions 5 times before 
they lock, and it would probably not be good if any of the machines got 
locked into something other than region 1. Or, maybe it would be good to 
select certain machines to be region 1, region 2, and so on. In any event, 
I want to choose what happens with each one rather than leaving it to 
chance.

Any of you have well-thought-out policies about this?

Thanks!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Laura Atkinson
Technical Coordinator for Foreign Language Computing
Duke University
[log in to unmask]
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



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