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From: Paul-J, Kbh on 24 Nov 2009 00:23
I am in trouble because I have promised a 10y child in my family a laptop as Christmas
present.
It must not be too expensive. And it must have an optical drive and a good display.

I thought this D600 -which otherwise is running perfectly with a fresh updated Win XP-
would be OK.
The problem is playing videos such as DVD. I get poor results on Windows media player
11.
Should I try other software ? Would it help to upgrade to Windows 7 ?
There is 1,5 GB ram and an ATI radeon 9000 mobility card with Dells 4year-old driver.


From: Jef Roe on 24 Nov 2009 00:49

"Paul-J, Kbh" <dion1(a)forum.dk.invalid> wrote in message
news:heg6io$lh$1(a)news.dansketelecom.com...
>I am in trouble because I have promised a 10y child in my family a laptop
>as Christmas present.
> It must not be too expensive. And it must have an optical drive and a good
> display.
>
> I thought this D600 -which otherwise is running perfectly with a fresh
> updated Win XP- would be OK.
> The problem is playing videos such as DVD. I get poor results on Windows
> media player 11.
> Should I try other software ? Would it help to upgrade to Windows 7 ?
> There is 1,5 GB ram and an ATI radeon 9000 mobility card with Dells
> 4year-old driver.
>
>

PowerDVD or WinDVD


From: Steve W. on 24 Nov 2009 01:08
Paul-J, Kbh wrote:
> I am in trouble because I have promised a 10y child in my family a laptop as Christmas
> present.
> It must not be too expensive. And it must have an optical drive and a good display.
>
> I thought this D600 -which otherwise is running perfectly with a fresh updated Win XP-
> would be OK.
> The problem is playing videos such as DVD. I get poor results on Windows media player
> 11.
> Should I try other software ? Would it help to upgrade to Windows 7 ?
> There is 1,5 GB ram and an ATI radeon 9000 mobility card with Dells 4year-old driver.
>
>

Should play fine but you probably will want a copy of Power DVD instead
of WMP.
I picked up a copy of Power DVD Dell OEM off fleabay CHEAP. Works just
fine.


--
Steve W.
From: William R. Walsh on 24 Nov 2009 11:31
Hi!

> I thought this D600 -which otherwise is running perfectly with a
> fresh updated Win XP- would be OK.

First thing to check--do you have *all* the drivers installed? In
particular, have you got a proper, working driver for the video
hardware in this system? What about other drivers?

The Latitude D600 is a "little brother" to the D800. I can say with
great certainty that even when the D800 is running at its low clock
speed, DVD playback is quite possible. The only major difference is
that of video...Latitude D800s had nVidia graphics. (Mine has a
GeForce Go FX5200...)

> The problem is playing videos such as DVD. I get poor results
> on Windows media player 11.

Windows Media Player 11 does not have any sort of ability to decode
DVD video. When you use it, it is calling on the services of another
program to do the actual decoding. You can try to find this program
(or decoder) to see whose it is.

You can try the VideoLAN VLC player quickly and easily to determine if
DVD playback works using a different decoder. http://www.videolan.org/

> Should I try other software ? Would it help to upgrade to
> Windows 7?

Try the VideoLAN VLC player mentioned above. I do not believe Windows
7 would improve things.

You may also wish to get the latest Radeon driver from ATI. I believe
they still have the Mobility stuff on their site. Dell's driver is
probably somewhat older than it would suggest.

William
From: Ben Myers on 24 Nov 2009 15:33
Paul-J, Kbh wrote:
> I am in trouble because I have promised a 10y child in my family a laptop as Christmas
> present.
> It must not be too expensive. And it must have an optical drive and a good display.
>
> I thought this D600 -which otherwise is running perfectly with a fresh updated Win XP-
> would be OK.
> The problem is playing videos such as DVD. I get poor results on Windows media player
> 11.
> Should I try other software ? Would it help to upgrade to Windows 7 ?
> There is 1,5 GB ram and an ATI radeon 9000 mobility card with Dells 4year-old driver.
>
>

Installing Windows 7 won't help. It may hinder.

In addition to other suggestions, consider downloading and installing
the free-for-the-download MPC Home Cinema from
http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/


.... Ben Myers
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