Playing DVDs

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bromleybysea

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I have a Thinkpad x60 as the boat's dedicated computer and it's great for most of my on-board computing needs, except that it will not play the dialogue track on DVDs of recent films. It's fine playing old films, but with modern ones with a choice of language, I only get the backgroud sound track- so in the case of a western the horses and gunfights are fine but I can't get any dialogue. I have searched for a solution to this problem with no result and I'm assuming now it may be that the sound card in the computer is not up to the job. Any comments of even better, suggested fixes would be welcome.
 
download a video player

bromleybysea said:
I have a Thinkpad x60 as the boat's dedicated computer and it's great for most of my on-board computing needs, except that it will not play the dialogue track on DVDs of recent films. It's fine playing old films, but with modern ones with a choice of language, I only get the backgroud sound track- so in the case of a western the horses and gunfights are fine but I can't get any dialogue. I have searched for a solution to this problem with no result and I'm assuming now it may be that the sound card in the computer is not up to the job. Any comments of even better, suggested fixes would be welcome.
Click to expand...

download a separate video player

videolan is free and brilliant

Dylan
 
What player are you using? I get similar at home when I'm playing some .vob files (basically DVD files) using VLC Media Player where I just get sound effects but the files play fine with Windows Media Player Classic. Try downloading a different player... the problem probably lies somewhere with the codecs but I'm no expert with them - someone will be along shortly who probably is.
 
bromleybysea said:
I have a Thinkpad x60 as the boat's dedicated computer and it's great for most of my on-board computing needs, except that it will not play the dialogue track on DVDs of recent films. It's fine playing old films, but with modern ones with a choice of language, I only get the backgroud sound track- so in the case of a western the horses and gunfights are fine but I can't get any dialogue. I have searched for a solution to this problem with no result and I'm assuming now it may be that the sound card in the computer is not up to the job. Any comments of even better, suggested fixes would be welcome.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you're listening to the surround sound effects track rather than the stereo track. Use VLC and select the correct Audio track. Don't bother with DiVX which is designed for MPEG4.
 
st599 said:
It sounds like you're listening to the surround sound effects track rather than the stereo track. Use VLC and select the correct Audio track. Don't bother with DiVX which is designed for MPEG4.
Click to expand...

If I'm right, I think he may mean the commentary...

Anyhow, there are very few players that won't switch the audio stream, and most will use the key combination ctrl+A to switch tracks.

If not VLC is about the best especially as it will skip the forced trailers and commercials at the beginning of commercial DVDs.
 
VLC + 1

Agree with VLC as the player - hard to beat it and it'll play almost everything without fuss.
I was having all sorts of playback problems until I installed VLC.

I've recently taken the decision to "RingFence" the navigation laptop. No connection to internet or any other software other than OpenCPN.
Bought a little HP netbook for £120 on eBay for MS Office work, films, email & surfing etc.
OpenCpn loaded on it as well just as a belt & Braces backup
 
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If the suggestions of others do not solve your problem then I suggest that you install the K-Lite codec pack found at http://www.codecguide.com/ . Doing so will ensure that all needed codecs are installed on your PC.

It is a reliable site and installation which we have used for many years with no problems at all. Just follow the installation instructions carefully in case (like many sites, but can't remember if this one actually does) it offers to install other freebees which you don't really need. Just go for the default installation.
 
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