Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 11:00:48PM +, Natalie S. Ford said: i am sure that muttley can explain further, but a scart cable upgrade should sort you out, dave. unlurk from down under As mentioned ad nauseaum ever since the release of the lifestyle accesory masquerading as a console /troll ;) the DVD player in the PS2 is shit. IIRC it's not one of the normal mechanisms used by Sony in their fine consumer DVDs but, instead, one optimized for games i.e lots of random access and various other gamy things. It's one of the reasons why DVD isn't actually the best medium for games and *one* of the reasons Sega went with the propietary GD-ROM format. That said, by getting the DVD upgrade, if you haven't already (it takes up about 4-8mb on the VMU IIRC), then the quality does improve. You can either by it with the little remote control or I could probably source you a temporary copy on return to Blighty. Even still there was fair uproar in Japan when PS2s were found incapable of playing some very popular DVD, possibly the Mononoke or Spirited Away or something. There were problems with the Scart cables of PS2s resulting in excessive greenness of pictures, and this could be fixed by using composite or getting a better scart cable. It doesn't sound like your problem though. TBH, I'd just by a cheapo DVD player or something especially since then you could get a region free one. Tescos at one point were doing a Wharfdale for a hundred quid that got good reviews from What-DVD and had the bonus of allowing you to set the region using handset codes. alternatively, use your laptop as a dvd drive and plug it in to your tv? Quick question - recently, whilst trying to watch a DVD on a laptop (a lateish model Vaio) on the TV via composite out (little yellow headphone jack sized female socket?) we'd get a sharp picture of the desktop but a black rectangle where the DVD was playing. This was in Windows media Player and some proprietary DVD app so I presume it was a codec issue. I saw mention of 'overlay' or something but turning off various options to do with that gave no joy. Any ideas? Simon
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
Simon Wistow said: Quick question - recently, whilst trying to watch a DVD on a laptop (a lateish model Vaio) on the TV via composite out (little yellow headphone jack sized female socket?) we'd get a sharp picture of the desktop but a black rectangle where the DVD was playing. This was in Windows media Player and some proprietary DVD app so I presume it was a codec issue. I saw mention of 'overlay' or something but turning off various options to do with that gave no joy. ok, quick explanation of video hardware and full-motion video. since i'm lazy, some of this is just copy and pasted in :) Video Overlay allows for the viewing of full-motion video on your computer. However, there is only one video overlay in hardware. For display arrangements consisting of a primary and a clone, the video overlay is only available on the primary display. (For extended desktop arrangements, the video overlay will be visible across all displays.) now that's for ati graphics cards, but the principles are the same everywhere. if you have two displays connected, you can extend the desktop across them, or have the same stuff displayed on both displays. if you do that, you can have one of them as primary, and one as clone (either way round) or you can have both of them primary (whether that works everywhere i don't know, but i can do it on mine). i never bother with that myself, as tends to cause some jumping on divx playback that i don't normally get. when you play dvd's or divx's, etc, the picture only displays on the primary display. on the clone you get everything but the playback area which just displays as a black box. now how you actually set which display is primary and which clone is dependent on your what graphics card/chipset you have so i'm afraid i can't help there. Jody
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Jody Belka wrote: Simon Wistow said: Quick question - recently, whilst trying to watch a DVD on a laptop (a lateish model Vaio) on the TV via composite out (little yellow headphone jack sized female socket?) we'd get a sharp picture of the desktop but a black rectangle where the DVD was playing. This was in Windows media Player and some proprietary DVD app so I presume it was a codec issue. I saw mention of 'overlay' or something but turning off various options to do with that gave no joy. ok, quick explanation of video hardware and full-motion video. since i'm lazy, some of this is just copy and pasted in :) snip now how you actually set which display is primary and which clone is dependent on your what graphics card/chipset you have so i'm afraid i can't help there. delurk It's Fn-F8 on my Vaio laptop (FX804), and it plays DVDs a treat (using WinDVD which was bundled with the machine). I'm not aware of any primary/n-ary display issue, as only one display can be active at once. That said, I've had the same problem with TV out on a desktop machine with a GeForce 3 card before, but it was intermittent and not reproducible. As usual with Gatesware, a reboot did the trick. Grr. Ant
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Wednesday 08 January 2003 23:50, David Cantrell wrote: On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 11:00:48PM +, Natalie S. Ford wrote: um, i think it is the scart cable supplied with the ps2, not the drive - it is the same drive in the ps2 as is installed in many laptops. i am sure that muttley can explain further, but a scart cable upgrade should sort you out, dave. Nah, nothing to do with that. All the cable does is carry the video and sound signal from the PS2 to the telly. A bad cable may cause the signal coming out the other end to be crap quality, but it won't make the disk skip or fail to read. no no .. you'll be amazed at the difference ..( and they are called 'interconnects', not 'cable') ... here, buy this one, it has gold plated connectors, oxygen-free copper conductors, with mono-crystal cores, of course you have to connect it the right way round or it sounds *awful* ... a snip at £360. I don't suppose I can sell you a special green pen to colour the edges of your CD with to make them sound better while I'm at it? ( I havent looked in years, but I assume the hi-fi (HA!) mags sell such nonsense still?) -- Robin Szemeti
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Thursday 09 January 2003 11:18, Roger Burton West wrote: On Thu, Jan 09, 2003 at 10:17:56AM +, robin szemeti wrote: ( I havent looked in years, but I assume the hi-fi (HA!) mags sell such nonsense still?) http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/tweaks/cablelifts.html http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/tweaks/powercord.html http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/tweaks/omegamikro.html Truly stunning. I am always amazed at the things you can sell to morons who have money. Anyway .. must go .. got to get the first batch of sound-improving coloured stickers sold :) -- Robin Szemeti
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 12:38:28AM +, Marna Gilligan wrote: On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Dave Cross wrote: So it seems that the problem is not with the DVDs I buy, but with my PS2's ability to play slightly sub-standard discs. We use the PS2 as a games thingumie and MP3 server/ new Buffums watching machine so I've not actually tried it as a DVD player much. WE already had one. I use my PS2 as a DVD player, and haven't had any problems at all. The OP said he'd had problems with a Buffy disk, but I've got all of 'em and they all work fine. So do other recent disks like the LotR:FotR extended version. I know that there have been PS2 firmware updates specifically to address issues with DVD playback, so maybe you have an older machine with the old firmware. I believe you can get update disks from Sony. -- Grand Inquisitor Reverend David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david Educating this luser would be something to frustrate even the unflappable Yoda and make him jam a lightsaber up his arse while screaming praise evil, the Dark Side is your friend!. -- Derek Balling, in the Monastery
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
- Original Message - From: Marna Gilligan [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 08 January 2003 00:38 Subject: Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Dave Cross wrote: So it seems that the problem is not with the DVDs I buy, but with my PS2's ability to play slightly sub-standard discs. If you're hunting for a cheap player I'd recommend one of the Cyberhome ones - I got one for my family just over a year ago and it does everything I'd recommend a nice new X-Box which is only about £160 including 2 games, or £180 including 3 games, one of which is Halo, which is fantastic. Plays DVDs, and also stores digital music off your CDs on it's 8Gb hard drive so is a sort of MP3 (WMA) player too. And if you never do anything else with it, this will probably lose Microsoft money to boot :-) /Robert
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
From: David Cantrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 1/8/03 9:18:40 AM On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 12:38:28AM +, Marna Gilligan wrote: On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Dave Cross wrote: So it seems that the problem is not with the DVDs I buy, but with my PS2's ability to play slightly sub-standard discs. We use the PS2 as a games thingumie and MP3 server/ new Buffums watching machine so I've not actually tried it as a DVD player much. WE already had one. I use my PS2 as a DVD player, and haven't had any problems at all. The OP said he'd had problems with a Buffy disk, but I've got all of 'em and they all work fine. So do other recent disks like the LotR:FotR extended version. The problem seems to be with mass-produced DVDs that I buy close to release (when you'd expect quality to be low). The specific disk I had problems with was disk one of Buffy season 2. I've also recently had problems with Minority Report. The PS2 can't read the data for much of the second half of the film. I know that there have been PS2 firmware updates specifically to address issues with DVD playback, so maybe you have an older machine with the old firmware. I believe you can get update disks from Sony. Aha. This is the kind of information that I was looking for. I'll investigate further. Thanks, Dave... -- http://www.dave.org.uk Let me see you make decisions, without your television - Depeche Mode (Stripped)
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
* at 07/01 20:48 + Dave Cross said: So it seems that the problem is not with the DVDs I buy, but with my PS2's ability to play slightly sub-standard discs. Has anyone heard this about PS2s? Is it a known fault? Is there a way to fix it? $flatmates PS2 and the one that Sony replaced it with after he complained both did this as well as the sound/picture going out of sync so I think you could class it as a known fault. Or at least not a one off. s
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
Both PS2 and PC-based DVD playback crop up regularly in problem emails sent to my company (we rent DVDs) normal DVD players almost never (except regarding region encoding). My advice is to get a dedicated player. glyn So it seems that the problem is not with the DVDs I buy, but with my PS2's ability to play slightly sub-standard discs. Has anyone heard this about PS2s? Is it a known fault? Is there a way to fix it
RE: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
-Original Message- From: Dave Cross [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] That being the case, please feel free to recommend cheap DVD players to me. This is probably asking for trouble on a unixey list, and especially to a PS2 owner, but you might like to consider an XBox. You can get them new for £150 (+ £30 for DVD kit), which would probably include a couple of games too. /me runs for cover. Peter
RE: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
I was bought a PS2 for christmas and have had no problems so far with any DVD's. Also I watched Minority Report at the weekend and had no troubles , so I think it might just be the age of your console and the firmware with it.
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 03:19:40PM -, Stuart Honeysett wrote: Also I watched Minority Report at the weekend and had no troubles , so I think it might just be the age of your console and the firmware with it. The strangest thing in this thread is that anyone, having watched it, would actually want to buy the DVD of Minority Report :-) Paul -- Paul Makepeace ... http://paulm.com/ If a thousand rose petals were to fall upon your perfect nudity, then surrealists would rule the world ! -- http://paulm.com/toys/surrealism/
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 11:51:02PM +, robin szemeti wrote: goodness ... so it looks like the DVD drive fitted to your multi-thousand pound laptop is of better quality than the one in the mass-market, cost cut to the bone, 200 quid PS2 how very odd :) um, i think it is the scart cable supplied with the ps2, not the drive - it is the same drive in the ps2 as is installed in many laptops. i am sure that muttley can explain further, but a scart cable upgrade should sort you out, dave. keep the one that came with the ps2 for games, though. ok, switching the cables might be a pain, but a scart cable (i can't remember the details of what you need to buy) is probably cheaper than a dvd player. alternatively, use your laptop as a dvd drive and plug it in to your tv? ;-) -- Natalie S. Ford . [EMAIL PROTECTED] . http://www.natalie.ourshack.org
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 11:00:48PM +, Natalie S. Ford wrote: um, i think it is the scart cable supplied with the ps2, not the drive - it is the same drive in the ps2 as is installed in many laptops. i am sure that muttley can explain further, but a scart cable upgrade should sort you out, dave. Nah, nothing to do with that. All the cable does is carry the video and sound signal from the PS2 to the telly. A bad cable may cause the signal coming out the other end to be crap quality, but it won't make the disk skip or fail to read. -- Lord Protector David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david We must get users past their misunderstandings of uptime. A reboot doesn't mean that anything broke, there is no hardware or software corrective action taken, so there wasn't any real downtime. -- overheard in an MS strategy meeting
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Dave Cross wrote: That being the case, please feel free to recommend cheap DVD players to me. Scan(.co.uk)s standard 100-ish quid model always seems to be well loved, all of the geeky hackery options that you may not get on other cheap dvd players (audio and video output options, multiregionability, random other guff that you may care about) Seems they're sold out until jan 22nd though. the hatter
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Tuesday 07 January 2003 20:48, Dave Cross wrote: I tried the disc in the DVD drive in my laptop. And it worked perfectly. I then tried a couple of other discs that I've had trouble with and they worked perfectly too. goodness ... so it looks like the DVD drive fitted to your multi-thousand pound laptop is of better quality than the one in the mass-market, cost cut to the bone, 200 quid PS2 how very odd :) -- Robin Szemeti
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, robin szemeti wrote:
On Tuesday 07 January 2003 20:48, Dave Cross wrote:
I
tried the disc in the DVD drive in my laptop. And it worked perfectly.
I then tried a couple of other discs that I've had trouble with and they
worked perfectly too.
goodness ... so it looks like the DVD drive fitted to your multi-thousand
pound laptop is of better quality than the one in the mass-market, cost cut
to the bone, 200 quid PS2 how very odd :)
They cost usd25 each. OK perhaps the PS2 one cost usd20. Isn't the PS/2
sold at a loss? Or is that the one that makes profit?
S.
--
Shevek
I am the Borg.
sub AUTOLOAD{my$i=$AUTOLOAD;my$x=shift;$i=~s/^.*://;print$x\n;eval
qq{*$AUTOLOAD=sub{my\$x=shift;return unless \$x%$i;{$x}(\$x);};};}
foreach my $i (3..65535) { {'2'}($i); }
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
goodness ... so it looks like the DVD drive fitted to your multi-thousand pound laptop is of better quality than the one in the mass-market, cost cut to the bone, 200 quid PS2 how very odd :) I don't know to what extent Sony has ever marketed their PS/2 as being a suitable DVD player, but it's been well-known over here since it came out that only fairly basic DVDs will play reliably. Randy -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.rjray.org http://www.svsm.org Any spammers auto-extracting addresses from this message will definitely want to include [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [OT] Playstation2 as DVD Player
Dave Cross said: That being the case, please feel free to recommend cheap DVD players to me. well, if i was to buy low-end at the moment, i'd probably go for the mico clasica 20, available in sainsbury's. as an alternative, i might consider the cyber home AD-L528. wouldn't get the AD-M212, however. i'm afriad those are the best suggestions i've got off the top of my head. when i replaced my first dvd player last year, i went for something just a /bit/ more expensive. Jody
