Playing a DVD on a Shared DVD drive?? How to??

[copiche]

Hello there,

I have 2 computers networked at home, 1 a laptop w/ a DVD drive and a desktop with just the CD rom drive.

I was wondering if it is possible to Share the DVD rom Drive in the Laptop and play the dvd movie in the Desktop computer.

I installed Power DVD on the desktop but when I go and look ( in the desktop computer ) for the Shared DVD drive in the laptop to play it in the desktop , it shows the Audio_ts and the Video_ts folders that the inserted dvd in the laptop has.

Theres too many files on the Video_ts folder and when I try to open ( I have tried them all) any of them with power dvd, it gives me an error that cannot be played.

Any one has an idea on how to work this out?
I know I could solve the problem buying a DVD rom drive and installing it in the desktop computer, but the challenge to solve this issue is what is buggin' me.

Thanks in advance!.

[SaSi]

First, welcome to the forum.

Now, with your challenge, with PowerDVD, you need to start PowerDVD, press the funny button that is third from top to the left of the jogdial button (the one with play, ff, rew, pause, etc), and from the popup menu that appears select "Open DVD File on Hard Disk Drive".

You then browse on the disks and go to the Video_TS directory. and select VIDEO_TS.IFO.

That's it.

The real challenge is whether your networked PCs provide enough bandwidth to play the DVD. The DVD needs approx. 9Mbps. A 10Mbit Ethernet provides a sustained bandwidth of less than 5Mbps. So, you need 100Mbit Ethernet to achieve what you want.

[copiche]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

The laptop w/ the dvd rom is connected to the network wirelessly using 802.11b which gives a connection of 11mbps.

Is that good enough?

[bugster]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

The laptop w/ the dvd rom is connected to the network wirelessly using 802.11b which gives a connection of 11mbps.

Is that good enough?

802.11b has a RAW data rate of 11Mbps. Even with a perfect signale you will be lucky to achieve an actual sustained transfer much above 5Mbps. This is unlikley to be sufficient for smooth error free DVD playing.

DVD-Rom drives can be had for as little as $25 these days. Why not just invest in one for the desktop?!

[ronnylov]

It is possible to use DVDShrink to copy the DVD to your second PC through the network. Then play the shrinked DVD from your local disc drive on the second PC.

[FT Shark]

yes

[SLICK RICK]

DVD-Rom drives can be had for as little as $25 these days. Why not just invest in one for the desktop?!

I was thinking the same thing.

SLICK RICK