Laptop DVD Question

[Albinoni]

I have a Gateway notebook PC with a DVD ROM drive inside. Ok, the DVD-ROM drive works flawlessly and have had no problems with it what so ever, will occasionally sit back and watch a DVD. To play a DVD I go to Start, Programs then DVD Play, and from here the DVD Player window will open up with the required play tools etc to play the DVD.

Now recently I put in a VCD disc (as DVD players are backwards compatible), then when to Start, Programs then DVD Play, and it did not even recognise it, boy was I mad. Got a message saying "Make sure there is a DVD Disc in the drive". My laptop having a DVD drive is definately compatible with VCD and other format playback systems.

Also the software for the DVD is by C-Cube, but does anybody know how to get to their website.

[cfitz]

That would have been www.c-cube.com , but you won't find anything there anymore, since LSI Logic ( www.lsilogic.com ) bought out C-Cube in June 2001. You can search around the LSI Logic site to see if you find anything, but I doubt you will have any luck. LSI Logic is a chip maker and sells to other companies, not to consumers.

I don't know who wrote the C-Cube software DVD player to which you refer, nor do I know if it even supports VCD playback. DVD players are not in general "backward" compatible with VCD, particularly stand-alone home theater DVD players. However, most software players can handle both.

Your problem could be an issue with the particular VCD you are tyring to play, with the C-Cube player, or (highly unlikely) with the DVD-ROM drive itself. Download a trial copy of WinDVD 4 ( http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Home.jsp ) or PowerDVD XP 4.0 ( http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/index-2002-htm.jsp ) and see if you can play the VCD using one of those players, both of which will play VCD discs.

[boblx2]

Uhhh.... Don't be to sure about that backward compatibiity stuff. I have a spanking new IBM w/DVD player and it also will not recognize a VCD although it will play most DVD's just fine. My Panasonic DV-30 at home also will only play VCD's that are burned on R/W discs. There are usually lots of caveats in that "backware compatibility" stuff. One of the few drives that will play almost anything is the Apex AD-5131 and I am sure there are others but I have never heard of one in a laptop.

.........

[Albinoni]

Ok, I did finally do some homework and went through the instruction manual of my Gateway Laptop, refering to the article on the DVD ROM Drive.

It says it supports DVD, VIDEO CD (VCD), CD-I and CD-DA.

Also if I try and download another DVD software like Power DVD or Win DVD 4.0 will it still play on my system, or do I really need to use C-Cube ?

The problem could be with C-Cube software where it does not support the playback of VCD's.