veryOT: can I read DVD thru Remote Desktop?

FuTz wrote on 3/2/2006, 7:52 AM
I got two computers in a home network
On my "main" one, I can access to the "second" one thru Remote Desktop.
My problem is that I want to be able to read a DVD (a rented movie, that is) with either Nero ShowTime or Intervideo WinDVD but it will not work.
Nero tells me I have to activate DirectDraw (in DirectX settings) to do so but I don't have access to DirectDraw, which seems to be disabled by default.
WinDVD simply activates my DVD player but won't read the movie.

Is it possible to activate a DVD player when using Remote Desktop (win XP) ? I guess I'm cooked, huh? I'll have to set two separate computers to be able to do so?
I like my setup since I can use two monitors with Vegas on my "main" computer, therefore needing Remote Desktop to run my "second" (internet access) one...

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 3/2/2006, 8:01 AM
Remote Desktop, or NetMeeting, or PCAnywhere, or GoToMyPC or any of these others actually takes each screen of bits and sends it remotely. Even on a fast connection, like a LAN, the very nature of this kind of sharing makes it totally impossible to refresh a remote screen 30 times a second. The bandwidth is about 100-1000 times too slow. It just plain can't work.

If you want to watch a movie remotely, then on the remote PC, share the drive or folder that contains the movie files. Then, just fire up WinDVD (or whatever) on the remote PC, point to the files on the remote computer, and watch your movie. THAT will work, assuming your LAN is reasonably fast and not too busy.
RBartlett wrote on 3/2/2006, 8:48 AM
Two (or three ;-) ) other tacks on this:

You can access a remote DVD device as if it were local using one of a couple of remote tools (google for "iSCSI target", but unless you VMWare a linux machine on the remote end - expect to pay for such a utility/driver). That will allow you to run a local copy of WinDVD and access and un-encrypt the remote rental DVD which would be the main obstacle of trying to do this by a shared directory/container alone. Even if you have an IDE or SATA DVD-ROM driver, the iSCSI protocol can be put to work for raw access of the drive just above that of the "formatting layer".

Alternatively use a VGA-TV-out or a SigmaDesigns MPEG/DVD decoder with composite outputs and run this across the home like you might for ethernet (either via a cable or a video sender, as per ethernet UTP/WiFi). Run this into a TV-card and control the session remotely via RDP etc.

The only other choice is to install a driver that allows you to see or modify the DVD-Video access mode of the DVD player so that you can share a DVD-Video protected disc over a network. However such drivers are the subject of controversy and are illegal in some territories. Even with a valid requirement like your own.

RDP was developed with multimedia in mind - but you'll likely be over doing the CPU requirements at the other end. It has to decode, uncompress, display locally, compress-for-remote, network for remote as well as keep the rest of the desktop representative. If you remove the acceleration on your video subsystem (control panel or WMP settings) - then you might get more than a black window. But you probably won't like how smooth it isn't. ;-)
riredale wrote on 3/2/2006, 7:06 PM
Do this: hit the PrintScreen key and see if what's copied to your clipboard can "see" the video. I suspect that there will be a black hole in the WinDVD window, because the pixels inside are generated by a different process than the rest of the desktop. If so, then I suspect your remote app also won't be able to see inside that hole. Even if it could, it would probably have a tough time keeping up with the video.

What about this--buy a Slingbox for $200, which allows you to watch TV via your remote computer. I've never seen one in use, but lots of people are raving about this technology (i.e. guy on a trip to Singapore can watch his local basketball team playoff on his TV at home using his laptop and a broadband connection).
J_Mac wrote on 3/3/2006, 7:09 AM
Or run both monitors through a KVM switch and you can switch both displays from one PC to another. John
richard-courtney wrote on 3/3/2006, 2:12 PM
Try VLC from Videolan.org. (and it is free)

Streams video from vob file but not the disk. Within the home ok, but
from home to work will most likely not have enough bandwidth.
FuTz wrote on 3/4/2006, 6:48 AM
johnmeyer, that's exactly what I was trying to do but the bottom line is that it seems to be asking too much on my bandwith...
The KVM switch is a nice option though. I'd have to find one that shares both monitors and keyboard/mouse devices between the computers.
I'll have a look at VLC too... ;)
Thanks everyone!