Watching DVD’s is one of my favourite pastimes. Ever since portable players were introduced, I have thought how great it would be to have films, TV shows and even personal photographs to watch whenever you feel like it.
Needless to say, I have never actually bought one of these players so I am now taking the opportunity to enjoy this feature while I have the U6.
I tend to fall asleep around halfway through most films, not because they’re boring but because I’m in the habit of watching them late at night so one feature I’ll be looking for is whether the computer can save my place should I manage to close the lid or press pause before my eyelids get too heavy!
So here I am , DVD in hand, ready to be entertained – with a big bowl of popcorn of course.
Now where do I put the disc? A handy button on the right hand side pressed and the drawer/disc tray pops out. It looks a little flimsy with around a third of the plastic tray missing and it wobbles a bit when touched but slides in smoothly. I count ten seconds before a window pops up asking me what to do with the disc (this increases to 14 when using the internet). I’m given two options of different programs to play DVD with or a generic ‘open folder’ option.
I choose Windows Media Player and am pleased to see it almost immediately switch to full screen. However, it has black space down either side so I’m not sure how to get widescreen settings. The sound is a little bit tinny and could be improved on – I think the main speaker is at the front side which I feel could be better placed. The picture is a little blurred also but this seems to depend on getting exactly the right angle between the screen and viewers eyes, something which is made harder by a viewing companion.
I decide to take a look under the volume settings to see if sound can be improved upon. I choose playback devices and see three listings – NVIDIA HDMI output (not plugged in); Speakers; and Realtek digital output. I clicked the properties on each in turn and chose (don’t ask why, my curiosity got the better of me!) the ‘disable’ option. Nothing happened so I continued to watch my DVD.
The DVD was quite noisy when it started loading which could be a minor inconvenience in public or any other time you don’t want to disturb those around you – for example, if your partner is asleep.
I shut the laptop’s lid forcing the computer into standby and when I opened it was pleased to see the DVD still showing. However, it had skipped back several (about 3-4) minutes.
The arrow keys double up as the players controls when holding the function key – particularly useful when using the full screen mode and continuation is seamless when play is resumed. The volume keys are situated at the top of the keyboard under F10-F12, perhaps they could be better placed closer to the others.
I pressed play and there was no sound – I had muted Family Guy!
I looked back to the playback sound panel I’d used earlier and they had disappeared – Realtek and the speaker!! ‘Oh no, what have I done!’
To be continued…
