Invisible wrote:
> 
> I have yet to see anybody have a need to show a DVD in a meeting. It's
> much more usual to need to show PowerPoint, or some WMA-encoded file on
> the file server / intranet, or a VNC/RDP session or something like than
> than a plain ordinary DVD.

Yes, that certainly is more usual. But it's not rare that at my work
people are eg. showing commercials from a DVD. At paragliding course we
watched educational DVD.

> Also, I would imagine most companies have lots of laptops around the
> place, but approximately 0 DVD-players.

That's also possible. Not us, though. If you need a laptop, your
superior has to explain why you need one, after that IT department
orders it.

> But sure, in principle, if showing a DVD is what you actually want to
> do, a DVD player is, sockingly, the most efficient way to do this.

Yep. It just seems that nobody thinks of it, if you're showing the DVD
off with a projector. If you hook it to TV, people think DVD -player and
don't even realize that laptop can be hooked on TV.

> Unless you have my mum's DVD player. In that case, using a light
> microscope to transcribe the pits and flats by hand and perform the DCT
> with pencil and paper would be far, far faster than waiting for the
> player to start up. :-P

Why yes, it's a HiFi-model, it needs to warm up first to make sure the
picture won't have 7th harmonics on the signal!

-Aero

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>> I have yet to see anybody have a need to show a DVD in a meeting. It's
>> much more usual to need to show PowerPoint, or some WMA-encoded file on
>> the file server / intranet, or a VNC/RDP session or something like than
>> than a plain ordinary DVD.
> 
> Yes, that certainly is more usual. But it's not rare that at my work
> people are eg. showing commercials from a DVD. At paragliding course we
> watched educational DVD.

OK, fair enough then.

> Yep. It just seems that nobody thinks of it, if you're showing the DVD
> off with a projector. If you hook it to TV, people think DVD -player and
> don't even realize that laptop can be hooked on TV.

I think that's just it: People think you can only connect computers to a 
computer projector, and only video equipment to a TV.

>> Unless you have my mum's DVD player.
> 
> Why yes, it's a HiFi-model, it needs to warm up first to make sure the
> picture won't have 7th harmonics on the signal!

...it's HDMI? :-P

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>> Maybe because most companies have tons of laptops lying around, but very
>> few (if any) DVD players.
>
> I don't think so. Even our paragliding teacher first asked for a laptop,
> even though he has a fully equipped home theater and he doesn't work for
> a big company.

Again, they are probably just expecting that it is more likely you carry 
around or have available a laptop rather than a stand-alone DVD player. 
Stand alone DVD players tend to be wired in to systems and not easily 
portable, whereas laptops are designed to be portable.

> Pretty many projectors, especially the meeting room models
> have more decent audio equipment themselves.

Oh I didn't realise that, most of ours that are remaining (they are 
replacing them all with big TVs now) are fixed to the ceiling and have the 
SVGA cable routed somewhere that pops up on the table.  Connecting up 3.5mm 
stereo audio or some cable from a DVD player is going to be tricky.

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scott wrote:

> Oh I didn't realise that, most of ours that are remaining (they are 
> replacing them all with big TVs now) are fixed to the ceiling and have 
> the SVGA cable routed somewhere that pops up on the table.  Connecting 
> up 3.5mm stereo audio or some cable from a DVD player is going to be 
> tricky.

I could fancy some of that... How much does it cost to buy a decent 
ceiling-mounted projector these days?

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> I could fancy some of that... How much does it cost to buy a decent 
> ceiling-mounted projector these days?

Dunno, our old ones are huge monsters that look like they have come from the 
80s.  I bought a portable desk-mount one a while back to take to customer 
meetings and was really impressed how it knocked the socks off our old huge 
beasts.  It was around 1000 euro IIRC, from NEC.  But saying that we just 
got a 52" TV for our meeting room for about the same price and it means you 
don't have to close the blinds when it's sunny to see anything, nor is there 
is loud hum from a fan right above your head.  FOr a small to medium sized 
meeting room it's perfect, but for anything larger you'd want a beefier 
projector I would imagine which is going to cost a lot more.

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scott wrote:
>> I could fancy some of that... How much does it cost to buy a decent 
>> ceiling-mounted projector these days?
> 
> Dunno, our old ones are huge monsters that look like they have come from 
> the 80s.  I bought a portable desk-mount one a while back to take to 
> customer meetings and was really impressed how it knocked the socks off 
> our old huge beasts.  It was around 1000 euro IIRC, from NEC.  But 
> saying that we just got a 52" TV for our meeting room for about the same 
> price and it means you don't have to close the blinds when it's sunny to 
> see anything, nor is there is loud hum from a fan right above your 
> head.  FOr a small to medium sized meeting room it's perfect, but for 
> anything larger you'd want a beefier projector I would imagine which is 
> going to cost a lot more.

Our projector is... shagged. It leans to one side, it's never ever in 
focus properly, it's not very bright, you have to repeatedly press the 
resync button to get the whole picture in shot, and it sounds like a 
coffee grinder.

I really want to replace it with something better... but I suspect I'll 
never get authorisation to spend the money. :-(

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> I really want to replace it with something better... but I suspect I'll 
> never get authorisation to spend the money. :-(

Just make sure that one day it stops working completely... You could use a 
BOFH-approved mains AC plug to 15-pin SVGA converter cable :-)

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scott wrote:
>> I really want to replace it with something better... but I suspect 
>> I'll never get authorisation to spend the money. :-(
> 
> Just make sure that one day it stops working completely... You could use 
> a BOFH-approved mains AC plug to 15-pin SVGA converter cable :-)

Maybe I should just switch it from 240V to 110V? >:-)

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On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:03:08 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> scott wrote:
> 
>> Oh I didn't realise that, most of ours that are remaining (they are
>> replacing them all with big TVs now) are fixed to the ceiling and have
>> the SVGA cable routed somewhere that pops up on the table.  Connecting
>> up 3.5mm stereo audio or some cable from a DVD player is going to be
>> tricky.
> 
> I could fancy some of that... How much does it cost to buy a decent
> ceiling-mounted projector these days?

I bought one in December (the Mitsubishi HC5500), with the ceiling mount 
and screen it ran about $2K.  It was a special bundle deal (and there was 
a rebate), but that should give you a good ballpark.

It throws a 106" image, really nice for the home theatre.  I do have a 
technical issue that I need to call Mitsu about, though, periodically I 
can't turn the projector on without unplugging it.  Which is a pain for a 
ceiling mounted projector.

Jim

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Invisible wrote:

>>> Unless you have my mum's DVD player.
>>
>> Why yes, it's a HiFi-model, it needs to warm up first to make sure the
>> picture won't have 7th harmonics on the signal!
> 
> ...it's HDMI? :-P

Well, you sure don't want to have negative bits or anything on HDMI
interface!

My DVD-player has HDMI and upscaling to 720p. It's also free of area
codes and it gives really nice image even on S-video (my projector and
amplifier doesn't have HDMI) and cost me about 200 euros couple of years
ago. And it boots in couple of seconds.

-Aero

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