Simple way to play a DVD over my LAN?

[turnstyle]

Hi all,

I have a "slim" laptop that doesn't have a DVD drive, but I'd like to be able to play DVDs (without use of a USB drive).

I had been hoping that I could simply put the DVD into the DVD drive on another PC on the LAN, and then share that drive, and play it from there -- but I now gather that isn't really possible?

On the other hand, the new Mac Air seems to be able to do just that (see Remote Disc).

So, my preference is to do something like Remote Disc, but over a Windows network -- but if that's not possible, what's the next best (simple) way to do it?

The only thing I have working is if I first rip the DVD -- but that's a lot to do each time I want to play one. (and I don't see much need in keeping copies of the DVDs)

MANY THANKS! -Scott

[VLC_help]

Remote Disc doesn't support commercial DVD either =) AnyDVD and sharing DVD drive might work. I haven't tested it.

[turnstyle]

I downloaded AnyDVD onto the PC with the DVD drive, but that didn't seem to help.

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do in AnyDVD -- is the idea that I just install it, and it automatically makes a protected DVD behave as an unprotected DVD?

Should I do anything more?

If you have a sec to try, I'd love to hear how it goes -- I just want to be able to play my DVD over my home network in a simple way, I appreciate your help!

-Scott

[VLC_help]

is the idea that I just install it, and it automatically makes a protected DVD behave as an unprotected DVD?

Yes.

After that share DVD drive to network and on playback computer mount it to system (aka assign drive letter for it). Then File -> Open Disc... and to Device name change the letter of network shared file.

[turnstyle]

I haven't had luck with this yet -- if you (or anybody else here) has a chance to give it a try, I'd love to hear what happens. All you need is 2 PCs on a local network, and then:

1) on PC-1 (with an optical drive and AnyDVD installed), insert a regular protected DVD

2) set the DVD drive as a network share

3) on PC-2, map the share to a drive letter, and use your DVD player app to play from that mapped drive.

With more devices like the Mac Air and similar PC-based portables, it's very useful to simply be able to play a DVD over the network (without having to first rip the whole DVD to the hard drive).

Thanks again for the comments! -Scott

[turnstyle]

I retract my previous post -- it seems AnyDVD did do the trick, thanks again for the tip.

I then went to pay for my copy, but it also turned out that AnyDVD is rather expensive from the US (it's priced at $49 Euros, which comes out to about $75 US).

I then discovered DVD43 which also seems to do the same trick -- it doesn't seem quite as nice as AnyDVD, but it is free (as in beer -- btw, I'm not at all against paying for software, but $75 seems like a lot to me).

So, I'll see how DVD43 does, and I can switch over to AnyDVD if I need to.

Thanks again! -Scott