Playing movies

[Lizard]

My LG DVD recorder is fine to record programmes and watch them later. I never copy them to DVD. But when I play bought DVDs in it they sometimes stick or won't play. Possibly dirty head on player? They play fine on my computer. Would I be able to run a cable from my desktop computer to the TV and play the DVDs from the DVD drive on my computer onto the TV monitor? They are about 12 metres apart so I would need a long cable.
Advice or suggestions please.

 

[Sydwayz]

Buy a new DVD player or maybe upgrade to a Blu Ray player.

 

[howardb]

LG's are notorious for the optical units giving problems - I've been through umpteen replacement optical units over the last 5 years om my LG RH-1999H. What model do you have?

You can try cleaning the laser unit, but I honestly doubt it will help - the best option would be to call LG and get a replacement optical drive unit (was about R650 + VAT the last time I bought in mid 2011), then replace it yourself - really easy to do; case cover off, 4 screws to detach the old optical unit, unplug the flat connector, remove the old unit - fitting the new unit is the reverse procedure...

If your PC graphics card has either a TV-out, DVI-out or HDMI-out, then you should be able to connect your PC to the TV and watch the DVD. 12 meters is a fairly long stretch, but should be fine over HDMI. Another option is the VGA cable, although this won't give you true DVD quality to the TV.

What ports/connectors/inputs does your PC graphics card and TV have?

 

[louisek]

IMO laser-based players are the cheapest of all components and are guaranteed to fail the quickest. My only criteria in buying a DVD writer is that it has a long guarantee

 

[Grant]

I have 2 lg hdd dvd recorders. The optical drive on the 1 unit started playing up.
Lg wanted about R650 for a new optical drive which i found outlandish.
I picked up a used fully working lg dvd recorder for R200, swapped over optical drives and all is well now.

 

[sajunky]

IMO laser-based players are the cheapest of all components and are guaranteed to fail the quickest. My only criteria in buying a DVD writer is that it has a long guarantee

R650 is not cheap, but some standard PC DVD writers (circa R150) will work, from what I have heard.

 

[Grant]

R650 is not cheap, but some standard PC DVD writers (circa R150) will work, from what I have heard.

true. I tried a stock standard samsung & it worked fine for playback - did not try recording tho.
However the standard drives do not fit. The original drive is about 1cm shorter.