Dave's Portable Computer Information Site ~ Dell I7K DVD List

In private correspondence, Dell has attributed certain compatibility troubles to the still maturing DVD technology. This may have a certain credibility, as evidenced by the problems with error correction, the first home DVD players displayed. As the error correction algorithms improved with later generation machines, incompatibility problems were greatly reduced. However, specific DVD/specific home DVD player issues still exist. An excellent “Glitch list” may be found at www.dvdresource.com. I suspect that as the notebook DVD player hardware decoders improve, the current incompatibilities will also diminish.

In addition, certain reported problems, really aren’t problems at all. A common complaint is that certain movies have horizontal black bars on the sides of the picture when played. This can be normal, depending on what particular aspect ratio your movie was filmed in and whether or not the film is anamorphic (enhanced for widescreen viewing). To be certain, simply measure the image you see and compare the aspect ratio on your screen with the advertised aspect ratio for the movie. For a discussion on this issue, see www.dvdresource.com Other problems have work arounds, which are listed below, and are usually due to the non-standard menu systems produced by the studios themselves.

Finally, problems do exist with users who use autoplay, stop, start, pause, or otherwise manipulate the movie as it is showing. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no standardized workaround for these events at the time of this writing. I respectfully suggest that you disable autoplay on your DVD to avoid some of the problems.

With all that, it is heartening to note that the vast majority of DVD's seem to work pretty well with the current I7K hardware.

If you would like to contribute to this list, please send the information to the I7K DVD Movie List. Also, please be sure to watch the movie all the way through before submitting information, as some movies have problems only at specific points, for example, at the layer switch.

Many thanks to the myriad of I7K users who have contributed to the list. This list exists solely because of their gracious generosity. Thanks also to Dave Dykhuis for hosting the list.
Steven Go

This list is for the exclusive private use of Dell Inspiron 7000 owners. The content of the list was derived from postings on the DellTalk Web Forum, and by e-mail submissions. The author can not personally verify the accuracy of all of these reports. Therefore, the author specifically declines any and all responsibility of consequences to your laptop as a result of using any of the information contained in the list. No warranty is expressed or implied. Use of this information is solely at your own risk. All copyrighted names, trademarks, movies, and content are property of their respective copyright holders.

MOVIE TITLE	PROBLEM	WORK AROUND (if any)
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010
Air Force One
Amadeus
American Graffiti
Armitage III, Polymatrix
An American in Paris
Antz signature edition
Apollo 13
Apt Pupil
Armageddon
Art of Illusion, The
As Good as it Gets
Astronaut's Wife, The	Only works with PC Friendly and only by selecting one chapter at a time.
Austin Powers	Some users report stuttering titles
Avengers, The
Babe
Big Night
Black Stallion
Blade	Ron F. wrote: The Dell DVD player plays the movie fine, but when you access the Special Features (eg: trailers, extra footage, etc), the screen goes all blocky and green flecks pop up. Everything freezes, but at least you can still quit out of the DVD player. MS DVD Player works perfectly, but the transitions between the different interactive menu functions are separated by a 1 second black screen. Otherwise, plays great. PowerDVD plays everything perfectly, including Pan-Scan functions and all special feature menu transitions are perfect. Also, note that the sound menu will default to SurroundSound 2.0, even if you pick Dolby Surround 5.1 Channel mode. This happens in all the players - Dell, MS DVD, and PowerDVD. Weird. (Maybe your mileage may be different.)
Blade Runner--Director's Cut
Brazil
Bronx Tale, A
Bug's Life, A	A few folks have reported that it would not play at all, although many more folks have reported that it is the best playing DVD movie yet.	One person that was having trouble used the DVD Drivers from the Dell CD and it then played perfectly. In addition he used the Dell "Software" Player and it then played fine through the TV port. If using a Margi Card you try the latest Margi Player.
Bullets Over Broadway
Bullworth	Dies at 2 min. into chapter 9. Screen goes black when you press enter and then the DVD returns to the Copyright screen and freezes. ( this has been reported by several folks )
Caddyshack
Career Opportuities
Casablanca
City of Angels
ConAir
Contact
Crow, The
Dance with Me
Dangerous Beauty
Dark City
Das Boot- Director's cut
Dead Man Walking
Desperado
Die Hard	Error message in full screen mode	Do not switch to full screen mode until after the THX trailer is complete; Use MS Player
Die Hard 2	Error message in full screen mode	Do not switch to full screen mode until after the THX trailer is complete; Use Dell Player
Die Hard with a Vengeance	Error message in full screen mode	Do not switch to full screen mode until after the THX trailer is complete
Diva	Grainy, Out of sync in the beginning
Don Juan de Marco	Stuttering titles
Dr. Strangelove
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Dumb & Dumber
Dune
Eagles: Hell Freezes Over	Freezes with Luxsonor player	Use the ATI player
El Mariachi/Desperado Special Edition
Enemy of the State	I7K DVD can not read the disk. Works fine on unspecified "other brand computers".
English Patient, The
Ever After
Face Off
Fallen
Fargo
Fifth Element, The
Fisher King, The
Flash Gordon
For Richer or Poorer
Forbidden Planet, The
Four Weddings and a Funeral	Unspecified problem. Have received a report that it plays just fine from one reader.
Free Willy
Freshman, The
Fugitive, The
Gattaca
Get Shorty	A few pops
Ghost in the Shell
Gingerbread Man
Goldeneye
Goldfinger
Gone With The Wind
Good Will Hunting
Governess, The
Grumpy Old Men
Jackal, The
Happy Gilmore
Hard Way, The
Home Fries
Horse Whisperer
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
LA Confidential
Last Emporer, The
Last Tango in Paris
Lethel Weapon
Leviathan
Living out loud
Long Kiss Goodnight, The
Lost In Space
Man For All Seasons
Man in the Iron Mask, The
Man Who Knew Too Little, The
Manchurian Candidate
Manhatten Murder Mystery	A few pops
Mars Attacks!
Mary Poppins
Mask of Zoro
Matrix, The	Ron F. wrote: I've had The Matrix for several months now. It works fine, all except for the Start Menu of the movie. The sound seems muted and the mouse does not scroll though the options properly. Have to use the keypad, and even then it seems to select the option above the one you have chosen. This problem is worst with MS DVD player (Luxsonor decoder). With Cinemaster Qi (software-driven), the music is still muted, the mouse is still stuffed, but at least what you choose via the keypad works fine. Other than that, one of the best movies around. (Quality is not as good as Bug's Life, but then again, it wasn't 100% digital to begin with, was it?)
Meet Joe Black
Mercury Rising
Metropolis (Mandy Entertainment)
Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Miracles
My Fair Lady
Negotiator, The
Net, The
Nutcracker, The (Balanchine)
Nutty Professor, The
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Only You
Operation Condor	Unspecified problem
Opposite of Sex, The
Out of Sight
Palmetto
Pavarotti--the event
Pelican Brief, The
Pillow Book
Player, The
Playing God
Pleasantville
Police Story II (Chinese version)
Professional, The
Porky's
Project A & A2
Psycho
Raising Cain
Replacement Killers, The
Robocop (Criterion)
Riverdance	Only plays the first 15 minutes
Rock, The
Ronin		Works well with the MS player
Rush Hour	Unspecified problem
Scream
Seven Years in Tibet
Seventh Seal, The
Shawshank Redemption, The
Six Days, Seven Nights	Stuttering titles
Sleepless in Seattle
Snake Eyes
Sneakers	Won't play the movie at all. Stops after the FBI warning and won't go any further.	Works fine on a home Player.
South Park (Vol. 1,2,3)
Spanish Prisoner
Spartacus
Spawn Special Edition, animated	Freezes at random points in menu	Skip menu
Species II
Sphere
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country
Starship Troopers
Stepmom
Story of Us, The	Jitters after third chapter begins
Strangers on a Train
Stripes
Substitute, The
Sunset
Supercop
Swan Lake (Nureyev/Fonteyn)
Swimming With Sharks
Tequila Sunrise
Terminator 2
Thief	One reader reports that he can not get past the main menu
Three Tenors (all 3 concerts)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tombstone
Tomorrow Never Dies	Some users report stuttering titles
Top Gun
Total Recall
Truman Show, The	Difficult to get to play from menu	From a DVD List Reader: "Usually I can get it started, once it starts it stutters displaying the paramount screen. From the stutter on, the audio is delayed by almost 1 second. Rewinding the movie to the beginning resyncs the audio and it plays fine from then on."
True Lies
Turbulance
Twilight	Need MS beta player to play
US Marshals
Usual Suspects, The
Vampires
Victory
Waterboy, The
Wedding Singer, The
West Side Story
What Dreams May Come	Freezes at FBI warnig	Repetitive Starting/Stopping of the software player will eventually get you to main menu at which point the movie will play fine.
Who Am I? (Chinese version)	Unspecified problem
Who Am I? (US version)
Zero Effect