DVD Woes

As used to problems as I have become over the months, it still unnerves me when something goes majorly wrong. It almost seems to be that when there are large amounts of equipment of various types involved, it is inevitable that things will malfunction. Some of these occurrences I have become used to, and take it very much in stride. Ellen, my engineer, was having trouble with the DVD copying system she uses, and as the show had progressed a few minutes into Franc Palaia's presentation of his wonderful polaroid photography of the Towers of Venice (Show # 56), I noticed that Ellen was writing something. At first I thought she was simply filling out a page in the book that records who uses the studio, but then she came towards us and slipped a piece of paper on the table which Franc read, and then passed along to me. One DVD player had failed to record, and the other looked to Ellen to possibly also be a problem. I indicate that I had my TV at home recording the show, so it didn't matter, as I would simply use that system to create the DVD of the show. On we went through a fascinating episode of Alan's Italy. When it appeared that we had finished a bit early, I asked Franc his impressions of the recent election in Italy. Franc is extremely knowledgeable about many things, but especially when there are occurrences in Italy. The short discussion we had was excellent, and coupled with the short piece we did at the start of the show about the new Pope, with his marvelous art, all in all it was a great evening for me (and I hope my audience). Ellen gave us the two DVD's and since I had to get home, left them conversing and left the studio.

We immediately left our house and didn't return for several hours. I tested the first DVD and it worked fine. Using that I downloaded to my computer, uploaded to Youtube, and began copying the discs, one for the studio to play as reruns and the other for Franc. Meanwhile I determined that the second DVD indeed was not working so discarded it. I then saw that the TV DVR had successfully recorded the show, and began to make another copy from that source, basically simultaneously making copies. Everything seemed fine, but I didn't proceed until Saturday. I got my computer made copy and, as I always do, played it back to make sure it worked. To my shock and dismay, it wasn't playing on either my internal DVD player or external. Then I tried it on my TV DVD player and it was fine !!!! Since I had made the copy on the external DVD player, I created another internally and still it would not play. To make a long story short, Saturday for most of the day I was on the phone with Apple Care. When I bought my computer almost two years ago, I purchased their plan - ladies and gentlemen, one of the best things I ever did. I have used now for countless hours of expert advice and repair for the $270 I paid. At the time I thought it was too much too pay, but once again Laura knew best, and I did it. Without exaggeration, I was on the phone with them for about 4 hours, both before our dinner engagement with our friend at the Bear Cafe in Woodstock, and then afterward. It is so complicated that I am unsure what occurred ! All I know is that I now have the capacity to play DVD's once again, but instead of using VLC, now use the Apple system, which is fine with me. The only drawback is that instead of the DVD immediately starting to play when I put it in the drive, I have to point and click twice. Who cares ? During the whole final process which lasted from 9 - 11:15, I was unsure if Alan's Italy ever occur again, I was sort of ecstatic; however, you never know when the next catastrophe is going to occur.

Well, I soon found out when that would be, because somewhere during the evening I placed the TV created DVD of the show back into that DVD to play and there was sound but no picture ! So now after I write this blog, I will be speaking with my Tech Specialist for the answer to that question.

In the meantime I will start teaching at New Paltz LLI on Wed, doing my Friday show replicating my library forums on my "personal journey", preparing new shows for the future, continuing to plan our May/June trip to Italy, buying a new car tomorrow, getting my water system fixed by Culligan, and who knows what else !!!!