[barjo4]

I would like to be able to use my Dell C640 as a DVD player at times when I am traveling. This really not all that often, but in a motel recently, I wanted to use the laptop with the room tv that had an S video input. I got no video signal through it at all. When we returned home, I experimented and plugged the S video cord to our home dvd recorder input. The dvd-r disc loaded and the dvd disc menu came though to the television, but when the movie started, the screen was blank.

[kiwiguy]

This is Macrovision copy protection kicking in, it detects a device connected that could be capable of being a recording device and refuses to play.