Dateline Ubuntu:

So I suppose everybody here knows that you can't play a DVD on a new computer, when the DVD drive is also new, and has never had it's region set.

I'd been trying to sort this out for weeks, loading package after package, mounting the dvd manually with different options, reading bug reports that seem to be related...

So now the problem is figuring out how to undo one of the things I tried. In Nautilus, when a DVD is mounted and you show it's properties dialog, there is a Volume tab, where the mount properties can be set, for that specific DVD.

I did this on one of my DVDs and now mounting that particular DVD fails to mount.

Cr@& I didn't know that Gnome was responsible for that tab. Or that the authors have embarked on a windows regedit like thing called the gconf-editor.

No wonder Linus T. is using the word bloat.

Apparently the utility you want is regionset. Never encountered that problem myself.

I would suggest that the way to resolve problems with Gnome is to not use Gnome, or, even better, never to start.

That said, you could try just moving your ~/.gnome* directories and start your config over.

You're correct about regionset.

This is currently my web/file server and now occasional DVD player.

Next, trying to get some sort of audio equalization running as the audio is defiantly biased low, making voices a bit muddy.

Very cute. Pity about that tiny fan, though.

How's the noise in an otherwise quiet room?

Funny you should ask. I keep it in my bedroom. At idle it's quiet. As long as the temp in the room is comfortable to cool, the fan often shuts off. But the machine isn't exactly stock any more.

Initially, it was stock with a standard 5.25 cd drive and 3.5 HD installed. Both remnants from older systems. Everything is pretty tightly packed. The hard drive obscures the heat sink on the motherboard limiting convection, and generating it's own contribution to the heat profile. The box was typically warm to the touch, and the fan ran constantly.

I removed both drives and replaced them with this and a 2.5" hard drive.

I was able to mount the 2.5" drive in dvd adapter chassies. It would have been nice if the bottom plate had been designed for that, but a little work with a drill press did the job. The drive reports temps about 106f.

I also did some surgery to case, specifically I removed the sheet metal where the 3.5" drive was mounted. That was a matter of drilling out a couple of pop rivets. This gave maximum clearance above the monolithic cpu/northbridge heat sink, improving convection air flow.

When the cpu is running hard, the fan goes on high, many screensavers cause this condition, even so, the air coming out is cool to the hand, so I suspect the fan could be toned down some.

Late last night, the CPU load while watching a DVD, caused the fan became obtrusive. I pulled the cover off, unplugged the fan, then leaving the cover off, I finished watching the movie. The only noise then being the dvd and hard drives chatting back and forth.

The case is well sealed, fan exhausting out the left back side, with air only being allowed in thru a grill on the right side. When in the stand, the right end is down.

I always wonder how much more passive-cooling efficiency you could get by designing media PCs that looked and worked like chimneys, where the warmed air's own updraught pulls more cool air over the heat-generating parts. Of course they wouldn't fit in AV cabinets, but you could make them look appealing by offering different chimney styles, from Battersea Power Station to Gaudi.

Peter

I think I have this fixed. I took one of these small fans laid it on top of the cpu heat sink, and put two small sheet metal screws into the fins. The screws were chosen such that they just forced a pair of fins slightly apart as they were driven in.

I simply wired it in parallel with the existing controlled case fan.

Since the addition, I have not heard the fans run up during dvd playback.