MacGyver Lexicon

[KateR]

First, I want to offer my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have offered their support of the website by making a donation. I have been overwhelmed, touched, and humbled by so many donations, even from people I don't even know, and I have received enough so far to cover the cost of several months into the New Year.

Honestly, I was surprised that so many people felt the site is worth preserving, and so it has motivated me to finally tackle a job I have been procrastinating for far too long: the MacGyver Lexicon.

I had completed the Stargate Lexicon first because there were only about three seasons back when I started it and I thought it would be a smaller job. Little did I know! But knowing what a huge job that had been, I just never seemed to find the time to do the same for MacGyver. However, I would really like to see the site truly "complete" one day.

With this in mind, so began the saga I mentioned in the other thread: I had bought a new computer back in June, and they assured me that it would be easy to add an external blu-ray player to play and capture videos. A few weeks ago, I finally bought the recommended blu-ray unit, and it was defective, so I returned it. I bought another, and it played enough to install the software and play regular DVDs, then it gave me a series of error messages saying that I would need to spend an additional $65 if I wanted the software to play blu-ray, but the graphics card and driver were not compatible anyway. Argh! So I uninstalled and returned it.

At the same time, I had ordered the complete MacGyver blu-ray set from Amazon. It gave me a delivery date of December 7th. Then December 8th. Then December 11th. Then nothing, just a series of "delayed in transit" without even a reference to where it was or what date it was expected. Then I saw a news story about how the epidemic of smash-and-grab crimes has now extended to delivery trucks and that Amazon, FedEx, and UPS have all been victims. The story said that if your delivery was stolen they won't typically say so, but if you get a string of "delayed in transit" messages, that's probably what happened. So I canceled the order and got a refund.

Now, I'm trying NOT to take this as a sign that I should give up the idea of working on the Lexicon, but as of right now, my plan of building it from quality blu-ray video is not working out. Thankfully I have kept my old computer with the built-in regular DVD drive that I used for all my previous Lexicon work, so that will be Plan B as long as it doesn't die on me.

Anyway, that's where things stand. My New Year's resolution is to finally get this huge job done. If anyone has suggestions about the best option for connecting a blu-ray player to a new Windows 11 computer, I'll look into it. And I'll probably still reorder the blu-ray discs from Amazon once the holiday crime season is over. At least I have a working blu-ray player on my TV to watch them. When the time comes, I could use some motivation here - maybe a MacGyver Watch Party thread? One way or the other, this project has been delayed far too long!

So, Happy Holidays!

Kate

[Skurk]

Hi Kate!
sounds like a mammoth task!
I don't believe that a normal player that is normally connected to a television can be connected to a computer. At least in Germany this would not be possible for licence reasons.
However, as you have already tried, it would be possible with an external Blueray player for computers that also have the software for playback. Windows 11 saves on integrated software, because the codec and decoder licences cost money and which are incl. if you buy a device.. or not as I read in your thread
You might be able to use the free VLC player, but you'll have to try it out and maybe consult google.
Without knowing your hardware, I can't give you any helpful tips other than to invest in another device.

[MacGyverGirl]

Kate,

Thanks for your dedication and count me in on the MacGyver Watch Party!