Problems with "above spec" PC playback (PIII 450/Win2K/GeForce 2/DVD-114/WinDVD)

[mmorlan62]

This appeared in slightly different form in another thread.

I am having regularly skipped frames very second with the following configuration. Any thoughts beyond what I've done would be very helpful.

PIII 450
DVD-114 with DMA turned on
GeForce 2 MX @ 800x600 w/latest NVidia drivers
Sound Blaster Live (using SP/DIF out for decoding by future receiver) with latest Creative drivers
WinDVD w/hardware accel turned on via DVD Genie
PowerDVD w/hw accel turned on

During playback, the CPU monitor shows 100% usage. Tweaking of the system resulted in progressively better playback on PC monitor but it has never smoothed out completely. I have tweaked the system by:

o removing extraneous background processes
o avoiding software audio decoding where possible
o turning on DMA
o testing various screen resolutions and pixel depths
o tested full screen/windowed
o tried various settings in DVD Genie

I've followed the advise of various resources including, DVD Demystified. I'll be testing my DVD drive speed this evening. Any thoughts would be very helpful.

Thanks, Michael Morlan

[speedinsaxo]

I have the same problem - Win DVD is better then PowerDVD, but they both skip s'time.

[Enchanter]

Try ripping the movie entirely to your Harddisk and play the movie from there.

[mmorlan62]

I'm going to test the DVD speed and play back a HD ripped version as suggested. I'll post my results. Not sure what else to do besided buy a faster processor, but I'm trying to avoid the expense by repurposing one of my existing systems with existing hardware. (Yes I already had extra sound and video cards.)

More later...

Michael

[Joshoua]

I had the same problem on my old computer which was something like yours.I used a dvd playes called Cinemaster 99.It is a small program with not much enhancements but it plays the movie a lot smoother than pdvd and windvd because it needs much less processing power.I don't know where you can get it from though.I think this should resolve your problem.

[claudio67]

I have just put together a computer as follows:
Pentium 4 2.26Ghz
512 MB RDram
Asus Motherboard
Asus GeForce 4 Ti4400 Deluxe Graphic Card
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
HP DVD 200i +R/+RW

I have the same exact problem as Michael, playback is not smooth, frames are skipped, and much.

Tried PowerDVD and WinDVD last versions, Zoomplayer (a great freeware) with different codecs and all the many different options, and of course the AsusPlayer (a modified PowerDVD) which came with the Graphic Card, DVD Genie and WinDVD Tweaker.

Tried to remove all PCI cards, all possible different drivers and much more.....

NO WAY !!! Sometimes it gets a little bit better, sometimes much worse, the processor is never very busy and still the same....

My only guess is some issue between DirectDraw or DirectShow and GeForce chips (by the way Asus support technicians don't have a clue...). Have you noticed that when you perform the DirectX DirectDraw test under dxdiag the test succeeds but the little squares are also not played back smoothly. A technician from Asus Germany said that this is normal, but wouldn't explain why.

PLEASE HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Claudio

[claudio67]

I just forgot to mention that I use XP Professional with DirectX 8.1

Claudio

[Joshoua]

Considering the problem Claudio has.I think there's something wrong with the components you bought.I don't know what,but you should ask for some help with that before the warranty expires.
I am a technician and I think that it's impossible for a computer with your specs to work slow on DVDs,except when there is a problem with it.Check another DVD rom on your computer,or the best you should do is take it back where you bought and demand that they fix it.
As for the other problem with the mmorlan.I can help any more,maybe your pc is too old,or too slow.Have you tried cinemaster??

[claudio67]

Thank you Joshoua.
I also tried with DVDIdle, which reads much of the DVD content in advance and plays it back from the HD and it was the same.

This made me tent to exclude the DVD drive and consider that the malfunction would be on the side of the graphic card, also because I noticed some other similar problems, for example with scrolling text in normal windows, or playing back a CD.

But I ran the ZD 3DBench tests and everything seems perfect, the refresh rates are even a bit higher than some review results of comparable graphic cards. I will try Video2000 tests tonight.

In another topic on this same forum I found that somebody has a very similar problem after upgrading from 98 to XP and I was considering to do a step back to W2K, but....

So, what would you do in my place ? (By the way this is a computer I assembled myself, so it is quite uneasy to convince the shop that one item is not working, if I am not absolutely sure myself...

Sorry to be so long, but the question is: in your experience, would you think that it is the DVD, the graphic card or a problem of compatibility with XP ?

Thanks again,

Claudio

[Joshoua]

I really understand what you are going through because I have the custom to build my own PCs.
I believe it is a DVD rom problem,or an incombatibility issue if I was you,I would run the dvd speed test from NERO or Digital Digest.And see how it goes.This test tells you in what speed does your DVD read.
I had the same problem with an Asus motherboard incobatibility with my DVD rom.For that,I downloaded IDE and chipset drivers from Asus,I flashed my DVD rom and it worked OK.Although if you flash your DVD rom,you lose the warranty.
Your VGA seems to work allright,so the problem minimizes to the DVD and the Motherboard.I don't think it is a software problem because your devices are much to advanced and latest generation to have been built with Windows 98 standards.Every company now builds with Windows XP standards.
Also try this,go to control panel,open system,open hardware,click on device manager,and then expand IDE ATA/ATAPI adapters,choose primary or secondary IDE cable,right click and go to properties,there check if the DMA is enabled,if it says PIO only,choose DMA and click apply.
All these should help you resolve your problem.

[claudio67]

I will try tonight.
By the way, I already flashed the DVD, to upgrade the BIOS and dezone...
Thank you so much,

Claudio

[claudio67]

Update:

I tried everything, nothing is wrong with my machine.

Then I tried to analyze my Dell laptop (PIII 700Mhz+LG DVD player, WinDVD2000):

the artifacts are exactly the same, only difference is that on a 15' screen they are much less evident than on a big screen projector as I have with the other system.

The fact is that software DVD playback, at the actual stage, is symply not comparable, on the point of view of fluidity and picture stability, to the quality of a good Hi-Fi DVD player with RGB or component output.

I think the reasons are two:
- software needs to be compatible with older machines, and cannot therefore perform, for the moment, at the best possible quality (but this reason doesn't satisfy me very much, because custom parameters should allow for better performance than this);
- the refresh frequency is never exactly the same as the frames coming from the DVD player, if you use power strip you know what I mean (also this reason does not convince me best, but is the only other one I could find).

Does anybody have experience with hardware decoders and with top quality/professional playback of DVDs on large screens, by a PC ?

Sorry that my experience couldn't be of help to anybody....

Claudio

[Joshoua]

As I understand your problem is when you connect your pc on a larger screen.
I have to tell you,is a very strange thing that this happens on both your machines.I have P4 2200,AsusDVD 16x,GForce4 and I play DVD on my 35inch TV just fine.The previous 2 computers I had played just fine also(a PIII 866 w Geforce2 and an Athlon XP 1600+ w Geforce GTS).I only had these problems with my PIII600 w TNT2.
I positively sure that theres something else wrong.It's such a common and simple problem that cannot have such a difficult and hard to find solution.
The best you can do,is try your computer components one by one.Either on their own either on another computer.As for your laptop,this might be stupid to ask you,but are testing the same DVD on all machines?There might be something wrong with the DVD.And for last,your pc might not have a warranty as a system,but each and every component has a warranty of its own.So if anything is malfunctioning,they should replace it.Thanks.

[denshinobi]

you know!!

I'm having the same problem 1.4 P4, 1.25gb RAM Geforce 2, and latest drivers...

and whats even funnier is, that last time I tried to play a DVD it worked fine, with minimal amounts of dropped frames..

I'm on winXP and using Power DVD......

it seems to run a bit better through WMPlayer!

whats going off???

[claudio67]

You know,

in my case it really depends on the disc, some DVDs playback fine (mostly PAL movies) and some don't (mostly NTSC videos), something is wrong but nothing is broken.

Did you notice any difference with the WindowsXPpatch for PowerDVD.

Something that keeps me awake at night is, DOES ANYBODY KNOW THE ANSWER ????
why on this machine (P4 2.26, 523MB, XP Pro, GeForce4 Ti4400) when I perform the DirectX 8.1 DirectDraw and Direct3D tests, the 2D squares move not smoothly and the 3D square, also not smooth, runs much slower than with a WindowsME (same 8.1 DirectX) Celeron w/ ATI Radeon 7200 and half the memory ?
As you saw in my previous messages, I was able to exclude the graphic card as source of the problem, because I installed the Radeon on the P4 machine, and nothing changed.

I am sure the two things are linked, if this is solved, than the DVD will work.
Do you have the same problem with DirectX video tests ?

One thing came to my mind: nobody ever thinks about the interaction with the sound card... this could be part of the problem, my card is a SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum, and I am experiencing some strange behaviours when I use SPDF output from PowerDVD.

If I am not mistaken, WMplayer, on the contrary, converts any sound to windows wave, you loose quality, but no trouble with the sound card, am I right ?

I am very interested in your developments, as you can imagine.

Ciao,

Claudio