DVD playback with WinDVD stutters

[Rooster6975]

This is so frustrating. Nothing I changed seems to completely clear up the problem, except going back to my Hollywood + player.

When I play back a DVD movie using WinDVD 4 on XP, eventually it will start stuttering. If I shut down WinDVD and start it again where I left off (using the Bookmark feature), I can usually get to the end of the movie without another problem. If it is a long movie, it will happen again. I have a RealMagic Hollywood + card, but do not use it as much as I used to and it is not supported by WinDVD. I would like to be able to use WinDVD 4 since I paid for it, and it has all the features that the H+ software player lacks. I have to change my TV-OUT cable from the GF to the H+ every time I want to watch a DVD, and I would like to recover one PCI slot since I am maxed out. If I use DVD Station (Hollywood + player), it does not stutter at all.

I have largely sufficient hardware to avoid this problem. I am running an Athlon 1.4 with 512 MBs DDR RAM. I have ensured that DMA mode is enabled for both IDE controllers. I have very little else running.

Any suggestions? Here is my system :

WinXP
Athlon 1.4 Thunderbird
ABIT KG7-Lite motherboard
512 MBs DDR RAM
Leadtek GForce 3 128 Ti200
IBM Deskstar 100 GB HD ATA 100
Quantum Fireball 40 GB HD ATA 100
Toshiba SD-M1212 8X DVD drive
LG 8120B 12X CD burner
SB Live 1024
RealMagic Hollywood +
3COM 10/100 Ethernet card
Motorola Surfboard cable modem
Logitech Cordless Desktop
Texas Instruments 3 port Firewire card

WinDVD 4.0

Thanks,
Rooster

[80sman]

might be silly suggestions but here goes..

make sure that screen savers etc are disabled, (main one) after that, do you know what resaloution your outputting to your tv, no higher that 800x600 pref, thats about it, hmm, use powerdvd!!

Hope that helps


80's

[Rooster6975]

I don't use screen savers...

I don't use screen savers and am outputting to my TV at 800*600. And the reason I switched to WinDVD is that PowerDVD was even worse. I found that WinDVD kept a much more fluid picture with DVD playback. It used to be the other way around, but I believe that WinDVD has caught and surpassed PowerDVD in terms of features, particularly audio features.

I still have the problem, but I have been watching DVDs with the H+ card. Works great! Any suggestions on my WinDVD problem? I have ensured that all controllers are marked DMA, and not PIO. I have shut down anything and everything, but it is still not 100%. It usually only happens once, and I am not talking about the half second stoppage when it does the layer change. It starts stuttering to the point where I have to stop it and start it again.

Cheers,
Rooster