Sound Stutters, Video=occasional stills

[k4vm]

Just installed an EPO ATAPI 16x DVD drive in new Gateway. I have 3 DVD movies I want to play. One plays great (Tosca), The other 2 have problems (La Traviata and Jesus Christ Superstar).

When I play these 2 "bad" ones, the intro/adds play fine. When the movie starts the sound stutters, and the video gives me an occasional still, but not a real movie. I tried these 2 DVDs in another Gateway also running XP (and a Gateway drive) and they worked great.

These 2 work like this with both WinDVD V3.1 AND Windows Media Player V5.1.2535.0

Any suggestions as to what to do besides yank out the DVD drive and take it back?

Computer set up: Pentium IV 1.5gHz, WinXP Home Edition Version 2002, Sound Card Sound MAX Integrated Digital by Analog Devices V5.12.1.3032, 712mb(or so) ram, Resoltion 1024x768 32 bit hi color.

Could not find any DMA on the machine. I think XP is supposed to be automatic??

Thanks for the help.

[vic102482]

properties

Try looking at the properties of the dvd rom drive, right click on the dvd rom drive go to properties and increase the buffer size of the drive, if that option is available. If it is not you could try updating any available drives by going to the manufacturers web site and looking in the download section of the web site. If that STILL does not work and computers will tend to do that to you, do what i would do......goto the download section of this website from the main page and then download the program called smart ripper, download that program rip the movie to your harddrive and since the movie was copyed to the harddrive as an image file instead of being played and decoded in real time you should get adequate movie results.

good luck

[k4vm]

XP hides things. Couldn't find properties.

Why does it work fine with one DVD and not with 2 others?? It seems if the buffer wasn't big enough, it would stutter on ALL dvd's.

Ripping (a new word on me) a DVD to the HD appears to be a lot of work just to watch a movie. Surely there is an easier way. I want to just plunk the DVD in and watch the show.

Thanks for giving it a shot. Maybe there are other ideas out there too??

[digikid]

Did you ever find a solution. I just purchased the same drive for a machine I built and am running XP Professional. I have the same symptoms running WinXP Professional and either WinDVD or Windows Media Player. Some CDs work like a champ others have the symptoms you described. I've tried latest drivers, firmware upgrades for the DVD drive itself, etc. Contacted EPO directly and they were unable to provide a solution. Would appreciate any advice you may have. About ready to return the drive for another!

[k4vm]

Nope, no solution found. We took the thing out and returned the sucker to the store. Now we have a blank spot in the computer and don't know what to do next.

We may just take it to Gateway and have them put something in...but later....$$$.....

Glad to hear it wasn't just us and our lack of know-how and skill. I can plug and play, but when it doesn't work, I am at a loss.

Sorry to hear you got stuck with it though. Hope you can return it with minimal penalties.

I just wish I knew what was wrong. Thanks for letting me know.

[digikid]

Well my persistance paid off last night. I searched several hundred posts on two general DVD support sites and found references to a patch of the Intel site for PCs with the Intel Processor and chipset. I installed Intel's Application Accelerator and now ALL of my DVDs play perfectly! In addition my CD burner now burns a quarter times faster.

In any event if your Gateway motherboard has any one of the following chipsets and a P3 or P4 series CPU you can attempt to install the accelerator software:

Intel® 810 Chipset
Intel® 810E Chipset
Intel® 810E2 Chipset
Intel® 815 Chipset
Intel® 815E Chipset
Intel® 815EP Chipset
Intel® 815P Chipset
Intel® 820 Chipset
Intel® 820E Chipset
Intel® 840 Chipset
Intel® 845 Chipset
Intel® 850 Chipset
Intel® 860 Chipset

Basically the software allows streamlined access to drives from the motherboard and bus.

Here is the link to the download if interested ->

http://downloadfinder.intel.com//scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=663

Just thought I'd pass this along.

[k4vm]

Bingo! I will go check out the computer and see if it has one of those chipsets in it.

Many thanks for being so persistent. I had given up.

More later, after I check the computer out.