Terrible DVD playback on Toshiba Satellite s1800-814

[rockbeer]

Hi all,
My Satellite laptop has never been able to play back DVDs properly. The picture stutters slightly, & gradually becomes unwatchable before freezing up altogether.

Spec: PIII 1100, 256, Win XP Home. Trident video at 1028x768 16 bit (800x600 makes no difference). Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-C2502 firmware 1313.

Players used:

PowerDVD
WinDVD
Fusionsoft DVD Player
Windows media player
Sonic Cineplayer (trial)

None of these make any difference.

I've also done the following:
- disabled background services & apps
- upgraded directx to 9.0a
- Full windows update
- all different res and bit depths
- full screen & windowed
- Set the DVD drive to use DMA - it doesn't seem to support it
- Ripping DVDs to the hard drive and watching them from there (ok but inelegant)

Only thing left is the drive firmware.

Does anybody please have any suggestions what I should try next? Is upgrading the firmware likely to have any effect? Or should I just accept the awful and incomprehensible truth: that this particular PIII 1100 laptop isn't capable of putting on a video show

[setarip]

"Set the DVD drive to use DMA - it doesn't seem to support it"

This very well may be the unresolvable cause of your difficulty...