Yet another DVD playback problem on notebook

[V-Jet]

Hi guys,

I've got a problem with DVD playback on my notebook which is really frustrating me. I've tried searching / reading other posts on this forum for clues but nothing I've tried seems to help. Basically my DVD-ROM has never played DVD properly since the day I bought it. It plays DVD but it's VERY slow / jerky / jumpy... both video and sound. Video is also very distorted, with blocks of either black / green or images from the previous chapter.

Before I get into more details, yes I've checked Ultra DMA and it's on. I have DVD region free on and it checks if DVD-ROM is on DMA mode during startup, and I've also checked manually in System Properties to confirm this. I've also tried turning off as many unnecessary programs as I can before playing DVD, even playing DVD immediately after restarting the computer, but the same thing still happens.

Okay, things I've tried - playing DVD using PowerDVD 5, PowerDVD 6 and Windows Media Player all gave me the same problem. I tried uninstalling everything (including DivX, XViD and AC3 codecs), then reboot and do a clean install PowerDVD 6 without anything else and the problem still persist. I have the latest video card driver as well as DirectX 9.0c installed. All the DVD's I've tried to play are genuine purchased DVD movies (not pirated ones!!). They all play fine on my desktop computer.

My notebook is a Toshiba DynaBook SS 3490, Japanese domestic version of Toshiba Portege 3490CT with virtually the same specs except the Japanese version only got 64MB of built-in RAM instead of 128MB, but I've since upgraded mine to 192MB. Other specs are PIII 700MHz CPU and S3 Savage IX video card with 8MB video RAM. The DVD-ROM is a TEAC DV-28E 8X DVD-ROM with 256KB buffer, and I'm running Windows XP SP2. At first I thought my notebook just isn't good enough for DVD playback, but another person on this forum with Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 which has the same video card as my notebook with similar CPU and a 6X DVD-ROM, and that can play DVD just fine, so I figured something must be wrong with mine.

Any suggestions are welcome, please help!

Will

[setarip]

Have you tried uninstalling SP2?

[ormonde]

"but another person on this forum with Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300 which has the same video card as my notebook with similar CPU and a 6X DVD-ROM, and that can play DVD just fine"

It could be that the TEAC DV-28E DVD-ROM drive itself is faulty.

[V-Jet]

Problem solved!

Okay, there's one thing I forgot to try because I did that today and it got my computer playing DVD properly for the first time ever!! Although I've tried to play DVDs with PowerDVD 5, PowerDVD 6 and Windows Media Player, I realised that up until now I've only been using the PowerDVD decoder. So I downloaded WinDVD and installed that, and voila! DVD movies play smoothly, I get clear picture and crisp audio. I just never imagined that the problem could be with PowerDVD up until now because I've used PowerDVD in my other computers and none of them had any problems. I guess there must be something with this notebook that PowerDVD doesn't like in particular. Oh well, at least I know it's not a hardware issue because if that was the case it'd cost me more to fix.

Will

[ormonde]

Glad to hear that you solved your problem...

[russ-kz]

Will,

Could you please advise with which version of WinDVD you finally succeeded.

I have Satellite pro 4200 (RAM 128MB, Celeron 500MHz CPU and S3 Savage IX video card with 8MB video RAM).

BUT still experiencing very slow performance of DVD playback through WinDVD

Please advise if there are any hints that can be helpful

Thank you

[blutach]

WinDVD is not the best player. Try PowerDVD or Nero Showtime or Media Player Classic.

Regards

[russ-kz]

I have tried PowerDVD and Media Player Classic, but playback still so slow

[blutach]

Well, your PC is very old and slow. The processor, video card and RAm look under spec. Check the minimum specification for hardware to play these software.

You may need a major hardware upgrade.

Regards

[russ-kz]

Agreed, but although this laptop has been released with DVD-ROM, assuming that it should work smoothly

[blutach]

Well, did it EVER play anything back OK?

Regards

[russ-kz]

Yeap, this is the fact

[V-Jet]

The first computer I had which I played DVD with was a Pentium III 450MHz CPU with 128MB RAM, 5X DVD-ROM and TNT2 Video Card with 16MB video RAM, this was about 4-5 years ago and it played DVD quite smoothly 99% of the time, only becomes a little jerky 1% of the time when the action gets intense.

My current notebook with Pentium III 700MHz CPU, 192MB RAM, 8X DVD-ROM and S3 Savage/IX 8MB video card (same video card as russ-kz's) plays DVD fine with WinDVD, although PowerDVD refuse to work properly.

I'm confident that russ-kz's hardware can handle DVD playback, as long as they're not faulty. One thing russ-kz, have you checked that your DVD-ROM is in Ultra DMA mode?

[russ-kz]

It is in DMA mode, moreover on Win XP it's set as default

[setarip]

"BUT still experiencing very slow performance of DVD playback through WinDVD"


Make sure "Hardware Acceleration" is turned on