ravendragonwing

hello all,
I cannot seem to watch more than an hour of any DVD. What is wrong? Do I need more RAM? I have 256MBs, P4 1.8, 120 GB HD, XP corp, Geforce 4 video card.
When I can watch the movie, it plays just fine.....then suddenly it freezes, and the drive won't eject my dvd, I have to restart in order to get it out. I am using windvd 4.
Immediate answers please!!!!!!
Thanks

Powerchordpunk

Do a test play in WMP8. Check power management and screensavers, though that is most likely not the problem. I can't think of anything else I am to stupid. See I spelled too wrong.

ravendragonwing

I cannot get MP8 to even play a dvd.
but I tried the dvd on another computer and it worked fine, the other computer's o/s is win98.

Powerchordpunk

in wmp8 go to play, dvd or cd audio, and select the dvd drive to play. It might not autorun because windvd is associated with dvds, so if you haven't already done that, try wmp8.

ravendragonwing

did all of that.....searched this site and any others I could think of for answers......and I have all the latest drivers and updates.
*sigh*

Gnu

You spelled vegetarian wrong, too, but who's counting. :P

Anyway, this isn't a problem I'd normally associate with XP, but this sort of symptom often means Windows is having a hard time reading a UDF file system (which is required for DVD Video). In fact, to my knowledge, you can't disallow UDF reading in XP like you can in 9x ... so I'm not really sure what the deal could be.

Some things you can try:

Updating the drivers for your motherboard's chipset -- it may be an IDE controller issue.

In the same vein, go into the Device Manager and check the properties of the IDE channel that your DVD-ROM drive is on. In the Advanced Settings tab, make sure your DVD-ROM drive is using DMA.

MS has also released several updates which relate to DVD Video, so make a visit to Windows Update if you haven't recently.

ravendragonwing

everything in/on my computer has just recently (like in the last hour) been updated. My computer is only 2 weeks old.
why can't everything be compatible with everything?
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

dejav00

Did you build it or buy it retail?

ravendragonwing

my computer?
I built it and had a computer geek fix all the bugs in it.
the dvd I bought retail.......

dreamliner77

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstallling WinDVD 4?

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ravendragonwing

yup

Gnu

I completely missed the part about the drive hanging.

Which controller is the drive on? Ideally, you usually should have it set as master on the secondary IDE controller. Sometimes it just depends on the IDE devices in your system (though not as much as it used to with newer motherboards).

Giving motherboard and drive models might be useful, as well.

ravendragonwing

I have it as a master on its own IDE spot on the motherboard.
Motherboard is a firedragon......drivers?
and it is the primary...........
dunno which drivers do you want?

Gnu

No, the model of the DVD-ROM drive.

And if the DVD-ROM drive is on the primary, then it's NOT on it's own spot, unless by that you mean it's set as master with no other device on the channel.

Of course, knowing it's a Fire DRAGON helps, since you have four channels instead of two. Since you're not using RAID, you should have the hard drive as master on #1 and the DVD-ROM drive as master on #2.

Otherwise ... it still sounds like a UDF problem, but I'm stumped as to how one could run into UDF issues under XP. I'll look some stuff up later, after a decent sleep.

I use a Pioneer 16x slot-load DVD-ROM , running under UDMA Mode 4, and sharing a channel with a UDMA Mode 2 40x burner. If that doesn't cause XP (or my motherboard) fits, nothing will.

ravendragonwing

my model # for my dvd-rom is d4216.......both of my roms are on slot #2, dvd-rom is master. On the box of my cd-rom it says Superb 16x dvd-rom drive.
In device manager is says Atapi dvd-rom star 2000.
can't find the manufactorer anywhere......

ravendragonwing

I bought more RAM, so now I have 512MB and it still is not working.........
and I was looking up UDF and it said this was for copied dvds, the one I am trying to play is a store bought one.

Zer0_[X]

UDF - Universal Disk Format
you probably read bout having to burn DVDs using this format so they can be compatible with pc/mac/dvd players...

Hmm the only thing i can really think of is have you set a region for your drive? cos those symptoms of urs sound like this might be the case but failing that u'll just have to ask ur "computer geek"

ravendragonwing

the region for my drive is set to 1, United States...which is where I am.........

looks like I am taking another trip to Fry's......

jimi_81

I read all the posts, i have had the same problem with my Sony 16x....The video suddenly comes to a crawl, then it just stops, and ya you cant eject the dvd.... it only happened on certain dvds, which was odd, i thought maybe it was a hardware problem? You should try other dvds, i have 10 dvds, 8 give me no hassles, and 2 do... theres no way this post helps in anyway, just thought id let you know, ur not alone!

ravendragonwing

thanks for the info....
it seems that newer dvds are not working........
I have 3 dvds and only one played the entire movie without freezing up.
I know that movies such as the Matrix do not work in dvd-rom drives due to a special feature in it called 'find the white rabbit'...... but Pride and Prejudice shouldn't have anything like that. Anyone else having these problems?