DVD Player Problems

J

jawshoouh

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anyone know why a DVD player would just stop playing in the middle of playback and just crash the PC? i can't tell if this is a DVD disc-specific thing (only happens when i play certain movies), or a software issue (although it happens in both PowerDVD 4.x and WinDVD 4.x), or a hardware issue (which is what i'm leaning to).

the 2 DVDs that come to mind are Spy Game and Usual Suspects. intermittently in both movies' playback, the application crashes (both PowerDVD and WinDVD), and i'm forced to reboot. it's a POS Lite-On 16x/40x DVD drive (IDE), yet i seem to be able to play quite a few other DVD titles without any problems, as well as VCDs. i've already formatted and reinstalled the OS a few times (due to other tinkerings), and i'm using the latest and greatest of each of the software players...any ideas?

thanks in advance,
jawshoouh
 
Are those disc dual layered? There have been reports of problems with dual layered playback on Lite-On DVD drives. In most older technology players, when switching layers, either nothing is noticed or there is a slight skip in playback (more like a pause). Since newer deviced do not pause or skip, your software may not know how to handle the older pause/skip found in older tech drives. What I would do is try playback in something like RealOne or Windows Media Player (the quality sucks I know) and see if it still crashes. If it does, you know its your software (RealOne and Windows Media Player use a track-at-once playback which would not pause through layers). If it still crashes, you know you have a hardware issue on your hands.
 
ok, so i dunno now...i just played Spy Game the whole way without any crashes...but only in a window mode (NOT full screen). i'll try the Usual Suspects like that, too, but i'm guessing i'll get the same result. any ideas as to what the problem is? monitor (NEC XtraView MultiScan LCD 1850E, flat panel display)? video card (ASUS GeForce3 Ti200 Pure)? the software players (played Spy Game in window mode using WinDVD, no problems)?
 
Originally posted by Reg
Are those disc dual layered? There have been reports of problems with dual layered playback on Lite-On DVD drives. In most older technology players, when switching layers, either nothing is noticed or there is a slight skip in playback (more like a pause). Since newer deviced do not pause or skip, your software may not know how to handle the older pause/skip found in older tech drives. What I would do is try playback in something like RealOne or Windows Media Player (the quality sucks I know) and see if it still crashes. If it does, you know its your software (RealOne and Windows Media Player use a track-at-once playback which would not pause through layers). If it still crashes, you know you have a hardware issue on your hands.

i dunno if the DVDs are dual-layered; how can i tell? it crashed at various points of the playback, @ the chapter search menu, in the middle of chapter 2, toward the end of chapter 1...seemed to go about 5-7 minutes, then crash, BUT only in full screen mode. refer to my last post...

thanks Reg
 
maybe it's a resolution prob cause your in full screen mode?
What rez is your desktop set to?
Maybe drop it a step.
 
Originally posted by gonaads
maybe it's a resolution prob cause your in full screen mode?
What rez is your desktop set to?
Maybe drop it a step.

rez is 1280x1024@32bit, 72Hz (can't go any higher in that category, or so says the OS)
 
One easy way to check for dual-layered discs -- dual-layered DVDs have a golden hue to them, while single-layer discs are silvery.
 
Originally posted by jawshoouh


rez is 1280x1024@32bit, 72Hz (can't go any higher in that category, or so says the OS)

Take your resolution down to 1024x768@24bit. See if that fixes your problem.

If it does, instruct your DVD player software to change the resolution to that when you enter full screen playback.
 
thanks guys, i'll give it a whirl when i get home...
 

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