Choppy DVD Playback 2

[kannanof]

I hope someone might have some help for me. Here's what I have:
1.2GHz AMD K7VZA mobo VIA chipset
384 MB RAM PC 133
20Gb HD
ATI AGP RADEON SDR Video card 64MB RAM
12x Delta DVD-rom
20x CD-RW
Windows 2000 Pro w/ Service Pack 2
WINDVD 2000 Software

I've tried just about everything possible from updating drivers to tweaking things. What happens is that, when I play a DVD, sudden frames pause and its almost like the system can't keep up fast enough but I have what I believe to be a pretty up to par system. Theres just glitches. Also some static with the sound. Very faint though.
I want to be able to enjoy the dvds but the movie just randomly pausing ruins it. I have tried the dvd's in a real dvd player and they work fine.
I also tried using a PCI based ATI All in Wonder 128 PRo video card with 32MB so I thought having 64 would be better.
The other thing is that sometime ago, I got a message when I was installing something saying that My Dvd-rom might not have the DMA enabled. I;ve tried looking everywhere in Windows 2000 and can't find the enable/disable option. I of course looked through device manager and checked its properties.

If anyone knows where I can find the DMA selection or anything that will help me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[dakota81]

It could be a lot of factors - video drivers, not-so-good software, or low-quality dvd-drive.

First before anything else, double check you've got the absolute latest ati video card drivers, as ati cards always need their drivers worked on regularly.

WinDVD isn't the best software out there either, I would suggest picking up a copy of PowerDVD, you can always find it on eBay for super-cheap. I've tried using WinDVD with a Matrox G450 w/ 1.0GHz t-bird & Toshiba 16x dvd, choppy playback.

If there's one piece of hardware you need to spend that few extra dollars to get a high quality piece of equipment, it's the cdrom/dvdrom. With a cd or dvd drive, there is seriously a huge difference between the top brand and the bargain basement brand - after so many years selling parts, I will never buy or sell any drive other than Toshiba or Pioneer for straight rom drives (i.e. not counting cdr/rw drives). I've had the displeasure of using even a Creative Labs 12x dvd-rom, worst drive I've ever seen in a looooong time, drive suffered horribly during any sort of file transfers. Give that Delta dvd drive as a gift to someone and buy yourself a Pioneer drive. You'll love it. =)


It sounds like you're really wanting to get some great quality out of your dvd drive, so I say go on eBay and do a search for "dxr3". This is a decoder card that Creative Labs made - best dvd playback you're going to get on the PC, PowerDVD and WinDVD don't even come close to the image quality nor the smoothness that the dxr3 provides.

 

[dxd]

You should be able to modify the DMA settings of the drive/IDE controller in Device Manager..under the IDE/ATAPI controllers section...choose the IDE channel your drive is on and go to properties. There should be an Advanced Settings tab and in there will be options on how to setup the transfer mode....PIO or DMA if available.

Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com

 

[kannanof]

thanks dxd,
ironically, right before I read this post, I found the DMA setting for the dvd drive. Exactly same place you said. I am getting better performance but I think that the drive I have is pretty shotty like dakota81 said. The performance is much much better than before thanks to enabling DMA. However, there are still many times when the drive seems to be struggling or something. I might need to look into a better drive.
Thanks for the posts

 

[dxd]

I don't know....sure seems to me that the hardware you indicated should perform rather well. Although, I haven't heard of "Delta" before.

Does the ATI Radeon not include HW MPEG capabilities? How 'bout the All in Wonder?

You may want to try disabling..at least as a test...your AV software or any other apps that are running in the background that could possibly be chewing up resources. Also, check the Power Options settings and make sure it is set for Home/Office Desk or Always On...

Right Click on My Computer and look at the bottom to see what speed the processor is currently running..to make sure it is not throttling.

Outside of all that...borrow someones DVD drive or go buy another and see where your performance goes.

Good luck!
Doug
dxd_2000@yahoo.com

 

[Jakespeare]

Problem is Windows 2000.
It plays multimedia rather poorly, and NOBODY writes real good drivers for the video cards. ATI is poor on software and drivers for thier products.


Delta is generic, but that shouldn't be the problem.
The problem is the ATI drivers,,,,,,,

Also: WinDVD is great software. I can use any kind of DVD software I want, and I choose WinDVD version 3 (XP compatible version)

Have you tried using ATI's media player 7.1 software ?

DIRECTX - The latest version ?
> ATI's latest drivers for that video card............

Last thing,,,,,, and something that should be installed FIRST.... is the Via 4in1 - software.

GET THE LATEST VERSION........ !!!!!

** LAST THING ***** DECODER CARDS**
These are TOTALLY obsolete ! I mean it. With hardware like you already have, that ATI video card is better than a decoder card. They are a PCI device and can not compete with a HI-QUALITY AGP video card. ATI make have many problems ( I will NOT ever buy one again for customers, they just never ever work like an nVidia based video card) but they do have enhancements built into the video chipset that offers DVD HARDWARE SUPPORT........ that work real well. *BETTER than any decoder - which is designed to make a Pentium 233 with a 4 MB PCI video card system play DVD's).

In a FAST system,,,,,, with a 64 MB AGP video card, the PCI DVD encoder will offer poorer performance..... so you throw away the $50 on a useless part.

I agree with the guy above: Buy a HI-QUALITY DVD player,,,,
I have 2 in my system: PIONEER SCSI
Hitachi IDE - and both work perfect. Buy Japanese.......

 

[dakota81]

I disagree with the above statements, I've got a 1.13GHz t-bird, FIC mb, MSI Geforce2 GTS Pro 32meg, 256meg ram, Phillips Accoustic Edge sound, Pioneer 16x dvdrom, and a Creative Labs dxr3 decoder card. The decoder card blows away PowerDVD and WinDVD in terms of quality and smoothness. I'm not sure how well the ATI cards run with their built-in hardware decoding, but the dxr3 card blows away software decoders on my computer as it's set up.