DVD player display quality problem on XP Pro

[scrafts]

I recently installed a Sony DVD/CD-RW combo drive on a Compaq Deskpro EN. The computer has a PIII/866, maximum RAM (512 MB), a floppy drive, and an internal Iomega ZIP 250 drive. The video card is an NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200 AGP, and there is a new 6-port USB 2.0 PCI card. The operating system is Windows XP Pro SP2 with all current updates (including hardware).

When I try to play a DVD, the top 20% of the screen shows a lot of distortion in the form of multiple square sections flashing. The CD functionality appears to be fine.

I have tried the following to solve this problem:
1. Configured DVD player as master and Zip drive as slave.
2. Configured both for cable select.
3. Disconnected the Zip drive.
4. Installed a new IDE ribbon cable
5. Reversed positions of the two drives
6. Replaced the Sony DVD combo drive with a Samsung DVD drive

I would appreciate any further suggestions on how I might solve this problem.

 

[Nelviticus]

It sounds like one of two problems: either graphics card driver or DVD decoder. Assuming you've already updated to the latest nVidia drivers, try re-installing your DVD player software. Windows Media Player used to need a 3rd-party DVD player CODEC to be installed in order to play DVDs, I don't know whether that's still the case.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, I would agree that it is either a software issue in Windows (graphics driver or DVD MPEG-2 codec), or the video card itself.

Does this distortion only happen when playing DVD's? What screen resolution are you using (try something at or below 1024x768, though that shouldn't make much difference)?

Also, you could try to use an app to rip the DVD video down to your hard drive temporarily, and play it from there instead. That way you can definitely rule out the DVD-ROM drive. Most of the time though, it is a problem with the software used to play the DVD.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[scrafts]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. This is actually the third identical Sony drive (CRX320E/10)I have purchased and the others have worked fine installed on XP Pro. I did not have to seek out drivers. In fact trying to find a driver is no easy task, but XP Pro has the built-in driver for this model.

As far as the video card, I tried a couple of different video cards and had the same result with each. Again, this does not seem to be a driver issue, as the behavior does not change even with new drivers from NVIDIA.

My conclusion at this point is that I have a defective drive. My plan is to remove an identical drive from another computer and replace this one to see if it makes any difference.

 

[scrafts]

I just re-read the previous posts and I see that Nelviticus suggested that I re-install the DVD player software. Since I have not yet done this, it will go on my list of things to try. Thank you.

 

[scrafts]

I re-installed the software, but that made no difference. Just for grins, I looked in the SETUP portion of the software and unchecked the box that said "Use Hardware Color Acceleration". Now the application works without the distortion that I had originally seen. Thank you for your suggestions.

 

[cdogg]

Did you try ripping the DVD down to the hard drive and playing it from there? If it still doesn't work from the hard drive, then it's a software issue...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884