Having Trouble playing DVD movies with WinDVD 6

Newbie Forum
#1

The movies start to play but then I start to see & hear stuttering before the movie finally freezes. This usually starts to occur within the first minute of starting the DVD.

I’m certainly no expert on computers, but the fact that it works at all tells me that all the software components are in place. It seems to me that my computer is overloaded, which is a little hard to understand because I have a Win 98SE OS running on a P4 1.7 GHz Intel machine with a pretty recent ATI graphics board. One thought I had was to unload all unecessary processes that are running in the background because I have heard that WinDVD is pretty CPU intensive. Can someone tell me which processes are essential for Win98SE (I’m guessing Explorer, Mssysmgr, Gbtray, Systray)?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree with the symptoms I’ve discussed.

Thanks in advance for any help offered. Please remember if you respond that I’m no expert at computers, just curious as to why I can’t get WinDVD to operate properly.

#2

can 98se use directX 9 ? have you installed if so ? also, try another dvd player program and see if its windvd or not ?

#3

Yes I do have Direct X9 installed, because I remember my dealer installing it (I don’t remember how to check but I’m sure it’s there).

I removed windvd & interactual and installed powerdvd. I had similar problems here also.

I guess this means it’s not windvd, but what’s next to determine the problem?

:slight_smile:

#4

People, I’m really stuck here and completely frustrated.

Is there somebody monitoring this forum able & williing to help me out?

:confused:

#5

Stuttering/freezing can be indicative of problems with the drive reading the disc.

Does the stuttering occur with only certain discs or with everything you try?
Are the discs in question burnt or pressed?
Do the same discs have playback problems in other DVD-ROM drives and/or standalone players?

BTW- bare minimum system processes in win9x is explorer and systray

#6

Thank you for the offer of help.

My computer also tells me my DVD is dirty, it’s one of the nasty messages that come up when everything freezes. I keep thinking that there’s something about the DVD-ROM drive, but what, is still the big question.

(1) I am trying to play retail DVD’s that play perfectly on my TV DVD player in the livingroom.

(2) The computer lockup occurs on all DVD’s I’ve tried playing (Some new out of the box)

(3) I can play audio CD’s perfectly with this drive and have no problem transferring data files from data CD’s to my hard drive with this DVD-ROM drive.

One issue I’ve been trying to investigate is the device Transfer Mode. All documentation I’ve read on WinDVD & PowerDVD sites indicate that DMA should be enabled for all devices (DVD-ROM & hard drives), I assume to ensure high data transfer rates. I have Intel Application Accelerator running on my computer and it says my devices are all running at the fastest transfer mode which is UDMA-2, except for my CD-RW drive which only supports DMA MW-2. Do you know if there is anything potentially wrong with these settings because I don’t see any problem here, unless I should be capping all device transfer rates at DMA MW-2?

:confused:

P.S. I’ve even tried to be clever and bypass this DVD-ROM issue by mounting an Iso image (took me a while to find a movie under 4 GB) on my virtual drive (created by Alcohol). The virtual drive works fine with data CD’s but Nero ShowTime keeps telling me it can’t access file from this location. Not sure what the problem is here either, so I’m stuck no matter which way I turn in troubleshooting this problem.

#7

you need to install the Intel® INF Installation Utility BEFORE installing the intell IAA. have you ? although i don’t know if that would resolve your issue, it can’t hurt :wink:

#8

I’m not knowledgeable enough to build my own computer but I did read the IAA manual and checked Device Manager in every way it tells me and everything looks the way it should for Windows 98SE. I would have to say that the dealer seems to have installed IAA correctly.

:slight_smile: