Plextor PX-708a has "jittery" DVD & audio playback

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers Plextor Writer
#1

Hi there. My apologies if this is in the wrong forum…

I’ve got a problem with my Plextor PX-708a DVD writer drive.
Anyone got an idea why this happens?

Whenever there is a DVD playing, the DVD audio stutters constantly, and the same thing happens to any audio which I play back whenever I’m ripping an audio CD in Windows Media Player 10. CDs sometimes take ages to rip. More often now, skipping errors in the audio gets copied to the mp3.

In fact, the same audio stuttering happens playing an audio CD. It’s a regular skipping noise, a bit like when you fast forward a CD on a normal CD player.

This didn’t always happen, but I can’t recall when it started (not much use!). I’ve checked DMA is on, and the usual driver updates and troubleshooting tips.

Could it be to do with any background tasks running? Or is it more likely to be a hardware fault, such as a dirty lens?

Thanks for any help people might have on this! If I need to buy a new drive, then so be it: this one’s driving me mental.

SPECS:
Windows xp pro (all latest updates), 1gb ram, Asus a7n8x-e mobo, 2 IDE internal HDDs, no other optical drives.

#2

What about your CPU usage when playing DVD content?

#3

Sub 20% ( on an athlon xp1700, 1.47 ghz)
Ram is at 229mb consistently

#4

I’ve ascertained that it is a software issue, not hardware. The dvd plays fine on the other partition (with the DVD software installed) but I’d still be keen to see it on the partition where it’s not working (I have a dual boot setup)

#5

Does anyone know what might be causing this? SHould I post a pic of the background tasks I’ve got running?

#6

[B]hello…oh[/B]…oh…o…

:wink:
last ditch effort!

#7

Try playing dvds/cds with VLC media player (www.videolan.org)

Since VLC has all video and audio codecs embedded and does not rely on other software, you will be able to determine if this is hardware related or not. What software are you currently using?

Sounds like there may be a problem with your sound drivers on that partition

Hope VLC works for you

#8

Hmm. same problem with VLC (good link,though thanks!)

How should I troubleshoot the sound drivers?

thanks!

#9

[QUOTE=How should I troubleshoot the sound drivers?

thanks![/QUOTE]

Before you play around with the sound drivers you sould try and play video and music off of your hard drive. Maybe go to youtube and see if the jittery audio persists.

Hmm, not sure the best way to do this, you could just try and uninstall the sound devices in Device Manager and then restart the computer. Windows will recognize the device and try to install the drivers. If it can’t, you should have the drivers laying around on a cd or floopy somewhere. If you don’t have that they should be available online somewhere.

Or you could just try and reinstall windows

Good luck!

#10

I’ll try that thanks. (youtube is fine, as is mp3/video playback from the hard drive)

#11

If playback from the hard disk is fine then so are your drivers most probably.

My next step would be to replace the IDE cable

Also, try the drive in another computer if possible (although you did try it on another partion and all was well)

#12

Hi again. I don’t think it is the hardware, though, because on the other partition it works no problem. On the partition where it works, I’ve got SP2, but it’s a very cut down version. No internet, or antivirus, or any other gubbins.

Here’s what’s running in the problematic partition:

<a href=“http://photobucket.com/” target="_blank"><img src=“http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l164/beatattitude/PC_background_tasks.gif” border=“0” alt=“Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting”></a>

that give any clues?

#13

If it’s not too much of a pain, you could try reinstalling that partition.

what’s cidaemon.exe? is that daemon tools or whatever the image mounting software is? You might try uninstalling that, but I’ve never heard of it being a problem.

#14

im having exactly the same problem as you, i recently reinstalled windows yesterday, and ever since i get this constant stutter off the audio when trying to play the dvd. its the same with my case if you try playin it off the hard drive its fine.

it is just when you play it off the dvd that theres a problem.

any help for us anyone???

#15

hi spinningplates. Is your drive the same one?
Could you post your system specs?
We might be able to identify the common issue…

#16

What brands of dvd media are you using? Cheap media will also cause problems in dvd discs playing back. Use the recommended dvd media that Plextor supports. Also both of you don’t mention what software is being used to burn the dvd discs.

#17

Hi thisjustin,

Hope this helps. Had a similar (same?) problem with an LG GSA-H62N running on a jmicron SATA port. Read somewhere that Jmicron doesn’t do optical drives well. So… I swapped it over to the Intel SATA controller and now everything runs hunky-dory.

S

[quote=Thisjustin;1614045]Hi there. My apologies if this is in the wrong forum…

I’ve got a problem with my Plextor PX-708a DVD writer drive.
Anyone got an idea why this happens?

Whenever there is a DVD playing, the DVD audio stutters constantly, and the same thing happens to any audio which I play back whenever I’m ripping an audio CD in Windows Media Player 10. CDs sometimes take ages to rip. More often now, skipping errors in the audio gets copied to the mp3.

In fact, the same audio stuttering happens playing an audio CD. It’s a regular skipping noise, a bit like when you fast forward a CD on a normal CD player.

This didn’t always happen, but I can’t recall when it started (not much use!). I’ve checked DMA is on, and the usual driver updates and troubleshooting tips.

Could it be to do with any background tasks running? Or is it more likely to be a hardware fault, such as a dirty lens?

Thanks for any help people might have on this! If I need to buy a new drive, then so be it: this one’s driving me mental.

SPECS:
Windows xp pro (all latest updates), 1gb ram, Asus a7n8x-e mobo, 2 IDE internal HDDs, no other optical drives.[/quote]

#18

[QUOTE=smhutto;2026071]Hi thisjustin,

Hope this helps. Had a similar (same?) problem with an LG GSA-H62N running on a jmicron SATA port. Read somewhere that Jmicron doesn’t do optical drives well. So… I swapped it over to the Intel SATA controller and now everything runs hunky-dory.

S[/QUOTE]

The PX-708A is an IDE drive not SATA :iagree: For this reason it can’t be a SATA problem :disagree: I also doubt that thisjustin has SATA.

Strange to reactivate a thread finished in November 2006 :eek::doh::confused: