DVD Playback on Epia C3 800?

[conan]

Have my Mini ITX box up and running but can't get it to play DVD's (on a monitor) at the moment. Windows (XP Pro), tells me to lower the res or number of colours. I've taken it right down to 800x600 at 256 colours but still no joy:confused:

I've been looking round the SFF forums and there are only 2 things I can find. One is that PowerDVD is the only software that properly uses the Epia onboard decoder, and 2 there is some talk about video overlay but not sure what this is.

The other thing I wondered about is would it be different plugged into a TV through the TV out (lower refresh rate)?

[Javaman]

unfortunately, no idea what your problem is. I run the same c3 800 with winxp pro - powerdvd xp runs just fine - sure the quality isn't awesome, but quite watchable.

Consider getting something like the Sigma Xcard to take the video processing work of the cpu. Personally, i just ordered an ATI 9200 SE (the biggest and cheapest GFX card i could get in PCI format) to take on DVD decoding and some basic gaming duties off the main cpu. I'll post back how that goes when it arrives in a few weeks.

[PJ Matthews]

This a common problem with the old EPIA 800 boards. The DVD Hardware decoding facility that was supposedly present never worked and the processer struggles to be able to do anything respectable.

Your only soloutions are:
A DVD decoding card.
A Graphics card with dvd decoding facilities.
A new Mini ITX boards (Anything with M in it will be just fine).

PJ

[conan]

PJ, are you sure it was never there or is it possibly a bios upgrade needed? The bios I have on at the moment is the original 1.09, would it be worth upgrading to a newer version or the latest?

[PJ Matthews]

No sorry, there is no way for it to be enabled :/.

[conan]

Originally posted by PJ Matthews
No sorry, there is no way for it to be enabled :/.


:mad: :( :mad:

[Javaman]

Originally posted by PJ Matthews
This a common problem with the old EPIA 800 boards. The DVD Hardware decoding facility that was supposedly present never worked and the processer struggles to be able to do anything respectable.

PJ

While not disputing that the playback is not ideal, my c3 800 epia is totally stock, and playback dvd's very acceptably - to my eyes, while not a crystal clear, seems to juder less than my desktop (1.4Ghx Athlon, 768Mb Ram, Geforce 3 Ti200...) which is mildly annoying to say the least.