DVD Playback problem, please help!

[aress]

Hi all,

I have a Compaq SR1705UK, have had it for 18 months now.

About 8 months ago, a friend installed a game called "Bus Driver" on my PC, and ever since, I have been unable to play DVD movies. The drive still functions perfectly well for reading and writing CD/DVD roms, but when I try to play a movie DVD, it plays quite sluggishly. The image quality is fine, as is the sound, but it almost seems as if it is trying to play in slow motion, and not smooth slow motion at that, it skips along quite a bit.

I don't know if the Bus Driver game had installed a DLL file over the top of one it shouldn't have, or something like that, but I have long since uninstalled the game, and the DVD playback problem remains.

I have also since re-installed the latest Windows Media Player, and upgraded the RAM from 512MB to 2GB, and I also installed a GeForce 8600 graphics card, but still the problem persists.

Can anyone help me solve this? I'm pretty sure it must be a conflict somewhere, and I don't need to purchase a new DVD-RW drive!

Thanks everyone!

Ron :)

[Euphoria]

What DVD software are you using? I can't remember off the top of my head if WM10 (maybe 11) supports DVD playback. The others didn't without the likes of PowerDVD installed too.

Have you tried PowerDVD or anyother program to play the DVD? Maybe worth a try if not. Also update the codecs and things, doesn't hurt even to do every now and then.

[jacobzcoool]

check for malware called 'starforce' - this is installed as DRM and is known to cause issues with DVD drives.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/detect.php

[aress]

I have WinDVD, which was pre-installed when I got the PC, and also Windows Media Player 11, but both of them worked fine before Bus Driver was installed.

[aress]

I followed that link, and checked my Device Manager, Starforce is not on my PC.

[bob_struth]

I would try uninstalling the DVD drive in device manager then reboot and allow Windows to find and install it again.

Worth trying..

[LSG501]

Personally I would uninstall the optical drive in system properties and then let windows detect it again after a reboot and see if it helps.
If that didn't work I would uninstall the windvd software and just get a dvd codec such as ffdshow (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow) which should allow you to playback dvd's (and others) without any issues.

Forgot this bit: how much hard drive space (and capacity of the drive) have you got left as the amount of storage can have an effect on the playback with some programs in my experience.

[aress]

Ok, I uninstalled Interactual WinDVD, then downloaded ffdshow-20041012-sse2, then tried a DVD again - same problem, but slightly worse now!

Help!

:(

[LSG501]

did you do the uninstall of the dvd drive in system properties.

[aress]

Yeah I did that too, then restarted Windows XP, it recognised the "new" hardware, and re-installed it. That didn't solve anything either. I'm puzzled!

[saltynay]

Did you try installing a driver pack??? Download VLC player its free and will play virtually every video/audio file ever made....

[Fireblade]

Do you have a 'System Restore' point, back to a date just before Bus Driver was installed?

[LSG501]

Did you try installing a driver pack???

He tried ffdshow which is arguably the best out there (well just about every pack I've tried uses it :rolleyes:).

[aress]

Well I don't want to use System Restore, as nothing else is affected, and I have installed several programs and updates since then. System Restore would probably just make more programs malfunction.

[LSG501]

ok only things left (in my view) are conflicting codecs/dodgy install somewhere or a dodgy drive.

to rule codecs/dodgy install (of a program not windows) being an issue download cccp insurgent (http://www.cccp-project.net/download.php?type=cccpi) and create a log.

Post the log here so we can see if there are any conflicts within the codecs installed on your system.

EDIT: and you still haven't given me the info regarding hard drive space etc

[aress]

Ok, I ran CCCP program, and here's what came up...

[aress]

I have 2 hard-drives installed;

C: 80GB (15GB free), and;
F: 160GB (50GB free).

They had a lot more free space last month, but I am editing two video projects just now. The DVD playback problem has been present since February-ish, and I had tons of free hard-drive space then.

[LSG501]

Ok, I ran CCCP program, and here's what came up...
why didn't you just go file log and copy and paste the text file here, that doesn't show all the codecs :rolleyes:

And try vlc (as suggested) to see if thats jumpy.

[aress]

I tried VLC Player, it's even worse, my mouse pointer goes down to one frame per second!

I don't know how to get CCCP to show all my codecs, I've never used it before, can you tell me exactly what I need to do with that program to get it to display the information you need?

Thanks...

[aress]

Ok, I managed to get this report generated, is this what you need to see?

[LSG501]

from what I can make out you have pinnacle installed along with premiere and no doubt a couple of others. I would go with the idea you have codecs conflicting.

Now removing them is not an easy thing to do and personally I would just do a complete reinstall (I would say you need it anyway after 8+ months usage anyways:D)

link to a website (http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-remove-or-uninstall-audio-video.html) with info regarding removal etc.

As I would just reinstall windows I can't give any more info than that I'm afraid.

[aress]

Ok, but will re-installing Windows delete any programs/files from my hard drive? Would upgrading from XP to Vista perhaps solve the problem? (I was thinking of upgrading to Vista anyway)

[nicky munchkin]

1. Ok, but will re-installing Windows delete any programs/files from my hard drive? 2.Would upgrading from XP to Vista perhaps solve the problem? (I was thinking of upgrading to Vista anyway)
1. Yes
2. No, well yes it would, but XP is just as adequate.

[LSG501]

it might not solve the issue upgrading to vista, as it may take the issue with it (not sure how the upgrade goes) if it takes all the programs etc too.

[aress]

Well, is there absolutely nothing else I can do, other than re-installing Windows? I'm really not keen to do that, as I am very happy with the way I have my PC set up just now, and the only thing that isn't working properly is DVD playback!

[Tami]

Try This codec pack. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06fcaab7-dcc9-466b-b0c4-04db144bb601&DisplayLang=en)

[aress]

I downloaded that Codec pack, and the following error appeared during installation;

(See image; error.jpg)

I then opened Windows Media Player 11, and tried playing a DVD, and got the following message;

(See image; error2.jpg)