Someone should make a rock-steady HTPC DVD player... :( (1 Viewer)

[Javier_Huerta]

I would pay good money for it.
Has anyone ever noticed how unstable DVD players are for PC? I'm stunned. I have Windows XP running on a PII 450 MHz with 384 MB RAM, a Radeon 7500, and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. My PC is patched almost everyday. DirectX is 9.0. Radeon Catalyst drivers are on V3.0.
If I play one movie using either PowerDVD 4.0, the ATI Player (7.7?) or Zoom Video with Cinemaster video and PowerDVD audio, everything is fine. But if I switch movies, regions, or anything else I can think of, audio goes out of synch, video starts becoming "jumpy", or worse, the computer simply hangs.
I'm fairly comfortable with tinkering with my PC, and I can honestly say either the Radeon drivers aren't mature enough yet, or the players themselves simply aren't that well written. I can use my PC for anything else; DVD playing is the only area that stumps it.
Oh, well. :frowning:

 

[Lyden]

i would say its youre system processor im running a Athlon XP 1700+ system and it doesnt have any kinds of problems with DVD's and my video is run through a Gforce 4 MX 420. it couldt be mny things my system used to hang when i first put the DVD player in but that was from a faulty cable i switched it and it was fine later on.

 

[Drew Salter]

I agree w/ Lyden, you're processor just can't handle it.

You're components are good, but like getting a new limb, it's no good if your heart can't pump blood to it.

I'd suggest you upgrade to a minimum PIII 800. But of course a PIV would be better.

Just my thoughts.

Drew

 

[Steve_Ch]

I also think it's your system, as I've been playing DVD movies on 3 different laptops (from a PII 333 with ZV slot and Margi to PIII 600 SpeedStep), 2 desktops (PIII 500 to P4 1.8), systems are made by 3 different manufacturers, 6 different software players and 5 different dvd drives, also use software such as DVDgenie for region change, never had the kind of problems you mentioned. Also, W98, W98SE, W2000, WinXP Home and WinXP Prof are the OSes.

 

[Scott L]

It definitely is your cpu. It might run smooth under Win98 but XP takes up a whole lot more resources and your proc has to run them all while decoding video. Also DX 9.0 is still very new, it's my understanding many have had problems with it. 8.1 seems to be working fine with me, but is 9.0 safe enough yet to install?

 

[Javier_Huerta]

I don't know about DX9.0 being unstable. It'd seem there was no difference between 8.1 and 9 AFAIK.
I know it could be my processor; I actually tried to be a cheapskate and assemble the cheapest HTPC for the money. Still, whenever I play a DVD and check out the processor resources, they are hovering at around 30-60%, so technically, the processor is OK for the task (I'd think the Radeon is doing all of the heavy work).
Another thing - whenever the computer hangs and I have to reboot, I get a message telling me the Radeon is the culprit. But I cannot understand why I would be one of the few persons who have problems with the newest ATI drivers.
I suspect the problem lies elsewhere - maybe the chipset or another part of the motherboard are the ones that are having issues with WinXP. But I dread to think about downgrading my equipment to Win98, after all the time I have spent tweaking it :frowning:

 

[Shane Martin]

ATI drivers are an absolute nightmare IMHO combined with a rather iffy D9.0 and a 450 as your processor I can see why.

I would back off to 8.1 if you can and upgrade your processor.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I've had that happen sometimes, too. It usually happens when I have "Theater Mode" checked.

 

[David Lorenzo]

I have zero problems playing DVDs. I have a P4 2.6GHz and a Radeon 9700 Pro with the newest Catalyst drivers.