Forum: Geek Forum
Topic: Awful dvd playback
started by: Beastie Dr

Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 02 2002,07:05
I can't figure this out.  And, I got my new HD.  

40gb hd, 1.7 ghz p4, 512 mb ram, and g3 ti200.  Yet, the movie often pauses when I'm doing no other tasks.
Posted by DuSTman on Jun. 02 2002,08:27
Checked you've got DMA enabled on the dvd drive?
Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 03 2002,13:34
And how would I go about doing this?  I feel like a moron, but this is one thing I haven't heard of.
Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 06 2002,20:23
bump
Posted by Jynx on Jun. 06 2002,22:44
What OS do you have?
Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 06 2002,23:10
xp
Posted by Jynx on Jun. 07 2002,00:14
I don't think you'll find it -

In Win98, if you went to the Device Manager and checked out your DVD drive properties, you'd find a DMA checkbox.  However, I don't think that you'll find that in XP -- I've got a DVD drive and XP, and have checked.  If someone knows where that checkbox might be hidden, please tell me, too.  :p

So, I guess the best you can do is try a defrag, and limit the number of programs you're running while watching something--I usually only have my DVD player going by itself, to ensure a good playback.

Sorry I can't help more.
Posted by RadioActive on Jun. 07 2002,00:16
what software are you using for DVD playback
i've seen those symptomes with WinDVD running on XP and not much seemed to help.
Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 07 2002,18:55
Fuck, I'm running PowerDVD 4, so I guess I am just reamed.
Posted by Darth Liberus on Jun. 08 2002,01:50
Give < WinDVD > a shot, they have a 30-day free trial.  It's never let me down.

Also, check your DMA settings.  A lot of times Win2K/XP will set DVD drives to PIO mode (=very slow) by default because some drives have buggy DMA implementations.

This is for Win2K, but IIRC it's the same in XP:

Go to the Device Manager, open the properties for Primary IDE Channel, click on Advanced Settings, and make sure Transfer Mode for both devices is set to "Use DMA if available."

Do the same thing for all other IDE channels.  Make sure to restart your computer if you changed anything.


Posted by Beastie Dr on Jun. 08 2002,06:29
I'm actually thinking it may be my DVD-ROM drive that's two years old and ran for a year in an open case...
No luck with DMA.
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