DVD Rom in laptop has choppy video playback
- Thread starter Cutehumor
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Try to re-install the drivers.
Is it with just one DVD or all the ones that you've tried?
If it's a foreign DVD it could be the region code. We were given a set of DVDs by our aunt and they were street copies of a Korean drama. They played in her DVD player in Vietnam but when we tried them at home in all the DVD players and three laptops they didn't work.
If it's a foreign DVD it could be the region code. We were given a set of DVDs by our aunt and they were street copies of a Korean drama. They played in her DVD player in Vietnam but when we tried them at home in all the DVD players and three laptops they didn't work.
OVERKILL
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Q-tip and alcohol on the lens. If that doesn't fix it, you may need a new drive.......
If you play a video file from the hard drive, does it play correctly?
If you play a video file from the hard drive, does it play correctly?
Originally Posted By: asiancivicmaniac
Is it with just one DVD or all the ones that you've tried?
If it's a foreign DVD it could be the region code. We were given a set of DVDs by our aunt and they were street copies of a Korean drama. They played in her DVD player in Vietnam but when we tried them at home in all the DVD players and three laptops they didn't work.
Pretty much all dvds.
Is it with just one DVD or all the ones that you've tried?
If it's a foreign DVD it could be the region code. We were given a set of DVDs by our aunt and they were street copies of a Korean drama. They played in her DVD player in Vietnam but when we tried them at home in all the DVD players and three laptops they didn't work.
Pretty much all dvds.
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Q-tip and alcohol on the lens. If that doesn't fix it, you may need a new drive.......
If you play a video file from the hard drive, does it play correctly?
yep, I have even played a tv show from my network on dvd shrink. it played great.
Q-tip and alcohol on the lens. If that doesn't fix it, you may need a new drive.......
If you play a video file from the hard drive, does it play correctly?
yep, I have even played a tv show from my network on dvd shrink. it played great.
You can also try to open the laptop up and cleaning the connectors. Best to try everything (hardware and software) before buying a new drive.
OVERKILL
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Originally Posted By: Spartuss
You can also try to open the laptop up and cleaning the connectors. Best to try everything (hardware and software) before buying a new drive.
Depends on how much somebody's time is worth. Some of the drives are 30 or 40 bucks......... The ONE screw and the pull and push to replace the drive sometimes ends up being cheaper.
To ensure it's not video drivers (hence my question about videos on the hard drive in my first post) I would download a DVD rip from the Internet and play that. If playback is flawless, then you are pretty much guaranteed it's something to do with the drive.
What are you using for playback software? Some of them have an adjustable buffer that you could increase to compensate for the inconsistent transfer from the drive (if that is the problem).
You can also try to open the laptop up and cleaning the connectors. Best to try everything (hardware and software) before buying a new drive.
Depends on how much somebody's time is worth. Some of the drives are 30 or 40 bucks......... The ONE screw and the pull and push to replace the drive sometimes ends up being cheaper.
To ensure it's not video drivers (hence my question about videos on the hard drive in my first post) I would download a DVD rip from the Internet and play that. If playback is flawless, then you are pretty much guaranteed it's something to do with the drive.
What are you using for playback software? Some of them have an adjustable buffer that you could increase to compensate for the inconsistent transfer from the drive (if that is the problem).
OVERKILL
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Please post back when you do. Also check to see if you have hardware acceleration for the video on or not. If you do, try turning it off. If you don't, try turning it on. I've had mixed results with it depending on what video card is in a particular computer.
I've upgraded from PowerDVD 5.x to 7.0 on all our work computers as 5.x has problems with stuttering during playback.
Go into task manager during playback. Check CPU/Memory usage. Keep an eye on the hard drive activity light as well.
Sometimes on a lappy the CPU will get hot and thottle back as well.
Sometimes on a lappy the CPU will get hot and thottle back as well.
OVERKILL
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Originally Posted By: punisher
Go into task manager during playback. Check CPU/Memory usage. Keep an eye on the hard drive activity light as well.
Sometimes on a lappy the CPU will get hot and thottle back as well.
DVD playback should not spike CPU usage by any meaningful amount. In fact, most laptops have a "presentation" or multimedia" mode for battery settings which scales down the CPU speed to preserve battery life for the very reason of being able to watch movies on the road.
When a laptop is throttling CPU speed because of heat it's typically because of one of two reasons:
1. The laptop has a poorly (inadequate) designed cooling solution that is unable to handle the heat generated by 100% CPU load for extended periods of time.
or
2. The CPU heatsink is plugged with dust (VERY common) and needs to be cleaned with compressed air.
Go into task manager during playback. Check CPU/Memory usage. Keep an eye on the hard drive activity light as well.
Sometimes on a lappy the CPU will get hot and thottle back as well.
DVD playback should not spike CPU usage by any meaningful amount. In fact, most laptops have a "presentation" or multimedia" mode for battery settings which scales down the CPU speed to preserve battery life for the very reason of being able to watch movies on the road.
When a laptop is throttling CPU speed because of heat it's typically because of one of two reasons:
1. The laptop has a poorly (inadequate) designed cooling solution that is unable to handle the heat generated by 100% CPU load for extended periods of time.
or
2. The CPU heatsink is plugged with dust (VERY common) and needs to be cleaned with compressed air.
My advice stands. Eliminate the obvious/easy first. No need chasing ghosts when you can take 30 seconds to look at task manager and eliminate something easy. I am in absolute agreement, a 3.0 P4 shouldn't sweat decoding a DVD, unless there are 50 other processes running at the same time or there is a cooling problem causing a throttle down..
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OVERKILL
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Indeed, it shouldn't. I remember watching DVD's on my old P2 350 for Christ's sake! Pioneer 6X DVD-ROM, ATI Rage Pro video card. 64MB of RAM
I also remember the old DXR2 decoder cards.........
Had one of those too......
I also remember the old DXR2 decoder cards.........
I had a problem early this year with the fan coming on full blast all the time on my toshiba laptop. I took it apart and blew all the dust out. there was a thick layer of dirt over the cpu heatshrink. now It's quiet and purrs like a kitten. I'm going to do the drivers tonight and see what's up.
OVERKILL
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VERY common problem. I can't count how many I've done in the last six months alone!
When I bought my Dell PIII-450mhz it came with a CineMaster decoder card for the DVD-ROM drive. This was before the days of the Combo DVD/CDRW drives. IIRC this PC came with 128MB of RAM and Windows 98 Second Edition.
I ended up donating the PC to a school many years ago.
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Indeed, it shouldn't. I remember watching DVD's on my old P2 350 for Christ's sake! Pioneer 6X DVD-ROM, ATI Rage Pro video card. 64MB of RAM
I also remember the old DXR2 decoder cards.........
Had one of those too......
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Indeed, it shouldn't. I remember watching DVD's on my old P2 350 for Christ's sake! Pioneer 6X DVD-ROM, ATI Rage Pro video card. 64MB of RAM
I also remember the old DXR2 decoder cards.........
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