Tech: DVDs not playing

Subject: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:31 PM

I have a nasty feelng that this is going to turn out to be a "Doh" moment, but at the moment I don't see it.

As 'catters may recall between Xmas and the new year I had to rebuild ALL my computers. Even the one that had the least done was treated to a reshuffle of hard drives and optical drives. 3 computers, 6 optical drives. A DVD drive or better and a CD-writer or better in each computer.

I rarely play DVD movies on the computers. Today, it pans out, although ALL the optical drives will read CD data discs, and all will read and play CD audio discs, only one will read and play a DVD, and that one does so without sound. OK the CD-only drives won't read a DVD anyway, but this is starting to look like installer error.

What am I missing?

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From:
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:32 PM

There might be a small cable from the drive to the sound card missing to get the sound off the DVD player into the sound card.

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 11:40 PM

Or you might need the software to run the DVD. That was a problem I first encountered when I set up a dual platform in a computer a couple of machines back.

I think Windows Media Player will play DVDs now. My Nero has something for playing DVDs (though it doesn't look like much). I prefer the program WinDVD which has been around for a few years and can be purchased for about $10 as OEM through places like eBay ($5 for the program and they gouge $5 for shipping a single CD, but still, it's low compared to paying full price for it and the old program is in some ways more reliable and last I checked still got better reviews than the newer version).

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 12:45 AM

With your reshuffling, it's possible that you do have an "installation error."

There have been a number of revisions to standards for both CDs and for DVDs that have required updated drivers, and moving a drive to a different machine, especially to one with a different OS version, may have gotten you an obsolete driver. If the manufacturer of the drive is identifiable, you may be able to get updated drivers, and in some cases updated drive BIOS downloads.

Optical drives generally face a number of different data "formats" that require installing a number of codex files to work with all the different variations in disks you stuff into them. Once a good driver is installed, recent Windows versions are good at prompting you to load a needed one, and usually have what's needed on your installation disk (or in the CAB files installed with the OS) but older versions may not recognize what's needed, or may not have the appropriate ones.

DVD drives, or DVD functions on combination DVD/CD drives, are prone to "mechanical" failures. A fairly common one is that the drive can't spin up to the higher rpm required for DVD playback, or can't hold the higher disk speed sufficiently stable. The lower playback speed for CD playback, and even for CD burning, frequently remains available in this case. A manufacturer's website may have a diagnostic program you can download to check out your drives, although the quality of support available is somewhat "spotty."

John

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 02:41 AM

It ain't the cable - first I know they are all on, and second the DVD drives play sound CDs OK. All computers have Windoze Media Player and one has RealPlayer as well.

I think I have a copy of WinDVD somewhere. That'll be the next step.

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 02:59 AM

Ah-hah.

Found one problem: In the one that was playing back silent, there was a separate volume control in PowerDVD, and for some reason it needed turning RIGHT up, and even then WAVE output was not huge.

On that machine, the other drive is CD only, so one machine down (except that I have an unidentified device that Windoze thinks is the PCI bus, which it isn't because if it was there would be no sound output at all....), two to go.

Subject: RE: Tech: DVDs not playing
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 08:39 AM

Second one done. Replacing the DVD drive with a much newer one (from 2003, the machine is 2000) effected a cure once I had decided which was the master and which the slave.