No DVD Video

I am resurrecting a Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM, running XP
SP3. It does pretty well, except it will not play video from video
DVDs in the player. DVD sound (dialogue) is fine, just no video at
all. Audio CDs play just fine. I have tried three different drives
with same bad result. Device Manager shows no video problem
(no yellow flags). DriverAgent.com scans show no video driver
problem. Graphics for the few games I have loaded work fine.

What is a possible cause of no DVD video?

Thanks

Roy

In article <kbtsk71e3rtjr8v3baeuefkrega6jabl2q@4ax.com>, Rogers@wildwest.org wrote:
>I am resurrecting a Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM, running XP
>SP3. It does pretty well, except it will not play video from video
>DVDs in the player. DVD sound (dialogue) is fine, just no video at
>all. Audio CDs play just fine. I have tried three different drives
>with same bad result. Device Manager shows no video problem
>(no yellow flags). DriverAgent.com scans show no video driver
>problem. Graphics for the few games I have loaded work fine.
>
>What is a possible cause of no DVD video?
>
>Thanks
>
>Roy
What DVD player software are you trying to use? There has to be some type of
MPEG2 decoder software installed. Try looking for a demo version of PowerDVD
or similar and see if that works/

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:20:21 GMT, Winniethepooh@100acrewoods.net
(GMAN) wrote:


>What DVD player software are you trying to use? There has to be some type of
>MPEG2 decoder software installed. Try looking for a demo version of PowerDVD
>or similar and see if that works/


VLC, BlazeDVD, and Media Player Classic. All work on another
machine. They play on this machine too except only audio, no video.
I have never had this problem before. I will try to download a MPEG 2
decoder to see if that helps.

Thanks

Roy

<Rogers@wildwest.org> wrote in message
news:kbtsk71e3rtjr8v3baeuefkrega6jabl2q@4ax.com...
>I am resurrecting a Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM, running XP
> SP3. It does pretty well, except it will not play video from video
> DVDs in the player. DVD sound (dialogue) is fine, just no video at
> all. Audio CDs play just fine. I have tried three different drives
> with same bad result. Device Manager shows no video problem
> (no yellow flags). DriverAgent.com scans show no video driver
> problem. Graphics for the few games I have loaded work fine.
>
> What is a possible cause of no DVD video?



****Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM****

And you are wondering why it does not play DVD's ?? Unbelievable

Geez man upgrade your computer. Hint: DVD's to play videos and or movies needs at a
minimum 1Ghz machine and 1G of memory

JS

Rogers@wildwest.org wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:20:21 GMT, Winniethepooh@100acrewoods.net
> (GMAN) wrote:
>
>
>> What DVD player software are you trying to use? There has to be some type of
>> MPEG2 decoder software installed. Try looking for a demo version of PowerDVD
>> or similar and see if that works/
>
>
> VLC, BlazeDVD, and Media Player Classic. All work on another
> machine. They play on this machine too except only audio, no video.
> I have never had this problem before. I will try to download a MPEG 2
> decoder to see if that helps.
>
> Thanks
>
> Roy

What are you using for a video card ?

Maybe the hardware doesn't support Overlay Plane ?

If you've installed DirectX 9 package, then perhaps that
would add VMR7 and VMR9 ? Then, go to the preferences of
your DVD player, and see if Overlay Plane, VMR7, and VMR9
are options, trying them one at a time.

*******

Sometimes the player (CODEC) will use IDCT on the video card,
for acceleration, but support for that goes back a long
way on video cards. Perhaps if the video is pre-1999 or so,
it might not be there. I can't find an article to tell you
when it was introduced. It helps decode the "blocks" in
MPEG2 (frequency domain). While software could detect this
hardware logic block is missing in a GPU and run emulation software,
you'd probably see video at one frame per second and a lot
of skips.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-Dct-table.png

The software API for that now, is DXVA, and IDCT is rolled
in there somehow. But a DXVA call now, probably goes to the
dedicated video playback block in the GPU (which in some cases
on modern cards, is a complete decoder, not just the tiny IDCT
part of the problem).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DXVA

Paul

On 2/29/2012 3:17 PM, Peter Foldes wrote:
> <Rogers@wildwest.org> wrote in message
> news:kbtsk71e3rtjr8v3baeuefkrega6jabl2q@4ax.com...
>> I am resurrecting a Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM, running XP
>> SP3. It does pretty well, except it will not play video from video
>> DVDs in the player. DVD sound (dialogue) is fine, just no video at
>> all. Audio CDs play just fine. I have tried three different drives
>> with same bad result. Device Manager shows no video problem
>> (no yellow flags). DriverAgent.com scans show no video driver
>> problem. Graphics for the few games I have loaded work fine.
>>
>> What is a possible cause of no DVD video?
>
>
>
> ****Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM****
>
> And you are wondering why it does not play DVD's ?? Unbelievable
>
> Geez man upgrade your computer. Hint: DVD's to play videos and or movies
> needs at a minimum 1Ghz machine and 1G of memory

Although I concur that his machine has grown long in the tooth, your
minimums for proper DVD playback are arbitrary, and in the case of
several machines I've reconditioned, imaginary.

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:20:21 GMT, Winniethepooh@100acrewoods.net
(GMAN) wrote:

>What DVD player software are you trying to use? There has to be some type of
>MPEG2 decoder software installed. Try looking for a demo version of PowerDVD
>or similar and see if that works/


I downloaded two decoders. VLC and Stinky's. No improvement. Any
other ideas? As I said, I have never had this problem before.

Thanks

Roy

"Grinder" <grinder@no.spam.maam.com> wrote in message
news:WLydne9ufr7SCtPSnZ2dnUVZ_rudnZ2d@mchsi.com...

>> ****Gateway 500 MHz machine with 512MB RAM****
>>
>> And you are wondering why it does not play DVD's ?? Unbelievable
>>
>> Geez man upgrade your computer. Hint: DVD's to play videos and or movies
>> needs at a minimum 1Ghz machine and 1G of memory
>
> Although I concur that his machine has grown long in the tooth, your minimums for
> proper DVD playback are arbitrary, and in the case of several machines I've
> reconditioned, imaginary.



LOL. Then you have not tried to play heavy graphical images or movies or games. What
ever you say. Also you can recondition as many machines that you can the story will
still be the same with any one of them.

BTW: I can play a DVD with no graphics on my W2000 P1 with 64MB of memory so tell me
what does that tell you.

JS

On 29/02/2012 21:35, Rogers@wildwest.org wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:20:21 GMT, Winniethepooh@100acrewoods.net
> (GMAN) wrote:
>
>> What DVD player software are you trying to use? There has to be some type of
>> MPEG2 decoder software installed. Try looking for a demo version of PowerDVD
>> or similar and see if that works/
>
>
> I downloaded two decoders. VLC and Stinky's. No improvement. Any
> other ideas? As I said, I have never had this problem before.
>
> Thanks
>
> Roy

Try Paul's suggestions, they are 100% on the money.
--
Rob

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:18:19 -0500, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:


>Sometimes the player (CODEC) will use IDCT on the video card,
>for acceleration, but support for that goes back a long
>way on video cards. Perhaps if the video is pre-1999 or so,
>it might not be there. I can't find an article to tell you
>when it was introduced. It helps decode the "blocks" in
>MPEG2 (frequency domain). While software could detect this
>hardware logic block is missing in a GPU and run emulation software,
>you'd probably see video at one frame per second and a lot
>of skips.
>
>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-Dct-table.png
>
>The software API for that now, is DXVA, and IDCT is rolled
>in there somehow. But a DXVA call now, probably goes to the
>dedicated video playback block in the GPU (which in some cases
>on modern cards, is a complete decoder, not just the tiny IDCT
>part of the problem).
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DXVA
>
> Paul


I discovered that the boot up options include running in VGA mode,
which, once set, fixed the DVD video problem.

Thanks

Roy