Watching DVDs - 2 problems solved
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I'm posting this in the hope that it may help others with similar playback problems. (They've been bugging me for days). I had 2 problems playing DVDs on a recently acquired laptop: 1) The audio "stuttered" by varying amounts (and - Sod's Law - was worse on some of my favourite movies). 2) The audio wasn't always loud enough - it varied from one DVD to another. I found that the Secondary IDE was set to PIO data transfer mode - which is CPU intensive. The stuttering was caused by the CPU topping out - but Windows (XP) would not allow me to change it to DMA and the best advice seemed to be to unistall and reinstall the drive (which I really didn't fancy doing). I found a better solution here http://winhlp.com/node/10[^] (running the VBS in step 1). Now running in DMA mode. No more stuttering! :) The quietness of the audio is easily overcome if you're using VLC: The volume will go up to 400%! Just use CTRL-up/down arrow. VLC - don't you just love it! Now watching Dogma (stutter free and without the need for headphones). :) P.S. I take no responsibility for the safety of the script. I suggest that you read the code before running.
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I'm posting this in the hope that it may help others with similar playback problems. (They've been bugging me for days). I had 2 problems playing DVDs on a recently acquired laptop: 1) The audio "stuttered" by varying amounts (and - Sod's Law - was worse on some of my favourite movies). 2) The audio wasn't always loud enough - it varied from one DVD to another. I found that the Secondary IDE was set to PIO data transfer mode - which is CPU intensive. The stuttering was caused by the CPU topping out - but Windows (XP) would not allow me to change it to DMA and the best advice seemed to be to unistall and reinstall the drive (which I really didn't fancy doing). I found a better solution here http://winhlp.com/node/10[^] (running the VBS in step 1). Now running in DMA mode. No more stuttering! :) The quietness of the audio is easily overcome if you're using VLC: The volume will go up to 400%! Just use CTRL-up/down arrow. VLC - don't you just love it! Now watching Dogma (stutter free and without the need for headphones). :) P.S. I take no responsibility for the safety of the script. I suggest that you read the code before running.
" Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar. "
----------------------------------------------------------- HACK: To program a computer in a clever, virtuosic, and wizardly manner. Ordinary computer jockeys merely write programs; hacking is the domain of digital poets. Hacking is a subtle and arguably mystical art, equal parts wit and technical ability, that is rarely appreciated by non-hackers.
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I'm posting this in the hope that it may help others with similar playback problems. (They've been bugging me for days). I had 2 problems playing DVDs on a recently acquired laptop: 1) The audio "stuttered" by varying amounts (and - Sod's Law - was worse on some of my favourite movies). 2) The audio wasn't always loud enough - it varied from one DVD to another. I found that the Secondary IDE was set to PIO data transfer mode - which is CPU intensive. The stuttering was caused by the CPU topping out - but Windows (XP) would not allow me to change it to DMA and the best advice seemed to be to unistall and reinstall the drive (which I really didn't fancy doing). I found a better solution here http://winhlp.com/node/10[^] (running the VBS in step 1). Now running in DMA mode. No more stuttering! :) The quietness of the audio is easily overcome if you're using VLC: The volume will go up to 400%! Just use CTRL-up/down arrow. VLC - don't you just love it! Now watching Dogma (stutter free and without the need for headphones). :) P.S. I take no responsibility for the safety of the script. I suggest that you read the code before running.
Teh switch to PIO mode happens automatically when Windows detects a small number of errors, and it will not let you switch back (or tell you it's switched in the first place, damn it). There is a manual route that I have used several times (not trusting scripts that much): Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel. Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave, but it can't actually hurt to delete both. Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected. This works for both DVD and HDD drives.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced. This message is made of fully recyclable Zeros and Ones
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I'm posting this in the hope that it may help others with similar playback problems. (They've been bugging me for days). I had 2 problems playing DVDs on a recently acquired laptop: 1) The audio "stuttered" by varying amounts (and - Sod's Law - was worse on some of my favourite movies). 2) The audio wasn't always loud enough - it varied from one DVD to another. I found that the Secondary IDE was set to PIO data transfer mode - which is CPU intensive. The stuttering was caused by the CPU topping out - but Windows (XP) would not allow me to change it to DMA and the best advice seemed to be to unistall and reinstall the drive (which I really didn't fancy doing). I found a better solution here http://winhlp.com/node/10[^] (running the VBS in step 1). Now running in DMA mode. No more stuttering! :) The quietness of the audio is easily overcome if you're using VLC: The volume will go up to 400%! Just use CTRL-up/down arrow. VLC - don't you just love it! Now watching Dogma (stutter free and without the need for headphones). :) P.S. I take no responsibility for the safety of the script. I suggest that you read the code before running.
Another solution to DVD volumes, which usually sucks if you're on a stereo setup is to install AC3 Filter. From there you can do massive amounts of configuring, volume boosting, forcing stereo, etc before it even gets to VLC.
// Steve McLenithan
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" Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar. "
----------------------------------------------------------- HACK: To program a computer in a clever, virtuosic, and wizardly manner. Ordinary computer jockeys merely write programs; hacking is the domain of digital poets. Hacking is a subtle and arguably mystical art, equal parts wit and technical ability, that is rarely appreciated by non-hackers.
-
Teh switch to PIO mode happens automatically when Windows detects a small number of errors, and it will not let you switch back (or tell you it's switched in the first place, damn it). There is a manual route that I have used several times (not trusting scripts that much): Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel. Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave, but it can't actually hurt to delete both. Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected. This works for both DVD and HDD drives.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced. This message is made of fully recyclable Zeros and Ones
