Where is my DVD weak link?

[Fat Tone]

Hi
I can play Batman & Robin full screen perfectly, but when I play Starship Troopers (region 2 flipper) I get jerky performance, no matter what the res, clolour depth, window size etc.

The relevant bits of my system are K6-2-400, 128Mb PC100, G400 32 DH(@290), CL 2xDVD.

Can anyone please suggest which part of my sytem is lacking?

Cheers, Tony.

[Xizor]

Is batman & robin region 1 or 2, is your G400 connected to a TV?


-Xizor.

[Fat Tone]

Both discs are region 2. I'm looking at it on my primary display, with dual-head disabled. I haven't tried looking at the TV out except for Batman & Robin.

Cheers, Tony.

[Brian R.]

I may have seen the same behavior on my MAX. The only way I could view movies without jerking was with TV out enabled. Once the TV was removed, the problem returned. I received another MAX from Matrox tech support to try. No luck. Both cards exhibited the same behavior. This occurred in two different computer with all movies. The only thing which had an effect was connecting an external television.

I also have a G200 with a DVD daughter card. This setup does not provide a jerky picture in either computer.

------------------
Win98SE, 450 PIII @ 581 MHz (2.0 V), ABIT BX6-2 MB, 128 MB Siemens PC100 SDRAM, G400 MAX, Diamond V2 SLI, Diamond MX300, CL Dxr3 Decoder, Adaptec AHA2940 w/uw SCSI, IBM 9ZX 9.1GB 10K UW SCSI HD, WDE 4360 4.3GB SCSI HD Supermicro SC750A case with PCP&C Silencer 275W PS, serious case cooling with four additional fans, and a partridge in a pear tree.

[This message has been edited by Brian R. (edited 10-06-1999).]

[TheMorg]

I had jerky playback of some DVD movies when I had a Celeron 400 in my big nasty SCSI setup with a G400MAX, but I upgraded to an Athlon 600 and it's smooth as silk now. So maybe it's your CPU.

What res & colour depth is your desktop running at? I've had warnings running the DVD Player at higher resolutions that it uses more memory.

Are you running full screen? I think the CPU has to do a lot of scaling work if you run DVD movies unless you run it as the default window size.

Also check to see if UltraDMA is enabled on your DVD-ROM drive.

[Fat Tone]

Thanks for your comments.

Brian R. - I'll try with TVO and see what happens.

TheMorg - I've tried 8x6x16 and 10x7x32 with all window sizes, with little difference.
The CLx2 DVD uses PIO Mode 4.
It sounds like the others are suggesting a configuration problem or a fault rather than inadequate specification?

Tony.

[Fat Tone]

Brian R. - enabling DVDMax mode seems to slow things slightly.

TheMorg - I think using Default window size helps a little, but it still ain't right.

I guess I should have mentioned I'm using 98SE, pd5.25. I haven't set up my spec sig yet as it has changed a few times lately.

Would upgrading the DVD drive help things, or is it true that movies only play at 1x?

Cheers, Tony.

[Guyver]

Movies may play at 1x, but getting the data to the software decoder quicker, gives more time for decoding rather than waiting for the info.

I use my Matshita (either 2 or 3x DVDROM) with my G400Max @ 1024x768x32 without stutter... Starship Troopers, Matrix, The Mummy, Star Trek Insurrection & First Contact and Blade all work without hiccup. Without DVDMax mode, no 2nd device for display...

Guyv


------------------
ABit BE6, PIII-450 OC'd 600Mhz. 128MB PC133HSDRAM, 2.0V, 39C, Matrox Millenium G400 MAX, Adaptec 2940UW, Seagate Cheetah 9.1GB, Quantum 4.5GB, Kenwood 52X TrueX, Mitsumi 3XDVD, Sony SDT-5010 4MM DAT, Toshiba 32X SCSI CD, Memorex 6x2x4x CDRW, Iomega 100MB Zip ATAPI, 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy, 3Com/USR 56K Voice Faxmodem Pro, HP DeskJet 895CXi, Pioneer VSX-3700S Dolby Surround Receiver, Design Accoustics 3-way fronts, Pioneer Surrounds, Logitech Marble FX

[Fat Tone]

Thanks Guyver. Looks like most of your system specs beat mine. Anyone out there with simillar spec to mine having problems?

Tony.

[jsb]

It can be that Starship is encoded with a higher bit rate then batman, or that ST is encoded variable bit rate and have a higher max value. if that is the case maybe your CPU has problem keeping up with the decoding. that is if you have the problem only in peeks, aka lots of moving in the picture.

[Meek]

Hi.

I could not get DVD smooth on a K6-2 450 and a G400, no matter what I tried. Well, it was viewable when I hacked the registry of the Software Cinemaster to "Basic Quality" A bit soft, though, but smooth. (In registry, search for Software Cinemaster, under video encoder or something there is a key called... was it performance class... change that to 0. Do NOT change the "hardware optimisation" value, it has no effect).

So, you could try the registry hack, or use the DVD region selector available from several DVD sites, or the original Cinemaster control panel applet to change this setting.

I also had (still have) a CL 2x DVD, btw.

To me the conclusion was that Super7/K6-2 is not enough for smooth DVD. It may be "just" a cache issue, so that K6-3 could be enough, I do not know. I have also blamed the poor 3dnow! otpimisations in the coder sw.

My ultimate DVD solution was an Athlon 500. It works no flawlessly, a bit expensive DVD player though...

M.

[Grego]

You may already know this, but I had similar problems with Starship Troopers (region2) but they were solved by downloading the latest drivers for my ide-controller and enabling dma for my dvd-drive.
I am also using a cacheprogram called cdquick, where you can use memory/hdd as extra cache (but the all important gain was when enabling dma)the funny thing though is that I did not have any problems with other titles just S.Troopers, and now dvd-playback is smooth and without any problems.


k6-3 450, 128mb pc100 ram, IBM 13.5GB 7200rpm, Pioneer 103s dvdrom, g400 32mb dh.

[Fat Tone]

Thanks Guys.

I just installed the latest VIA 4in1 (4.14, 6/oct/99) and checked that DMA was enabled (didn't seem to be an option before). I also set the desktop to 1024x768x16 and window size to cinema. Things are much improved, but still not perfect.

I'll try a temporary o/c to 450 (not usually very stable) to see if the little extra oomph helps.

It sounds (from Grego) like i might have chosen the wrong title to get picky with.

Cheers

Tony.

PS the sad thing about deciding the CPU is the weak link is that it won't be a cheap fix. I can upgrade the DVD to 6x for about £50 (after selling the old one), but I can't get much of a processor upgrade for that money.

[Fat Tone]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I tried o/c to 450 and it was MUCH smoother - until it all locked up that is.

Looks like I need to get saving (or not watch S.Troopers again)!

Tony.