[paul_h_amiga]

Well gang here goes nothing!!

I'm using PowerDVD 4, The drive in Question is a Pioneer DVD-106S Drive.

The DVD Playback is strange in that it seems to be missing a few frames or frames get blurred together for a second. This is most noticeable on Futrarama or other animation. But it is fine when I view real-life? DVDs such as Monty Python or Three Kings. I have tried setting the UDMA setting's using PowerDVD's System Diagnostic but when I reboot it says it has failed, although in the Device Manager It says it is set to UDMA Mode. This confuses me. I have tried another OS (winXP and it is the same in that. I have tried WinDVD 3 and still the problem persists? Any solutions you can provide would a great peace of mind.

Cheers y'all.

[Sampson]

I hate to be the only one to post to you. I hate seeing someone lose their serenity.
First, there have been many who said they have problems with DVD and Plextor drives with Via chipsets. First suggestion check out to see if you have the latest Via drivers.
Second, Abit may have a new bios, you can check that out.
Third, sometimes it depends on how the DVD and CD drives are hooked to the controller. There are primary and secondary devices and master and slave relationships. How you string them in pairs makes a difference. As I understand UDMA and 66 and 33 drives attached to them, you are going to transfer at the slower rated drive. I am presuming that you have the Hard Drives as primary master/slave and the DVD and Plextor secondary master/slave. Part of the transfer failure may be in whether both the DVD and CD can transfer at UDMA at 66. As I understand it PIO mode does not drag one drive down when chained together.
I have heard that some add a second controller card and put their DVD exclusively on it and have had success.
Not much peace of mind I can offer, but some suggestions.

[paul_h_amiga]

Hey no worries mate, I will remain calm at all times. GOD DAMN IT!

The way i have it setup is that, as you have said, the DVD Drive is the Master Drive and the Plextor is the slave. I have no problems with the Plextor drive, far from it gives great performance. I am using the latest 4.38V Via Drivers, and also I have already flashed the BIOS with the latest update from ABIT. (The motherboard which I failed to mention before is the KG7-Lite, and in all honesty I was thinking about the KG7-RAID Version so I could have the DVD and CD-Writer on Separate IDE Connections but of course I need cash way before I do that.) but I want to find a way of not really having to resort to spending more money than I have to first. I have thought about the display set at 32-bit and 16 bit, but still the problem remains.

Cheers

[Sampson]

Are you using an 80 wire 40 pin cable?

[paul_h_amiga]

It is one of those round IDE cables, and they are ATA100. I assume it is a 40 pin cable.

[Sampson]

It is 40 pin. Which knocked out my next theory - heat. The rounded cables usually allow for better circulation. The athlons usually run hot and DVD drives after a period of usage also run hot. Does this problem come up with the samed disk at the same spots or does it vary? Sometimes the media can have slightly different layers which can cause a slow down.

[Sampson]

Found an article at Microsoft about DVD playback and windows experience: http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/winlogo/DVD/

Did you ever feel like we're just playing fox and the hounds with these machines? Anyway, the next likely suspect is your video card since everything seems to check out as to connections. Lack of memory and driver support can cause skips and dropped framerates.

[Sampson]

Also found a page that will test your DVD: http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=dvdspeed.html

[paul_h_amiga]

I have one of the older cases which doesn't have a fan next the CPU/heatsink. The temperature inside is worrying at times, I must admit, which is why I am getting one of those coolercase cases from Overclockers.co.uk, so maybe if it is the heat, then hopefully that will get it sorted.

as for the DVDs, It does happen at the same sort of areas. but is seems that any fast mving struff as as credits etc, are blurred.

[paul_h_amiga]

"Did you ever feel like we're just playing fox and the hounds with these machines?"

Yep, except if there were never any problems, where would the fun be!!

Cheers for those links I will give them a go, I don't see how there could be lack of memory as 512MB should be more than enough! I do have a nagging feeling about The Video overlay, but the geforce 2 gts should be more than enough to play it back shouldn't it?

[Sampson]

Actually, with an old clunker like my BX I am amazed it can still keep up. You've got a Super machine. Anyway, by memory, I meant that which was on the Video Card. The Nvidia cards have always been famous for their game playing, while the ATI cards seem to seamlessly work with DVD's. The test ought to tell you the burden put on the processor and the DVD. You did say that you went to the Device Manager, then to IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, then clicked on the Secondary IDE Channel, then right clicked for Properties, then chose Advanced Settings to find out if DMA was set?

[paul_h_amiga]

yep I checked those settings and they were set to the DMA Mode.

[Sampson]

Go to your device manager and bring up your hardware and click on view by connection. Look at your IRQ's. XP and 2000 like to assign PCI devices to the same IRQ. Very often your sound card, video card, and ethernet card may share the same IRQ. Generally, this is no problem as there may be no memory conflicts. But, there could be enough "traffic" to slow one down. I've seen seasoned game players assign their video cards to their own IRQ to raise their speed in 3DMark.