DVD playback problem.

Phil K · Sep 17, 2003

I installed a new dvd drive for a mate of mine, (he'd never really needed one before) and while it plays all dvd fine, the sound is AWFUL choppy and dreadful. Picture seems ok, I did a new driver for it, and it made no difference. Now I wonder, is it the sound card at fault ? It plays everything else fine, but not dvd's. Its a Creative awe soundcard, bought a few years back. An ISA card too. Anyone got any ideas ? I'm stumped.

LTR12101B · Sep 17, 2003

If the PCI Latency in BIOS is set higher, reduce it to 64 - higher values can interfere with ISA cards.

If it's the kind of card I'm thinking of, it may have two DMA channels - defaults seem to be 1 and 5 - with 5 being the "high DMA" or 16 bit DMA.

On some systems, high DMA is defective, and better results are achieved with the "use low DMA" option.

What are the rest of the system specs?
Is DMA enabled for the DVD drive.

One suggestion, write some other Audiovisual formats to a CD (eg. AVI, MPG, WMA) and try playing them from the drive, and copied to HD - I'm wondering if the drive access is causing too great a latency.

Phil K · Sep 17, 2003

LTR12101B said:
If the PCI Latency in BIOS is set higher, reduce it to 64 - higher values can interfere with ISA cards.

If it's the kind of card I'm thinking of, it may have two DMA channels - defaults seem to be 1 and 5 - with 5 being the "high DMA" or 16 bit DMA.

On some systems, high DMA is defective, and better results are achieved with the "use low DMA" option.

What are the rest of the system specs?
Is DMA enabled for the DVD drive.

One suggestion, write some other Audiovisual formats to a CD (eg. AVI, MPG, WMA) and try playing them from the drive, and copied to HD - I'm wondering if the drive access is causing too great a latency.

I do not have a clue. If you could talk me through the bios, I'd be happy to have a crack at it. The only problem is, when. My mates shifts don't often coincide with mine so it tends to be Sunday after 2, so I'll have to have a go then. Thats IF I knew what I was doing ! Bios is not something I'd go into too often. His is an ABIT raid motherboard, bought about 3 years ago at least I believe, with a Duron 850 in place.

LTR12101B · Sep 17, 2003

In that case, it OUGHT to have good high DMA - only a few older boards (pentium classic era!) tended to suffer from it.

the PCI latency timer option should be reasonably easy to spot - in adavnced, PCI/PnP or similar areas - but it's possible the setting is not exposed.

VIPER_1069 · Sep 17, 2003

@LTR12101B good reply bud thanks ya just re-solved the same issue a friend had with their puter

thanks phil for askin the relevant question too lol

Phil K · Sep 18, 2003

VIPER_1069 said:
@LTR12101B good reply bud thanks ya just re-solved the same issue a friend had with their puter

thanks phil for askin the relevant question too lol

Typical of my luck that I'm no further forward (still sitting with a question mark above me head) but another mate says "Ah ! Thats that sorted ! Cheers, mugsy !"

LTR12101B · Sep 18, 2003

My old SB16 could use IRQ 2, 5, 7 or 10.
2 (remapped as 9 in hardware) and 10 are higher priority than most other devices, while 5 and 7 are about the lowest (below the IDE controller, particularly).
With sound problems on an old ISA card, using a higher priority interrupt MAY help.

If the card is non-PnP ISA, then the BIOS "reserve resource for ISA" option in Plug and Play shopuld be used - although it usually sorts itself out.

Chipset drivers may be worth a try - if there's one for "IRQ routing" that applies, it might help, though the fact that it's ok otherwise seems more like a conflict with the DVD drive - a test with other (non-DVD) media played from the drive may help to determine.

If there's a spare PCI slot, the line of least resistance may be to add a PCI sound card, as feeding data through an obsolete 8MHz 16 bit ISA bus is a bit of a bottleneck these days!

bionic · Sep 18, 2003

Take a look here. Might not be directly related to that card in perticular but can give some more pointers as what to look for

VIPER_1069 · Sep 19, 2003

@ phillipa

if you lived closer i would gladly come help but its a long walk to NUT'S-VILLE

But.......hey the guys here are still plugging away for an answer for you bud you will get there

WE never give up on a problem

Phil K · Sep 19, 2003

VIPER_1069 said:
@ phillipa if you lived closer i would gladly come help but its a long walk to NUT'S-VILLE

But.......hey the guys here are still plugging away for an answer for you bud you will get there

WE never give up on a problem

Nutts-ville....your charm is endless, Vipes.....

VIPER_1069 · Sep 19, 2003

@ phil heheh hope ya get sorted bud