VLC Issue

I have two installs of Windows, one is old, the other is the one I usually use. On the old one VLC works fine when playing DVDs. On the new one VLC has strange pauses and distortion in the audio. What could be the problem? VLC plays things fine when it is off the hard disk but has trouble playing from the DVD (strangely not CDs, though). I have tried reinstalling VLC.

Being that VLC is a freeware the installer worked well when first used on the older copy of Windows. Have you tried downloading a fresh copy for the second installation there? I've been running it here mainly for Vista while XP sees Cyberlink's PowerDVD for audio as well as video files on the drive and easily plays both audio and video disks like vcds as well as dvds.

It was needed for Vista here since Windows might have to be reinstalled to see WMP 11 work with video seen and not just the audio portion or getting a new version of the PowerDVD software. There are several free players to try out for XP at this late date by seraching around like SuperDvD. Which version of Windows are you running there?

XP Professional on both.

5.1 Capability is really important to me too. It would be better to have Stereo DVD playback than nothing, but 5.1 is really nice.



Maybe I am misunderstanding, but what would downloading a fresh copy for the old windows do since it already works? I have tried re-installing and re-installing VLC on the new copy of windows.

If the original download got tainted somehow a fresh download would likely see better results. I've stored various updates and freewares in folders on drives and on removable media and still had to go for new copies at time when something won't go on right.

The current software installed for sound itself whether onboard or with an expansion card may not be seeing the full 5.1 there for some reason as well. If the software needs a reinstall there the speakers settings may suddenly see the 5.1 setting working properly again. Often a simple update repairs what the original or prior update loses.

Oh, I see. Each reinstall of VLC was a seperate download. My drivers work fine with my surround sound; games that support it use all 7 speakers and my sub beautifully. SuperDVD doesn't support 5.1 as I understand it.

Check to make sure that your DVD drive is set to UDMA mode 2 in the new install. It's obviously not anything to do with the software. Also, check the interupts and addresses to make sure that nothing is conflicting.

Separate downloads can avoid storage problems as well as end up seeing a bad copy downloaded as well. VLC was installed here lately as a temp player since WMP 11 is something else with nothing seen on display whether dvd or video file. SuperDVD itself is an older freeware to see simply to test that to see if the audo portion would be heard even in two channel to see it was a software clash of some type on the one of the two XP installations there.

The thought now would be focusing on the sound software/drivers for card or onboard there. The copy of Windows this is being seen on may have seen a bad install for sound causing this problem. On the last build here I ran into speaker setting problems in both XP and Vista alike until both ended up seeing the sound card's software reinstalled.

SuperDVD's stereo is undistorted, while VLC's is distorted off a DVD is distorted no matter the number of channels it outputs.



My onboard sound is beautiful except with VLC reading from a disc. I have had no other sound trouble. I did reinstall my sound drivers for a different reason, though (Nvidia network driver trouble, so I updated all my Nvidia onboard sound).



"Check to make sure that your DVD drive is set to UDMA mode 2 in the new install. It's obviously not anything to do with the software. Also, check the interupts and addresses to make sure that nothing is conflicting."

Forgive my ignorance, but how do I do either of those things?





Thank you both for your help, by the way.

When seeing more then one drive on a single ide port often there are varying access times for each drive/device. In the device manager you would right click on the ide controller to see the properties screen come up.

You then look in the advanced tab for transfer mode settings with a selector there. That should already be set to the udma mode in XP by default being far newer then the earlier versions like the 9X family of Windows there.

Some rather elaborate methods include using the registry editing tool to dreate a new value in the system registry itself while that comes with warnings for obvious reasons. http://users.bigpond.net.au/ninjaduc...duck/udma_fix/

The MS recommendation on the other hand is far more practical.

To enable DMA mode using the Device Manager
1.
Open Device Manager.
2.
Double-click IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to display the list of controllers and channels.
3.
Right-click the icon for the channel to which the device is connected, select Properties, and then click the Advanced Settings tab.
4.
In the Current Transfer Mode drop-down box, select DMA if Available if the current setting is "PIO Only."
If the drop-down box already shows "DMA if Available" but the current transfer mode is PIO, then the user must toggle the settings. That is:
•Change the selection from "DMA if available" to PIO only, and click OK.
•Then repeat the steps above to change the selection to DMA if Available.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...e/ide-dma.mspx

It does say PIO only but when I toggle it nothing changes...

Seems like we've found our problem.