DVD not playing properly on my computer

ewillisva · Nov 30, 2013

I've started noticing some problems when playing a rental DVD on my computer. I am using a somewhat older (3 years) cd/dvd drive (8x, TSST corp) on my new build, which has never given my any problems before. I've burned CDs and played many DVDs with no problem. I use Media Player to watch the DVDs. Recently, one DVD started giving me some trouble. The trailers and all play fine, but when I get 5 minutes into the feature the picture gets all pixelated and blurry. The sound continues with no problem. Could this be a hardware or software problem? I've checked and found I was running the most recent driver for my GPU and Optical drive. One solution would be to change the viewing software and use PowerDVD, but I want to have some confidence that will fix the problem before I throw down the money on it.

In case it matters:

Win 7 Pro
Core i7 3770k
GTX 760 (2GB)
16 GB RAM

Dark Lord of Tech · Nov 30, 2013

TSST corp < very poor optical drives.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $15.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-30 21:26 EST-0500)

What are you using to play the movies?

Someone Somewhere · Nov 30, 2013

Try VLC is the other option - it's free.

That's usually an indication of a scratch on the disc though - it can't read enough data to play properly.

ewillisva · Dec 1, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

That's what I thought on the first attempt. I returned it to Netflix and asked for a replacement. The same thing occurred, at the same exact place in the movie, on the replacement.

I will upgrade my drive to a DVD/Blu-ray drive sometime in the near future. I haven't simply because the current one, cheap as it may be, hasn't given me any trouble until now. Though, seeing as this is a rental DVD, could this issue be related to a codec or copy-protection (e.g. software-related)?

Someone Somewhere · Dec 1, 2013

Mm. The other option is that it's stuttering across the layer boundry - it might be a DVD-DL.

Try VLC and see if it does it better. It's free and open source.

ewillisva · Dec 2, 2013

Aside from not playing Blu-Ray are there any basic features VLC doesn't offer which PowerDVD Ultra does, notwithstanding all the bells and whistles? Does VLC utilize your GPU for watching DVDs (not just video files) in HD? I'm just trying to see if I would be wasting my money in getting the PowerDVD, if all I want to do is watch rental DVDs and BR's in full HD (at least to the best of my GPU and monitor). No ripping.

Someone Somewhere · Dec 2, 2013

I believe VLC does use GPU acceleration on DVDs. Not certain. It shouldn't be that hard to tell, though.

With some messing around you can watch BDs too, but you have to forgo the ads and menu system (such a great loss - boo hoo).

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DVD not playing properly on my computer

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