Acer Aspire 3680 audio/video issues when playing DVDs

Hey. I just picked up an Acer Aspire 3680 notebook (running Vista, sadly) and I already have a problem. I called their support line but the tech I talked to was borderline retarded, so I thought I'd give you fine gentlemen a try.

The 3680 has 2 programs for watching DVDs- Windows Media Player and Acer Arcade. Both applications have problems.

Windows Media Player plays the video with no problems, but when the program first opens it gives me the following error: "The audio format is not supported by the application. Would you like to watch the DVD with Acer Arcade?" If you say no, Windows Media Player plays the DVD, but with no sound whatsoever.

However, if you play the DVD with Acer Arcade, the audio plays fine- but there's a problem with the video! It's not too choppy, but you can tell it's skipping frames here and there, making the picture look kind of jumpy. This video problem is not present with Windows Media Player.

I tested this wil multiple DVDs, and the same exact issue happened with them all. Also, I tested a few DVDs down at Best Buy on the 3680 floor model and yup, the same exact thing happened, so it must be some kind of problem affecting them all.

The 3680's sound works fine otherwise.

So, has anyone heard of this problem, and are there any fixes? So far Acer has been no help at all and if I don't find a fix soon, I'm just returning the thing.

Thanks in advance.

 

I just bought my 3680 yesterday and was searching for a solution to the same problem. I am getting ready to email Acer right now. I will report what they say.

 

My 3680 does the same thing. I reinstalled a few drivers from the Acer site but it didnt fix the problem.

My question is why doesnt Windows Media Player play DVD's??? I thought it always did before on XP machines. I really dont care for how the Acer Arcade makes the video sketchy sometimes.

 

I agree. Never had any problems playing DVD's on XP. I added an additional 1gb of memory and it plays alot smother on the Acer Arcade now. Still I want to be able to use Windows Media w/ sound.

 

have you ried a stand alone player like winamp.or power dvd.
i would like to know as the wife is looking for a new laptop and it will come with Vista

 

Just an FYI I have no problems playing DVDs on the 3680.

 

maybe you can try to disable some startup programs in msconfig or perhaps uninstall/reinstall dvd decoder

 

i'm sure that the optical drive and the hard drive share an IDE channel on the 3680's; so if there's any decent amount of hard drive activity (which isn't to difficult to get in vista) it causes the video to stutter.

you might want to check that both the hard drive and optical drive are working in DMA mode in device manager.

 

Dolemite007:
i thimk i may have found the answer mate 50/50'....was having a look around as my mates brand new pc has a stutter when you play dvd's and hddvd' i think the answer is vista.

"link"

 

I had that problem on my 3680 too in Vista. VLC media player did the job okay. But I have since switched to XP and have never regretted it.

 

i have a feeling there may be some issues with regards to codecs in vista although i've not had any confirmation of this.

 

Same problem with mine, except that Arcade is playing quite fine
(I upgraded at purchase to 1G memory, may be reason why)
I installed PowerDVD, it's getting worse: video jerky, same stuff with player
of NERO 7.10 suite, the only good thing is that these ones install some codecs that now Media player can use, so Media player is working fiane except
it's very basic, I checked DMA access they are properly setted for DVD & HDD.
I have not yet updated Vista, somebody told me there are a lot of patches.
Any clue will be welcome.

 

Try winamp that should work, or use ffdshow codec, i use winamp to watch my movies on my 3680 works perfectly..and windows media player of course.

 

Here is the reply from Acer support, I don't trust them, but if somebody wants to try.....
"Installing other playback software affects the codecs Acer Arcade needs to playback the disc properly. I suggest you reinstall Arcade and see if the playback in Arcade clears up. Here are the steps to do this:

To restore a driver or application that was preinstalled on your computer from the factory, you need to run Acer eRecovery, here are the steps:
1. Move your mouse over the Empowering technology widget and click on the eRecovery Manager icon or you may also press ALT and F10 on the keyboard to start the program.

Please note: The first time you access the eRecovery feature, you are prompted to create a password. If you forget it then you will have to use the recovery discs to reformat the system.

2. In the next window look at the bottom of the window and choose Restore.

3. Now choose Reinstall Applications/Drivers

4. Choose Install
5. Click on Windows Vista on the left side of the page
6. Choose driver or applications.
7. In the list choose the item you wish to install
8. On the right click the install link and follow the prompts.
9. The system may restart when installation is complete

Do not allow the system to shut down during this process. Plug in the AC adapter if necessary. "