Inspiron DVD Windows XP Confusion

I recently installed Windows XP on my Inspiron 1520.

XP doesn't come with a DVD decoder, and I've been having trouble getting decent (sometimes any) dvd playback with various programs.

I've tried both Vista Codec Pack and K-Lite Codec pack, each produces choppy, blurry, or otherwise very annoying playback, in WMP11, and Media Player Classic.

I even uninstalled all codecs, and installed a trial version of NVIDIA's purevideo codec. WMP11 only plays audio, no video.

I even tried the videolan media player, and video quality is poor.

Everything I try ends up in copy-protect errors or bad playback.

What should I do?

Inspiron 1520
XP SP2
Windows Media Player 11
8600M GT (I even tried different video drivers...)

 

Sounds like you're trying to play a DVD from a different region without changing the region code in Windows. The symptoms you're describing are pretty much spot on.

So go and check your DVD drive in the windows device manager, normally there is no region selected and you get a prompt from your media player to select a region. It seems you didn't get it the 1st time so make sure you have the correct region selected.

After that WMP11 or MP classic should be able to play your DVD's (when you have k lite installed). Make sure you have Cyberlink MPEG2 decoder (DVD playback) selected when installing the codec pack.

And best for last. There is of course another way, depending on the hardware you have ( i.e. the manufacturer of your laptop's dvd drive) you can use software like AnyDVD or DVD RegionFree +CSS to playback DVD's without changing your region code.

 

No, I've tried playing multiple Region 1 DVDs, and device manager states that my drive is set to Region 1.

Vista plays all of these DVDs on this system flawlessly.

Media Player Classic works with the Cyberlink decoder, but picture doesn't appear very clear or crisp.

On WMP11, the video quality is great, but there is a subtle, and EXTREMELY annoying stutter.

Interesting fact:

In WMP11, If I fiddle with DVD performance in options, and uncheck 'optimize' for battery, the DVD plays beautifully with WMP11 for that instance.

As soon as I close and reopen WMP11, the same stuttering exists. Turn 'optimize for battery' BACK ON, and hit apply, beautiful again. Makes little sense to me..

 

Actually, that performance increase from the fiddling was short lived. Any seeking on the DVD kills it.

I've tried downgrading to WMP9, and to the graphics drivers provided by dell.

Why should playing a DVD be so difficult, even with commercial software?

Is it my graphics drivers?
Audio drivers?
DVD drive?

 

Forget the downgrading, and as far as I can tell it isn't a driver issue you're experiencing either. (although you never know)

Choppy DVD playback can have a couple of reasons.

I'll try to list the a couple of solutions, maybe something will help you:

1. DMA transfers switched to PIO (you can find some more info here)

2.Drive Speed is too low. You'll be needing a software utility for this one. (e.g. AnyDVD provides 3 profiles for DVD drive speed, when you play back a movie.)

3. It might be a driver issue/codec issue.
Here I'd recommend first uninstalling your current graphics drivers, and cleaning the system afterwards (you can find a nice app @ Guru3d to do this task), then uninstalling the current codec pack.

After reboot you should install new mobile drivers from laptopvideo2go.com, and install k lite. (163.76 for XP, 163.75 for Vista)

4. Check if there is a firmware update available on Dell's support site. I know that they released one for Pioneer DVD drives recently.

And use a decent software DVD player (like PowerDVD etc.) or if you like freeware just google for some (there are thousands available for download)

 

At first I think I was having some problems that may or may not be similar to yours, it's been 1.5 years but, with the WMP open under tools, options, peformance, slide the video acceleration bar to NONE.