Cannot Play DVD in 2.1

[jason531]

Hello,

I cannot play DVDs. When I try to play one, all I get is a black screen. I do see the tray icon which indicates my decoders are being loaded, though. I am using the NVidia DVD Decoder v 1.00.58.

I can play them fine in WMP. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

JasonH

[kny3twalker]

have you tried using another decoder
like intervideo winDVD or cyberlink powerDVD
or maybe DVDidle or anyDVD can help you

[jason531]

I don't have any other decoders installed, but I might have a free copy of WinDVD or PowerDVD I can try. I'll try it later this evening and let you know.

I really want to get the NVidia Decoder working, though, because 1) it works best with my hardware, and 2) I paid $20 for it!

Thanks for your help. While I'm experimenting, I'll be glad to try anyDVD and any other suggestions.

JasonH

[kny3twalker]

well for DVDs the decoder is not quite as important as when doing TV
TV needs to be deinterlaced better and so on

DVDs are flagged so most decoders do a pretty good job with decoding them
anything you can do until nvidia gets there update released

[stanger89]

Try using just the video decoder (or Default) and not the NV VPP. I've seen the same thing when selecting the VPP and trying to play a DVD. (This was with 2.2 BTW).

[jason531]

After installing Cyberlink PowerDVD, I was able to play encrypted DVDs. It used the NVidia decoder, however. Strange.

The NVidia decoder is supposed to work for encrypted DVDs, and it does work for Windows Media Player without any other DVD cocecs installed. Sage must be doing things differently, though, because I couldn't get it to work in Sage without another decoder (PowerDVD) installed. I was able to play a ripped DVD fine without installing the additional decoder.

After getting it to work, I noticed my CPU usage was extremely high. I was also not completely happy with the picture quality, so I decided to buy the Sonic decoder. It works for encrypted DVDs without having PowerDVD installed. It also works for live TV, of course, and the CPU usage is much lower.

I really wish NVidia had a trial version of their DVD decoder because now I feel like I paid $20 for something I will never use.

I have not had much time to test the Sonic decoder, but so far it looks pretty good. Thanks for all of the replies.

JasonH
Asus A7N8X-VM/400 MB
GeForce4 MX GPU (On MB)
Athon XP 2400+ CPU
256 MB RAM

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jason531

The NVidia decoder is supposed to work for encrypted DVDs, and it does work for Windows Media Player without any other DVD cocecs installed. Sage must be doing things differently, though, because I couldn't get it to work in Sage without another decoder (PowerDVD) installed. I was able to play a ripped DVD fine without installing the additional decoder.

Which nVidia decoder were you trying to use? VPP or just the Video Decoder? The Video decoder works fine, but if I select the VPP as the decoder I get nothing.

[jason531]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Which nVidia decoder were you trying to use? VPP or just the Video Decoder? The Video decoder works fine, but if I select the VPP as the decoder I get nothing.

I had similar results. VPP would not work but choosing video decoder would work if I had PowerDVD installed. According to the tray icon, it is actually using the NVidia decoder but it will not work for encrypted DVDs unless I have PowerDVD installed.

I guess it is moot now. I have installed Sonic and am pretty happy with it. If there is an update to the NVidia decoder I might try it again, but right now the CPU utilization issues on top of the DVD issues make it more trouble than it is worth.

What kind of CPU utilization do you see with the NVidia decoder?

[stanger89]

Probably about 10% with Hardware Accelleration enabled, not really sure though since I rarely check.

FWIW, the nVidia decoders are the only MPEG decoders installed on my HTPC, and also with 2.2 if I specify the VPP in the properties file it works just fine with encrypted DVDs.

[jason531]

Does this mean you don't have the Hauppauge (Intervideo) decoders installed either? I think I tried that configuration last night and some things didn't work. I might try it again with version 2.2. What STV are you using?

Also, what kind of CPU and video card do you have? 10% CPU utilization is pretty good. I'm not sure why mine was so high with the nVidia decoder, but it was around 80-90% with or without VPP!

I would really like to have only one decoder installed -- the cleaner the configuration the better.

Thanks for your help.

[stanger89]

I'd have to double check the usage. I haven't installed the Hauppauge decoders in about as long as I can remember, I've used Sonic Cineplayer and now nVidias exclusively. I try to be very minimalist when it comes to what I install on my HTPC.

As for setup, I'm running a P4 2.4B (Northwood 533 bus) and a Geforce 6800.