Is my PC good enough?

[symmetryx]

Hello everyone. Just bought a BD-Rom (Sony's BDU-X10S, to be exact) and while I got it installed just fine, the video is chugging, even when playing standard DVDs!

I'm not certain if it's the software (PowerDVD 7.x--came bundled with the drive) or my computer. I was hoping someone could give me some insight.

Here's my computer setup.

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ 2.6GHz
4.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 1GB
Vista Home Premium SP1 (32bit)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mmmmDoNut]

specs look fine. Try a different player. For regular dvds check out vlc (its free and plays all sorts of content). For your BD content get the trial of windvd 9. See if you notice any improvements.

[symmetryx]

Well, I installed the trial for windvd 9 plus blu-ray. It isn't as bad as PowerDVD was, but it still chugs uncontrollably. I've tried running it with as few programs open as possible, but it still can't even get through a basic DVD menu animation without stuttering (sound and video)

I played a DVD using the BD-ROM on windows media player just fine. I tried setting winDVD to use the hardware to offload the cpu, and that didn't change anything. I've even tried disabling aero, all with the same result. Not sure what to do. Thanks for the suggestion, though. The fact that windvd did improve slightly at least shows me how lousy powerdvd is.

[squall4008]

it might be the disc you are using, my winDVD couldnt play Sunshine, which is 1.1 and has BD+, but it played Memento fine, i havent really tried much else though, i would recommend trying a really basic disc, preferably the oldest one you have

[JAC35]

I dont know much about your video card, but the rest is fine. PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra plays Blu-ray just fine in my rig but I also have a Core2 Duo. only 2GB of Ram though. I too am running Vista with SP1. I'm using the LG combo drive.

[symmetryx]

Originally Posted by squall4008

it might be the disc you are using, my winDVD couldnt play Sunshine, which is 1.1 and has BD+, but it played Memento fine, i havent really tried much else though, i would recommend trying a really basic disc, preferably the oldest one you have

See, that's where my concern is. It can't even handle a DVD, how can I expect it to handle a BD?

I tried to watch The Incredibles on DVD using PowerDVD and winDVD. Neither one could play it smoothly. However, using the same drive and plain old Media Player, it ran fine.

I ran that Cyberlink BD Advisor, and it says I don't have dual decoding capabilities for H.264, MPEG-2, or VC-1, but I don't think dual decoding is important to just watch a movie.

[JAC35]

do you have a regular DVD drive you can try a standard DVD in with Power DVD? Did it ever play SD DVDs ok? perhaps it is time for a reinstall!

[mcblob]

open up cyberlink, then go to configuration, video tab, and check if hardware acceleration is ticked, if not then tick it.

also are your nvidia drivers upto date?

[symmetryx]

Here's the update.

I updated the drivers for my graphic card. Hardware acceleration was on by default on PowerDVD, and I turned it on for WinDVD. Same exact result.

I can't get either program to read a DVD. Not using the BD-ROM, not even if I stick it in my regular DVD-RW.

What I also noticed, is when I check my device manager, my DVD burner (which is IDE) and my BD-ROM (which is SATA) are on the same controller. I doubt that means anything though, as I've been able to get both drives to perform smoothly using Media Player.

[Blacklac]

Do you have a video accelerator? What is your CPU usage?

[Sbert]

I have a feeling you're going to have a problem with your GPU on the hidefdiscs. The chugging you're getting sounds like a firmware issue, don't know, but the 8500 is worrisome.

[mmmmDoNut]

Definetely sounds like video card issue as I know my Intel integrated graphics card has no issues playing back either HD or BD discs.

As for optical drive and hdd drive reporting they are on the same controller is a chipset thing so dont read anything into it as the chipset controls both the ide and sata ports.

[symmetryx]

Well, when I look at the info during playback on PowerDVD, here's what it says.

Player Information:
Player Region Code: 1
Current Drive: E:
Title Region Code: 1

Display Information:
Video Mode: Progressive
Display Mode: DirectShow
FourCC Code: NV12
Surface Type: Hardware Video Accelerator (DxVA)

Video Attributes:
Video compression mode: MPEG-2
TV system: 525/60 (NTSC)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Display Mode: Only Letterbox
Source picture resolution: 720x480 (525/60)
Frame Rate: 30.00
Source picture letterboxed: Not letterboxed
Bitrate: 8.30Mbps

Audio Attributes:
Audio Coding mode: Dolby Digital
Sampling Rate: 48kHz
Audio application mode: Not Specified
Number of Audio channels: 5.1
Bitrate: 384 Kbps
Number of Audio streams: 1

Subpicture Attribute:
Number of Subtitles: 1

Hardware Information:
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ running at 2611 MHz
3DNow! Technology: In Use
Enhanced 3DNow! Technology: In Use
3DNow! Professional Technology: In Use
IA MMX Technology: In Use
IA Streaming SIMD Extensions: In Use
IA SSE 2: In Use
Video Accelerator: DirectX VA (in use)
Multispeaker Audio Device: Speakers (High Definition Audio (not in use)
SPDIF Output Device: Not Detected

As for my cpu usage, it only hits around 50-55% during playback. Normally it's <5%

A firmware issue? I really don't know. The card is supposed to be decent enough for HD content. I'm really confused since I only have playback issues on both drives with WinDVD and PowerDVD, but not at all with media player.

[kghoops]

I hate to throw another software package at you but you may want to try ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre. It has worked better for me than PowerDVD 8 has on certain discs. I believe you can download a trial version of it from the link.

http://www.arcsoft.com/public/softwa...=LANG_DOWNLOAD

[JAC35]

Stick with one piece of playback software. Remove the BR drive and try to playback a normal DVD in a normal DVD drive. Go from there... if it doesnt work, I would recommend a new video card. replace the video card and try again...