I really need help. I searched, but only got more confused when I already am. I cannot get Blu Ray to play on my HTPC.
Here is the story ? I got a Pioneer BDC-202 for my birthday and rented 3 disks to try that thing. I put the drive in, installed Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 + latest patch and could not make it work? Wasted the entire evening and got rather upset?
My HTPC should be up to the task, and I set up HD DVD playback on an identical (hardware-wise) system about 7 months ago without any issues at all.
Here are system specs:
? Nvidia 7900 GTO, 512 MB
? Asus P5B deluxe
? Core Duo 2 GHz
? 2GB
? 1080p LCD via D-sub
? Pioneer BDC-202 blu ray drive via onboard SATA
? Yamaha received via SP-DIF (on board).
Software:
? Vista Home Premium x86 (32 bit)
? Nvidia forceware latest
? Nvidia PureVideo latest
? Cyberlink 7.3 with latest patch
Some other stuff installed that should not be involved, but may potentially interfere:
FFDShow, Hauppauge TV tuner drivers, CCCP codec pack.
And here are the problems:
1. First disk (Planet Earth Disk 1) played fine but froze at some points and caused PowerDVD to crash. I thought it was disk quality issue and tried copying files from the disk to HDD ? copying worked, but very slowly, stalling at some points to less than 1Mb/sec, so I guess it?s the disk or the drive? I stopped trying after I discovered this ? I?ll try changing the disk.
2. Second disk ? Apocalypto ? all good up to the disk menu. Then clicking play causes PowerDVD to freeze (time is ticking but picture is not changing and application does not respond to clicks). I ?fixed? that by changing the sound mode from SPDIF to analog In analog it runs past the menu and starts the movie, but the movie stutters a lot, sometimes jumps back half a second, and sometimes shows colored blocks on the screen. CPU utilization is also very high (65-80%). It seems that it?s either not getting enough performance throughput or disk throughput. I believe both things should be fine ? I tried copying the files from the disk to HDD and got 10MB/s+ read speed, which should be enough for smooth playback, and I saw blu ray playback tests where systems slower than mine were able to play video just fine? What gives?
3. Third disk ? Dreamgirls ? same issue with sound (freezes if in SPDIF mode, works in analog), but the rest is fine. Video plays back perfectly with 10-15% cpu load?
So, I was able to get sound and video work fine on Planet Earth, but disk did not read, fine video but strange sound issue in Dreamgirls, and horrible stuttering (like it had only 20% of necessary performance) in Apocalypto with same sound issue as in dreamgirls?
I also installed a demo version of WinDVD platinum, and it just does not play Blu Ray at all ? I select the disk as source and it does nothing (not freezing ? just does not start playing). It plays DVDs just fine?
What next steps would you recommend to get this issue diagnosed and fixed???
As I already mentioned, I used to play HD DVDs without any issues whatsoever on the same hardware (with X-box HD DVD drive) and similar software (older versions of everything) without any single issues (with SPDIF audio).
On another note, I have a strange issue with recorded HDTV video playback in media center ? it takes over 50% of CPU power (up to 70%) and sometimes slightly stutters. I did not notice this before? I believe it should be able to playback the HDTV mpeg2 with less than 30% of CPU load? I am using Purevideo as my decoder.
thanks
Here is the story ? I got a Pioneer BDC-202 for my birthday and rented 3 disks to try that thing. I put the drive in, installed Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 + latest patch and could not make it work? Wasted the entire evening and got rather upset?
My HTPC should be up to the task, and I set up HD DVD playback on an identical (hardware-wise) system about 7 months ago without any issues at all.
Here are system specs:
? Nvidia 7900 GTO, 512 MB
? Asus P5B deluxe
? Core Duo 2 GHz
? 2GB
? 1080p LCD via D-sub
? Pioneer BDC-202 blu ray drive via onboard SATA
? Yamaha received via SP-DIF (on board).
Software:
? Vista Home Premium x86 (32 bit)
? Nvidia forceware latest
? Nvidia PureVideo latest
? Cyberlink 7.3 with latest patch
Some other stuff installed that should not be involved, but may potentially interfere:
FFDShow, Hauppauge TV tuner drivers, CCCP codec pack.
And here are the problems:
1. First disk (Planet Earth Disk 1) played fine but froze at some points and caused PowerDVD to crash. I thought it was disk quality issue and tried copying files from the disk to HDD ? copying worked, but very slowly, stalling at some points to less than 1Mb/sec, so I guess it?s the disk or the drive? I stopped trying after I discovered this ? I?ll try changing the disk.
2. Second disk ? Apocalypto ? all good up to the disk menu. Then clicking play causes PowerDVD to freeze (time is ticking but picture is not changing and application does not respond to clicks). I ?fixed? that by changing the sound mode from SPDIF to analog In analog it runs past the menu and starts the movie, but the movie stutters a lot, sometimes jumps back half a second, and sometimes shows colored blocks on the screen. CPU utilization is also very high (65-80%). It seems that it?s either not getting enough performance throughput or disk throughput. I believe both things should be fine ? I tried copying the files from the disk to HDD and got 10MB/s+ read speed, which should be enough for smooth playback, and I saw blu ray playback tests where systems slower than mine were able to play video just fine? What gives?
3. Third disk ? Dreamgirls ? same issue with sound (freezes if in SPDIF mode, works in analog), but the rest is fine. Video plays back perfectly with 10-15% cpu load?
So, I was able to get sound and video work fine on Planet Earth, but disk did not read, fine video but strange sound issue in Dreamgirls, and horrible stuttering (like it had only 20% of necessary performance) in Apocalypto with same sound issue as in dreamgirls?
I also installed a demo version of WinDVD platinum, and it just does not play Blu Ray at all ? I select the disk as source and it does nothing (not freezing ? just does not start playing). It plays DVDs just fine?
What next steps would you recommend to get this issue diagnosed and fixed???
As I already mentioned, I used to play HD DVDs without any issues whatsoever on the same hardware (with X-box HD DVD drive) and similar software (older versions of everything) without any single issues (with SPDIF audio).
On another note, I have a strange issue with recorded HDTV video playback in media center ? it takes over 50% of CPU power (up to 70%) and sometimes slightly stutters. I did not notice this before? I believe it should be able to playback the HDTV mpeg2 with less than 30% of CPU load? I am using Purevideo as my decoder.
thanks
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