Vista Media Center DVD Playback problems

dezmond

New Member
Hi folks,

I just finished setting up my Media Center on Vista Home Premium, got all the latest drivers and SP1 and updates.

DVD playback is giving me some trouble though, and I've resorted to playing them on my 4-5 year old DVD player instead, which is just plain stupid when I have this whole machine set up with Vista Media Center.

I've experienced several problems:
1) No sound.

I have the sound card stereo cable going into the back of the TV, it's possible that VMC isn't downsampling the 5.1 audio to stereo and that it's outputting it over a different port.

2) Drive noise

VMC spins up the drive, as if it's buffering up, then slows it down, then spins it up again, then slows down. It's really annoying as you can imagine. Is there a way to make it read the DVD video disc at a constant, lower speed? Say 2x or 4x ?

3) Jittery image

When played on a standalone player the DVD is fine. However on Vista Media Center it's a bit "jumpy". You can see this quite clearly for example on the credits, text appears (for example film title) and it's jittery, moving up and down a tiny bit. On the standalone player its perfectly stable.

4) Image colors

There's a warning text at the start of the DVD, the general copyright thing. The background is blue on a standalone player, but when played through VMC it's pink?! Definitely too much red on the output.

Does anyone know how to fix these things?
 

My Computer

Hi Dezmond, and welcome to the forums :party:

Although WMC should work "out of the box" due to the vast range of encoding methods I've found that WMC often needs a little help, :)

I use the Vista Codec Pack available Here and found that it plays all the file types I use

as for the sound output yo may want to right click on the speaker icon in the tray and select the Playback Devices option which will allow you to fine tune your sound system.

another option to check your settings are correct is to use a different player to Payback DVD and see if it works correctly, one I can recommend is VLC have a look Here

hope this helps
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD,
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)
    NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
Thanks for your reply Nigel!

I tried playing the DVD from windows media player 11 and the sound was fine, colours were fine too, except the image is still jittery.

I already have the vista codec pack and it's a great thing indeed, no more hunting around for codecs for obscure formats like MKV etc.

I believe I might have to look for a better DVD codec than the one supplied. Maybe installing something like Cyberlink PowerDVD would fix it?
 

My Computer

From this I would assume that it's a WMC dll problem did you try the SFC has solved many problems for many people, (not sure with this problem though - Are WMC DLL's classed as system files? :confused: )

I'd personally give VLC at try just to eliminate windows dll's from the equation, (VLC has codecs built in), it's also free so is ideal as a test-bed application :D
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD,
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)
    NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq
    CPU
    intel core 2 duo T 5550 @ 1.83 MHz
    Motherboard
    intel 965 chipset family
    Memory
    2 GB DDR 2 SD RAM @ 667 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    On board upto 358 MB RAM
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15"
    Hard Drives
    160 GB WDC
Thanks dinesh,

that may well work if there is a conflict with Dezmond's system and the Codec Being used.

only warning I'd add is if following this course then ensure that The Vista Codec pack is totally un-installed before installing K-Lite multiple Codec packs a recipe for problems

In fact an uninstall and re-install of the Vista codec pack may solve any conflicts
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest Release Preview
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer G276HL 27", (DVi) + Samsung 39" HDTV (HDMI)
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 1920x1080 @50Hz
  • Manufacturer/Model
    Real World Computers (Custom by Me)
    CPU
    AMD FX8350 Vishera 8 Core @4GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus M5A78L-M USB3
    Memory
    32GB [4x8GB] DDR3 1600 MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Asus nVidia GTX750TI-OC-2GD5 (2GB DDR5)
    Sound Card
    ASUS Xoner DG + SPDIF to 5.1 System + HDMI
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" TV
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Internal
    Crucial CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SSD,
    Seagate ST2000DM001-1CH1 2TB,

    External (USB3)
    Seagate Backup+ Hub BK SCSI Disk 8TB
    2.5/3.5 Hot Swap Cradle, USB3 + eSata (client HDDs)
    NAS 4TB
    PSU
    Aerocool Templarius Imperator 750W 80+ Silver
    Case
    AeroCool X-Warrior Red Devil Tower
    Cooling
    Hyper103 CPU, Rear 120mm, Front 2x120mm, Side 2x120mm
    Internet Speed
    68 MB Down 18.5 MB Up
    Other Info
    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
Yes u r Right Nigel.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Compaq
    CPU
    intel core 2 duo T 5550 @ 1.83 MHz
    Motherboard
    intel 965 chipset family
    Memory
    2 GB DDR 2 SD RAM @ 667 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    On board upto 358 MB RAM
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15"
    Hard Drives
    160 GB WDC
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