03-24-2007, 06:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-24-2007, 06:32 PM by LemmingofGlory.)
I like movies, but even more, I like that current technology enables me to rent TV shows to watch at my leisure. Now, I don't have a DVD player for my TV, so I use my computer to watch DVDs. The only problem is that, for certain discs, I often get playback issues that make certain parts of the DVD unwatchable.
What usually happens is I'll be watching a DVD and the playback just freezes. Sometimes I can pause play, wait a few seconds, and resume with no problem. Other times, it's no good and I end up having to skip ahead anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes -- and that part REALLY sucks when it happens at the very end of a movie! I'm fairly certain it's not due to damage to the disc, because this happens on discs that are both clean and scratch-free. The fact that different media players consistently hang up, but at different scenes, further motivates my conclusion.
Some discs play and never, ever give me a moment's trouble. Other discs make the media player hang and die. These are clean discs with minimal (if any) scratches; they're rentals, so they're original discs. I'm wondering if it's maybe something about the way the disc is made or encoded or something (copyprotection?). For instance, "Scrubs" (6 discs) has been the most pathological: each disc has given me trouble (frequent freezing; I've missed entire scenes). "Nip/Tuck" (7 discs into the series) gives me minor trouble (freezes are infrequent; momentary pausing fixes it). I've yet to have trouble watching "The L Word" or "Hellsing", though I've yet to watch very many discs of either.
I'm currently using the most recent version of VLC media player, and I've also had similar issues with MPlayer. I'm wondering:
(1) Does anyone else run into this?
(2) Does the problem sound like the media, the software, or the hardware? [Non-exclusive 'or'.]
(3) Does anyone have an elegant solution? [Short of borrowing a friend's DVD player.]
(4) Can anyone recommend a media player superior to the two I mentioned above? When they work, they work fine. But when they don't, argh. [Windows OS.]
-Lem
What usually happens is I'll be watching a DVD and the playback just freezes. Sometimes I can pause play, wait a few seconds, and resume with no problem. Other times, it's no good and I end up having to skip ahead anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes -- and that part REALLY sucks when it happens at the very end of a movie! I'm fairly certain it's not due to damage to the disc, because this happens on discs that are both clean and scratch-free. The fact that different media players consistently hang up, but at different scenes, further motivates my conclusion.
Some discs play and never, ever give me a moment's trouble. Other discs make the media player hang and die. These are clean discs with minimal (if any) scratches; they're rentals, so they're original discs. I'm wondering if it's maybe something about the way the disc is made or encoded or something (copyprotection?). For instance, "Scrubs" (6 discs) has been the most pathological: each disc has given me trouble (frequent freezing; I've missed entire scenes). "Nip/Tuck" (7 discs into the series) gives me minor trouble (freezes are infrequent; momentary pausing fixes it). I've yet to have trouble watching "The L Word" or "Hellsing", though I've yet to watch very many discs of either.
I'm currently using the most recent version of VLC media player, and I've also had similar issues with MPlayer. I'm wondering:
(1) Does anyone else run into this?
(2) Does the problem sound like the media, the software, or the hardware? [Non-exclusive 'or'.]
(3) Does anyone have an elegant solution? [Short of borrowing a friend's DVD player.]
(4) Can anyone recommend a media player superior to the two I mentioned above? When they work, they work fine. But when they don't, argh. [Windows OS.]
-Lem