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DVD stuttering - yet another fix to try

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  • DVD stuttering - yet another fix to try

    I've been reading these forums avidly ever since I got my G400 MAX DH + DVD player. I love the G400, but had an annoying problem with stuttering DVD playback. The problem was a fairly erratic one. It came in bursts - sometimes as frequent as once every second, sometimes minutes without a problem. It also depended on the movie - some were just about perfect, while others were almost unwatchable.

    I tried every solution I could find here - changing IRQs, killing tasks, shuffling boards, various AGP settings, overclocking the CPU, tweaking the MAX, different software DVD players, DVD Genie settings, re-installing bits and pieces - all to no avail.

    Finally, I just started disabling all devices using the device manager tab in the control panel system applet. I'd already eliminated all the obvious candidates, but I was getting desperate !.

    When I got around to disabling LPT1, DVD playback suddenly became as smooth as the proverbial baby's backside. I won't bother to list all my system details, since nothing to do with any of them ever had any effect. It's just LPT1. Or possibly any parallel port - I only have the one (which shares a Logitech Pagescan Color scanner and a Canon BJ4200 printer - both of which work fine when the port is enabled). Once I found the problem, I just left LPT1 disabled and re-enabled everything else.

    DVD playback continues to work flawlessly provided I leave LPT1 disabled. So I can't scan or print at the same time as playing a DVD, but this is a fairly minor problem. Whenever I need to I just re-enable the port.

    I thought I'd pass this information on so that anyone else who is still having problems with DVD playback could give it a try. I urge you all to persevere. The G400 MAX is a lovely card, and the results when you do get it working at it's full potential are just stunning.

    Apologies if this is in the wrong forum.

    Ross.

  • #2
    Have you tried different settings for the lpt1 like spp ecp etc. What happens when you enabe the port but leave everything disconnected?
    Chief Lemon Buyer no more Linux sucks but not as much
    Weather nut and sad git.

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    • #3
      Hello
      Sorry to spoil the fun but that trick didn't win me any cigars on my system ...
      Disabled Lpt1 but that didnt do a thing for me. Stutter is still there, its such a tiny stutter though - damn Matrox FIX IT!

      Pentium III 450 @ 525
      128 Meg PC100 ram
      ASUS P3C-2000
      G400 Max

      Regards
      Kristan



      ------------------
      - - - - - - - - - - - -
      Striving for perfection
      - - - - - - - - - - - -
      Striving for perfection

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      • #4
        Maybe you should monitor the CPU usage...

        It also might come from the process which has higher priority. It always eats a large slice of CPU time. Thus the DVD playback program can't get enough sustained bandwidth...

        ------------------
        P-II 266@412/2.0v, P3B-F, G400DH/32MB


        [This message has been edited by WayneHu (edited 11 January 2000).]
        P4-2.8C, IC7-G, G550

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        • #5
          The PIT ...

          Good suggestion, but no dice. Same problem happens with SPP, ECP, EPP or EPP + ECP selected. Also, it does not depend on whether or not any devices are actually connected.

          WayneHu ...

          Monitoring CPU usage (using Wintop) shows nothing obvious, except that when the LPT1 port is enabled,MSGSRV32 is always a couple of percent more active. Presumably a driver is polling the port for some reason.

          At a guess, I'd say it is the logitech scanner driver. If I get a chance, I'll try uninstalling it.

          Kristian ...

          Sorry this didn't work for you. One thing I've noticed in both these forums and all the newsgroups is that everybody seems to have to find their own fix for this problem, and also that it rarely turns out to be a Matrox problem. If I were to blame anybody, I'd blame Microsoft for an OS design that doesn't allow you to figure out what the heck is actually going on. Keep trying is all I can suggest.

          Ross.

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          • #6
            I fixed my stutter by using WinDVD instead of Cinemaster.

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            • #7
              I tried WinDVD, (many versions) as well as many other versions of Cinemaster. Made no difference.

              And I prefer the picture quality of the Cinemaster player.

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