OT: PC DVD problem

[MSW]

Well not a complete dunce, but close enough

A while ago I got the Will Smith I, Robot film on DVD...not a great film, but better then I expected...anyway I've watched it on my PC DVD rom drive.

But today when I decided to get a couple of screen captures of the car Will drives in the flick...I plopped the DVD in and nothing happens...erm...let me explain, by default I've always had autorun turned off...so thats not the issue...however what happens is that the DVD drive doesn't seem to think it has a disk in it ... which is pretty much par for the corse with any recently released DVD I've tried to play on the PC.

So Ive been trying to get older DVDs I own to work...DVDs I know, and have screen captures to prove, they once played fine on my PC...some of the oldest ones still do, but now even somewhat old titles like my copy of the ADV release of the Shin Getter Robo OVA arn't working at all anymore (same frikkin deal...acts just like there is no disk in the drive).

The only thing that I can think of that has changed is that I've updated the DVD rom drive a couple of times sense the whole (doesn't recognise DVD in drive) problem started last year.

I don't copy DVDs, I don't rip them to my hard drive. I like to watch them on my PC to get screen caps and when my girlfriend is watching something else on TV...not to mention the picture quality is better on my PC moniter than on my old TV.

I'm assumeing this is a driver problem...and I've tried to roll back to an earlyer driver version, but my PC says there isn't on on file...and as the DVD is just the same one that came already installed in my PC (HP brand) I have no idea on what specific model it is or where to find older drivers for it...so I'm resigning myself to the possability of buying a new DVD drive...but I want to be sure the same "no play" issue doesn't crop up with it.

So does anyone have ideas on how to fix this, or suggestions on DVD drive that will work with these disks?

[Chowser]

have you tried cleaning your drive?

some compressed air might do the trick (non-petroluem based)

take your case off and blow all the dust out of there.

[mikeszekely]

Does your PC fail to recognize the DVD-ROM drive, or is it just the software? If it's your software, try different software to play back the DVD. Personally, I like Cyber Link PowerDVD.

[Blaine23]

I would test a regular old CD or CD-ROM to make sure that it's not a physical malfunction (ie - the drive broken, unpowered, or unrecognized by the PC). I've never met a DVD drive that didn't also read CDs. If you can see the CD, then your drive and the computer are fine.

That opens the question of what software were you using to watch DVDs in the past? If you turn off AutoRun, then the program that plays the movie, grabs screenshots, etc - won't automatically come on.

I would follow Mike's suggestion and take a look at whatever software you were using to play movie DVDs. It might be that whatever software came with the computer expired, etc. Or it might be that you need to start that program manually, since you turned off AutoRun.

If you need to get a DVD movie playing software - PowerDVD is an excellent DVD movie player for PC, as is WinDVD and several others. Good luck, MSW.

[MSW]

I have WinDVD. Problem has nothing to do with that...it can't play the DVD because the drive reports there is no DVD to play...I know all about the autorun feature, problem has nothing to do with that...the drive still plays CDs fine, and some older DVDs...

I put a affected DVD in and nothing happens...fire up windows explorer to explore the DVD and I get nothing (same as if I tried to explore the drive without a disk in it)...even the MS-DOS command prompt finds the drive empty...same DVDs work fine in the 5 year old DVD player attached to my TV.

It seems to be a driver issue...put a DVD in and it does try to read the DVD file allocation table...almost like the driver is programed to not work with DVDs made after a certain date, so it reports to Windows that the drive is empty.

[Hurin]

Well, this could be anything, but I'd immediately start suspecting that either the drive's firmware needs updated or that the drive itself is failing.

The drive's failing to report a DVD to Windows Explorer is the most troubling part. This tends to disqualify the DVD playback software as an issue.

Have you tried looking for updated firmware?

If you do end up trying a new DVD drive, you can pick one up very cheaply as long as you know where to shop. I usually go to NewEgg. I just got a dual-layer DVD burner (NEC 3520A) there for about $55.

Best Regards,

H

[wyaxyz]

i had a very similar problem while using win dvd....although i could still see a dvd in my drive, i could never play it, so i switched to power dvd and haven't had a problem since.........

[Zentrandude]

could be the protection on the dvd thats causing it not to run. What i suggest is put it in the freezer for 4 hours then smack the back of the emblem with a hammer to pop it out. j/k

[eugimon]

Definitely try running the DVD using different software, since you have winDVD, windows media player should be able to run the DVDs as well.

A lot of times when you paly around with the drivers, each verison leaves a little bit of itself behind and makes things difficult for future versions... especially if you're going backwards.. that is, you instal version x.x5 and you want to go back to version x.x4.

If it is a driver related issue, you'll have to go and uninstall and DVD playback drivers and codecs and reinstall them fresh. Updating your graphics card drivers can also affect playback because some drivers will have video playback code that affects other stuff that they don't tell you about.

good luck