DVD audio and video...

[dcpersad]

Here's a strange problem, can anyone help with this?

I have a Dell Dimension XPS T550 with the following:
- 32 Mb Diamond Viper 770D video card
- Cinemaster hardware decoder card
- 256 Mb SDRam
- Pentium III 550 Mhz
- 20 & 40Gb Hard drives
- DVD drive
- CDRW drive
- 56K modem
- IEEE 1394 Firewire card
- Soundblaster Live Value 512

The machine originally came installed with Windows98 SE. After 5 yrs I decided it was time to upgrade the operating system. I performed a fresh installation of Windows 2000 Professional. After i installed the OS the win2K dvd player hung the machine everytime i tried to play a dvd. I installed the PC friendly dvd play (it came with the matrix dvd). I was still unable to play dvds. I updated the drivers for the video card and the decoder card. This resulted in a new problem, the windows dvd still didnt work, the ravisent dvd player played the digital sound but no video and powerdvd played the video but no digital sound. Someone recommended going to XP since that should have the most updated drivers. I did a fresh install of XP professional. And the same thing has happened.....windows media player will hang if i try to play a dvd. The ravisent player is playing the sound properly, but on the window i'm getting "current display mode not suitable for dvd video" and the powerdvd player plays the video but no digital sound.

BTW, with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP the video card shows up as NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 PRO

I'm trying to get either of the players to output both video and digital sound (preferably the ravisent player). Now the decoder card has a video output also...I connected this to the television an I am getting the video there...but i want it on my pc monitor ...

Can anyone assist me with this?

Thanks

[pam123]

Hmmnn...Windows Media player doesn't play DVD on it's own. It needs an installed DVD player to borrow codecs from and I get annoyed with Microsoft everytime that, do you want to use WMP DVD, box pops up.
From your description the first start should be with sound.
Do you have the digital sound cable for your 512 connected and do you have the proper drivers, not the generic windows ones but the drivers downloaded from Creative's site, for you card ?
Your speakers will accept digital sound, right ?
You don't have them configured for stereo only and they're not analog only.
Post back and we can go on from here.

edit :
With that TNT card what drivers did you install ?
I would have left the DX at 8.1 and chosen older drivers for that card.

[dcpersad]

i have the latest video drivers i could have found. In the windows 2000 installation i did, i was getting an error message whenever i tried to play a dvd which essentially said to upgrade the video drivers. When I performed the XP installation the default video drivers were for the same card as the updated windows 2000 drivers, but the drivers i downloaded were more recent. I upgraded the XP video drivers to this newer version.

I did not update the sound drivers. I downloaded updated drivers for the decoder card, but i didnt install them on XP as yet.

the speakers are the Altec Lansing ADA885, so yes they do accept the digital sound inputs.

Do you have the digital sound cable for your 512 connected

What cable are you referring to? The one that goes to the speakers? Yes i have the digital cable connected to the speakers. However, this does not connect to the soundblaster 512, but to the decoder card. If you'd like i can take a pic of the back of the machine so you'll this.


I have directX 9.0c installed. Thats the default version when XP was installed.

[pam123]

I was asking if your soundblaster was capable of producing digital sound.
The SoundBlasterLive series cards were (they gave you a choice between analog and digital) an internal 2 pin cable connected the sound card to the digital connector on the back of the DVD drive but I just went over to Creative's site and downloaded the product manual for your 512, it's has an analog connector only.
However, Creative made a point of updating the drivers for that card to improve it's function over what the default sound drivers in XP/2000 and it does connect to the mpg decoder so that may be your problem solved .
You won't know if your rig will play as you want until you update all the drivers it needs.
Set a restore point before you begin and then load the drivers.
Would you explain about the tv/monitor problem.
Why isn't the monitor plugged into the video card?
What video configurations have you changed to use the tv out of the Ravisent ?
Are you running or attempting to run a home theater or dual screen set-up?
DX 8.1 was what originally came with XP and I hadn't realized they'd changed to DX9, you really need the driver updates for that ravisent card and the sound card.

[dcpersad]

The sound blaster card only has analog outputs. The decoder card has the digital sound output. The soundblaster card accpects a 2pin cable labelled CD SPDIF, but there is no cable that goes to the DVD drive. The soundblaster card has a 4pin cable (similar to the one for the CD audio) that connects to the decoder card. There is a similar cable which connects to the modem. The decoder card also has a 26pin strip cable which connects to the video card. The soundblaster model is the CT4780 and the decoder card is the Cinemaster C3.0. I am currently downloading the drivers for the soundblaster card.




There is no TV/Monitor problem...i had just tested the tv out on the decoder card to verify the card was producing video as well. No configuration changes were made when i tested the video out from the decoder card. I just plugged in the TV and it worked. The monitor is plugged into the video card. Its a single monitor setup. I use my DELL to watch DVDs because of the surround sound system.

When i did the install for XP and i checked the version of DirectX (dxdiag) it had 9.0c, i didnt upgrade the version. I applied XP SP2, I dont know if that carried the version up to 9 from 8.1...

Thanks for your persistance in helping me

[pam123]

DX 9.0c is part of SP2.
I'm waitng to hear what happens when you load the latest drivers.

[dcpersad]

ARGH....I've been trying since saturday to post this....

When i try to perform the driver update for the cinemaster decoder card, i'm getting the drivers installed are the latest ones.

I downloaded and installed updated drivers for the sound card. After i did this i am still not getting any digital sound from the decoder card. BUT, i am now getting digital sound from the soundblaster card. I have to use a 1/8" male to phono female adapter to plug the existing cable (which supplies digital sound to the speakers) into the soundblaster card. Now I get a high pitch sound when the digital sound is not in use ie, when i'm not playing a DVD. once i unplug the digital cable from the sounblaster card it stops...

I'm still going to try to find the most recent drivers for the decoder card, just to see if i'll be able to get the sound from there instead of the soundblaster

Thanks for all of your help pam

[pam123]

Hmmm....
It looks like you're going to have to compromise if the latest drivers for the decoder card don't do the job.
That or a major hardware upgrade.

[dcpersad]

I'll try the latest drivers...If it doesnt work then thats no problem. I'll use the way it is

I dont intend to perform any form of hardware upgrade, with the exception of a memory upgrade. I'm planning to purchase a Viao laptop soon...

Thanks again for all of your assistance