Watching DVDs on an Inspiron 9300

[PCBrandon]

Hi all,

I received my new Dell Inspiron 9300 this past Tuesday and I am extremely happy with it. Just last night I plugged in a DVD to watch with WinDVD and it cut about an inch off of the left side of the movie. I tried setting my resolution from 1440x900 to 800x600 but to no avail.

The movie has pleanty of room to expand to the left and right, but it decides to cut an inch off on the left side of the movie.

Does this mean I can only watch "widescreen" DVDs correctly on my laptop? The DVD I tried was fullscreen.

[thefultonhow]

First, try playing the DVD in Windows Media Player and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't, try downloading and installing the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. It includes a DVD decoder and a different media player (Media Player Classic). Try watching the DVD in Media Player Classic, and if it still doesn't work, I'm inclined to believe there's something wrong with the DVD itself and not the computer, and that other 4:3 DVDs will work fine.

Have you tried any gaming on this thing yet?

[PCBrandon]

I tried it in Windows Media player and it still does the same thing.

I installed K-lite and played it in Media Player Classic and it does the same thing.

I tried another fullscreen DVD and it does the same thing.


EDIT: I just plugged in a widescreen DVD and it cut off about half an inch on the bottom...


And yes, I have played some games on it. It is great! The graphics and overall performance is much better than my desktop. The sound isn't even that bad, which is something as I went from a 7.1 surround sound system to a 2.1 setup.


Any suggestions?

[thefultonhow]

Try uninstalling both K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and WinDVD, and then reinstalling K-Lite. BTW, there are USB 2.0 external 7.1 sound processors that you can use. I have one for my laptop that I haven't really used because my Klipsch 5.1s are still at home, but it was only $20.

[PCBrandon]

I did all of that and it still does the same thing. Any other suggestions? I am currently on Dell Support, so please save me!

EDIT: He said there is no way to have a movie fill up the screen without cutting a portion off. Is this true? I don't think he knew what he was talking about. There was a lot of hesitation in his voice.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCBrandon EDIT: He said there is no way to have a movie fill up the screen without cutting a portion off. Is this true? I don't think he knew what he was talking about. There was a lot of hesitation in his voice.

I don't think he does know what he's talking about. You could try reinstalling Windows, but other than that I'm not sure there's anything else to try.

[PCBrandon]

Hmm maybe I will try to reinstall Windows later in the week as I am off for a while

Are you sure there is nothing else I could try? Maybe an option in Media Classic I need to select? Playing with it myself...

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCBrandon Hmm maybe I will try to reinstall Windows later in the week as I am off for a while Are you sure there is nothing else I could try? Maybe an option in Media Classic I need to select? Playing with it myself...

This is one of those weird quirks that reinstalling Windows is the easiest way to fix. (If it fixes it... )

[chaosiscandytome]

my windvd has aspect ratio options when right clicking on the video as it plays. depending on the aspect ratio selected and forced aspect ratio hold.....i get more or less appropriate views depending on nature of the movie

[PCBrandon]

Well, as I've learned over the past couple of days, it is not just with DVDs but with just regular video files on the web.

I plan on reinstalling Windows tomorrow.

[PCBrandon]

Well I couldn't sleep so I decided to do a reinstall tonight. It's now 3:00 AM in the morning, but I can play DVDs!

Thanks for the help...