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[jlar310]

I was feeling nostalgic and installed a vintage (pre XP) PC game on my computer. It required a very old version of QuickTime. I had no newer version of QT installed, so I let it install. Ever since, Media Center is not playing DVDs correctly. It's hard to describe. It plays too fast, but not consistently. It's as if it's skipping frames randomly. Less than double speed though. The game has since been uninstalled, but the problem persists. There was no explicit uninstaller for the associated QuickTime.

For the record, the DVD in question is one that we have played many times in MC without issue before. And I know that there is nothing wrong with the disc as it plays just fine in Windows Media Player.

In MC Options under DVD playback my video decoder options are Automatic, Nero Video decoder, or Nero DVD decoder. I've left it on automatic. I also tried reinstalling Nero to see if that would help, but it didn't.

I have also done an MC update (to 12.0.451) since uninstalling the game, but DVD playback is still hosed.

[JimH]

Try reinstalling the software that came with the DVD drive.

If that doesn't work, try reading the Wiki here about DVD playback.

[Yaobing]

In MC Options under DVD playback my video decoder options are Automatic, Nero Video decoder, or Nero DVD decoder. I've left it on automatic.

Often DirectShow gets messed up when you install some third-party software. Selecting a specific video decoder/audio decoder/video renderer, etc., rather than leaving them on "Automatic", sometimes would help.

[jlar310]

Often DirectShow gets messed up when you install some third-party software. Selecting a specific video decoder/audio decoder/video renderer, etc., rather than leaving them on "Automatic", sometimes would help.

Tried that already. No improvement.

Try reinstalling the software that came with the DVD drive.

If that doesn't work, try reading the Wiki here about DVD playback.

The drive did not come with any software. I think that if I did not have my Nero 6.6, I would not have any DVD decoder at all.

I think I found some info on the Wiki that has gotten me headed in the right direction. I'm not at home now, but I'll try Microsoft's GraphEdit and dxdiag and whatever other diagnostics I can find for the decoding pipeline. I have a hunch that it might be DirectX related. The game may have installed some very old DirectX files. Thanks for the nudge. I'll post again if I get stuck.

[Alex B]

You could try the CCCP DirectShow filter pack.

It is explained here: http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DVD_Playback

[jlar310]

Well... I could find no obvious problems with my existing codecs. So I just gave up and installed CCCP. It's annoying to know that the original problem has not been fixed. I've just worked around it. DVD playback is now working normally with CCCP.

[Alex B]

If I understood correctly the old QT version you installed wasn't correctly compatible with the current Windows DirectShow implementation and caused your previously installed filters to not work as before. Possibly you could have corrected that by installing the latest QT or reinstalling Nero 6.6, but I have no experience about that.

Obviously installing CCCP corrected the problem in a way or another. I am actually a bit surprised about the power of the CCCP filter pack. Simply installing it seems to fix most people's video playback problems.

In general, the newer DS filters in CCCP are probably better for DVD playback than the filters that Nero 6.6 installs, so I don't see any reason to be annoyed.

In the future you could create a Windows restore point before experimenting with very old or otherwise dubious software. The System Restore feature has saved my day many times.

[jlar310]

In the future you could create a Windows restore point before experimenting with very old or otherwise dubious software. The System Restore feature has saved my day many times.

Ha! I don't think so! It took me until my 5th car before I would get one that shifted gears for me. I've never trusted System Restore and probably never will. But I don't want to start a holy war here, that's just my opinion.

Though I do see your point and the thought did cross my mind, if ever so briefly.

Thanks to all for getting me (or more importantly, my 2 year old son and his Elmo DVD) back on track.