PC DVD Player to normal DVD player question...PLEASE READ!

[NeoCool]

Hello all,

I know as well as you do that normal DVD players(such the ones that SONY, SAMSUNG, or TOSHIBA ship) are well optimized and design to play and record(DVD+/-R/+/-RW) DVDs with great color, signal, streaming, THX/dolby digital surround sound with 3D surround sound support and VCR support supporting the wide range of region disc and both dual and single formatted DVD-video discs and more, but there is some things that per-plex me when comparing DVDs running with a PC dvd player in a PC or stand-alone. No, this is not about picture or sound quality, or frame-rates or sound caching. I've noticed with certain scratches on my DVDs(which is not of my doing really) that I've seen the DVD in my PC dvd player skip certain parts of the disc, likely due to lost corrupted bits of information. I can understand that, but when I use my stand alone toshiba DVD SD-1600 player(very low-budget, 2001 release) which I purchased during November 2001. It hasn't gave me one little bit of trouble since, other then the laser reader in it yielding to be a little noisy, which does not really annoy me. It plays any DVD, even with a lot of scratches without a hitch like a charm. I am comparing my LITE-ON 16X black painted DVD-PC-ROM to my Toshiba DVD-Player here. Yes, my LITE-ON DVD PC PLAYER supports all region wide DVD formats, of that I am certain. I purchased my PC dvd player(by LITE-ON) during December 2003 to replace my dying old 2001 released Samsung black-painted DVD-PC-12x-player. I also well know that I am running PowerDVD with the color profile set to vivid, video acceleration set to software, audio acceleration set to stereo, and full screen. Of course, PC dvd players run on an OS with tons of components(IE CPU, RAM, Memory, Video Card, Sound Card, Hard Drives, etc...) and more so a computer(using Windows for an example) has to manage all kinds of hidden background services and processes and programs/applications. I get the same skipping(only for a second or two) effect with any notebook or desktop Windows enabled PC with a DVD-player in it. The light on the DVD player in the PC stops flashing at those seconds, too. My system specs are:
Intel 850 Custom Dell Mobo
Intel Pentium 4 Willamate Processor at 2.2ghz with 400mhz fsb/256K cache and 0.18 micron process
512MB of PC800 NON-ECC RDRAM(128x4, 4 slots, 2GB max)
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB DDR 275/270 stock speeds(4.10 catalyst drivers, 1/19/04 release date)
Creative Lab's Sound Blaster 2 ZS(latest EAX 4 11/11/03 drivers update)
Two 40GB IBM 2MB cache ATA100 7200RPM hard drives(first one has 20GB left, second one has 10GB left)
Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002, SP1
Yahoo! SBC DSL ISP
1.5mbps/384kbps average dl/ul speeds
16X LITE-ON DVD-ROM(40x cd-rom speed)
48X LITE-ON CD-RW(48x cd-rom read speed)
Direct-X 9.0b
IBM Optical Mouse Wheel Glowing Black Mouse with IBM mouse software installed
Dell QuietKey Black Standard Keyboard
Logitech Advanced ForceFeedback 3D Rumble Joystick
Microsoft Silver Advanced Gamepad
USB 1.0
10/100mbps network card
LAN cable
17" Trinitron Black Dell Monitor
2.1 2400 Creative Labs Speakers w/subwoofer & wired volume control
3"5 black floppy drive
Dell Dimension 8200 Case
Espon Stylus C80 black printer
SMC EZ connect 11mbps Wireless USB Adapter SMC2662W
Dell 400Watt PSU
Dell Custom Fan
ETC
Answers, and ideas please. Thanks.

--NeoCool

 

[PC-Engine]

I think some DVD drives just have issues with some discs. For example I had a 8X NEC DVD drive a couple years ago tha played Jet Li's "Fist of Legend" with no problems whatsoever. Later when I upgraded the drive to an NEC 12X, the new drive kept having problems at last 5 minutes at the end of the film. :?

 

[Clashman]

Anyone have any recommendations then for DVD drives that have the least amounts of problems with burned or slightly scratched discs? I've heard the Plextors are good. Any other suggestions?

 

[NeoCool]

In reply to Clashman,

LITE-ON, SONY, and PIONEER ship very good quality DVD-PC-DRIVES. Digital Research Technologies(if you don't know them google them) also ship nice quality DVD-DRIVES, but of course, there's never a better DVD-ROM then a stand-alone one(like those shipped by SAMSUNG, SONY, TOSHIBA, etc...).

 

[Clashman]

You know, actually, my POS, (Edit: And I don't mean point of sale), PC DVD drive, (which won't even read CDR's), tends to have a better time reading normal and scratched DVD's than any standalone player.

 

[NeoCool]

In reply to Clashman,

You mean peice of sh*t of course, heh, and i'd suggest a new drive if possible, but if it reads dirty discs better then stand alone players....thats just odd. :? :|

 

[Snyder]

In reply to Clashman,

LITE-ON, SONY, and PIONEER ship very good quality DVD-PC-DRIVES. Digital Research Technologies(if you don't know them google them) also ship nice quality DVD-DRIVES, but of course, there's never a better DVD-ROM then a stand-alone one(like those shipped by SAMSUNG, SONY, TOSHIBA, etc...).

There isn't? Pray explain.

 

[NeoCool]

In reply to Snyder, I was being a little sarcastic there and I meant that compared to a PC DVD PLAYER standard stand alone dvd players like the ones I mentioned 0wn. Funckification time:

 

[Snyder]

In reply to Snyder, I was being a little sarcastic there and I meant that compared to a PC DVD PLAYER standard stand alone dvd players like the ones I mentioned 0wn. Funckification time:

Argh. *Slaps himself on the forehead* Sorry.

 

[Clashman]

In reply to Snyder, I was being a little sarcastic there and I meant that compared to a PC DVD PLAYER standard stand alone dvd players like the ones I mentioned 0wn. Funckification time:

Well, actually it seems as though I'm not the only person who's experienced the opposite. I started up a thread about a month ago and got a couple of replies on a similar subject:

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9677

Someone else wrote:

the drives CD and dvd stand alone players have always been utter crap, they're always the last to be able to read recordable and then rewritable discs properly and they're always awful at handling scratches and defects. My 6x dvd-rom from 1999 handles dvds and cds better than even the top stand alones you can buy today do.

Rpm and noise levels isn't the problem either. Drives are quite able to be silent at 4000rpm (~8x max dvd)

unlike the pc sector theres no real need to stick a decent drive in standalones since they rarely get reviewed on their ability to read imperfect media.

 

[Tim Murray]

it's a crapshoot. different lasers respond to different defects differently. one of the Big Audiophile Things to Buy are first-generation Discmans (that seems so odd in the plural form, but whatever). apparently, they sound fantastic because there is no shock protection. there are times when my DVD drive refuses to read a disc, and then I stick it in my CD burner, and it works fine. there are times when the opposite is true. it's just different drives; you can't say that standalones are better than PC drives or whatever. you could say that Standalone X is better than Drive Y.

 

[Guden Oden]

Anyone have any recommendations then for DVD drives that have the least amounts of problems with burned or slightly scratched discs?

Name I keep people saying/winning all the tests is Plextor. Bit expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for. They were also the first with burn-proof functionality, I believe.

Plextor drives rip audio flawlessly at full-speed too, and have nice software included to limit spindle speed and such. I'm going to get one of their combo CD/DVD burners.

 

[NeoCool]

In reply to all,

Actually, I have an XBOX and with the DVD player XBOX kit my experience playing DVDs on my XBOX was greater then on my PC or my stand alone toshiba DVD player. Toshiba really ships crappy dvd players....my toshiba dvd player takes like a couple seconds when each chapter is done to transition and sometimes restarts the dvd for no reason, and the image quality is a little poor. XBOX has none of those issues. And my PC dvd player is fine other than the image quality I think could be better but hey a T.V will always offer best image quality(or at least, a modern one) when running a DVD. And of course every PC with a dvd player I've used are a little sensitive to dirty discs, but that's really not a big deal at all. Otherwise I'm fine.

--NeoCool

 

[stevem]

NeoCool

If you haven't done so, grab the latest FW from JLMS for your 166S. There's a newer unofficial version around. Also search for ltnflash. Confirm the drive is operating in DMA mode in XP.

Which version of PowerDVD are you using? Version 5 is better on layer change, chapters & LQ media. Grab the latest patch for that too. While not cadence capable, it handles poorly mastered flags quite well. While you have enough HP to run profiles in SW mode, try switching color profiles off & run in HW mode. Also try the Dolby downmix modes. You'll actually get the .1 sub channel mixed into your stereo output. Depending on your speakers it may make a significant difference.

As an aside, the new Forceware NVDVD player is much better now that they've got a serious dev on the job...

 

[NeoCool]

In reply to stevem,

As I said before, this happens with any program capable of running a DVD on any PC i have with an PC-DVD-ROM....whether i'm running powerdvd 5 or 4, interwindvd 5 or 4, or the windows media player 9 dvd decoder, it really doesn't make a difference....its no big deal really.

 

[stevem]

In reply to stevem,

As I said before, this happens with any program capable of running a DVD on any PC i have with an PC-DVD-ROM....whether i'm running powerdvd 5 or 4, interwindvd 5 or 4, or the windows media player 9 dvd decoder, it really doesn't make a difference....its no big deal really.

Rescanned your post. Never had the problem. PC drives can slip into HS data mode when read errors occur. Background virus software can also trip this. I assume that unused codecs are removed. When you say "I've seen the DVD in my PC dvd player skip certain parts of the disc, likely due to lost corrupted bits of information. ", you could be describing any number of issues from bad media, old FW, PUH problems, insufficient system resources to leaving the drive in PIO mode under XP.

BTW is there a reason you like the vivid/soft config? Less mosquitoing?