Calling all DVD experts, and WindowsXP

[onederer]

We got a new computer from DELL, and it came with a combo drive DVD+R/RW\CD-R/RW. The other night, my wife and I thougth we'd have fun, and rented two DVD's, to watch them on the computer's monitor. We tried to watch the movie using Windows Media Player. But it ain't any fun when all we can see is just the tops of the actor's heads, at the bottom of the player's screen! It seems that less than 25% of the movie is actually displayed on the player's screen. Where's the rest? We then tried the other rented movie with with the same results. When that didn't work, we then tried a different application to see if it is the same. Yep! No changes in the results! Most of the scenes are towards the bottom of the screen and to the left. Resizing the screen, manipulating the screen size, changing the computer's resolution, all those attempts were a failure to find the root cause of the problem.An on-line email to DELL only caused a rejection, twice, of my attempt to send out a message about this. So next, 3 phone calls to three tech. support persons, and they all excused themselves out of helping me. The best that one told me was that he would email me a link to a site for me to download a program to "fix" this problem (I never received the email!), and his best answer was to completely re-install WindowsNT-PRO. I asked him why? Everything else is working fine, except for this DVD problem.There is nothing wrong with the DVD sound. CD's work fine, and haven't been able to buy so far fresh DVD media to try a burn-in of something.Any of you super smart people out there come across this problem before? Any way to shrink the movie output so it will completely fit into the computer's screen, for pleasurable viewing? Or are commercial movie DVD's not compatilble with this type of computer DVD player? Thanks!

[Stryder]

I do not use WMP(windows media player) for watching DVD's. So I am not sure what the problem is. I use Power DVD and I have never had any issues with it. My first guess would be an issue with WMP. Second guess is maybe an anti-piracy measure. Like I said these are purely guesses because I have not ever ran across anything like this. What other program did you try and play the dvd's in?

[onederer]

Well, Stryder, the other application that I had used, was POWER DVD! It gave me the same results as the MS Multi-media application. And I also used another third nameless application with the same results.I wonder if this would be a problem if the DVD drive was made to encode/decode DV-R/-RW? What format does the commercial movie CD's use?You watch your DVD movie videos in a simple DVD player? Or is it also a burner? And you wrote that you get the full picture displayed on your monitor screen? I still can't believe that this would happen to me. Perhaps I was mislead by the DELL people?

[Stryder]

Well, Stryder, the other application that I had used, was POWER DVD!  It gave me the same results as the MS Multi-media application.  And I also used another third nameless application with the same results.I wonder if this would be a problem if the DVD drive was made to encode/decode DV-R/-RW?  What format does the commercial movie CD's use?You watch your DVD movie videos in a simple DVD player?  Or is it also a burner?  And you wrote that you get the full picture displayed on your  monitor screen?  I still can't believe that this would happen to me.  Perhaps I was mislead by the DELL people?

Yes, I watch my movies in a simple DVD player....not a burner. I get perfect results just as if it was a stand alone DVD or VCR player hooked up to a TV. The .VOB format is the standard file extension for commercial DVD's. I know Dell used to have excellent online documentation. You may want to go to their support site and look up the specs on your drive and see what brand it is and what "read" formats it accepts. It would just seem odd (cheap?) to sell a DVD burner that will not allow you to read a DVD movie. That is why I am wondering if this is some type of anti-piracy. The DVD scans the hardware it is in and sees that it is a burner and the outcome is what you described....but that is purely a guess. The riaa and mpaa have me very cynical and untrusting anymore.

[mot5w]

I you are still having problems there are two software places you can check for this problem, the features or settings on the DVD or in the software being use for viewing the DVD. If you tried two different DVD’s with the same result I would check the ‘player’ first. Personally I use Power DVD with great results. When Power DVD is launched from it’s icon it should have a control panel and a viewing panel. Should the viewing panel first appear full screen it can be reduce by double clicking upon it. Doing the typical “right mouse†click brings up a menu that has “Configuration†as a choice. Check in there for an oddities. Another place to check in Power DVD is the menu that comes up when a DVD is playing. It is a more extensive menu. So while a DVD is in your drive I would "right mouse click" an double check under “Digital Zoom†and make sure it is set to “Offâ€.

[onederer]

The problem has been solved, people!It all boiled down to the Nvidia card. With all the techs. that I went to for help, I got mostly bull from them, and the Dell tech. could only suggest to me that I re-install the entire operating system, including all the applications that came from the factory. But it seems that none of them had the presence of mind to check into the one and first thing to trouble shoot. While I was not familiar with the Nvidia card, they should have been. But at the end, I finally went to the card's setup screen and went through the settings. That seems like the thing that "cured" the problem. After making the corrections, I am now able to sit down, put in the rented DVD movie, eat popcorn, and watch the show.I want to thank you all for your input into this matter.