dalegtr18 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 I'll try to condense this to its basics: when I try to play a DVD I get the sound but a black screen image. I have tried this with Windows Media Player 9 and 10 and with Intervideo DVD.Early on, I had a Nvida GeForce FX5200 video card. I played with it, could sometimes get the dvd to play under varying conditions- could play dvd but not skip around chapters, the main menu wouldn't work- the only way I could play it in WMP was to use the Video and visualization pane to select chapters. Usually, I had to take the hardware tshooter down a couple notches. Well, I thought I had solved but then it all went to **** and none of my old tricks worked. I decided to run the recovery partition and start from scratch.LONG story short, I reimaged and got the DVDs to play fine with the onboard video. I slowly rebuilt my pc and made Norton Ghost images at several key stages. Yesterday, I finally added the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card and BANG- back to a black screen! And yes, I have the latest drivers for it.I am thinking it MAY be a codecs issue but am not sure. The files in the video folder of the DVDs (I have tried several) are all VOB and BUP. Nothching down the hardware tshooter no longer helps at all.Here's the hardware:HP Pavilion 751n, Intel 1.8gHz P4 processor, 1GB ram, ASUS P4S-LA mobo, Viewsonic VA1912wb monitor, Windows XP Home, Belkiin Omni Cube KVM (have taken this out of the loop with no affect), Samsung DVD-rom SD616F.What would I need to make the ATI card work with DVDs when the simple onboard video worked fine (but very grainy)?? Thanks in advance!Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Do you have the latest directX? Did you reinstall WinDVD after installing the ATI card?Hope this helps.....Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 9, 2007 Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 Do you have the latest directX? Did you reinstall WinDVD after installing the ATI card?Hope this helps.....AdamHI Adaml. Thanks for the quick reply. I have DirectX 9.0c. I have not reinstalled either. I ran the diagnostics on DirectX and 3d and they both passed. I never had WinDVD- just Windows Media Player 9.0 and Intervideo DVD but have not reinstalled them. I am considering WMP 10 but noticed a windows update came down before I reimaged regarding digital rights managment so I am leary of putting 10 back on- especially as 9 worked with the onboard graphics. I also installed the full ATI suite tonight, hoping there might be a setting to change there but no such luck. I plan on forging ahead as much as possible before returning to last weeks Ghost image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 To expand on what Adam said, WinDVD has the codec that WMP needs in order to play DVD's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 9, 2007 Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 To expand on what Adam said, WinDVD has the codec that WMP needs in order to play DVD's.Cool! Thanks for the clarification. I will search for it now. Question tho- why did DVDs play before on WMP 9 and onboard graphics before? Would that imply that the codecs is already installed?Oops! Just noticed the program I already have IS Intervideo WinDVD. Will look for an update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 A good alternative to WMP (and just about every other player out there) is K-lite.And it's free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 9, 2007 Author Share Posted January 9, 2007 OK just reinstalled WinDVD- no difference, though it was a good idea that hadn't occurred to me. I COULD install WMP10 but really don't think that's going to change anything. Also have tried variations of screen size and hardware acceleration. This thing is really kicking my butt and I've been at it for a month now! A good alternative to WMP (and just about every other player out there) is K-lite.And it's free.Thanks, I will consider it but both WinDVD and WMP worked prior to this. Soon, I will be Ghosting back to last week and settling for crappy, grainy video with the onboard graphics but I strongly feel that there must be an answer to this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Another free alternative would be VLC player...patio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 11, 2007 Author Share Posted January 11, 2007 >>A good alternative to WMP (and just about every other player out there) is K-lite. Thanks for the tip t-bird. I tried to download it but there seems to be a problem with the site and I was not able to follow thru to get the download. A friend tried to help me by sending a link to a KLite codec pack. I forgot to write down the version but the executable is klmcodec1.63.exe. I installed it and ran the media player Classic program. Same result. :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Hello,Does your ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card have a secondary monitor or television output feature that is enabled? If so, try disabling it and then see if video is now displayed when you play a DVD using the InterVideo WinDVD software on the computer.RegardsAryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 12, 2007 Author Share Posted January 12, 2007 Yes, it does! I was always slightly confused by that but ignored it as everything else seemed to be working. I will check into this as soon as I get home. Thanks for the tip! Also, I have turned to AMD/ATI for help but so far haven't gotten anywhere. They put out Catlyst 7.1 yesterday and advised me to use that but no luck. I even uninstalled all codec (KLite and DivX) as well as the S3 and Nvidia drivers that came from the factory restore. No change. I'm eager to see if this works. Thanks again!Dale Hello,Does your ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card have a secondary monitor or television output feature that is enabled? If so, try disabling it and then see if video is now displayed when you play a DVD using the InterVideo WinDVD software on the computer.RegardsAryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 Another free alternative would be VLC player...patio. That is what I use for most files that WMP does not like without add-ins and other codec's. I also have cyberlink PowerDVD that works. I'd shy away from ATI's DVD player as the others are a bit more polished. VLC is great though. Ya it's not the best intercafe but it does MPG's AVI's (even Xvid and Divx coded) WMV's, Vob's, DVD's so far that is all I have tried with it. The picture Q is good and in DVD mode you should be able to access 5.1 sound and other cool stuff if you look around the options. I watched a few Music concert DVD's with VLC and in the right mode they sounded awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted January 12, 2007 Share Posted January 12, 2007 As far as your video troubles. Can you populate your system specs on your profile. Knowing what you are trying to do with what hardware may be of some help. ATI's support has the following phrase in their clipboard for all questions posted to them. "uninstall and reinstall the latest from our website"I have had constant issues with my AIW 2006 and AIW 9600 in their Multimedia center application since I got it. The software needs to be beaten into windows to work right. If I were you I would start off with a fresh (format and start over) install of windows. If your using a restore CD that is not good enough. Get windows installed. Update to SP2 if you did not slip stream it into your copy.Do not setup anything yet. Let windows use the MS version of the video drivers.Update windows. Grab .Net 1.1 and 2.0 in the update package. RebootInstall the latest Catalyst driver. RebootInstall your Security software suite. RebootInstall WinDVD or other DVD program you want. Also install VLC Media Player and get the WMP 11. The Digital rights issues are not in my way I doubt they would be in anyone else's. Install Firefox/opera/IE7Report back to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 13, 2007 Author Share Posted January 13, 2007 Thanks for the reply, Fuzz. I appreciate it. My pc is an HP Pavilion 751n with 2gb of ram, Asus P4S-LA motherboard, Sound Blaster Live audio card, Linksys wireless-G NIC and the accursed ATI Radeon 9600 Pro running on Windows XP Home with all updates, Viewsonic VA1912wb monitor.I sort of have a gut level feeling downloading other players won't solve the problem. I have tried a couple already (Klite being one) and this did not solve it. Video was playing fine on the onboard graphics. I tried to step into this carefully, saving the ATI card for last and have a Norton Ghost image prior to the install which I will probably be turning to soon. I would like to exhaust all possibilities first before doing that, if only to learn what to do with my clean image if/when I go that route. I'm not very keen on doing a completely clean install but do have that at my disposal if I choose. I ghosted just for the reason of not having to go thru all of that.Where I am at on that image is XP Home with all updates, all the standard software that came with the HP from the recovery partition (including WinDVD), Norton Sytemworks 2006, Symantec AV 8.1, ZoneAlarm firewall (free version), AdAware, Spybot, Defender, and a couple other programs. I do have .Netf 1.1 and 2.0 as well. I also have a micro-ATX 250W power supply but recently unplugged my 2nd hard drive, floppy and, CD-ROM and removed the 1394 card as well so that power should not be an issue. Everything worked fine with the onboard video at this point, tho the image was grainy and I could see the 'boxes' on certain images. If I am doomed to using the onboard graphics, oh well, but I am a very stubborn suss and am determined to lick this before going back to the image. Thanks again!Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 13, 2007 Author Share Posted January 13, 2007 Well, I tried uninstalling the secondary Radeon card in device manager but after rebooting it automatically reinstalled itself so I disabled it and after the reboot only one monitor showed up. Alas, no image when I played the DVD. I don't see anything related to TV output in device manager but am not sure exactly what to look for. This is really getting frustrating but I'm not giving up yet!! :-) try disabling it and then see if video is now displayed when you play a DVD using the InterVideo WinDVD software on the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 Just a question. Did you disable the primary graphics onboard the Mobo after you put the agp card in? You might have to go into BIOS and select the AGP as primary or disable onboard incase it is not automatic.Don't worry about the secondary radeon device that should be there as it is a dual head card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted January 13, 2007 Share Posted January 13, 2007 Maybe our two video cards should get together ... there are DVDs in Win2K with my ATI 9800LX 256MB card with half sound and video and yours has sound and no video (but only Sony Pictures DVDs, btw, all others played fine!) LOL!I ended up using the Dell Video player on my old laptop to play them, and now the Mac which also has an ATI card.Did you say you had the latest driver package for your ATI Card from the ATI site?Also does that ATI card make use of Catalyst (which requires .NET Framework)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 13, 2007 Author Share Posted January 13, 2007 Just a question. Did you disable the primary graphics onboard the Mobo after you put the agp card in? You might have to go into BIOS and select the AGP as primary or disable onboard incase it is not automatic.Don't worry about the secondary radeon device that should be there as it is a dual head card.Yes, thanks for checking. There is a preference for which to choose in BIOS and have selected AGP.Did you say you had the latest driver package for your ATI Card from the ATI site?Also does that ATI card make use of Catalyst (which requires .NET Framework)?Yes, I had installed the previous version of catalyst (6.14???) and AMD sent a reply to try 7.1 which was released on the 10th. Neither worked.If I understand correctly, yes the ATI card does use the Catalyst. I have .NET 1.1 and 2.0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 14, 2007 Author Share Posted January 14, 2007 BTW, for what it's worth, I thought I'd add another small piece of the puzzle. Back a month ago when I first started experiencing this problem with DVDs I was using a GeForce FX52100 video card. This time around after the reimage, I decided not to mess around with the FX5200 and went with the ATi Radeon. I had never really played DVDs prior to this on my pc and only recently had begun playing a video-intensive game- Head Coach- that would lock up with a n4disp.dll error after 10 minutes, leading me to originally reimage the pc to make it much more stable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 (edited) Hello,My initial thought is some sort of problem playing video from the DVD while a secondary monitor is present (or, a profile for one is). Try going into the Device Manager (filename: DEVMGMT.MSC) and selecting View -> Show Hidden Devices from the main menu. If there are any additional entries under Display Adapters or Monitors try deleting them and then rebooting. Perhaps then you will be able to watch the video from DVDs.RegardsAryeh Goretsky Edited January 15, 2007 by goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 15, 2007 Author Share Posted January 15, 2007 I don't see any additional monitors or adpaters when showing hidden devices. However, you may be onto something with the secondary monitor/display adpater thing as decice manager does show a 2nd Ati card and a second monitor previously showed in display properties. I noticed this a while back and thought it rather odd but since disabling adapter #2 (which elminiated the 2nd monitor showing up), nothing has changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 Hello,You may wish to contact AMD/ATI technical support directly for assistance. I looked through the support section of their web site, and came up with the following phone numbers:+1 (877) 284-1566 (M-F, 9A-7P EST)+1 (905) 882-3274 (M-F, 9A-5:30P EST)RegardsAryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 I doubt this has anything to do with 2 adapters found. I can and do play DVD's on my ATI card that has a primary and secondary channel and both are in use and work fine. I put in "Gone in 60 Seconds" Started playing it in PowerDVD5. As I was watching on the primary monitor I dragged the viewing window to the secondary window. No problems I am now watching it on the secondary monitor. What I am recommending is a clean install of windows and start there. You could also uninstall everything involved with the display drivers and catalyst software. Use the cat-uninstall tool that you can download from ATI and also CC cleaner. Get the latest Catalyst software before you start. Uninstall it all without rebooting till it is all gone. Reboot then cancel windows from installing any drivers. Now install the catalyst software. Report back to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted January 17, 2007 Share Posted January 17, 2007 I should also mention that some of the ATI software does not get along with the SB Live! cards. From the original Live! thru the Audigy2 from what I can tell. I had the Live! in this PC but now have the Audigy2 using the Microsoft drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share Posted January 17, 2007 You may wish to contact AMD/ATI technical support directly for assistance. +1 (877) 284-1566 (M-F, 9A-7P EST)+1 (905) 882-3274 (M-F, 9A-5:30P EST)Thanks, Aryeh. I have been doing the online assistance with AMD but it is slow going and I've gotten little beyond "try our newest drivers" so far.Dale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share Posted January 17, 2007 I should also mention that some of the ATI software does not get along with the SB Live! cards.Thanks for the tip. The last two things I saved for the last go-round was the SB Live and ATI card! LOL I can do a system recovery and try the ATI card off the get go, which is the opposite approach I took last time befoing doing my Ghost images (which was get everything else working right THEN add the potentially problematic video card). I'm still trying to forge ahead, tho, at this point, hoping to figure out the solution, then going back to my last Ghost image and 'getting it right' without all the fuss and bother of the past 2-3 weeks so it may be another week before I try this approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 26, 2007 Author Share Posted January 26, 2007 (edited) I am absolutely livid right now! I just got a reply from AMD, if that's what you can call it. The tech that 'looked into this' seems to have given up as soon as they saw the mention of Windows media Player and WinDVD, saying the problem is with that software and that they don't support it!!! They suggested that it might be a codecs problem but I keep asking..... if it ran fine with the onboard video wouldn't it have the necessary codecs already?? If I need a codecs file because of the Radeon 9600 wouldn't AMD have a clue as to what codecs it would need?? I'm very disappointed with the lack of good support from AMD. It takes a while for them to reply and there is no way to add on to the ticket to contact them until they have replied. I will have to try to contact them via phone but their M-F schedule doesn't favor my schedule. :-( Very frustrated right now and tempted to just give up on the whole thing and throwing the Nvidia and Radeon cards in the garbage and suffering with the lame onboard graphics- at least they work. Edited January 26, 2007 by dalegtr18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 26, 2007 Share Posted January 26, 2007 Trying to figure out codecs needed is a frustrating experience.Download gspot http://www.headbands.com/gspot/It will tell you what is missing - you don't need to wait for non-existent tech suport.Quick guide here http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/quick_start.htmlread thru it and see if it makes sense. I ran this on a few computers when I couldn't get some files and DVDs to play. All my computers but one play most everything. (I'll eventually get around to fixing that one too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted January 27, 2007 Author Share Posted January 27, 2007 BIG part of the puzzle solved, folks!!! Thanks to zlims recommendation to check out gspot (I did but this didn't shed any new light on th problem), I stumbled upon a link to vlc, which Patio had recommended earlier in the thread. For the heck of it, I d/l it and VOILA! I watched my Led Zeppelin DVD without issue (okay, the video hiccupped once or twice for a couple seconds)!!! I am so happy to be able to watch DVDs again! Now, to get back to this nagging problem about why WMP and WinDVD won't work. A little w hile long with that and it's back to previous image, install of VLC and "I'll live with this solution just fine!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Hurray. Maybe downloading and installing vlc on my computer that I haven't figured out yet will be tons easier than going the codecs route. Thanks to you, I'm going to try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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