DVD picture blacked out

[MatthewF01]

Hey guys, recently began having an issue.

First, the hardware...

Nvidia Geforce 6800GT, looks like I'm running the 6631 drivers.
Lite-on LTD-122 DVDROM, bought it YEARS ago labeled as another brand


The first peculiar problem is that although I show my region for the drive in Device Manager as being set to Region 1 with 0 changes remaining, Windows Media Player, when asked to play back a DVD disc, tells me that no region is set and I need to go set it. Strange.

So instead I try my luck with Power DVD, I think im using build 5.603. The DVD will play, I can usually hear the audio, and heres the weird part...the picture KIND OF displays, but most of it is overlayed with black. I can see like 1/4" along the SIDES of the picture, but the rest is just blocked.
I had ffdshow installed (for what reason, I cant remember), so uninstalled that...uninstalled and cleared out PowerDVD files and reinstalled, installed Nvidia DVD Decoder (not sure what thatd do...)... any ideas?


Thanks, you guys are the best

 

[yukichigai]

Try Media Player Classic, for starters. It shouldn't be nearly as anal as Windows Media Player, unless that limitation is built into the OS. Beyond that, I don't know what to say, except that I understand a lot of people are complaining about the Nvidia Decoder.

 

[MatthewF01]

Mmm...Classic (mplayer2) doesnt play DVDs. This problem is only with DVDs...
And I installed Nvidia Decoder as a possible solution...not to cause problems. Plus doesnt it only work with WMP? Im trying to play in PowerDVD at least, and get this black screen problem

 

[VirtualLarry]

No, "Media Player Classic" = MPC.EXE, not mplayer2.exe (older WMP 6.4). Totally different program, although it was designed to look and work mostly the same way (except far, far better.) MPC is by far my preferred media player.

 

[MatthewF01]

crap cant find MPC.exe... where might the executable be located? I entered into run, didnt find it, i did search, nothing.

But the problem is with the black overlay, which happens in PowerDVD...so thats the real problem at hand.

 

[yukichigai]

Media Player Classic is a separate program. It comes with the k-lite codec pack, which I highly recommend. If you want to get it separately, it can be found hither.