I have a laptop and I play music on it quite regularly. It sounds fine. Today I tried to play a DVD on it and the sound is horrible! It's scratchy and distorted. Now I'm playing music on it and it sounds fine. Using the same program (Windows Media Player). I've also tried other programs and its the same issue. And just a little over a week ago I played a DVD on it and it sounded fine. And I've changed nothing (that I know of)! It's extraordinarily frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(It's a Toshiba Satellite if that makes any difference. Only a few months old)
Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :
It souunds like the problem is with the DVD itself -- what happens when you try another DVD, and what happens when you put the DVD in another player?
--j_k
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
I bought the DVD about an hour and a half ago, so it better not be a problem with the DVD.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
what do threads with the tag (mayfly) mean? Does that mean they are only expected to last like 24 hours?
Posted by Baron Samedi (Member # 9175) on :
Well, if you bought it an hour and a half ago, exchanging it should be simple. A lot simpler than replacing your sound card.
In other words, I'd take the word "not" out of your last post. Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Of course, it could simply be a problem with the sound drivers. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling them?
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
I just tried the DVD out on another computer and it worked fine and just tried LOTR on my computer and there was the same problem.
The thing that really baffles me is that all other sounds on my computer work fine. It's just when I try to play a DVD. Oh, and even when I put on headphones, the scratchiness persists.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
I would greatly appreciate and explanation of (mayfly)
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
Windows use to have a "feature" where it would not play CD music back as CD music, but actually rip it, re-encode it, and play it back analog through the sound card. Beats the hell out of me as to why they chose to do that.
Inside of Windows Media Player, first make sure that in the "Rip Music" tab everything in the bottom half is unchecked.
Secondly, go to the "Devices" tab, click on your CD player and hit "Properties". There should be an option that says "Playback". Make sure it's DIGITAL and without error correction.
Can't think of much else.
Posted by GaalDornick (Member # 8880) on :
Mayfly means a thread that will be deleted as soon as the poster finds the help he's looking for.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Alrighty, I did everything everyones said and nothings working. When I pause the movie and then hit play again, it works fine for half a second, then goes back to scratchy and tinny. It's also slowing down the playback of the DVD. I just tried playing a regular audio CD off the drive (one that hasn't been ripped to my laptop) and that played completely fine.
Yeah, sorry BlackBlade. I just think of it as meaning that it may fly away. Some mayflys stay, some are deleted rather quickly. I once had a mayfly that ended up not being a mayfly because people requested it so . It was about me building a cake for a girl, a la Napoleon Dynamite. I can't remember if I ended up deleting that thread after all the angst or not. Hmm ...
*goes off to search for thread and get mind off incredibly frustrating and confusing computer problem.
EDIT: mmmm ... found it. Ah, memories.
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
It may be a problem with windows media player. Have you tried playing the disk with different software?
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
Yes. I'm beginning to think it's a problem with my DVD drive. Is that possible? That it plays a CD fine but not a DVD? The reason I'm thinking this is because there is this rather disturbing whirring sound coming from the drive when it starts to mess up. It's fine that first half a second, then it pauses sort of, the drive whirrs really fast, and then it starts again all scratchy and tinny.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Yeah, that sounds like a bad sign.
Posted by Boris (Member # 6935) on :
It's very likely the DVD drive has gone bad. DVDs use a smaller wavelength laser to read and write information, so the laser may be losing its ability to run at that wavelength.
However, I have seen some computers with this problem that was caused by low RAM, and/or the use of PowerDVD's decoders. If you use PowerDVD, you might try using a different decoder like WinDVD. Also, make sure you shut down all background services before playing a DVD.
edit: Media player still uses PowerDVD's decoders, so even trying it in Media player could cause the same problem if it is the decoders screwing up.
[ August 01, 2006, 09:18 PM: Message edited by: Boris ]
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Blah blah DVD drive. Check the Toshiba support website for updated drivers and see if you can update your software DVD player. If that doesn't work, do what Boris said and try a different software DVD player. I'd recommend VLC.
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