Help - Bluray playback - no video

[TehSofa]

I tried searching through the forum here and couldn't come up with any relevant solutions, so here goes...

The System:
OS: Windows Vista 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 E6600 @ 2.4 ghz
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2
Gfx driver ver: 190.62 WHQL (newest)
Monitor: LG L204WT
Drive: LG GGW-H20L (Internal SATA Blue-Ray burner/HD-DVD)
Player software: PowerDVD 7.3.5105.0, TotalMedia Theatre 3.0.1.120
Test movies: Forbidden Kingdom and Watchmen, Bluray; multiple DVDs

(Personal build, not a branded box)

CyberLink BD Advisor gives a greenlight for everything. The monitor is OK'd on both analog and digital connections.

The problem:
Playback begins just fine in either player. After anywhere from a few seconds to about ten minutes, the video will just stop. The audio keeps going. If I try to seek to a different spot, the video output is all black but the audio seeks. The player interface still shows just fine, and there is no crash. If I close and restart the same player software, the video remains black. If I reboot, the problem resets. If I start the other player software, assuming I haven't already tried it since rebooting, it will work for a little bit and then stop working in the same way.

After it has decided Bluray shouldn't work any more, TotalMedia Theatre exhibits the same problem with DVDs. PowerDVD will still play DVDs successfully after screwing up with Bluray.

Both CPU cores still show a 30% - 50% load factor while playing the blankness, so clearly something is happening.

The only idea I can come up with at this point is that the 64 bit version of Vista was a bad idea. Can anyone give me some suggestions before I kill a day installing a different version of Windows?

[st4evr]

May be a problem with your video card drivers. The new 190 series Nvidia drivers seem to cause more problems than they fix. Not too many are happy with the any of the latest drivers from Nvidia. As a matter of fact, i tried those drivers and the 190 before those and i could not even get my monitor to turn of on both Vista 64x and Win 7 64x. I'd recommend you completely remove those drivers and try the older 180 drivers like the 182s or 185s, maybe even the 186s and see if it works. I currently have 182.08 installed cause so far these are the most stable when it comes to video playback and FPS for games that I've come across. Lately Nvidia has been dropping the ball. I run SLI 8800GTS in my system currently with Win Vista 64x and no problems with any BD playback or games.

[kris26]

you should try windows media player too
the playback movie is ffrom HDD or from the disc?

[TehSofa]

Originally Posted by st4evr

I'd recommend you completely remove those drivers and try the older 180 drivers like the 182s or 185s, maybe even the 186s and see if it works. I currently have 182.08 installed cause so far these are the most stable when it comes to video playback and FPS for games that I've come across. Lately Nvidia has been dropping the ball.

Rolled back to 182.08 as suggested and the problem is fixed! Thanks

Unfortunately the 7950 doesn't do h.264 acceleration, and my CPU isn't up to fast action at even half of the native frame rate.... I don't know whether to be irritated that I have to spend more money or happy to have a good excuse to upgrade But either way, the fact that it's now working to some extent has removed my desire to take a hammer to my computer. Thank you!

[Eddie2u]

Originally Posted by TehSofa

Rolled back to 182.08 as suggested and the problem is fixed! Thanks

Unfortunately the 7950 doesn't do h.264 acceleration, and my CPU isn't up to fast action at even half of the native frame rate.... I don't know whether to be irritated that I have to spend more money or happy to have a good excuse to upgrade But either way, the fact that it's now working to some extent has removed my desire to take a hammer to my computer. Thank you!

You will notice a big difference with a video card upgrade. My HTPC only has a Core 2 E6300 processor in it with 2 gigs of ram (I might upgrade to 4 gigs). Video playback of Hd content is smooth.

http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-sup...equirement.jsp