Choppy Blu-ray Playback

[disneyreporter]

Hi guys,

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop back in July (which is supposed to be able to handle Blu-ray) but it did not come with a blu-ray drive installed. I recently got a Lite-on External Blu-ray Drive for Christmas, and it works fine; however, my video playback is not reliable. The trailer previews for movies play fine, but some of the blu-ray menus are really slow and scenes in the movie can pause for a second and get really choppy. The thing is, there doesn't seem to be a pattern to the choppiness. Sometimes an entire chapter of a movie will play perfectly fine while other times you can't go more than 5-10 seconds without there being horrible playback ... unbearable to watch.

I'm using Power DVD BE Edition 7.3 that came with the Lite-on drive. As I said before, it's a new Dell Inspiron 1525 equipped with Vista Home Premium, 2.0Ghz, 3GB RAM.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how I can fix this problem?

Thanks,
Eric

[JasonR]

Post Approved

[hendra]

1. Download PowerDVD BD Advisor and see if it says you need to upgrade anything. http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do
2. Check if you have the latest patch for your PowerDVD. Press Ctrl-A -> Upgrade

[disneyreporter]

Originally Posted by hendra

1. Download PowerDVD BD Advisor and see if it says you need to upgrade anything. http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do
2. Check if you have the latest patch for your PowerDVD. Press Ctrl-A -> Upgrade

The PowerDVD BD Advisor suggests I upgrade my CPU and CPU Hardware Accelerator. On the box to the blu-ray drive, it did say that 2.0Ghz was fine for playing blu-ray though. As far as upgrading goes, how do I go about it? Will the CPU be fine if I just get a new graphics card? Also, are there any special instructions for replacing an integrated Intel graphics card?

[dadkins]

2.0 processor(dual core) is fine for most BDs if you do not have a GPU that offloads the playback.
*SOME* BDs will really work the processor to 100% and that will cause stalls/choppy playback.

Laptops don't usually give you many(if any) options for upgrading GPU.

Integrated Intel? No. Pretty sure that is soldered on to the mainboard.

[big-bleu]

i find wall.e to be choppy at certain times in the movie

[disneyreporter]

Originally Posted by big-bleu

i find wall.e to be choppy at certain times in the movie

That's exactly where my choppiness is. Wall-E and Prince Caspian are the only two I have, and both are copy ... more so Caspian than Wall-E. But the previews for both of them play perfectly fine as well as the Walt Disney Pictures intro. I've checked the CPU usage, and it is often running in the 90% range - sometimes hitting 100% quite a bit and other times only get close to it. If the problem does lie in the newer movies, does that mean any new movie I buy from now on will also have similar results?

I've also downloaded the Shakira OFT and Celine Dion ANDHC in 720p, and both of those play perfectly.

I honestly don't know what to do. I have 3GB of RAM, and that should be plenty. Some Dell Inspiron 1525 have blu-ray drives built right into them, so it should make since that this laptop should be able to play the movies. I just feel overwhelmed right now after having gone out and purchased a blu-ray drive, blu-ray movies, etc.

[dadkins]

I have noticed that the latest ArcSoft TMT uses a bit less system resources and once problem BDs(100% CPU on my AR190G), now play smooth.
A few still like to run the processor to 100%.

It's not RAM, it's processor load and whether or not the video card offloads work from the CPU.
My AR730 with a 8400GT offloads 60-75% of the work and plays all BDs fine.

[disneyreporter]

Originally Posted by dadkins

I have noticed that the latest ArcSoft TMT uses a bit less system resources and once problem BDs(100% CPU on my AR190G), now play smooth.
A few still like to run the processor to 100%.

It's not RAM, it's processor load and whether or not the video card offloads work from the CPU.
My AR730 with a 8400GT offloads 60-75% of the work and plays all BDs fine.

Is there any way to get my video card to take on more of the load? Apparently I cannot upgrade it because it is integrated, and I don't know how to change settings to boost its power so the cpu won't be as high. Any help you guys can provide would be much appreciated. It's really annoying having a laptop that Best Buy said could handle blu-rays and then find out that sure, it can play blu-rays but with an unbearable-to-watch playback. Biggest con artists!

[BLindsay]

video cards play a huge part in blu-ray playback on computers, some dell 1525's have good enough dedicated cards and thats why they can play them ok, but with integrated graphics there isnt much you can do. Most of the laptops i see with blu-ray in it have an nvidia 9600 or around that. With a laptop there isnt much you can do, u can try setting the priority of the application a bit higher in task manager to make sure its at least getting every ounce of cpu power posible. other then that id kick bestbuy in the face for telling you that

[disneyreporter]

I know that I can't upgrade the integrated Intel graphics, but can I somehow add another graphics card? I've spent so much money on blu-ray already after being misinformed into believing my laptop could handle blu-rays (which it kind of can), and I'd hate to see all of that money go to waste.

[BLindsay]

Originally Posted by disneyreporter

I know that I can't upgrade the integrated Intel graphics, but can I somehow add another graphics card? I've spent so much money on blu-ray already after being misinformed into believing my laptop could handle blu-rays (which it kind of can), and I'd hate to see all of that money go to waste.

not unless the 1525's have a slot for adding a dedicated card (some laptops do, but usually only if they were originally designed to do so) and i think external video cards a still a little ways off from being pratical

so other then setting the priority of the application a little higher there is not much else u can do unfourtunetly

[disneyreporter]

Originally Posted by BLindsay

not unless the 1525's have a slot for adding a dedicated card (some laptops do, but usually only if they were originally designed to do so) and i think external video cards a still a little ways off from being pratical

so other then setting the priority of the application a little higher there is not much else u can do unfourtunetly

Are there any programs to set the priority? I tried that MZ CPU Accelerator program, but I'm not sure if it's working or not.

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or what, but on my Wall-E movie, both the sneak peak movie trailers and the Presto short play with perfect playback (both are 1.78:1 ratio. The actual movie and the Burn-E short have choppy playback (both are 2.39:1 ratio or something along those lines). Could the ratio have anything to do with my problem?

[disneyreporter]

Okay, guys. I contact both Lite-On and Dell, and both said my computer could handle Blu-ray, so I decided to do a little testing. I put in my Prince Caspian disk, and once again, it was choppy playback. I accidentally hit the show information option in Cyberlink and noticed that my audio was set to English 7.1. Just for kicks, I decided to try the French audio track. It showed up as French 5.1, and as soon as I switched, the playback is smooth. Is there any way I can set the English audio to 5.1? My laptop only has 2 ch speakers, so I can't tell a difference between 7.1 and 5.1 anyhow. This seems to be a solution to my problem ... well, at least a makeshift solution so I can at least watch the film for a change, that is, if I could get it into English. haha Any ideas you guys have would be much appreciated as always.

[disneyreporter]

Another thought. Is there a way to downscale my blu-rays to 720p when I watch them on my laptop? 720p's play fine on my computer, so maybe that would be the best solution. I'm fine with only having 720p display as long as it means I get to watch the movie.

[dadkins]

Originally Posted by disneyreporter

Another thought. Is there a way to downscale my blu-rays to 720p when I watch them on my laptop? 720p's play fine on my computer, so maybe that would be the best solution. I'm fine with only having 720p display as long as it means I get to watch the movie.

What is the native resolution of the laptop display?
Usually, just clicking the "Maximize" button will scale the video to fit.

Also, most playback software will automatically select 2 channel sound for laptops.

[disneyreporter]

Originally Posted by dadkins

What is the native resolution of the laptop display?
Usually, just clicking the "Maximize" button will scale the video to fit.

Also, most playback software will automatically select 2 channel sound for laptops.

My native resolution is 1280x800. I copied Wall-E to my hard drive, and now all of the videos (bonus features, commentary, etc.) play smoothly. The only problem is, I cannot find the file for the actual film. Is it located in the Stream folder with the rest of the video files? Any idea where I can find it? Also, after speaking with Dell on the phone, they suggested I try playing the blu rays with Windows Media Player instead of Power DVD, and that does seem to have the playback quite a bit.

[disneyreporter]

Now I just found something really weird. When I copied the Wall-E blu-ray to my hard drive, I couldn't find the file for the actual movie - just the one with the director commentary. But it played smoothly and that's all that mattered. Well, I just installed a Vista Codec Pack, and now, that same exact file is now the actual film and not the commentary version, but this time, the playback is choppy. So I uninstalled the Vista Codec Pack, and now that file is back to the director commentary version with smooth playback. Do any of you guys have any idea what is going on?

[disneyreporter]

Can anyone help me with this problem? When playing blu-rays in Windows Media Player rather than PowerDVD, the playback is much smoother; however, WMP does not play the correct audio. For example, my Wall-E blu-ray plays with the director commentary, and Prince Caspian will only play in French.

[gearyt]

are you trying to play Blu-rays or rip them to your computer ??