Audio “stutters” when playing a movie DVD

[Burky]

When installing the DVD and selecting “Play DVD movie using VideoLan VLC media player” and clicking Ok, the audio stutters but the video is fine. When selecting Open from the VLC media player control panel and selecting the Disc tab, Disc type default is DVD(menus) and the Customize window in the Advanced options section displays “dvd://D:” After clicking Ok the movie plays and the audio stutters. If I set Disc type to DVD, The Customize window displays “dvdsimple://D:” After clicking Ok the movie plays flawlessly. What is the difference between the two selections?

[VLC_help]

Simple skips all the menus. Also current stable release does have some DVDnav issues which are fixed in nightly builds. You might also try to change Cache size to see if it helps.
http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ#DVD ... 2C_etc..29

[ChipJ]

The DVD audio stuttered on my system & video was fine, using the VLC media player. This system uses Windows XP. I had incorrectly assumed some sort of driver/software problem and I worked many hours trying to find a solution that way. The same DVD played fine on our other computer at home using Vista OS- it has a single CD/DVD player. My XP OS computer has a seperate CD RW player, the primary unit (determined by the jumper on the back of the CD RW/player). I had been attempting to play the DVD using a seperate (internal) DVD player, designated as the slave (by the jumper on the back of the player). But, eventually, after unsuccessfully trying many other approaches, I changed the jumper on the DVD player to designate it as the primary & also, changed the jumper position on the back of the CD RW player to designate it as the slave, the DVD played played DVD fine- all audio became clear and didn't stutter.

I don't know whether your computer has two seperate players- a CD and a DVD; if so, and the DVD is not set as the primary, then, perhaps the problem is similar to the one with my system, described above.

[Burky]

Thanks for the replies. Movies play just fine on Vista OS. I only have one DVD drive installed. I have two HDs, one XP the other Vista so they both use the same DVD drive. The audio also stutters using WMP on Windows XP but not on Vista using WMP. Strange problem!

[VLC_help]

You have DMA enabled in XP?

[Burky]

My IDE controllers are set to use DMA if available. My HDs are both SATA drives.

[VLC_help]

And Current transfer mode is some Ultra DMA? Not PIO.

[Burky]

Ultra Mode 6

[VLC_help]

You checked your DVD drive? IIRC optical drives only support Ultra DMA 2.

[Burky]

DVD is Ultra DMA Mode 2. (I checked the Advanced Settings for the DVD on my Vista HD.)

[VLC_help]

Check from XP too =) Different OS can use different settings.

[Burky]

I could not locate any info that referred to Mode Transfer for DVD on XP OS. Thats why I used Vista info. Where should it be on XP?

[VLC_help]

http://www.real-knowledge.com/dma.htm

[Burky]

Third Primary IDE Device 1, shows Current xfer mode: PIO(no other selection is available.) Device type is grayed out; xfer mode is DMA if available. All others, primay and secondary IDEs indicate DMA.

[coolhot]

I had this problem. I checked the XP device manager and under the advanced tab of the IDE channel for
the dvd drive it said 'dma if available' and below it 'pio mode' and no way to change it--this is a problem.
I uninstalled the driver for the secondary IDE channel,
then rebooted twice as XP reinstalled the drivers.
Now the IDE channel for the DVD drive says 'dma mode 2'--this is normal.
DVD's now play without stuttering audio.

[Burky]

Thank you! I unistalled driver, re-booted twice, it now says DMA mode 2. No more 'Stu-stu-stu-stuttering'. Again, thank you!

[ds3]

I am also having this stuttering problem. It appeared recently and is only in the Windows XP version of VLC. DVDs play normally in PowerDVD in Windows and in Ubuntu (dual boot computer) with VLC.
I checked the IDE settings and they are all already set to DMA.
Any suggestions are welcome.

[VLC_help]

Does dvdsimple help?

[ds3]

No. dvdsimple skips the menus but the audio stuttering does not go away.
I don't have problems with other filetypes like MPEG or AVI. The problem is only occurring for DVDs.
Thanks.

[VLC_help]

Does same problems occur if you copy some VOB files to hard drive and play them from there?

[Burky]

This may be a long shot but have you uninstalled the driver and rebooted twice? You said you checked the settings and they all indicated DMA. Could you possibly have a corrupt driver? Just a thought.

[ds3]

I haven't tried uninstalling the drivers. Do I need to do that for each of the channels (2 primary and 2 secondary) separately?
If I uninstall the drivers will they reinstall automatically or do I need the Windows drivers disk?
I don't know if this information helps, but Windows Media Player and Real Player are both giving digital copyright protection errors on DVDs (they won't launch and the code is 0xC00D1163). This started around the same time as the stuttering in VLC. This leaves only PowerDVD working.
Thanks again.

[ds3]

What VOB files should I try? The ones in the VIDEO_TS file on the DVD don't appear to play independently from the DVD.

[Burky]

Have you looked at the reply by coolhot on Jul 15, 2008 @ 8:09 PM?

[ds3]

I did see coolhot's comment. I am not stuck in PIO mode, but I could try uninstalling the drivers if I was sure how to reinstall them and which ones to remove. Should I remove all four (2 primary, 2 secondary IDE channels), and if so, will Windows automatically reinstall them or do I need to find the driver disk that came with my computer before I do this?
Thanks again for your help.