Cannot play most DVDs

[richard6559]

I'm new to VLC and DVD, because I just got my first laptop which is ACER 5315. (Don't watch DVDs on my tower). It has Vista Home Basic installed, service Pack 2. Has 2GB RAM.

The DVD drive is a MATSHITA DVD RAM UJ-850S ATA Device.

I have the latest upgrade of VLC. But, I cannot hardly play any DVDs on it. I live in region 2 and all my DVDs are region 2.

It will play "The Day the Earth Caught Fire", which incidentally is a black and white movie (bit of orange start and end).

When I put in "Shawshank Redemption" it shows a menu, I click on Play "button", but it does not play. Same with "Shane". So, only got one DVD to play so far.

VLC does play all my DVDs on my tower, which has Windows XP Pro, with a TSST corp CDDVDW SH-S223B drive.

I've no idea what is wrong. Help needed. Thanks.

Oh, I'm running VLC media player 2.0.1 Twoflower on the ACER. VLC media player 1.1.11 The Luggage on the tower. Just noticed the difference.

[richard6559]

Okay. lets cycle through this.

I think any problems may be due to the MATSHITA DVD RAM UJ-850S optical reader/writer. First, I discovered that the drive was set to Region 1. I've now set it to Region 2. So, it will seek to play Region 2 DVDs now.

But, the video is muddled up, bitty, smeared, and the audio is bitty.

The driver is the latest version, and the information is as follows:

Driver Provider: Microsoft

Driver Date: 21.06/2006

Driver Version: 6.0.6002 18005

Digital Signer: microsoft windows

Any ideas? Thanks.

[VLC_help]

DVD drivers aren't the issue in DVD playback. It is either problematic drive or copyprotection/misauthored disc that causes issues.

You can get more messages via Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2)

[richard6559]

Okay. I think it's best I start another thread. I've sorted out why I could not play most DVDs I have (incorrectly set to Region 1), but the issue now is why the picture is muddled and the sound bitty. So, I think this thread can be considered over. Thanks.