DVD has Jerky Playback on Windows computers at DVinfo.net

Tim Palmer-Benson · July 6th, 2009, 11:25 PM

Hello:
After producing a SD DVD 16:9 from FCP Pro Rez, I am discovering that the discs I am producing play back in a jerky fashion on a Windows Media Player. The discs play back fine on a regular DVD player and also playback fine on my Mac

I have someone who wants to view the discs on their computer....should I provide a wmv file or a Quicktime file instead?

Tim

William Hohauser · July 7th, 2009, 08:29 AM

Advise them to use VLC for Windows or a pay program like WinDVD. If the disks work in a regular DVD player, it's likely that the PC has an issue, however, check the quality of your DVD blanks, you might want to step up to Fuji or Taiyo Yuden.

Tim Palmer-Benson · July 7th, 2009, 08:46 AM

I am noticing the same thing on my MacIntel running Windows XP. Commercial disks from Netflicks won't play because of some licensing issue and even some tutorial discs I got from Joel Perigine are jerky too. I thought Windows users often use their machines for movie playback and didn't know that had to get other software to do it!

I remember seeing Windows machines play movies five years ago, so what is going on?

Tim

William Hohauser · July 7th, 2009, 01:09 PM

I don't know as I never use Windows machines for DVD playback (rarely Macs either). As you said, I have seen DVDs playing fine on Windows machines in the past but there have been issues as of late with WMP and DVDs as some people have posted here on DVinfo. I don't know if this is on certain machines or related to certain DVDs. I have a great DVD player that plays everything but will not play any commercial DVD from Criterion, go figure that out.

Robert Lane · July 7th, 2009, 09:47 PM

Problem is the old dvdplay.exe program had serious licensing issues dating back to WinME and XP which is why support for it was dropped.

WMP was never optimized for DVD playback; it's only been recently that MS added MPEG-2 layer DVD playback capabilities to WMP after fussing over licensing issues with the DVD Forum but it's a code-hack basically and doesn't contain the licensed codecs to play commercial (big studio) DVD-spec discs.

One of the best Win-based DVD playback software packages:

DirectDVD Home Page

Other options would be Cyberlink PowerDVD or Intervideo WinDVD players for about the same money. Any of those three players will give you pure DVD-playback capabilities and add all the goodies normally found on set-top players (alt angles, subtitles etc). There's also a Blu-Ray plug-in included in some of the above options for the same price - assuming you have or plan on getting a BR capable drive.

July 6th, 2009, 11:25 PM	#1
Tim Palmer-Benson Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Morgan, Vermont Posts: 130	DVD has Jerky Playback on Windows computers Hello: After producing a SD DVD 16:9 from FCP Pro Rez, I am discovering that the discs I am producing play back in a jerky fashion on a Windows Media Player. The discs play back fine on a regular DVD player and also playback fine on my Mac I have someone who wants to view the discs on their computer....should I provide a wmv file or a Quicktime file instead? Tim __________________ Wedding and Events Videography www.video-vermont.com

July 7th, 2009, 08:29 AM	#2
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	Advise them to use VLC for Windows or a pay program like WinDVD. If the disks work in a regular DVD player, it's likely that the PC has an issue, however, check the quality of your DVD blanks, you might want to step up to Fuji or Taiyo Yuden. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

July 7th, 2009, 08:46 AM	#3
Tim Palmer-Benson Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Morgan, Vermont Posts: 130	Windows playback Jerky I am noticing the same thing on my MacIntel running Windows XP. Commercial disks from Netflicks won't play because of some licensing issue and even some tutorial discs I got from Joel Perigine are jerky too. I thought Windows users often use their machines for movie playback and didn't know that had to get other software to do it! I remember seeing Windows machines play movies five years ago, so what is going on? Tim __________________ Wedding and Events Videography www.video-vermont.com

July 7th, 2009, 01:09 PM	#4
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	I don't know as I never use Windows machines for DVD playback (rarely Macs either). As you said, I have seen DVDs playing fine on Windows machines in the past but there have been issues as of late with WMP and DVDs as some people have posted here on DVinfo. I don't know if this is on certain machines or related to certain DVDs. I have a great DVD player that plays everything but will not play any commercial DVD from Criterion, go figure that out. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

July 7th, 2009, 09:47 PM	#5
Robert Lane Go Go Godzilla Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ USA Posts: 2,825 Images: 15	Problem is the old dvdplay.exe program had serious licensing issues dating back to WinME and XP which is why support for it was dropped. WMP was never optimized for DVD playback; it's only been recently that MS added MPEG-2 layer DVD playback capabilities to WMP after fussing over licensing issues with the DVD Forum but it's a code-hack basically and doesn't contain the licensed codecs to play commercial (big studio) DVD-spec discs. One of the best Win-based DVD playback software packages: DirectDVD Home Page Other options would be Cyberlink PowerDVD or Intervideo WinDVD players for about the same money. Any of those three players will give you pure DVD-playback capabilities and add all the goodies normally found on set-top players (alt angles, subtitles etc). There's also a Blu-Ray plug-in included in some of the above options for the same price - assuming you have or plan on getting a BR capable drive.