Dell Computer DVD: video won't show . . .

but why? On my new computer at home, in the DVD drive, it reads DVDs in the viewer program and I can hear the audio, but the screen in the player stays totally black - no video at all. The DVD-ROM games work fine, but no video.

The computer is a brand-new Dell 8250 with most all the bells/whistles. In a different program, the MovieStudio video editor plays video footage, so it seems that the video card is indeed installed. I’ve tried all the settings/controls/configuration for DVD and video I could find, but no change.

I’ve re-installed the PowerDVD player but it seems to be the exact same version (originally installed at Dell on 12-4-02) and I also installed the DVD player that was on a couple of the DVDs (InterActive?) but that does the same thing, audio but no video. The DVDs tried so far are Spiderman, Monsters Inc and Peter Pan - Return to Neverland, so they are all new and their games work but the movie video doesn’t.

I’ve submitted this question to the Dell messageboard but that doesn’t seem too active this morning. I cannot currently access Dell online support without my service tag # because I’m at work and the ST# is at home on the computer, but I thought maybe just maybe a doper could help.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Sounds like a video driver problem to me, either its settings are off or it’s simply incompatible in some way.

You might try making sure you’re running the most current driver for your video card, and that your color resolution is correct.

If you’re running Windows 2000, have an ATI video card, and downloaded microsoft’s “updated” drivers, this could be your problem as well. We had roughly 300 computers on campus download the update and have thier cards fail as a result.

It is on Windows XP and I haven’t check into the video drivers option yet or the color resolution. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Another vote for the video drivers. I’ve got a fairly new Gateway, running WinXP, and when I downloaded a new video driver from the MS Windows Update site, all hell broke loose (completely indecipherable screen image, with cascading “start” buttons, etc., etc.). It’s the only time something from Windows Update has ever caused me any problems (including going back several years on a previous machine). Retreating to the last restore point cured the problem.

I wonder if its a copy protection issue? As it sounds like macrovision coming on- no video, but audio?

Handy - I don’t understand what you mean - - - how would the copy protection cause the video not to run? The rest of the DVD works, including the game.

Does the DVD “know” it is in a computer and not a DVD player? The whole PowerDVD program is set up to play movies, but it won’t show the picture.

Copy protection interrupts the video portion of the signal when it thinks it is being run through a device that can copy it. If you want to see it sometime, hook up your DVD player to go through your VCR to your TV. Sometimes you get no video, sometimes you get intermittent video, sometimes scrambled.

With all due respect to handy, I don’t think that’s it in this case, though. I think you’ve definitely got a software problem either with the driver or the player app.

Is it possible that the software is configured to send the video to an alternative output, like an RCA video output?

Just guessing…

Here’s another vote for the color depth. I had a similar problem with my new Dell. The display’s color depth was set to 32 bits, which apparently the DVD player was unable to handle. Setting it to 16 bits made it work.

heresiarch - the video card is supposed to support output to tv/vcr, so maybe that’s it. thanks.

Omphaloskeptic - I’ll check color depth too, maybe first since it sounds like a simple fix.
thanks to one and all


Checklist for tonight, in order of desperation:

color depth
video output
video drivers
copy protection issue
try to kick dog (miss him, of course)
fist through monitor in a blind rage

Sounds like you’re on track for a career in computers **H8_2_W8
**.

Let us know.

H8_2_W8, I got a new Dell 5440 & it plays dvds fine. I know they work to make their computers compatible, so this one is interesting. How much ram have you got?

Well, I got home late after Mrs. H8_2_W8 made me go out to dinner and then Xmas shopping, so I didn’t get a chance to work on the DVD video problem last night. I’ll try to do the above tonight before Survivor. Thanks again to all who have offered suggestions.

Handy - The RAM was a freebie upgrade to 512Mb, which I would hope would be enough.

Could be an overlay problem–can you play avi or mpg files?

“The RAM was a freebie upgrade to 512Mb, which I would hope would be enough.”

That should be fine. Back to the drawing board :slight_smile:

Any, you should pardon the expression, resolution on this, H8_2_W8?

I wasn’t gonna tell you, but since this is on a KneadToKnow basis - I got home late from work and didn’t have time to work on the DVD issue before Survivor. Mrs H8_2_W8 wants the printer setup first for her work, so the DVD may have to wait until the weekend. Thanks for asking.