# Help! System freezes when playing DVD through ATI TV-out. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-system-freezes-when-playing-dvd-through-ati-tv-out/169419 "2003-04-17T22:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-system-freezes-when-playing-dvd-through-ati-tv-out/169419/1 "2003-04-17T22:08:57Z")
Okay, so I gots me a cheapie DVD-Rom drive and a stack o’ media. Problem is-- I have a pitiful 14" monitor. Usually, when I watch (VCD or DivX) movies on the computer, I watch 'em on a 27" TV through the medium of my ATI All-in-Wonder video card. It’s an oldish one-- an AGP version with the RAGE chipset. When I try this with the DVD player software that came bundled with the drive, (CyberLink PowerDVD) it’ll start to play the DVD, but quickly lock up. CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the task manager shows this software as not responding, and I can’t even shut it down-- needs a cold-reboot. (Everything works fine if the TV-out is not enabled.) This is driving me nuts. Two questions: 1. Has anyone had this problem before, and found a solution? 2. Can anyone point me in the direction of some decent free DVD software so I can do the trial-and-error thing? So, pertinent details: OS: Windows Me Video: ATI All-in-Wonder 128 AGP Offending software: Cyberlink PowerDVD player Any help would be appreciated! PS- I’m well aware that once I convince the cussed thing to get along with my TV-Out card, I’m likely to have Macrovision problems-- I’ve done a little preliminary research & don’t expect this to be a serious hassle. Please don’t offer any advice about it in this thread-- although my intent is just to watch the movies I’ve invested so much dough in on a decent screen, there’s no need to talk about stuff that would have the by-product of defeating copy-protection. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-system-freezes-when-playing-dvd-through-ati-tv-out/169419/2 "2003-04-17T23:52:04Z")
Maybe totally unrelated - but I had this problem on my machine: it’s a Dell laptop with a TV out, which I wanted to use for DVDs. Every time I tried playing a DVD and activating the TV Out - Bam! Bluescreen. The only fix I found was to go into display properties (right click desktop | Properties | Settings | Advanced | Displays), enable the “TV” display and set it as primary. Then back out of that, play the DVD using the DVD player. Then it works fine for me (as long as I don’t dare change displays, or knock the cable, or breathe, any of which cause a bluescreen. It’s hard holding your breath for “Magnolia”, I can tell you.) For free DVD viewing software: how about Windows Media Player? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-system-freezes-when-playing-dvd-through-ati-tv-out/169419/3 "2003-04-18T15:05:47Z")
Be sure your Tv is ON first, before you turn on the computer cause thats what ATI says.