I’m running Firefox 6.0 on a Dell 780, 64 bit, 8Meg RAM. Discs sent by Netflix will play about one third to one half and then freeze up. I’ve tried using Chrome with the same results. I downloaded the 64 bit VLC with the same results…Freeze-up. This has happened with 3 different Discs from Netflix.
Help?
Discs should run through something like Windows Media Player and streaming movies through a browser. I’m confused about your issue. When streaming movies freeze up, it’s normally because they are buffering. If a DVD is freezing, it could be a hardware problem like an inadequate video card or a faulty DVD-ROM or some such.
Are you sure it’s not the discs?
Is it only video DVD’s? Can you take a program DVD (or say, one written filled with photos or MP3’s) and copy the entire contents to your hard disk without a freeze-up? (Get a friend to create a DVD with the full 4.5GB. Which brings up the stupid question - just how old is this DVD reader? Is it definitely dual layer? (If it is not, it would be quite old…) is it a writer?
Do you really mean 8 MB of RAM?
ISTR they added some sort of additional copy protection to DVD to augment the long-cracked CSS, which some unlicensed players can choke on.
Not if he’s running a 64 bit OS.
8MB on a machine with a 64-bit OS would be a horrible waste of resources. But presumably the OP meant 8GB.
Yes, 8 Gig RAM! (: I’m inclined to think I have a hardware problem. I’ll get an inexpensive DVD player (USB), plug it in and try again.
Thanks, everyone for your responses!
Yes, try a different DVD playing program. VLC is great for most media files, but rather crap for physical DVDs.
Also (to go with your 8mb RAM) you do mean Firefox 60, not 6.0, correct?
Things to try:
- Have you tried playing non-Netflix DVDs on your computer? Do they work?
- Have you tried playing these Netflix DVDs on a standard DVD player? Do they work?
It seems to me the most likely thing is either:
- Your DVD drive is busted, in which case #1 should show that
- Something about how Netflix burns their DVDs is incompatible with your computer
I don’t understand why you’ve mentioned Firefox and Chrome if you’re talking about Netflix discs. Firefox can’t play DVDs. Neither can Chrome. They’re web browsers.
If Chrome’s playing 1/3rd or 1/2 of a DVD before freezing-up, that’s pretty good since I’d realistically expect it to play 0% of a DVD. 
From some Googling, it looks like the Dell Optiplex 780 is from about 2010 or 2011. If it’s still on its original DVD drive, that’d be something of a minor miracle.
How’s that? I’ve passed a pair of optical drives from machine to machine since the early-mid oughties and they continue to work just fine.