Weak Video Playback

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defjux · #1 Post by **defjux** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:40 am

I received my T42 three days ago, and I was blown away by the build and performance quality of this machine until I tried to watch a DVD. The playback was grainy, the colors were recessed, and there was noticeable ghosting. At first, I thought I was unconsciously sabotaging my new purchase -- finding imperfections where there were none -- but after playing the same dvd on my sister's Celeron based Dell and my two year old desktop, I realized this was a real problem. I've installed the catalyst drivers, played around with all the settings I can find, and nothing helps. Did I get a bum computer or can I fix this?

Btw: I installed some new ram. Could that be the problem?

IBM T42: 1.8 Ghz, 14.1 sxga, 60gb 7200rpm, Radeon 9600, 768ram, DVD/CDRW

Hans Gruber · #2 Post by **Hans Gruber** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 2:13 am

I've got a T43 1.7 with integrated graphics and 1.25gb of ram. It plays DVD's perfectly. There is no reason why a 9600pro should not perform far superior to integrated graphics. Download new drivers and add memory. Call tech support.

#3 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 6:18 am

Probably some settings in the DVD movie application. Are you using Win DVD, Windows Media Player, or something else? If you are using Win DVD, start the application, right click on the screen and chose Setup > Video, and make sure both Hardware Acceleration boxes are checked.

Verify that you are running native resolution 1280 x 1024 and highest color 32-bit. Right click on an open area of the desktop, choose Properties > Settings to view and change these settings.

Finally verify that your drive is using Ultra DMA mode 2. Go to Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Click on the + next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then on Secondary IDE Channel > Advanced Settings. Verify that Current Transfer Mode is Ultra DMA Mode 2 and that you are NOT using PIO Mode.

defjux · #4 Post by **defjux** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:14 am

No luck. DVD playback is still ugly. I'm using Windows Media Player v10, I don't know if that means anything. I installed the original IBM drivers. Could it be the screen? Everything else looks fine.

#5 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:50 am

For Windows Media Player, go to the top menu bar. Choose: Tools > Options > Performance, and make sure slider is set to Full Video Acceleration.

Your T42 should also have InterVideo WinDVD installed. It might be worthwhile trying it. Go to: Start > All Programs > InterVideo WinDVD > InterVideo WinDVD.

If you still have trouble, try downloading the latest ATI video driver. Uninstall the existing driver, and following the directions in the readme file, install the new ATI video driver. Below is link to driver.

Video driver (ATI Radeon, FireGL Series) for Windows 2000/XP, version 8.133.2-050525a-024243C, release date 2005/08/11

defjux · #6 Post by **defjux** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:43 pm

Did all that, no good. I tried it on an external monitor and the problem was still there, so maybe I got a [censored] video card.

#7 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:08 pm

The Radeon 9600 is a very good card. I have a T42 with the Radeon 9000 (which is not as good a card as yours) and I do not have problems with DVD playback. I do have the XGA display which is lower resolution than yours, but I hear everyone else on here rave about SGXA being much better than XGA, so I wouldn't think that would be a problem.

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information, and verify your video card and video memory. Verify your processor and the speed that it is running at. For instance mine is a 1.6Ghz processor and System Information shows it running at 1598 Mhz. Verify your ram onboard is what you expect.

Double-click on the battery icon on the taskbar, then click on the plug icon on the lower right and verify that CPU speed: Maximum.

Right click on an open area of the desktop, choose: Properties > Settings > Advanced, and verify that Powerplay Status that it is currently inactive, and that Graphics Adapter is running in High Performance Mode (this assumes that you are running off of the AC power supply).

Go to Start > Control Panel > Power Options > Advanced Settings. Verify that CPU Power Management is set on Automatic, and that PCI Bus Power Management is set on Automatic.

If none of the above show anything, go to Start > All Programs > PC-Doctor for Windows > PC-Doctor. Run the diagnostics.

Whew!

jhonyl · #8 Post by **jhonyl** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:38 pm

Hi, I also had bad quality video playback at first, but then I did something and it got solved. So don't dispare, it is probably some settings or codecs issue. Try WinDVD, try getting Divx codec, stuff like that.

BTW How did you get catalyst installed? I downloaded from ATI a program that was supposed to install catalyst, but it said that I should check for updates from IBM and not from ATI.

#9 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:57 pm

jhonyl, did you see the OP's post in the link below?

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=16058

Regarding catalyst, I believe you just ignore ATI's warning if you want to install it. Haven't done it myself.

FRiC · #10 Post by **FRiC** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:15 pm

Video playback is done on the hardware accelerated video overlay layer. So you have to make sure video acceleration is enabled in Windows, and that your playback utility is actually using the overlay.

Hmm, one easy way you can check if you're using hardware overlay is to change your desktop color depth to something low like 256 colors. Since video is a separate layer, it should still be running at true color, and you free up video memory from the desktop display for the video overlay.

#11 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:53 pm

FRiC wrote:Video playback is done on the hardware accelerated video overlay layer. So you have to make sure video acceleration is enabled in Windows, and that your playback utility is actually using the overlay.

Interesting.

I just discovered a couple of weeks ago that I had to enable 'Theater Mode' to enable DVD viewing on my TV. On my 600E, I had CyberLink PowerDVD 4 and had no problem viewing DVD's on my TV. When I got my T42, I could watch DVD's with InterVideo WinDVD on the ThinkPad, but there was no video going to the TV (although I could see the desktop on the TV). I figured that the version of WinDVD that came with the T42 was a 'lite' version that had TV out disabled.

I installed PowerDVD 4 and it worked fine. Later I bought an external DVD burner that came with PowerDVD 6. When I install that version, I had the same problem that I had with WinDVD. I figured my PowerDVD 6 was a 'full' version and should not be crippled in any regard, so I began looking at the settings some more. I recalled reading a post about someone having trouble viewing video on his TV, and the solution ended up being enabling Overlay mode. I went and enabled Theater Mode in the display properties and I could now view DVD's on my T42 with PowerDVD 6. One drawback was that the mouse and onscreen menu appeared on the ThinkPad, but not on the TV.

defjux · #12 Post by **defjux** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:14 am

Video playback is done on the hardware accelerated video overlay layer. So you have to make sure video acceleration is enabled in Windows, and that your playback utility is actually using the overlay.

If it isn't turned on, how do I turn it on?

#13 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:58 am

defjux wrote:If it isn't turned on, how do I turn it on?

All I see is the following: Verify that Video Hardware Acceleration is on. Go to: Start > Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot, to set.

There is also a Troubleshoot option, go to: Start > Control Panel > Display > Settings > Troubleshoot... to follow wizard.

I suppose it is possible that the Graphics Accelerator portion of your graphics chipset is not working properly. I believe you can use PC-Doctor to check by doing video diagnostics.

I don't know if Direct X could be the problem. Go to: Start > Run, type in dxdiag and press enter to test.

The following is from a CyberLink PowerDVD FAQ on their website.

Q: Poor video and audio quality. How do I improve the performances of PowerDVD?
A :
Make sure that your DVD-ROM Drive is set to use the system DMA (Direct Memory Access).
The DMA setting will maximize the playback performances. To enable DMA, please follow the steps below:

1. Right click on "My Computer" on your desktop and select "Properties"
2. Click the 'Hardware' tab and select 'Device Manager' and look for the DVD-ROM Drive.
3. In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, please look for Secondary IDE Channel, located under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
4. Depending on your operation system, right click either on DVD-ROM drive or and Secondary IDE Channel and select "Properties"
5. In the new window that opens, select the 'Settings' or 'Advanced Settings' tab and enable DMA.

.......................

Playback performances also relies on the speed and overhead of the PC. Please try the following:

1. Update your VGA and sound card driver.
2. Close other application program while playback.
3. Reduce screen resolution, color depth and refresh rate.
4. Disable audio and video effects.
5. Update the latest patch file.

Weak Video Playback

Weak Video Playback

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