(no subject)

[arethinn]

enotsola gave me a LightScribe DVD writer for Christmas. The drive does post and I can read data DVDs just fine (I haven't tried burning one yet), but when I play video DVDs or video files from data discs, there is all kinds of popping, crackling, skipping, garbly noise in the soundtrack. No change in the PowerDVD audio settings fixes it (in fact, picking DirectSound instead of Stereo or Dolby Mix-down makes it worse, and makes sound come unsynced from video), switching to Windows Media Player does not fix it, and it is not a general problem with my computer because it does not occur if I use either of the programs to play video files from my hard drive or the CD-RW drive. Video playback is fine, not choppy or anything; it's only the audio. So it seems to be something peculiar specifically about audio data transfer, which perplexes me. Trying that little analog cable with four pins that plugs from the drive directly into the sound card had no effect, as I expected it would not. I checked the DMA mode vs my work computer, thinking maybe it was in a wrong/slow one or something, but they both say "Ultra DMA Mode 2". The drive itself is a different brand, but I don't think that would affect it (unless the drive is just defective itself) and anyway I have no way to test that (I can't swap the drives).

The only things I can think of that I haven't tried (besides throwing money at an overall faster computer, since this is only P3 1.2; enotsola claims a friend has the same drive working fine on "a slower computer", although without knowing ALL its specs versus mine, that is not a meaningful statement) are:

1. Throw money at a better sound card (doesn't seem to be a logical response to the symptoms - sound works fine for all other applications, despite the dinosaur of a sound card I have. sound drivers are as updated as I think they can be.)
2. Switch the drive from the slave to the master position, which is recommended in the instructions even though it came factory-jumpered as a slave (also doesn't seem logical - the slave position isn't slower than master, is it? even if it were, wouldn't that mess up everything, not just audio?)
3. Check codecs, that is, compare filenames and versions between my work and home computers, which have the same version of XP, WMP, and somewhat different versions of PowerDVD (you'd think PowerDVD would have installed right codecs for DVD audio? and anyway that still doesn't explain what is going on with video files)

Any ideas?