Hi Folks,

Sorry if I sound like a complete novice, but with a few new movies on VCD or MPEG if you prefer I have been getting a funny problem on my PC i.e. choppy blocks throughout the movie irrespective of the type of software player used. I believe these are called motion artifacts. But funnily all of the problematic files(movies) play without a hitch in any standalone hardware player(VCD/DVD). Has anyone else experienced this? I also did the toothpaste/cream experiment which is usually recommended for problematic DVD's on these CD's and cleaned them to a shine in the process but still no Go. By the way the system is:

Intel Celeron 666
Windows XP Pro
DVD-ROM-Creative
Samsung CD-Writer
Nvidia Riva TNT2
Pinnacle PCTV Plus
D-Link LAN
128MB RAM
100 GB HD
All UDMA

Note this problem is completely new i.e. never had problems with this system previously, just with these new movies. I am sorry if this topic has been broached previously but I could not find a post regarding this identical problem on any forum. I have several theories none of which are sound but could be a new method of encryption(doubt there is any encryption on MPEG1) or the drives on computers are probably more sensitive to the errors on these CD's. By the way the speeds of the drives are 12X(DVD) and 32X(CD).

Any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated. TIA-

Unicorn23.

P.S: The 23 is for the greatest athlete ever. No guesses.

unicorn23: welcom to our forum

About your question... there can be different causes for these artifacts:
1. something goes wrong when decoding the mpeg stream
2. because your PC's monitor's image quality is way better and sharper than a standard PC, artifacts are better noticable as well
2. there may be a smoothing technology be implemented in your playing hardware, hiding these artifacts (results in a lower image quality as well)...

Thanks Dee-Ehn for at least replying as I thought my problem wouyld not have any suggestion towards a solution. But there is a flaw in your solution as I have noticed my Dvd-Hardware player freezing on the same frames in certain Vcd's(Both NTSC and PAL) as my software player on the PC. While I agree that yours could obviously be a most possible and plausible solution, how would one explain the appearance of the same artifacts and freezing on these other problem VCD'S(though these are very few in number). And also please note that this is a recent problem which has cropped up and not an old one. And also in anticipation of the obvious solution towards this being a new problem, I did have my drive lens' cleaned just a month back while this problem is older than that and not related to the lens. Also how would one explain the smooth playback of other VCD's, both PAL and NTSC.

Sorry for the long reply. TIA. Everybody please continue to try for a solution to this problem of choppy playback as quite a few people have encountered it and no one seems to know how to deal with it.

Just pondering, but could it be that the Hardware standalones have a higher error threshold than the PC-drives. Please someone who knows about standalones and how their optical pickup is structured get back to me on this vis-a-vis those of PC-drives(CD and DVD). TIA.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks Dee-Ehn for at least replying as I thought my problem wouyld not have any suggestion towards a solution. But there is a flaw in your solution as I have noticed my Dvd-Hardware player freezing on the same frames in certain Vcd's(Both NTSC and PAL) as my software player on the PC. While I agree that yours could obviously be a most possible and plausible solution, how would one explain the appearance of the same artifacts and freezing on these other problem VCD'S(though these are very few in number). And also please note that this is a recent problem which has cropped up and not an old one. And also in anticipation of the obvious solution towards this being a new problem, I did have my drive lens' cleaned just a month back while this problem is older than that and not related to the lens. Also how would one explain the smooth playback of other VCD's, both PAL and NTSC.

Sorry for the long reply. TIA. Everybody please continue to try for a solution to this problem of choppy playback as quite a few people have encountered it and no one seems to know how to deal with it.

Just pondering, but could it be that the Hardware standalones have a higher error threshold than the PC-drives. Please someone who knows about standalones and how their optical pickup is structured get back to me on this vis-a-vis those of PC-drives(CD and DVD). TIA.

Any help on this would be appreciated.