Q: Hi, just
I together a system for a friend. In short, it is a Duron 600 on a motherboard with onboard video type. Up to 16 MB of RAM can be shared from main memory to use for the video. The DVDs play, but they are quite choppy and the sound echoes once in a while. It only has a 64MB DIMM, it is the problem or is there something else? I would appreciate any help you might have. Thanks in advance,
Limey
Best Answer: I advise a Lite-On unit. They are affordable, reliable, and perform as well as units that cost, three to five times as much.
(I found about about the cost and performance comparison, by searching the 'net)
I know! lol!
I replaced a high dollar Samsung unit, and a TSST unit. over a year and a half ago. (Two years? Hmmm, dunno? Time flies!), in my computer. Still as good as Day 1!
I also installed one in a friend/client's computer, two and a half years ago.
Plays and burns as well as it did on Day1, and the performance was Great then!
I bought it at Walmart. One of those had to have it now! Gimme! (Hey, I'm a 'Computer Geek'. Patience to figure out computer problems, but want my new playtoy's like Yesterday!)
At the time it cost $45 bucks. New and improved models are out, and they are half of that cost, online.
It's a Lite-On unit that is a CD/DVD burner and player. It can use Dual Layer disks, and can read and write to any format of disk out there.
BAR NONE!
It burns Fast! (Tip: You don't want to burn fast! More quality is had, plus more ability of other optical drives being able to use this disk, if you burn at the slowest speed possible. I threw Nero in the back drawer of my file cabinet, and use Infra Recorder for free. You can slow your burning speed Way down! It is also an Infinitely Better DVD burner software!)
This would be a comparable unit like the one I installed, and the one I use, but has more features, and advanced technology,
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/…
This is the LightScribe Technology it uses,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe
Yeah, I know. No big deal, but I wanted you to know what LightScribe Technology is. COULD however, come in handy when labeling those DVD's. You DO, have to use LIghtScribe disks from HP, though. They developed LightScribe. (I've bought some from Wally World also)
This is info about Infra Recorder on Wikipedia.org,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infra_Recor…
This is Infra Recorder's homepage,
http://infrarecorder.org/
Screenshots,
http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=4
Re:Almost all onboard video chips are only good for reading email, get a real video card and your movies will rock. Check the "Hot Deals" forum lots of great vid cards are very cheap now.
Re:I think the problem is the video card. I don't think you need a decoder card cause like someone said on the top that Duron is pretty good enough. Try to get a video card and see the different. If it's still not working then return it and get a decoder card.
Darno
Re:try powerdvd .. that should do the trick.
use 16MB for video.. nothing lesser.
Re:guy here,
I used to have the dxr2 card from Creative Labs as well, and I didn't need any internal video cables for it. You need to pass an audio cable to your sound card, but on mine, I had an external VGA patch cable about 6 inches long. So your monitor plugs into the dxr2 card, and your dxr2 card plugs into the video card via the external VGA patch cable.
Mon:—————-:Dxr2:—:vga connector on mobo
Like that. So the dxr2 card has *two* VGA ports on it. Like the old VooDoo2 cards. In fact, I used to connect mine like this.
Mon:————–:Dxr2:—:VooDoo2:—:Matrox G200
with 2 little VGA pass through cables.
–guy
Re:A Duron 600 should be plenty powerful enough to play DVDs, even with only 64 Megs. I have a feeling that the problem is the video card. Either your DVD software isn't optimized for use with that vid card, or it is just too slow altogether.
Another 64 megs may help a tiny bit, but probably not too much. I'd invest in a DVD decoder card. It doesn't even have to be the latest and greatest card. I have a Creative DXR2 card that plays DVDs absolutely flawlessly on a lowly Pentium 166MMX with only 48 MB ram. And that's on an old 2X DVD drive! You can get a DXR2 for $20-30. However, you will need the proper connection from the vid card to the decoder card (I think it's called DVI), and I'm not sure if many built-in video cards have that connection on the motherboard.
Good luck!
Re:do you have DMA enabled on the drive?
Re:I would try adding more memory and see if that helps. If not then install a better video card. Try that and see what happens.
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