DVD issue

[geoffe]

I am a new (registered) user of Game-Ex, and I've got MAME, Jukebox, photos, and other stuff all working great -- But I cannot for the life of me get the DVD player working, either from an actual DVD or copied to the hard drive.

I just downloaded the latest version of Game Ex (6.53). I am running on Win XP.

When I choose either Play DVD or DVD's from the Multimedia menu I just get a black screen for a few seconds followed by a 'chirp' (the same sound made when selecting a menu item in GameEx) and then it returns back to the GameEx menu.

I can play the DVD that is in the drive using either Windows Media Player (v9) or PowerDVD, both installed on this computer.

I tried the 16-bit setting and the VMR-9 switch, and changed codecs, and nothing seems to help.

Also, on another topic, I am using DVDFab Decryptor to rip my DVDs onto my hard drive. This is the first time I've tried ripping DVDs and I'm curious of there is a second step I need to take -- it places a series of files in the designated directory, but do I need to recombine them into an ISO image or something like that to play them from the drive? Or should GameEx or similar programs be able to handle them in that format?

Thanks -

Geoff

[Tom Speirs]

I am a new (registered) user of Game-Ex, and I've got MAME, Jukebox, photos, and other stuff all working great -- But I cannot for the life of me get the DVD player working, either from an actual DVD or copied to the hard drive.

I just downloaded the latest version of Game Ex (6.53). I am running on Win XP.

When I choose either Play DVD or DVD's from the Multimedia menu I just get a black screen for a few seconds followed by a 'chirp' (the same sound made when selecting a menu item in GameEx) and then it returns back to the GameEx menu.

I can play the DVD that is in the drive using either Windows Media Player (v9) or PowerDVD, both installed on this computer.

I tried the 16-bit setting and the VMR-9 switch, and changed codecs, and nothing seems to help.

Also, on another topic, I am using DVDFab Decryptor to rip my DVDs onto my hard drive. This is the first time I've tried ripping DVDs and I'm curious of there is a second step I need to take -- it places a series of files in the designated directory, but do I need to recombine them into an ISO image or something like that to play them from the drive? Or should GameEx or similar programs be able to handle them in that format?

Thanks -

Geoff

Yes I think GameEx should be able to handle them in that format, by using DVD's on disk.

In terms of them not playing, could you please tell me what OS your running, what hardware, and which DVD Codecs (and versions) you tried.

Thanks.

[hansolo77]

Sounds like you need to have a DVD/MPEG2 decoder. If you don't have the hardware, you're SOL. One thing you can try is getting a software DVD/MPEG2 decoder like WinDVD or PowerDVD. They're not as good a hardware, but they provide you with the needed decoder drivers to play them.

[geoffe]

Yes I think GameEx should be able to handle them in that format, by using DVD's on disk.

In terms of them not playing, could you please tell me what OS your running, what hardware, and which DVD Codecs (and versions) you tried.

Thanks.

I running XP Home. The DVD codecs that are available in the GameEx configuration menu are MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder and Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder.

I've got a Sony DVD burner in the computer, which is a home-brew, but pretty powerful (Athlon 51).

In response to the other suggestion, I'm pretty sure that I've got MPEG-2 decoding working since I am able to play DVDs using both Winamp and PowerDVD.

Would it help if I posted any of my config information? I reviewed the log and it wasn't too helpful (at least for me). No errors indicated...

Thanks -

Geoff

[geoffe]

I just tried installing GameEx on another PC I have -- an e-machine running Windows XP Home. Has PowerDVD version 5 on it.

I'm getting the same results. I put in two different DVDs (actual discs, not ripped to the drive) and tried to play them in GameEx with no success -- same behavior: black screen, 'chirp', back to GameEx.

Both discs play fine from PowerDVD on the new system as well.

Is there somewhere that I need to tell GameEx what drive the DVD is supposed to be on? I don't remember seeing this setting, and I didn't set it.

Geoff

[Tom Speirs]

I just tried installing GameEx on another PC I have -- an e-machine running Windows XP Home. Has PowerDVD version 5 on it.

I'm getting the same results. I put in two different DVDs (actual discs, not ripped to the drive) and tried to play them in GameEx with no success -- same behavior: black screen, 'chirp', back to GameEx.

Both discs play fine from PowerDVD on the new system as well.

Is there somewhere that I need to tell GameEx what drive the DVD is supposed to be on? I don't remember seeing this setting, and I didn't set it.

Geoff

PowerDVD version 5 is pretty old, and that may be the issue. There has been other reports that I broke DVD playback in recent versions for some people. As far as I can tell, they and yourself are all running old versions of DVD software. What I really need to know is if newer versions work. Can you try the latest version of PowerDVD, even just temporarily?

There is no setting to tell GameEx which DVD drive to use. It just uses the first one it finds.

Tom.

[geoffe]

PowerDVD version 5 is pretty old, and that may be the issue. There has been other reports that I broke DVD playback in recent versions for some people. As far as I can tell, they and yourself are all running old versions of DVD software. What I really need to know is if newer versions work. Can you try the latest version of PowerDVD, even just temporarily?

There is no setting to tell GameEx which DVD drive to use. It just uses the first one it finds.

Tom.

I deleted PowerDVD and downloaded and installed the trial of PowerDVD 7, and got the same results -- except that it takes a few seconds longer before returning from the black screen to GameEx.

I can definitely play the DVD under PowerDVD 7.

Also there are two new codecs available under the GameEx config now -- Cyberlink Video/SP Decode, and Cyberlink H.265/AV decoder. I tried both with the same results.

Thanks -

Geoff

[hansolo77]

Try getting the ffdshow drivers and reconfigure it to use its codec instead of the Cyberlink ones, or vice versa.

[geoffe]

Try getting the ffdshow drivers and reconfigure it to use its codec instead of the Cyberlink ones, or vice versa.

I already downloaded and installed FFDSHOW -- Does it just make new codecs available for GameEx? If so, I've tried out all those with no luck... If not, is there something else I need to do to 'configure' FFDSHOW?

Geoff

[hansolo77]

FFDSHOW is just a bunch of audio/video codecs all mashed up into one program. There is a utility that comes with the stuff that lets you configure things like which codec to use for different types of files. Look in your START menu for the program. Its under the "ALL PROGRAMS" -> "ffdshow" folder on my computer.

[geoffe]

FFDSHOW is just a bunch of audio/video codecs all mashed up into one program. There is a utility that comes with the stuff that lets you configure things like which codec to use for different types of files. Look in your START menu for the program. Its under the "ALL PROGRAMS" -> "ffdshow" folder on my computer.

Oddly the FFDSHOW configuration program has the MPEG1 and MPEG2 checkboxes grayed out so I can't select them... not sure why that is. I have everything else checked (MPG4, etc). It made no difference to the GameEx config screen, but I am guessing that is because I can't pick MPEG2...

Geoff

[Tom Speirs]

Oddly the FFDSHOW configuration program has the MPEG1 and MPEG2 checkboxes grayed out so I can't select them... not sure why that is. I have everything else checked (MPG4, etc). It made no difference to the GameEx config screen, but I am guessing that is because I can't pick MPEG2...

Geoff

FFDSHOW does not provide a DVD codec, so ignore that. Its good to have it for the other video support in GameEx, but you shouldnt need it for DVD.

I'm not sure what's going on. Could you please post the GameEx log, and tell me which video card you are using.

[geoffe]

FFDSHOW does not provide a DVD codec, so ignore that. Its good to have it for the other video support in GameEx, but you shouldnt need it for DVD.

I'm not sure what's going on. Could you please post the GameEx log, and tell me which video card you are using.

Log is attached.

I am using an ATI Radeon 9600.

If this is potentially a recent problem would you like me to try running an older version just to help narrow it down?

Thanks -

Geoff

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Log is attached.

I am using an ATI Radeon 9600.

If this is potentially a recent problem would you like me to try running an older version just to help narrow it down?

Thanks -

Geoff

Do you have the setting to use FFDSHOW for DVD's enabled? Make sure its off.

Also do you have an accseible C:\ drive and do you have a file called graph.grf in the root?

[geoffe]

Do you have the setting to use FFDSHOW for DVD's enabled? Make sure its off.

Also do you have an accseible C:\ drive and do you have a file called graph.grf in the root?

Well, it's working now. I turned off FFDSHOW and switched to the old Cyberlink Video/SP codec (the one that came with PowerDVD version 5), and everything is working like a champ.

After I saw your post I checked to see if I had a file called graph.grf -- and I did not. However now that I got it working graph.grf has appeared...

Thanks for your help!! Let me know if I can give you any additional info that might help people with similar problems in the future...

Geoff