Smart video/audio people please help with this one.

[Peggasus]

XP Pent. 4 HTT 3.00 ghz, 3 GB ram, 350 GB HDD.
Have more questions but starting with one:
installed a new Dvd/CD writer/combo after old one "appeared" to fail. Turns out it wasn't hooked up again by those who installed a new HD.
So I purchased and installed a new one.

But hey, I'm keeping the new one EXCEPT it will play video .avi but loses sound when playing a video with Mpeg2.
I also cannot play a DVD (from Netflix).
thanks!
Peggy

[redwudz]

If it's a PATA (IDE) drive and not SATA, make sure the jumper is set the same as the old drive. But ability to play MPEG and MPEG audio is with the OS and programs, not the drive itself. XP, if that's your OS, doesn't have native playback of MPEG-2 as on a DVD.

But give VLC a try as it has it's own codecs. If it works, you are just missing the proper installed codecs. ffdshow can supply them and is usually better than installing a lot of separate codecs. DVDs usually use AC3 audio and that may be the missing audio codec.

And welcome to our forums.

[yoda313]

Mediaplayerclassichomecinema is another option for dvd playback. AC3filter is another option for ac3 playback as well.

[Peggasus]

Thanks for your responses!
So I looked and it is a "E-IDE = CD/DVD writer"
The old DVD rom drive was set to "cable" and I did set the newly installed drive to "slave" after resetting the original and still installed CD/DVD writer combo to Master.
Should I go back and reset the second drive? Again, when it came back from the Best Buy store they had NOT plugged in any of the cables (the ribbon thingy inside computer LOL - Hey...that's a technical term you know )
Anyway, I plugged in the ribbon thingy marked "slave" into the new second drive. That's why I put the setting on slave.
ack...thanks again for taking the time.
Peggy

[redwudz]

'Cable Select' and 'Master/Slave' won't mix on the same PC, AFAIK. You have to use one system or the other. So either set all drives to Cable Select or use Master/Slave on all. Master is usually the end of the cable and Slave the one in the middle. Set the jumper on each drive correspondingly. I suspect your hard drives are set to Cable Select already if the optical drives were. Probably easier to set the opticals for Cable Select also. The 'Cable Select' system is used quite a bit on older PCs and probably some newer ones.

Newer SATA drives don't use that type of jumper system as each drive has it's own controller.

All this may not be related to your problem, but, then again, it may.

[Peggasus]

Very cool Redwudz...I'll try this tonight. Thank you!

[Peggasus]

Hey Redwudz....changed both drives to cable select tonight. Seems to play DVD's OK but still experiencing some odd skipping (the DVD starts part way into the material rather than at the beginning)

Also, I'm wondering if there is a software conflict. Installed:
Windows Media 11
Corel Video Pro X3
Nero 8