OK, this may or may not be common, but when insert an SVCD into either my CD-Rom drive, DVD-Rom drive or CD-R drive, the same thing occurs. As soon as any software application attempts to read it, the system hangs, sits there with it's thumb up it's ass, and waits for about 10 minutes before happily announcing that it is unable to read the DVD (when I'm not even trying to watch a DVD) and suggests that cleaning the disc may help, which since the disc is not dirty, will do no good at all).
This occurs when even viewing the MPG file's properties in explorer. i have tried this on all 3 of my drives capable of reading optical media. Also, I have tried playing the file with WinDVD, PowerDVD, Windows Media Player and Cinematograph, none of which work.
I have also tried using several different SVCD's, and have tested that they work on my standalone DVD player.

The only way I have gotten it to work is to use Linux or Dos 6.22 (booted from a floppy) to copy the MPG file to my hard drive, then if I use a crapload of utilities to convert the file into a cue-bin file, then use Bin2ISO to convert it to a .iso file, THEN use ISObuster to extract the MPG file, I can view the movie (without sound) for around 6 seconds, then it freezes. So.... No doubt something isn't right, I'm on leave from work for a while, and neeeeed some entertainment, so if you're wondering, yes I do have a lot of time on my hands.

Also, I have the latest versions of direct X, Direct X Media, and the latest drivers for all my CD drives.

I would greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer... Thanks