PC Hardware Annoyances

DVD PLAYER ANNOYANCES

MP3 PLAYBACK FROM DVD

The Annoyance:

My set top DVD player will play music CDs, but not MP3s burned to DVD-R or written to DVD-RW. Why not?

The Fix:

Your commercial DVD player probably supports Red Book CD audio, but may be too old to handle MP3 file playback. The best way to approach this problem is to check the manufacturer’s specifications of your player. If it doesn’t support MP3 file playback, you’re pretty much screwed. If the player does handle MP3 file playback, then chances are that it doesn’t support the DVD-R or DVD-RW media. Again, check the manufacturer’s specifications for compatible media. If the player only handles DVD-ROM media, you are out of luck.

DRIVER UPDATES BREAK DVD PLAYER

The Annoyance:

I updated my video device driver, but now I can’t start my DVD playback software. Any ideas?

The Fix:

You probably broke the link between the DVD player and the video driver. When you install a DVD player (such as WinDVD), the software depends on the video driver and DirectX to access the video hardware. When you change the video driver, you can “break” the dependency between the player and driver. The player now fails to launch because it can’t find the video driver. Launch the System Restore wizard to roll the system back to an earlier state (or use the Roll Back Driver button in the display adapter’s Properties dialog to reinstate the earlier driver). If this fix works, you know the updated driver is the culprit. Update the driver again, and then uninstall ...