Oh, yeah, here's my specs. Might help.
 
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Whaazzzupppppppppp!
Asus A7V
Duron 600@680
384 MB SDRAM PC133
Samsung 48x CD-ROM
Toshiba 12x DVD-ROM
Zip CD650 USB 4/4/6
Zip 100 USB
Maxtor 20.4 GB ATA100
Voodoo 4 4500 AGP @176 MHz
Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo
SIIG 3 port 1394 PCI Adapter
D-Link DFE-530 10/100 NIC
Creative Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000
MS Intellimouse Optical
Kleer 17-inch @ 85Hz 1152x864x32 desktop

I find Cyberlink's PowerDVD rather shaky, be it versions 2.5, 2.55 or 3.0, in Windows 2k. It easily conflicts with sound cards, aspi drivers and SP1 plus a number of bugs about regional code, hardware acceleration and DMA. The best way to be sure to have it work is to reinstall Windows 2000 with just minimum drivers and install PowerDVD first and then learn what devices and programs create conflicts.
 
The following steps should help:
 
A) Go to Inmatrix, get Drive Region Info 1.1 and check if Tohiba DVD is region locked: http://www.inmatrix.com/
 
http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/
 
C) Apply firmware update to make the Toshiba DVD RPC-1, check with Drive Region Info 1.1
 
D) Go to Inmatrix, get DVDGenie 3.85 install and configure region selection and PowerDVD controls since it will control DVD playback.
 
E) Run regedit and since the Toshiba DVD is now RPC-1 find the very first key under line [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft]. It will be anything bizarre like {#"ll or m;-k. Just remove it after exporting for safety.
 
F) Install PowerDVD and restart.
 
G) Run DVDGenie and push the Run tab to start PowerDVD and after configuration (some choices are possible only at the beginning, other during play and other after a stop).
 
WinDVD 2.3 available at Intervideo Website is much more robust and always works well in Windows 2000 with DVDGenie and all Nvidia adapters with a powerful CPU. Matrox cards works best with Cinemaster. The choice of DVD sofware remains closely linked with the kind of graphic adapter and optimization provided by the software.

PowerDVD 3.0
should work better with windows 2000.
Lets face it, for DVD playback you don't have much of a choice. WinDVD is crap.
this might be a good place to start.
 
Please don't post link to ***** here thank
 
[This message has been edited by SHS (edited 16 March 2001).]

Cardinal, if WinDVD is crap, why can I use that to play DVDs and not PowerDVD? I have a version thats only specified for 95/98/NT4 but programs like that Ive found will run fine under Win2k. I love PowerDVD, but Im not gonna go to the latest version until I know for certain it will work. No sense throwing money away.
 
Wolf87, does DVDGenie work with 3dfx cards, cause thats what I have, not an nVidia one, and Ive heard DG only works with nVidia cards.

PowerDVD 2.55 and 3.0 has worked fine on my TNT2U, GeForce SDR, and GeForce GTS Pro cards in Win2K. Maybe it has something to do with your video card drivers?
 
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Regards,
 
clutch

Just adding ym experiences...
 
WinDVD didn't display the picture of any DVD, only played the sound. SoftDVD Max played OK, but wouldn't let me change the rating system, so I wasn't allowed to watch my own movies. PowerDVD 2.55 works fine on my system.
 
-bZj

3DFX cards do not offer motion compensation or ICDT. DVDGenie remains useful for all other settings, region and sound management.
 
Best DVD playback is 800x600 or 1024x768 for Widescreen Anamorphic, at 120 Hz and 8 bit because DVD always plays at 24 bit. Anything over that creates artifacts, distortion and failure of VGA overlay with no picture.
 
http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
http://home.clapro.com/widescreen/
http://www.dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.htm

Hold on Wolf.
8 bit? You don't mean the monitor resolution do you? What exactly do you set to 8 bit?

The Adapter color mode has to be brought down to the lowest possible resolution which is 8 bit so as to free the utmost amount of adapter memory for DVD VGA overlay.
 
DVD, even with a software decoder, uses a hardware decoder to downstream at very high bandwith directly into any free ram left unused by Adapter color resolution. The DVD video overlay sent into the free video ram is fixed at 24 bit true color.
 
The higher the Adapter resolution, the lower the DVD quality. Optimal DVD playback would occur with an Adapter at 2 bit color. resolution.

Well the dumb thing still dont work. Even though the GF2 MX isnt listed a supported on my version of WinDVD 1.2 something, it runs just fine. I give up. Ive also done a clean install, no go. Oh well...

I also dropped Power DVD. I had version 2.55 from a bundle with Sony DVD DDU1211 and upgraded to version 3. Windows 2000 was reinstalled two days ago. It worked in both versions only just before I switched to ATA 66 by up[censored] controller software.
 
That failure would point to Power DVD as not yet compatible with contemporary hardware (some of their files are dated 1998).
 
WinDVD had no problem at all. A look at the smoke at beginning of Blade Runner and also at vapor in the roof pursuit in The Matrix shows how superior Alpha Blending comes out with WinDVD also with much superior colors.
 
Still PowerDVD had best control system yet and it is a loss not to be able to compare playing strenghts of each of two programs.