XP DVD issue?

Hi,

Quick post here as I have not been able to find anything online. I have XP on my box (and, no, upgrading isn’t an option) and until recently I used it from time to time to watch DVDs.
Now? I can hear the sound okay, but there is no video at all. If I want video, I have to go into the graphics card properties and turn off all acceleration. The video, thus, sucks.
It’s the same with SMPlayer or VLC.
I have removed and reinstalled the monitor (generic plug and play), the graphics driver, and also run the DirectX updater in case anything was wrong there. dxdiag says no problems were found and all the video tests work.

I’m currently writing this on Ubuntu, and after installing the CSS decoder, SMPlayer works fine (in proper quality too).

I’m running out of ideas regarding Windows. Has anybody come across this sort of thing before? Any ideas of what I could try next?

Thanks.

It might not be a software problem. Can you remove the graphics card and put it back in again? You box is not of the youngest and corrosion is of ill repute.

You have of course gone to the web sites of the video card and sound and chipset to download the latest drivers available for that hardware.

Default windows drivers work, sort of.

Hi,

Video hardware built in, so no edge thingies. I said I reinstalled the driver (don’t expect an “updated” XP driver for a decade old machine since the last time I looked). ;-)

I found it, purely by accident. The video driver has tabs for 3D and overlay. Never messed with that stuff, but given nothing else had worked…
…turned out that for some reason the gamma correction on the overlay was set to zero. In other words, the hardware and software was fine. Only prior to display it was gamma correcting to black ! A quick click on “Restore defaults” and all was good again.
Weird. No idea how that setting got like that. Even weirder that the setting survived uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. Great coding there, Intel.

But… phew. I think I’ll brew a huge mug of Tetley and go watch a few eps of Veronica Mars to get over the last few hours of “OMG WTF” and other TLAs.

Thanks for the suggestions, anyway.

No idea how that setting got like that.

Even bits can corrode…