Lord of the Rings (4 disc) Problems

[Jonny1973]

Is anyone else having trouble playing the LOTR 4 disc extended cut in a PC DVD-ROM drive???

My LG DVD-ROM DRD8160B (6 months old) can't read any of the 4 discs, gets a "Error Code 89030000 : Unknown File Format error". I'm using PowerDVD XP and WinDVD 4 under Windows XP. Even Windows Explorer doesn't work!!!

It's never had any problems before and usually reads everything I throw at it.

My temperamental Sony 735 and cheapo Samsung 807 DVD players can both read the disc with no problems (other than the odd C:13:00 (which the Sony player always gets on all my discs).

The discs have DVD-ROM content so why can't my PC read them????

 

[Glasswalker]

That'll be most upsetting if it doesn't work. I shall check tonight as I've just got my copy.

 

[Setenza]

Jonny 1973, this is quite common on PC DVD-ROM drives (it used to happen a lot with my old laptop).

Basicly it comes down to the fact that they've pushed the volume of content on the disc to the limit, and some low end (sorry to dis you drive) have difficulty coping.

My advice is to:

1.) Take the disc out of the drive and ensure that it is clean and free from dust etc.

2.) Place in drive then shut down PC.

3.) Reboot PC.

I know it sounds crass, but I found that there was a better chance of reading the disc from a clean cold boot, rather than from a machine that been running a while.

Alternatively, it may be worthwhile to purchase a hardware decoder an take the burden of reading the disc of the drive and processor.

 

[Jonny1973]

Tried a reboot but same message.

I can't even explore the disc so I don't think a hardware decoder would help. I'm using a PC for picture quality, a hardware decoder gives lower picture quality.

If I go into the DVD- drive properties, I can see the amount of data on the disc!!! 7075Mb on disc 1 but I can't see the contents.

All the discs are clean, I get the same message on all 4 dvds. Never had any problems with any of my 103 other dvds.

 

[Setenza]

That's 7 GB of data. Well I'd put it down to the fact that the drive can't cope with the capacity.

Might be time to upgrade.

 

[Jonny1973]

Upgrade? It's a new drive.

Are there any DVD-ROM drives that can play it?

 

[Setenza]

Works fine on my laptop, which has a comi DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive (Toshiba SD R2102)

Just co's the drive is new does not mean it's up to the job. No disrespect, but LG are not known for making high end components.

 

[Lex]

Originally posted by Jonny1973
Upgrade? It's a new drive.

How fast is your drive? Have you modified it to make it multi-region? If so maybe this is the problem?

 

[Jonny1973]

16x, I think.

Yup, I flashed the bios to make it multi-region. Doesn't everyone?

I have downloaded a newer version of the firmware, V1.03. I'll try that tonight.

Got it from

http://www.geocities.com/dacbr7/

 

[Rochdale]

Works fine on my pioneer dvd-rom.

 

[Jonny1973]

Flashed the BIOS, still no luck.

 

[Lex]

Originally posted by Jonny1973
Flashed the BIOS

Could it be the flash that has damaged it? I suppose probably not if other r1 dvds work.

Maybe it is WindowsXP - I have cd-roms that cannot be read under XP yet they work fine under Win98.
You usually find that all pc problems come down to microsoft!

 

[bjd]

Johnny, try disabling DMA for the DVD

 

[Setenza]

Don't forget that XP has CD burning technology integrated into the OS. This itself could be part of the issue as Lex said.

As I said earlier, I used to have this problem myself on my last laptop, which was running XP & the DVD drive had been flash upgraded.

You could always install another OS (say 2000 for example) and make the PC dual boot. See if the drive could then read the disc.