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Windows Media Player freezes when playing an IFO/VOB DVD on a Seagate 3Tb drive but plays OK when the same folder is moved to a different drive RRS feed

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    Hello, I have a very odd problem with Windows Media Player, and it seems to be a program/codec issue.

    I have my DVDs ripped as IFO/VOB DVD folders on various USB drives, and have had no problem playing any of them in WMP 12 or through Windows Media Center (using MyMovies).

    I am abe to pause, rewind, fast forward etc. with no problem.

    I have now added a new Seagate 3Tb drive and have intermittent problems playing the DVDs on that drive.

    I have tested the drive speed and find it is as good as any of the other other USB drives. I tried re-partitioning as two 1.5Tb drives, but that didn't seem to make any difference. Most DVDs either don't start, or start and can't fast forward/rewind etc. without freezing WMP/WMC.

    If I move the exact folder to any other drive, it works fine in WMP or WMC.

    Now it would be tempting to conclude that the Seagate drive is somehow faulty, however it passes all reasonable tests I can subject it to, and all videos play perfectly OK in VLC.

    So, I have to conclude that there is some sort of 'funny' with WMP or the DVD codec used by WMP.

    Is there some sort of limit on the number of external USB drives? (the two 1.5Tb drives are U: and V:, whereas the others are R;, S: and T:)

    When WMP freezes, it 'feels' like it is straining the resources, but I can't see anything obvious in the logs etc.

    It really is a most odd problem, and I would be very grateful for any suggestions.

    Thanks

    Paul

    Op Sys: Windows 7 Pro (64-Bit) - SP1

    Faulting Applications: Windows Media Player 12 (and Windows Media Center)

    VLC version 1.1.11 in which all videos on all drives plays OK

    Processor Intel Core i3 550@3.20GHz / 4Gb RAM

    Monday, January 2, 2012 10:39 PM

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    What exactly happens when a DVD doesn't start? Do you get any error messages?

    Please provide some more info about the freezes, e.g. how long do they last? Do you need to terminate WMP/Media Center when the freezes happen, or do the programs wake up again after a while? If you press Ctrl+Alt+Del and start Task Manager, do you see high CPU usage during a freeze? If so, which process(es) is/are taking up most CPU?

    Tim De Baets
    http://www.bm-productions.tk
    Thursday, January 5, 2012 10:34 PM
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    Tim, thanks for your response.

    To diagnose easily and remove any additional implications of WMC, I shall comment only on WMP:

    Sometimes the Video won't start (remember i am just clicking on the IFO in the ripped DVD folder, not playing an actual DVD), although most times, it does start.

    When it starts, it seems to play OK , but if you try fast forward/rewind or selecting elsewhere in the video, it freezes.

    In all cases, no message is shown.

    When I click later in the video, WMP shows the desired time in the video but then seems to do nothing, although the control buttons SEEM to work (e.g. pause/play toggles). At this stage. WMP is showing around 40% CPU and 131Mb memory. No matter how long I wait, I can't resume the video. I can close WMP easily when this sort of problem happens, so it is not a total 'freeze'. CPU/RAM then reduces to zero.

    Restart WMP and video starts OK. Normal running is 2% CPU and 95Mb RAM.

    Try e.g. chapter settings and it 'freezes' with CPU up to 43%.

    If I double-click on a different IFO, it opens up in WMP, replacing the 'frozen' video and plays OK with CPU reverting to 2%.

    It exhibits this sort of performance on all videos on U: and V: (two partitions of the Seagate 3Tb drive), but ANY video on any other USB drive is fine.

    When I say 'freeze' it doesn't 'feel' like a software crash; it isn't as serious. However WMP cannot restart the video.

    Reminder that it always seems to work ok in VLC.

    Thanks

    Paul

     

     

     

    Saturday, January 7, 2012 5:44 PM
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    OK, but you still haven't said *what* exactly happens when a video doesn't start :p

    Do you get the same issue when you boot Windows into Clean Boot mode?

    Are you using the DVD decoder built into Windows 7 or a third-party one? You can check by opening the video files in GSpot and clicking 1 and 2 under MS A/V. What happens when you try playing the videos with a different codec, e.g. FFDShow?

    Tim De Baets
    http://www.bm-productions.tk
    Sunday, January 8, 2012 5:54 PM
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    I have exactly the same problem.  I have a Western Digital 3TB, a Seagate 3TB and a Western Digital 2TB.  I have all of my movies ripped to VOB format.  The movies play with VLC from the 3TB drive just fine, but movies played thru Windows Media Center freeze if they are stored on either of the 3TB drives.  If they are copied from either of those drives back to the 2TB drives, they play fine thru WMC.  Again VLC plays in either case.  I have formatted the drives differently with no luck --exfat, ntfs with 512 byte clusters, etc.  It is a bug or something to do with Windows Media Player and read somewhere about it being related to the cluster or sector size (I am not a bytehead, so not sure) that WMP does not recognize.  I have had no luck searching the net for a solution .... Microsoft says they do not support the 3TB drives .... just SOL unless someone can fine some techy solution .....
    Thursday, January 12, 2012 2:48 PM
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    markahuna2: where does Microsoft say that they don't support the 3 TB drives?

    An answer to my previous questions would be welcome as well...

    Tim De Baets
    http://www.bm-productions.tk
    Friday, January 13, 2012 8:13 PM
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    I will have to search for the Microsoft "not supported" page when I get some more time.  When it freezes, the movie just stops with a black screen ... no error messages, just a freeze in the windows media player.  I will try some of your suggestions (clean boot, etc) -- have not installed any different codecs to wmp but will use the utility to check for sure.  Am using My Movies for DVD collection, but freeze is same if I use the WMC plugin or if I go thru native movies collection in WMC.  Will work on more answers when I get the time.
    Saturday, January 14, 2012 6:04 PM
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    Maybe this set of posts, especially last one on page 2 will help.

    http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows_entertainment_and_connected_home/f/114/t/96421.aspx?PageIndex=2

    Saturday, January 14, 2012 6:24 PM
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    I think I have a similar problem. ASUS M4A88TD USB 3 MB. Attempt to play DVD copied to folder on external 3 TB USB drive, and play. WMP seems to work ok , but if I skip forward to different chapters it hangs. No error, no event logged, nothing, it just hangs. If I look at TASK manager, the WMP is taking 40%+ CPU (have Phenom x4). Left it there for like an hour, did not do anything. I can Cancel the WMP and I can start it again. I copy the files to a true hard drive and play -- works fine! Play from DVD -- works fine!

    Noticed that I can play each individual VOB file no problem. I can jump forward and backwards within that VOB. But if I try to use the IFO file, it hangs all the time on the USB drive.

    I tried the fix provided (MBR/GPT drive changing), no change. Tried formatting exFAT, no change.  Cannot play from WINDVD 2010 either, it skips all over the place. WMC does not work either. Seems to me to be a problem with the IFO file ... any ideas?

     

    Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:02 PM
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    Also, noticed that my drive (Hitachi 3TB) is formatted in the new and improved Advanced Format, which is 4k sectors emulating 512 byte sectors (512E). This might have something to do with it. However, all info I can find seems like it should be working. Microsoft had a patch out for Advanced Format drives, but I have it applied and still can't get DVD to play from drive.
    Wednesday, January 18, 2012 2:32 AM
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    Tim,

    GSpot does give an error message for a VOB on the U: drive, but it gives the same message for the VOBs on other drives, that play OK!

    I installed FFDShow, but not sure how to test that.

    I'll try Clean Boot and come back to you, but it does seem, from other comments, that this is a Microsoft problem.

    Thanks for your help

    Paul

     

    Friday, January 20, 2012 12:52 PM
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    Tim,

    As expected, Clean Boot didn't improve the situation :-(

    Cheers

    Paul

     

    Friday, January 20, 2012 1:18 PM
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    Paul: what's the error message displayed by GSpot? If you change the extension of the .vob files to .mpg, does that change anything?

    To set FFDShow to decode the files, go to Start - All Programs - ffdshow - Video decoder configuration - Codecs, and change MPEG-2 from disabled to libavcodec. You may also need to tick DVD decoding. Then click OK.

    Tim De Baets
    http://www.bm-productions.tk
    Friday, January 20, 2012 7:41 PM
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    This link proposes a unique answer by mrfrankmrfrank

    http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows_entertainment_and_connected_home/f/114/t/96421.aspx

    hey guys, sorry for the long delay in replies. I sometimes forget to come back to thegreenbutton to check on my posts. I can say this after numerous troubleshooting attempts, 2 rma's with seagate, and a 3tb western digital purchase. The problem was not with the physical drives themselves. The problem was something in the usb connection to windows. Either the way the usb adapter portion of the external drive handles the files or how windows interprets what the external drive is doing. I had the freezing issues on any and all 3tb external drive over usb. I tried numerous computers, windows 7, windows xp, etc. Media center would not playback these files smoothly. I then purchased a raid nas enclosure, pulled the 3tb drives out of their usb housings, and inserted them into the raid. All of the movies play perfectly fine now from the nas.....using the previously unusable 3tb disks. The problem is the way windows is communicating with the hard disk. Wish I could be more help guys....
    Friday, January 27, 2012 6:38 PM
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    I have also verified that it is a USB communication problem.  I took the seagate goflex 3TB usb 3.0 drive out of its case, and installed it directly into my computer as an additional drive.  The movies now play just fine from the 3TB drive.  I do not understand why VLC would play the movies OK from the 3TB drive but windows media center (windows media player) would hang.  I will leave that for the tech people to figure out, but for me, I am happy now.  I can add more movie rips and continue playing them.  As stated, I also have a western digital external USB 3TB that had the same problem, but I have not taken it out of the case and installed into a computer ..... maybe later and will report results then, but suspect results will be the same.
    Wednesday, February 1, 2012 10:15 PM
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    Interesting.... I also tried VLC using the 3TB Hitachi drive, and it worked fine on the movie.

    I downloaded a task manager called SYSTEM EXPLORER, and when the Windows media player was clocking (45% cpu), found it was stuck in a DLL called QDVD.DLL (my version is 6.6.7601.17713), which has to do with DIRECTSHOW, the DVD NAVIGATOR of Windows . Looking more at this, it seems that VLC does NOT use the DVD NAVIGATOR of Windowes, and that apparently, is why it works. Its almost like the DVD NAVIGATOR is trying to validate the REGION or chapter and is getting stuck. There is an issue with it looping in Windows CE...  I don't recall the HOT FIX number of that one.

    I would think that since VLC works via the USB connection, it is not the USB/4k sector size part which is causing problems, but the DVD Navigator in Windows which has a problem.

    Ideas anyone?

    Tuesday, February 7, 2012 7:45 AM
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    Also, I have heard that POWERDVD has its own DVD navigator, and that it seems to work as well. Any comments from people who have POWERDVD and a 3TB USB drive?

    Wednesday, February 8, 2012 4:18 PM
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    Well, tried it the other day aaaaannnnnddddd... it worked! Looked up QDVD.DLL, saw it was changed... looked at MS updates and saw an update to fix DVD Playback... Guess it only took 2 years...

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/KbView/3001554

    Wednesday, December 31, 2014 8:25 AM
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    I just re-tried this on Windows 8.1 with QDVD 6.6.9600.17415 dated 10/28/2014 and Media Center still freezes with a 3TB external via USB. I tried skipping ahead, and I just freezes. What is the deal MS!

    Tuesday, March 17, 2015 3:59 AM