Looking for a DVD drive that can play Multilayer discs smoothly

[James]

I have already tried Lite-On, and Pioneer, neither can.

Basically my test DVD for this is Disney's Mulan, track transition between Chap 17-18. The newer standalones can handle it just fine, but most of the DVD-ROM drives for the computer act like my old Toshiba stand alone, they hard lock. (Can't do anything, and have to end up rebooting the computer.)

I've got a nice enough monitor and speakers that I want to have a decent DVD drive in my computer. Watching a movie right up to the point where it seizes isn't exactly the ideal multimedia experience.

I'm thinking about possibly the Sony drive next. but at 40 bucks a pop, my collection of DVD drives is becoming an expensive habit.

Any suggestions, real life experience, heard it from a friend type stories, whatever really, would be greatly appreciated.

System Specs for those who care:

Athlon 1.4GHz T-Bird
MSI KT266-Pro mobo
768MB Crucial PC2700
Asus Ti4200 Deluxe vid card 128MB
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 sound
Windows 98SE
Seagate 80GB hdd
Lite-On XJ166s DVD (Currently)
Plextor 16x10x40
Sony fdd

I'm running the most recent copy of PowerDVD, I think it is 4.12? I'll double check when I get home tonight.

Thanks again for any help and/or suggestions.

P.S. Been awhile since I posted here at Sharky's. Good to see some familiar faces.

[ua549]

I have a 2 year old Pioneer DVD-305. I've never have a problem with it. It plays everything smoothly using PowerDVD 3.0. Of course the drive is SCSI.

[ewitte]

Originally posted by James
I have already tried Lite-On, and Pioneer, neither can.

Basically my test DVD for this is Disney's Mulan, track transition between Chap 17-18. The newer standalones can handle it just fine, but most of the DVD-ROM drives for the computer act like my old Toshiba stand alone, they hard lock. (Can't do anything, and have to end up rebooting the computer.)

Sounds like a software error. Or it could be just that one DVD. Most drives, even older ones, can play multi layers discs. Unless they have some strange copy protection scheme. I doubt they did anything special with Mulan.

Eric

[BremenCulhaven]

Originally posted by ua549
I have a 2 year old Pioneer DVD-305. I've never have a problem with it. It plays everything smoothly using PowerDVD 3.0. Of course the drive is SCSI.

You get PowerDVD 3.0 with the drive?

[ua549]

IIRC that's what it was bundled with.