Poor DVD playback when DVD drive is set to PIO mode (317962)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
This article was previously published under Q317962

SYMPTOMS

DVD playback performance may be poor if your DVD drive is set to run in Program Input/Output (PIO) mode instead of Direct Memory Access (DMA) mode. For example, in programs such as software DVD decoding, you may experience significant frame loss and/or audio or video synchronization problems.

CAUSE

Both PIO and DMA (also known as bus mastering) are modes of data transfer for ATAPI drives. However, PIO mode consumes more CPU time, and transfers data more slowly than DMA mode. Because of this, using PIO mode for DVD drives can adversely affect performance. Other factors that can also impact DVD playback performance include CPU speed, amount of memory, video adapter and video resolution, sound card drivers, software/hardware decoder that is used, CPU utilization, and the DVD viewing software that is used.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, set your DVD drive to run in DMA mode instead of PIO mode. For more information about how to do so, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

247426 Device settings are hard to find in Windows

NOTE: If the issue is not resolved after you set your DVD drive to run in DMA mode instead of PIO mode, you may need to use a process of elimination to determine which of the other possible causes is creating the symptom so that you can determine an appropriate resolution.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:7/14/2005
Keywords:kbenv kbprb kbui KB317962
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