No setting for TV Out port

[Laser Eyes]

I recently bought a Pioneer DVD rom drive and installed it in my computer. I also installed the PowerDVD software. Then I put in a DVD of The Matrix and tried to watch it. The following message came up:

"DVD Error
Error Code: F4D41436

The TV Out port of your display card is not working properly.

This copy protected disc can not be played when the TV out function is enabled."

I assure you it is a perfectly legal copy of The Matrix that I bought. My computer is only connected to the monitor, not to the TV or any other external device.I can't find any setting in display properties to disable the TV Out port of my card and I don't know whether I can or should disable that port or how to. My computer specs are as follows:

Aopen midi tower HQ-45
ASUS A7V266-E Socket A DDR Raid
AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Taisol CGK760092
Enermax 350W EG365P-VE FCA
2 x 256MB Kingmax PC2100 DDR-SDRAM
40GB IBM Deskstar 60GXP 7200 RPM
ASUS V8200 64MB Geforce 3 Ti500 Deluxe
Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer
Plextor PlexWriter PX-W2410TA 24/10/40A
Sony 19" CPD-G420
Iomega 250MB Zip Drive int.
Sony Floppy Disc 1.44MB
Netcomm 56K int.
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1
Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical
Microsoft Windows XP Home

It seems that the only thing preventing me from watching DVD movies is my video card. Can someone help me please?

[Hollow Man]

There are a few posts on here about this subject, but I thought I'd chime in because I did a lot of research on this last night when this problem happened to me (when DVDs used to play just fine).

In short, the reason you're having this problem is due to this:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8425

In other words, the video card you have does not comply with Macrovision's copy protection requirements, so PowerDVD won't let you watch DVDs. The easiest way to "solve" this problem is to install NVIDIA driver version 40.72 (or earlier). I couldn't get any of the other fixes that are posted on this forum, on USENET, etc., to work.

This problem ticked me off enough that I actually took the plunge (which I should've done a while ago) and got Xine to work under Linux. That software doesn't give one fig about whether my video card is compliant with copy protection technology.

-HM

[Laser Eyes]

Thanks for the helpful reply Hollow Man. Now I have a lot more questions than before.
Who on earth are Macrovision and what have they got to do with nVidia?
Why are nVidia stopping me from watching a legitimate copy of a DVD?
Is there different DVD playing software that I can use to avoid this problem?
Can I watch DVDs on my video card by disabling TV Out and how do I do that? I am using the 41.09 detonator drivers.
What are the other potential fixes that I can try?
Do ATI cards have this problem?

[Hollow Man]

I'll try my best to answer this stuff.

Macrovision is a company that provides the encryption so that DVDs cannot be copied onto VHS tapes.

NVIDIA was probably under political pressure to do things with their drivers to comply with Macrovision specs. If you have a video card, therefore, that doesn't output the encrypted Macrovision signal on the TV Out, the NVIDIA driver will report that. PowerDVD takes note of that reporting and disables DVD playback because your video card does not meet Macrovision standards.

In other words, with NVIDIA 40.72 drivers (or earlier) and my video card, I can output the signal to a VCR, then tape DVDs. Macrovision, NVIDIA, and PowerDVD all work together now to ensure that I cannot do this.

I don't know what other DVD software, such as WinDVD, will do if the NVIDIA drivers detect cards that don't meet Macrovision's standards.

I haven't figured out a way to tell the driver that TV Out isn't being used, or to tell it that TV Out doesn't exist. The only solution I've come across that works is to use NVIDIA drivers that don't do the Macrovision check (40.72 or earlier).

I don't know if ATI's drivers make this check.

-HM

[Chalnoth]

Of course, I think it's so much easier to rip a DVD to the hard drive and compress it to MPEG4 format than it is to bother with VCR recording through the TV-out...