DVD playback issues

[William1]

ok peeps,
i have been having a few playback issues on my computer when running DVD's. The problem is when i run a DVD if there is a scence when there is for example a light object like a torch against a black background the colour looks really wierd, its as if the little bit between the torch and background has reverted to 16 colours. Another problem that i have found is that if there is something blackish-darkbrown it will slowly around every half-second change colour gradually to a black colour which makes it look like the 16 colours which i was talking about earlier, so the problem is probably linked in some way.
i have tried it with Gladiator, Lake Placid, American psycho and lock stock (all region 2).
i have a Toshiba SD-M1402 (12x) and a voodoo 3 3000, P3 700, 128 meg of RAM, Windows Millennium, SB 1024 card, and run my monitor at 800x600 @ 16 bit colour (i can't run at anything higher as my monitor can't do it, and this problem is not monitor related as i have linked my comp to my TV and same problem:(. )
i have tried Win DVD and Power DVD but no joy.
this is from the info box of Power DVD when running gladiator :-
"Player Information :
Player Region Code : Not Specided
Current Focus Drive : E:
Title Region Code : 2, 4

Display Information :
Video Mode : Bob
Display Mode : DirectDraw
FourCC Code : YUY2
Surface Type : Overlay

Video Attribute :
Video compression mode : MPEG-2
TV system : 625/50 (PAL)
Aspect Ratio : 16:9
Display Mode : Only Letterbox
Source picture resolution : 720x576 (625/50)
Frame Rate : 25.00
Source picture letterboxed : Not letterboxed
Bit Rate : 9.80Mbps

Audio Attribute :
Audio Coding mode : Dolby AC-3
Sampling Rate : 48kHz
Audio application mode : Not specified
Number of Audio channels : 6
Bit Rate : 384.00 Kbps
Number of Audio streams : 3

SubPic Attribute :
Number of Subtitles : 19

Hardware Information :
3DNow! Technology : Not Detected
Enhanced 3DNow! Technology : Not Detected
IA MMX Technology : In Use
IA Streaming SIMD Extensions : In Use
Video Accelerator : Not Detected
Multispeakers Audio Device : Creative SBLive! (not in use)
S/PDIF Output Device : Creative SBLive! (not in use)"

I have done re-formats etc and new drivers for my voodoo 3 3000 but stil no joy :(
please help me so i can enjoy my DVD's fully,
thanks for ANY help :)

[Calzor Suzay]

Does the voodoo 3 3000 not do 32-bit colour on the desktop? dunno never had one. This may be your underlying problem, any mates with 32 bit capable cards you can slap in and test?

[Calzor Suzay]

Also just thought as a quick test you could put the card down to 8-bit and see if it gets even worse in the same areas described.

[UsediLLusioN]

basically 16bit colour doesn't have enough colours,
u need either 24bit, which dvd's are or 32bit,
otherwise u get whats called dithering which is what u described

[William1]

right, i went to display and changed the res to 24 and then 32 bit to test each out, sadly the problem is still there so i then changed the res to 256 colours and the problem is still there which makes me believe that when i am watching the DVD's i am watching it in 256 colours depsdite the resolution being at 16 bit, 24 or 32. i have checked the options in power DVD + Win DVD to make sure they use ALL the colours available whitch they do! :(

are there maybe any options that i could change to my Voodoo 3 3000 or something?
again cheers for any help

[UsediLLusioN]

could be that your monitor can't display the required amount of colours

[William1]

my monitor can run it perfectly and i have also tried linking my PC to my TV and that also has the same problem which means the problem is somewhere in my PC and not through the monitor

[Brocken]

I'm about to get a DVD-ROM for my PC and i've been told it is best to get a DVD encoder card which makes the movies run off the card instead of your CPU so they run better