Ok. All of a sudden my computer couldn't play DVDs. Very strange. PowerDVD had a
black screen but I could hear the audio. If I moved the window around, I could
see the the video randomly. Windows Media Player and VLC (which usually plays
everything) both had a stutter but the video was perfect.

So, I updated the video drivers and began to blame Windows update (as so many
do.). A quick Google research revealed that my DVD drive was changed to PIO
mode. So with the help of the two links below (i didn't run the script but
followed the instructions from MS), I changed to DMA mode and tried to play a
DVD...voila...it worked instantly with no reboot.

http://mymediacenterlife.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/how-dr-who-caused-stuttering-dvd-playback-and-crackling-cd-audio/


http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/ide-dma.mspx

Need to give credit where credit is due. Thanks My Media Center Life!

Signing Off,
Vivian