This answer gets better, but not close.

More likely it is because of broken software driver get stucked. Just uninstall all related driver may solve the problem. I just got ATI VIVO driver last night. It will never work correctly until you reinstall 1st ATI driver, 2nd PowerDVD7. Then the PowerDVD can do the auto-detection.

Anyway, you are even living in VCD world, not interesting in HD-DVD field yet.