Unable to play DVDs?

[aBoppa]

Is it true that I need 3rd party software installed in order to play DVDs via the Windows Media Player. I seems to me that when I tried this I got a message to that effect. So, I have to purchase something like WinDVD or PowerDVD before I can watch a DVD movie???? $200 for Win7 and I got to spend more bucks to enhance the Media Player???? I must be dreaming!!

 

[Minotar]

Is it true that I need 3rd party software installed in order to play DVDs via the Windows Media Player. I seems to me that when I tried this I got a message to that effect. So, I have to purchase something like WinDVD or PowerDVD before I can watch a DVD movie???? $200 for Win7 and I got to spend more bucks to enhance the Media Player???? I must be dreaming!!

No,Windows Media Player will play DVD's on its own.

Can you post a screenshot of the message using the snipping tool?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
WMP sometimes has problems with "Encrypted" DVD's.

Just download VLC - Its free and plays nearly every codec known. Small as well (no Bloat) and I think the next version will also play Blu Ray DVD's (or will shortly).


(Works on Linux too --great little player. Also Audio CD's and streams including FLAC amongst others)

VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Venths]

Hello,

Yes, as the above poster said, WMP sometimes may not be able to play encrypted DVD's. However, its a rare instance.

Additionally, you can install this K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. This will allow you to play any kind of media files using WMP. Please select the default media player as WMP during the installation. Here is the download link:

Download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 5.61 - FileHippo.com

Further, you could find all freewares from this websites collectively.

♠ Cheers ♠

 

[sReKcAh]

i have the problem too.but not all dvd type.only certain.

 

[hattrik21]

I'll toss in another vote for VLC. I've been using it for the last 2 years and it works great for DVD's.

 

[valtonray]

i agree go with VLC, it's a great media player that can play post formats and is light on resources. i've also heard great things about KMPlayer - Download but i've never tried it myself. after all if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[Shark007]

try this, may seem weird, works for others though . . .

turn off 'Navigation Sounds' in Media Center.

 

[Wordsworth]

Is it true that I need 3rd party software installed in order to play DVDs via the Windows Media Player. I seems to me that when I tried this I got a message to that effect. So, I have to purchase something like WinDVD or PowerDVD before I can watch a DVD movie???? $200 for Win7 and I got to spend more bucks to enhance the Media Player???? I must be dreaming!!

I see you have a homebuilt PC but I don't see the make and model of your DVD drive in your PC specs. The problem could be an old drive or drive that needs a firmware update.

I recently rebuilt my PC but kept an old Toshiba DVD-ROM in the case and when I installed Win 7 neither WMP or WMC would play a DVD. WMP gave the message "cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card." WMC would give a message about the DVD being the wrong region code but the DVDs I was trying to play were for Region 1, the correct region.

I couldn't find any firmware update for the Toshiba (bought in 1999) and since I was looking to buy a DVD burner (having never had one) I bought a new HP burner and both WMP and WMC now play DVDs.

 

[CoolioG]

I like HP's DVD playing software. It's very nice looking.

 

[Venths]

Yeah, Klite codec pack should have helped you I guess !!

 

[aBoppa]

Unable to play DVDs

Is it true that I need 3rd party software installed in order to play DVDs via the Windows Media Player. I seems to me that when I tried this I got a message to that effect. So, I have to purchase something like WinDVD or PowerDVD before I can watch a DVD movie???? $200 for Win7 and I got to spend more bucks to enhance the Media Player???? I must be dreaming!!

I see you have a homebuilt PC but I don't see the make and model of your DVD drive in your PC specs. The problem could be an old drive or drive that needs a firmware update.

I recently rebuilt my PC but kept an old Toshiba DVD-ROM in the case and when I installed Win 7 neither WMP or WMC would play a DVD. WMP gave the message "cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card." WMC would give a message about the DVD being the wrong region code but the DVDs I was trying to play were for Region 1, the correct region.

I couldn't find any firmware update for the Toshiba (bought in 1999) and since I was looking to buy a DVD burner (having never had one) I bought a new HP burner and both WMP and WMC now play DVDs.

It is a mongrel DVD mfg. in Feb. 2002 apparently by Ultima Electronics Corp. of Taiwan. My son took it out of one of his systems as not needing it. An attempt to run a DVD via the WMP in Win XP resulted in msg 'WMP cannot play this DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer'. Believe I got a similar message at one point while trying Win 7. It seems that mostly an attempt to play DVD thru the Media Center locks up when I attempt to click on "Play DVD". Looks like I gotta buy a new DVD player. I have downloaded the VLC player and may give that a shot - if this does not work then its out for a new one. THANX!!!

 

[Wordsworth]

Installing VLC or a codec pack could solve your problem in both XP and 7. Besides planning on getting a DVD burner for the new build, I was simply adamant about getting WMP and WMC to work in Win 7 out of the box without installing any third party software. When Microsoft advertises that Win 7 contains "everything you need to watch standard DVDs," then I expect it to work provided my hardware is up to date and not mucking up the system synergy.

 

[csongi12xme]

I use the DVD Player which I got with the Nero burning room and I never had problems with DVD movies.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Microsoft is correct in that it WILL play DVD's -- but once people add regional coding and various sorts of proprietary DRM / Encryption routines then it's not MS's problem.

Unencrypted DVD's play fine -- VLC which is a really small app will play everything else -- MS doesn't have a license to distribute the DVD decryption library (in Linux this was usually the LIBDVDCSS library).

Videolan (the developers of VLC) being open source and therefore not subject to some of the various rules under which MS has to operate under CAN distribute the decryption algorithms embedded within the application.

Technically it *could* be illegal to download VLC in some countries - but I haven't heard of any court cases on this.

The chances are in any case once you INSTALL VLC Windows Media Centre / Player will probably now play decrypted DVD's since the decryption library will be installed as a callable dll.

Download VLC and then try playing your DVD's again on WMC / WMP.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Wordsworth]

Hi there
Microsoft is correct in that it WILL play DVD's -- but once people add regional coding and various sorts of proprietary DRM / Encryption routines then it's not MS's problem.

Unencrypted DVD's play fine -- VLC which is a really small app will play everything else -- MS doesn't have a license to distribute the DVD decryption library (in Linux this was usually the LIBDVDCSS library).

Videolan (the developers of VLC) being open source and therefore not subject to some of the various rules under which MS has to operate under CAN distribute the decryption algorithms embedded within the application.

Technically it *could* be illegal to download VLC in some countries - but I haven't heard of any court cases on this.

The chances are in any case once you INSTALL VLC Windows Media Centre / Player will probably now play decrypted DVD's since the decryption library will be installed as a callable dll.

Download VLC and then try playing your DVD's again on WMC / WMP.

Cheers
jimbo

I don't know if you're replying to me or the OP, but as I stated in an earlier post replacing a ten-year old DVD-ROM resolved for me playing DVDs in both WMP and WMC. Happily for me, no VLC necessary in this case, although it will be a different matter when I get a blu-ray drive; then I'll have to go with third party software.

 

[generalxanos]

WMP 12 is a fail

I bought Win7 Ultimate x64. I inserted one of my many dvd's that has the Intermedia software on it in the drive.

There's *LOT* of movies from the 1980s and 1990's with that rootkit garbage. To say it's a rare occurrence isn't quite true, it depends on how old your dvd's are, really.

It failed on insert with the well documented error. I attempted to install the Intermedia software just so I could watch the dvd. It failed because it's not 64 bit, or because it was designed for an old OS. We have to insert DVD's in compatability mode now? We've advanced that far?

It killed my file associations completely before it crashed, however. Every music cd, dvd attempted to use Intermedia, with the same error as before.

I had to fix the file associations to get known good new dvd's to even work again.

I hit Microsoft's support site. Recommendation? Upgrade my Windows Ultimate to something better, like Ultimate, to get the full benefit of WMP. -OR- I could un/reinstall WMP and fix the issue. Fine. I don't uninstall, not yet... I know how MS thinks, you see. I go find the download link, and get ready to put it in my master copy share first. What happens? It wants to authenticate my version of windows. I bought the download version of Ultimate *WITH* CD mailed to home for extra cash. And here I am, using this machine right now, and MS thinks it's pirated.

I know, just use VNC, I just don't like the interface that much, as has also been mentioned in this thread, but I hope nobody actually expect this excuse for a dvd viewer to be their single option for watching dvds, because it's no better than it was in win98. Aackwards compatability is the truncated form of the full phrase, leading with the word "Bass".