Free software DVD decoder?

[dbota]

I went to try to play a DVD in my XP pro machine's DVD player which I never used until now and I am apparently missing a software DVD decoder. I built this machine and the DVD drive came with nothing so I guess I have to find one. What is recommended? Are any available for free?

 

[DaveSimmons]

search does a body good! : Free DVD player?

 

[Nothinman]

VLC isn't bad, it has a Windows port. This is one of the times it's nice to be using Linux, all the DVD software is free if you don't care about the possible copyright violations involved with not having any CSS and MPEG2 licenses.

 

[dbota]

CSS and MPEG2 licenses? I'm ignorant of all this. Will VLC provide all the functionality I need CSS, MPEG2 or otherwise?

Why doesn't Windows Media player have DVD functionality? Was it supposed to?

 

[igowerf]

To decode DVD, you have to pay for a license. That's why the use of VLC is sketchy in terms of copyrights and such.

 

[Nothinman]

Why doesn't Windows Media player have DVD functionality? Was it supposed to?

Because Microsoft would have to buy a MPEG2 and CSS license for every copy of WMP they give out, imagine how much they would lose. WMP can play DVDs if you have other DVD software installed because they come with the licenses, but out of the box it can't.

 

[dbota]

How did I miss out on paying for a license. Is it because I built my own system? Are they normally installed by the PC manufactures as part of the cost for the DVD drive they install? Or is everyone getting a DVD drive that they have to then buy a DVD decoder for?

 

[Nothinman]

You normally don't pay for the license yourself, the people who sell you the DVD player software do and you pay them for the software, so you indirectly get a license. If you didn't get any software you most likely don't have a license and would need to buy some DVD software to legally play DVDs.