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Newbie can't get DVD-ROM to play

S

showhost

Member
Hi all...

Just built my first system and am fired up but I tried to play a DVD and it gave me the following message:

Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer.

I clicked the "details" button and it took me to more info which included the following:

"In addition to you DVD-ROM drive you must have either a hardware or software decoder in order to play DVDs. A hardware decoder also requires a decoder driver". What the heck is a " decoder" anyway?

I've looked through all the stuff I received from my various vendors and sure there was NO installation disk that came with the DVD player so I don't believe I've installed any drivers for this device (I tell ya, I'm actually forgetting now what I have and haven't installed!)

Curiously, along with my Gainward Video card they sent me a CD for a program called WinDVD which purports to be a "popular software DVD player". But I don't think this contains DVD "drivers" (does it?) as it came with the Graphics card and not the DVD Player.

The Pioneer website says that this DVD ROM is Plug and Play and uses the standard Windows drivers. If so, then why won't it play the DVD? Any thoughts???

Larry

XP Pro
Pioneer mod 116 (16x DVD)

 
There's two critical parts to a software DVD player. First is the program itself, and the second is the codec. The codec is what does the decompression of the video and audio data on a DVD. For a program to work, the codec has to be installed. Microsoft did not include the necessary codec with Windows Media Player because they would have to pay royalties for every copy they bundled into Windows XP. The solution is to use a third-party program like PowerDVD (which of course includes the codec), but obviously you'd have to pay for it. There are certain, um, "less than legal" ways of getting Windows Media Player to play DVDs (copying the codec from some other system that has it installed), but of course you weren't comtemplating that were you? 😀
 
Thanks for your reply. This clarifies things a bit. Haven't heard of this Power DVD but what do you think of this WinDVD program that came with my video card? Is it the same essentially as the Power DVD program as far as codecs go?

 
By installing WinDVD, you will get the DVD drivers/decoders. After you install that, you'll be able to watch DVDs with Windows Media Player.
 
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