PC won't play video

[coldmeat]

I'm home for christmas break, and my parents tell my that their pc won't play DVDs. Sure enough, I put one in an it won't work. When I use VLC I can manage to get it to open the DVD but it only opens as 1 or 2 minute clips that are all black, and no audio.

The pc used to be able to play DVDs because during Thanksgiving (Canadian) I was watching movies on the computer. Every DVD that I have tried on the PC works in a regular DVD player.

I can open the drive in Explorer and see that all the files are there.

The computer has all Windows (XP SP3) updates and the latest version of VLC. I just installed the newest VLC after the problem began.

They have two DVD drives, and both of them give the same results.

Regular data discs open. I tried an old DVD-r that I have from a while ago that had some files I backed up. They opened fine, so it has to be a problem with the video playback rather than the disc drives.

When I open an avi file that is already on the pc using VLC, I get audio and no video. It plays at the correct resolution, but there is no video.

Any ideas?

 

[masteryoda34]

Your problem may be related to the fact that XP has no DVD decoder by default. I'm not sure how VLC works. You should be able to get DVD's working through Media Player after installing a DVD decoder. ffdshow is capable of decoding DVD's and is freely available.

 

[coldmeat]

The thing is that it worked before, and my parents said they didn't do anything to it. My sister could have done something, but she would never admit to it. This is the first time I've been home or used this computer since October, and everything worked fine then.

 

[coldmeat]

Well I fixed it in case anyone is wondering. After a few days of searching for a solution on the internet I finally found out what I had to do. I just had to change the video presets in the ATI catalyst control center from custom to home. Fixed everything. I don't know how it got changed, but switching it worked.