Newbie can't get DVD to play!

showhost · April 8th, 2002, 04:00 AM

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

jkrohn · April 8th, 2002, 04:04 AM

A DVD is encoded on the disk. In order to display the movie you need to decode it. There are 2 optins on how to do this.
Software and Hardware.
Hardware decoding is mostly for older machines (older than say a 450) because the processors were not fast enough for on the fly time software decoding. On these machines you needed to buy a DVD decoder card in order to watch DVD's. Being a PCI card it needs a driver installed, and hence comes with one

A software decoder is where all the decoding in done through the processor. WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc, are all contain software DVD decoders. Windows Media Player does not

Go ahead and install WinDVD, should work fine then.

Jkrohn

Redwolf · April 10th, 2002, 12:04 AM

There's is a place you can get WMP codecs for playing DVD's. I just don't have the site since myfavorites got clerared. If you are using WMP 6, you might want to THINK about upgrading to WMP 7. Heavy emphasis on think since WMP7 has some spyware on it.

Rhino · April 10th, 2002, 01:03 AM

WinDVD is great. I mainly use it for DVDs.

griobhta · April 10th, 2002, 01:54 PM

jkrohn got it in one. I use PowerDVD4 and been using it since version 3 and like it. No problems

Griobhta

Bob The Great · April 10th, 2002, 02:12 PM

I love powerDVD! It came with my drive, and has given me no problems, and is pretty feature rich!

greenlion · April 19th, 2002, 01:29 PM

You don't have PowerDVD but you do have WinDVD. Use it, its as good too.

And if you have installed it, you will find that Windows Media Player will be able to play DVD too.

Redwolf · April 20th, 2002, 11:00 PM

PS

A decoder is a peice of code that turns all those little itty bitty bumps on that DVD of yours into something your graphics card can put on screen.

If you have an ATI video card like the Radeons, use their DVD program, its excellent but I don't think it likes my SC

A hardware decoder is a device that bypasses the video card and directly decodes the DVD. They're a bit expensive but have great performance and usually have TV-out connectors. On slower systems, that may be the only way to play DVDs.

RayH · April 28th, 2002, 04:24 PM

WinDVD is a decent DVD player. If you got it, use it. As for the other DVD players, if you can get one dropped on your for free or less than $10, OK. But no way are they worth any $50!

DutchMaster · April 28th, 2002, 04:45 PM

You can download a XP pack for DVD playback in mediaplayer here: http://www.pixelgraphik.de/users/twe...p_dvd_pack.msi
It looks like its intended to use with windows XP, so look out!!

Also check these freeware DVD players:
http://download.com.com/3000-2194-90...ml?tag=lst-0-6
http://download.com.com/3000-2194-85...ml?tag=lst-0-5