Planetarion Forums

Rc mayhem · 11 Feb 2007, 02:01

My friend has a problem. She can't get DVDs to play on her laptop on either in the standard Dell player or Media Player. They used to work but now she gets the following message.

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

She has some codecs such as divx to play some downloaded stuff. But I don't think she has updated these recently.

Apparently it doesn't now bring up the "what do you want to do with this DVD" message box like it used to.

Anyone know how to get DVDs to play again?

Androme · 11 Feb 2007, 02:08

you need a mp4 codec

try getting her to reinstall windows media player

also try downloading the latest version of VLC player and see if that works

if that fails go here - http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;306331

Rc mayhem · 11 Feb 2007, 02:22

damn girl. She is pretty and great to talk to but... I suggested a new codec the other day and it seems she didn't do it, but before i read your reply she found one and downloaded and installed it. She now claims huge credit for fixing it... Sorry for bugging you guys and thanks for the help Androme2.

Off to find a new female friend...

Phil^ · 11 Feb 2007, 11:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androme2

you need a mp4 codec

try getting her to reinstall windows media player

also try downloading the latest version of VLC player and see if that works

if that fails go here - http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;306331

Incorrect.
DVDs use mpeg-2. That is what you want a codec for.
Usually you have a piece of software which comes with the computer and provides it
reinstalling media player wont do anything
Installing vlc however might do, iirc it comes with its own codecs

wakey · 11 Feb 2007, 14:05

Phils right, DVD requires a MPEG-2 decoder which due to needing a licence generally requires you to have 'obtained' a piece of commercial DVD software.

Now if it was working before the chances are her computer or a component of the computer came with a DVD player, most of the main PC manufacturers ships any computer containg a dvd drive with something like PowerDVD or WinDVD so she just needs to install that. If she isn't sure check the discs that various discs that came with the computer/components

If she doesnt have the software then you could try out http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...EG_Filters.htm
havent tried it myself but it does claim to decode dvd's

meglamaniac · 13 Feb 2007, 15:54

It sounds like you sorted it now, but for future DVD decoding issues ffdshow decodes DVDs and just about everything else too, in media player.

Cannon_Fodder · 3 May 2007, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by meglamaniac

It sounds like you sorted it now, but for future DVD decoding issues ffdshow decodes DVDs and just about everything else too, in media player.

I installed that but it still won't play DVDs in wmp

meglamaniac · 3 May 2007, 10:45

Sorry I probably should have been more specific.
Assuming you still have ffdshow installed, open video decoder configuration from your start menu. Go into the codecs list and find mpeg2 in the list. If you select the mpeg2 row with the mouse then you'll see a button appear at the bottom of the list that says "DVD Decoding (not working yet)".

Tick the button!

Apply everything and then it should work. It's a little quirky sometimes but usually it's fine.

Cannon_Fodder · 3 May 2007, 18:20

<3

However it seems slightly out of sync, the video and audio