A/V Can't get genuine DVD to work on pc

[t4n6o]

had to reinstall windows the other day and re installedall the usual suspects real player, divx, xvid, windows 7 codec e.t.c. the same stuff i had on before the wipe but now it wont play my genuine DVD's

any advice please

[tehBoris]

Have you tried VLC?

[t4n6o]

is vlc a player?

i tried divx real and media player and none of em work

[B1GBUD]

Yup, VLC will be fine

[t4n6o]

thanktehboris VLC did the trick but what i want to know why is,

how come realplayer and media player suddenly dont work on legit DVD's?

[thehippoz]

the shark 007 codec works in windows 7.. even if you set the 64 bit player default

[wolfticket]

Windows 7 Home Premium, Ultimate, and Enterprise should come with a MPEG-2 (DVD) Decoder by default these days and should play DVDs out of the box. Any other Windows version might not.

However, a codec pack should sort it out. Some people don't trust 'em, but K-Lite Codec Pack is one of the first things I install and it works well. Comes with lots of useful tools/codecs and seems to uninstall cleanly.

[lp rob1]

Codec pack? VLC is the grail of media playing, and works on all platforms, AND the developers aren't greedy super-rich people (ahem MS?) - so why not?

[Chairboy]

Originally Posted by wolfticket

However, a codec pack should sort it out. Some people don't trust 'em, but K-Lite Codec Pack is one of the first things I install and it works well. Comes with lots of useful tools/codecs and seems to uninstall cleanly.

+1 to this. K-lite is awesome

[noizdaemon666]

Either K-Lite or, my personal favourite, Shark007 with its' 64bit codecs as well.

[Xir]

I prefer Media Player Classic Home Cinema, as it will start quicker than VLC and it easier to fullscreen and pause-resume, but VLC is my program of choice for mediafiles that otherwise won't play.

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by t4n6o

...how come realplayer and media player suddenly dont work on legit DVD's?

The data on DVDs is encrypted (using an algorithm called CSS - Content Scrambling System). It is most likely that your system is missing the component needed to decrypt this, which would prevent commercial players from working - VLC uses its own CSS decryptor so wouldn't be affected by such issues.

Another possibility is a region coding mismatch (though the media players you mention should report this). In order to screw consumers properly target markets, DVDs have a region number (mostly in the range 1-5, 1 being US, 2 being Europe...) and it has to match that of your DVD drive firmware, operating system (Windows) and media player. So if you have a DVD collection spanning multiple regions, you have to install region-free firmware for your DVD drive and use software to regularly reset region settings in Windows and your media player, unless you use VLC or a similar player.

VLC accesses (most) DVD drives at a low enough level not to be affected by region coding.

Blu-ray discs also have region coding (in their case just 3 regions - A to C) along with other consumer-friendly features like HDCP blacklisting...

[wolfticket]

Originally Posted by lp rob1

Codec pack? VLC is the grail of media playing, and works on all platforms, AND the developers aren't greedy super-rich people (ahem MS?) - so why not?

I find VLC is useful as a self-contained backup player that will play pretty much any you throw at it.

However, I prefer actually having the codecs installed on my system, as it gives me flexibility as to which player I use, so anything that plays in MPC will play in WMP. Also some other video tools I use are dependant on have certain codecs present on the system.

I prefer Media Player Classic/K-Lite in general to VLC. The codec pack seems to handle slightly more obscure video codecs better/faster than those in VLC. MPC is more customisable, feels faster to me and the UI/shortcuts make more sense imo.