DVD not Playing

[Devonmade]

I cannot play any DVD's on my computer, messages from Real Player and Windows Media Player say I need a decoder. Any ideas what the best next step is. I don't think I have any software supplied with computer that includes a decoder. I am running Windows XP.

Sue

[Neil Wilson]

Decoder required is normally when you try to play a US DVD on a UK DVD as the settings are different. One is PAL and the other is NATS (I think) check your settings to see what it is on and change to the other or automatic if there that option.

[Devonmade]

I'v only got UK purchased DVD's so they should be for the region we are in, but my computer just does not recognise them.

Sue

[Alan Welsford]

Has it ever ?

I mean did it used to, and doesn't now, or is this the first time you have tried ?

[Devonmade]

I can't remember if it ever did. One of the problems is that we had to uninstall absolutely everything and start from scratch again so it is never going to be like it was when we first got it. I see on the Microsoft windows site that ther are decoders for purchase so perhaps that will be the way to go.

Sue

[Neil Wilson]

If you uninstalled everything, have you loaded the programs back on fully. Only saying this as I had to re-format the laptop and install from the master disc and about 2 weeks later a program asked for it to be put back into the drive and more files were loaded so that the program would work. I would have thought that if the master disc was used to install it would only be needed once, but that wasn't the case.

[MarkJ]

A decoder would be included in the DVD playing software. What software are you using to play the DVD? Real Player or Windows Media Player *can* play DVDs, but, as you have discovered, they would need the relevant codecs to decode the file. They will probably play a non encrypted DVD - e.g one you create yourself, but commercial DVDs of say films use something called a Content Scrambling System (CSS - not to be confused with the web designing CSS!). When you bought the PC, it should have come with DVD playing software - e.g WinDVD or similar. That will contain the codecs you need. It may be simply that you have a DVD playing software on your PC, but Real Player and Media Player are trying to play the DVD. If you do have a DVD program, try opening that, then select to play the DVD from within that program. If that works, you can - if so desired - change the program associated with DVDs to your DVD program. Windows Media Player and Real Player are both renowned for associating themselves with any type of media - regardless of what you wanted in the first place!

Mark