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  1. Member
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    Nov 2003
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    Please help! I am a newbie. I spent so much time but still can’t figure it out. I can’t play anything on my computer. I have Windows XP Home Edition, AMD Athlon 1000 MHz CPU,
    Memory 256 MB, Video: ATI XPERT 128 (32 MB), NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A. I currently have Windows Media Player and Nero 6 installed on the machine. When I put a DVD disk and try to watch it with WMP I can see the name of my DVD, all the chapters and than it says: “Windows Media Player is currently unable to play DVD video. Try decreasing the number of colors displayed on your monitor or decreasing the screen resolution. For additional solutions, click More Information to access the DVD Troubleshooter.” Of course, I tried to reduce the resolution, didn’t help. When I try to play it with “Nero Show Time” player I got message: “ Internal error. Cannot build graph. The application may be installed incorrectly.” I’ve reinstalled the program, didn’t help. To check my DVD drive I’ve downloaded a sample .vob file on my hard drive, but when I try to play it I’ve got the same massages from my players, which means my DVD drive is fine and problem is my software, not hardware. When I go to WMP DVD Troubleshooter it says that I need a DVD decoder to play DVDs and there are links to go on web sites to buy decoders like PowerDVD, WinDVD and so on, although if I go to the options in my WMP it says that the player can play DVDs. If this decoder is an extra item than why I can’t play DVDs on the Nero player, which is not free software? I guess my questions are how to play DVDs in my case? What is wrong with Nero and WMP? Any help will be appreciated.
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    Sounds like you need a DVD software player. It installs the proper files to play DVD's and when the player is installed, WMP will play DVD's. Usually the DVD player software is bundled with the drive. You can download a trial version of PowerDVD or other players from the tools menu to the left.
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  3. Member
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    I’ve bough only DVD drive with no software on E-Bay. Sounds kind of strange that to make everything work I need 2 software players. Thank you for replay.
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  4. The thing you need is an MPEG-2 codec (there is a freeware one, which should be linked to there, although I don't know how good it is).

    redwudz is right - WinDVD or PowerDVD would also install their MPEG-2 codecs for you. I believe the trial of PowerDVD leaves the MPEG-2 codec on your system after the trial has expired.

    There are also several freeware DVD players in the tools section of this site - although they all also need an MPEG-2 codec to function.

    The reason WMP does not play DVD's out of the box is licensing issues; MPEG-2 is a commercial technology, and hardware/software that uses it normally has to pay a fee - AFAIK.

    cheers,
    mcdruid.
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  5. Member dcsos's Avatar
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    It probably is a setting of your video card
    You will need to read up on your video card to figure out which mode
    it supports VIDEO PLAYBACK in

    Some of my matrox cards will never play video in the "MODE" they're in
    (EXAMPLE DUAL HEAD EXTENDE DESKTOP MODE" will always return the error you see if i try to play VIDEO over a flat sceen.. Why I dunno..)
    I change to CLONE for the second monitor and VOILA now I can play video on the PRIMARY but sitill see an error message on the SECONDARY display

    also
    try the player from
    WWW.VIDEOLAN.ORG
    Video Lan is free
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  6. dcsos - whatever the settings on your video card, your PC will not be able to playback DVD's if you just install a DVD-ROM drive, and do not install an MPEG-2 codec.

    VideoLan is one of the freeware players I was talking about above - but I think even with that you'll need to install an MPEG-2 codec for it to work.

    Denz74 - try installing either the freeware MPEG-2 codec, or the PowerDVD trial before you try anything else.

    cheers,
    mcdruid.
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  7. Member dcsos's Avatar
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    Yes that's all true but the error message the original poster described was two fold

    .one of them was like you described and helped them with ..
    the other stems from DISPLAY modality (the error that mentions you have too great a screen size or color )

    so keep in mind that the druid is right
    WIDOWS XP does not play DVD's out of the box..
    redwuz also pointed this out

    YOU SEE that to avoid the LISCENCE FEE to the MPEG committe MICROSOFT has refused to give users the ability to play DVD's preferring for us to pay for the pleasure thru thrird PARTY supplier who must allow WIMP (the windows media player -aka the world's worst DVD PLAYER) to use their codecs..MAKING WINDOWS like a thief who sucks up the goodies installed by other applications and forces you (gently) to use the now CAPABLE microsoft way instead
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