Playing DVD on Vista - not as simple as it seems

[igorek]

I was trying to play a DVD from a public libbrary on my Vista, by clicking on the DVD icon, but WMP gave me some misleading error message. After googling, I found that I may need MPEG-2 decoder (I was surprised that it is not already part of Vista). So I installed "Dscaler MPEG Filters", they have MPEG-2 decoder. But it still did not work.

Then I tried RealPlayer - same problem. But then I went to VIDEO_TS directory, and opened one of the *.VOB files with Real Player - that worked ! It still did not work when I tried to open the same file with WMP.

Unfortunately, as I just noticed, even when I play an individual *.VOB file with a RealPlayer, it misses the whole pieces of the video.

Could somebody please explain what's going on ? I thought I can play a DVD on Vista just as I play it on a DVD player connected to TV...

[zoobie]

how about vlc?

[guns1inger]

I use The KM Player under Vista, or MPC HC. Both work very well and bring the required codecs with them.

Also, you will get better results if you use the IFO files, as they tell the player how the VOBs are structured and what is in them. Playing the VOBs directly can produce unpredictable results.

[igorek]

Thanks, KM Player works. VLC does not.

[guns1inger]

Interesting - what was the problem with VLC ?

[igorek]

vlc did not recognize IFO file, refused to open DVD as a whole, and played VOB incorrectly.