How do I play DVD in Windows Media Player9?

[MachineMan]

I have the InterVideo MP3/DVD plug-in for Media Player 9. When I try to play a DVD or Burned DVDr this is the error message I get:

"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. "

I have tried lowering the screen resolution to 800x600 and the colors to 16bit. Same error keeps coming up.

I also have WinDVD4 which also come up with similar errors!!

How can I play a DVD?

[vance43211]

get power dvd

everybody has issues with windvd

i have 3 windvd disc that came with hardware and i refuse to install them

[MachineMan]

OK, Im not planning to use WinDVD. But how can I play DVD's in Media Player. I have tried some other freeware players and they also have the same errors? Is a there some system configurastion I need to tweak?

[jntaylor63]

Are your running Windows XP ?

The plug-in that you bought to play DVD's in WM9 only works with WINXP.

I found out the hard way on this. I upgraded my work laptop to WM9 under WIN2000 and it will not play DVD's.

The same goes for the MP3 create plug-in for WM9. It only works under WINXP.

I wish MS would stop and think about the bigger picture when the design this stuff. Their media products are good, but the just don't go the extra step to become great. And its only hurting them:

1.) XBOX. MS locked you into their media format and DVD. Why not make it an all in one system to play whatever media as long as you install the correct codecs. (Granted you can do this with a MOD chip, but what a pain.)

2.) WM9. Base level only encodes WMA. Can include MP3 for extra $$ and you must have WINXP. So, people use extra apps to play and encode.

Windows Media Palyer is so close to a great all-in-one player. Their media format is good too, but there is so little hardware support.

Maybe one day they will start to respond to users and stop try to conform them.

JNT.

[MachineMan]

I have Win XP Pro. Why doesn't it work? I have the Intervideo MP3/DVD plugin. I can rip MP3 with no problem. I agree, media player is good except that it doesn't come with some essentials like MP3 and DVD encoding. Is there somewhere I need to configure my system settings to be able to play DVD's?

[vance43211]

windvd is buggy and it also don't play dvd disc without macrovision ( basically a copied disc)

so if it's not acting right, wmp won't act right

get power dvd ( none of the above problems)

it will fix your probelm

how did u get windowsmedia pplayer to rip mp3s without the cyberlink encoder (supposely the only plug-in wmp will allow for mp3 encoding)

if u use windvd for that i might install it on my comptuter

[gll99]

The most common reason is #1

#1) Make sure your ... display/settings/advanced/troubleshooting ... hardware acceleration is set to max.

#2) If you have a tvout on the video card make sure that it's not on. CSS will kick in and prevent the software player (windvd or any other) from playing unless you use TVTOOL or DVDIDLE.

[MachineMan]

It worked!! Thanks gll99. I set my hardware acceration to max and it works now with Media Player. However my CPU usage is 60%.

Vance43211, I have the InterVideo Xpack which is a MP3+DVD plugin for Media Player 8 and above.

[pablo180]

I'm probably stating the obvious but have you set up Media Player to play DVD's in the options in Media Player? I had the same problem until I realised that you have to check a box or something. I can't remember what I did exactly though cos I just sorta stumbled on it.

If you have already done that, sorry!

[gll99]

MachineMan

It worked!!

Good!

The reason why some may temporarely turn the acceleration down is that they can do bmp screen captures from an avi or mpeg while it's playing. The DVD player will usually not play when acceleration is turned off so this trick doesn't usually work to capture DVD pics.