These might be stupid questions!!!

[Spider75]

I've just god a new pc running xp and have a few (probably really stupid) questions

1, I cannot seem to get VCD's to play on media player any suggestions.

2, I failed (stupidly) to get a DVD drive put into my pc, are there any programmes you can get that will allow you to play DVD's through the CD-R drive I have had installed

Thanking you all in advance

Neil

[andydd]

Lets start with question 2. Can you play DVDs in a CD drive. HHmm..Would you be suprised if the answer is no ?...If a CD drive could play DVDs it wouldnt be called a CD drive it would be called a DVD drive !!

Now question one. Well..Open up the Mpegav folder and see if you can play the .DAT file in Mediaplayer, does that work ?

I remember reading about things that could go wrong in Windows n VCDs wouldnt play, but it was rather compliacted and I cant remember it, go do a search n youll prob find the info.

[theDruid]

I won't add to the DVD in a CD drive issue - enough said.

Personally, I wouldn't use WMP (especially the later versions like the one bundled with XP) to play VCD's.

Install a player that can read the disks properly, rather than fiddling with WMP.

There are quite a few freeware DVD players in the tools section of this site: https://www.videohelp.com/tools#VideoPlayers

Most of them will need a separate MPEG-2 codec to actually play DVD's - which will not be a problem for you if you have no DVD drive!, but also to play SVCD's.

MPEG-1 VCD's should work fine in them though.

You can get DVD drives (often bundled with a really good player like PowerDVD or WinDVD) pretty cheaply, and it's not rocket science to fit one.

Have a look at the items on kelkoo for example - about £25 will get one delivered to your door!

I'd recommend it - you'll not regret it if you're interested in doing video on the PC. It doesn't need to cost more than the price of buying 2 DVD's to play in it.

If you decide to get one, post again in the computers forum & we'll give you some tips on installing it if you like.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[theDruid]

Have a look at the Lite On 16x DVD Drive at amazon.co.uk

£26.49 with free delivery and PowerDVD bundled with it.

This is the drive I've got & I'd highly recommend Lite On drives.

(I'm not on commission by-the-way )

cheers,
mcdruid.