cheapest good decoder for any pc?

[mikehende]

I am tried of haing to load PowerDVD just to get the decoder for windows media player to play dvd's, what's the cheapest good decoder out there which can work on ANY pc please?

[Richard_G]

I had a problem getting PowerDVD to run reliably on a laptop, so removed it and installed the Dscaler5 codec instead. DVDs play in Media Player and it seems to handle interlacing quite well too.

[mikehende]

I had a problem with DVD playback a while back and was told to try descaler, didn't help which is why I am looking for a goo decoder itself and not a dvd player but thanks for the info.

[lordsmurf]

VLC

[Forum Troll]

Also media player classic. It's what I use to play DVD's. Plus it's a portable app, so you can run it from a USB memory stick.

[Richard_G]

I had a problem with DVD playback a while back and was told to try descaler, didn't help which is why I am looking for a goo decoder itself and not a dvd player but thanks for the info.

I don't know what you tried but Dscaler5 is only a codec not a player. Since loading it I now play DVDs in Windows Media Player as it's the only player installed on the laptop.

[steptoe]

Try using Media Player Classic

Its truly free not 'free' in the sense that its a trial version, plays DVDs without any extra 'plugins' or decoders and isn't massively overbloated software that has 'features' most people don't use on a regular basis

It may not look nice, but it does the job its designed to do and nothing else and plays virtually any audio and video format thats commonly used without installing any extra codecs

oh, and if you do use and install divx/xvid it will play them quiet happily



Also, using AC3Filter improves the audio as well, but thats about the only 'extra' I use