Should windows media player play movie DVD's?

[leadan]

My windows XP media player refuses to play any movie DVD/DVDR's but will play audio thats on DVD'r.
It just gives me the 'windows media player needs to close,do you want to send error report to microsoft etc etc '.

I've had no problems using power dvd.

[celtic_druid]

It should with the correct filters installed which you should already have if Power DVD is installed and functioning.

Personally I don't like wmp7/8/9 anyway. So if PowerDVD works, I wouldn't worry too much.

[leadan]

I like powerdvd but i thought media player should play them and wondered if i needed an update from microsft to play movies.
Thanks

[handyguy]

No you need another dvd player to use with it. Might be some at download.com

[leadan]

No you need another dvd player to use with it. Might be some at download.com

:confused:

[celtic_druid]

As I said it requires extra filters, which you should already have. It is definatly not supposed to crash anyway.

[Jesterrace]

I like WMP but I would never trust it to play DVDs, too many issues. Not worth bothering with if you have PowerDVD or WinDVD.

[BlackDiamondJr]

Windows Media Player has DVD support but not by default. Microsoft sells the decoder required to support DVD playback for Media Player. You are better off using players like PowerDVD or WinDVD or whatever software was bundled with your DVD player.

[leadan]

Thanks for the replies.
I just remembered that about 2 months ago i did actually play a dvdr+ using windows media player.
It was something my dad had recorded on his standalone and it did play ok,strange that it wont play them now.
I'll use power dvd but it bugs me when something doesn't work as it should.

[BlackDiamondJr]

Quote from Windows Media Player Help files.......
To play DVDs, you must have a DVD-ROM drive, and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options, and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder. For more information about DVD decoders, see Windows Help.
This feature is only available on select versions of Windows.

Troubleshooting DVD Playback in Windows Media Player for Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306318&Product=wmp)

[geobon]

Like most people pointed out above, you need a decoder, normally with powerDVD installed media player will play DVDs but it also depends on your hardware, I know all ATI video cards support dvd playback in media player but as for other cards im not sure as the last card i had that wasn't an ATI was a ge-force 2 ultra which wouldn't play movies in media player.

Out of curiousity though, Is it an nvidia card your using?

[leadan]

Like most people pointed out above, you need a decoder, normally with powerDVD installed media player will play DVDs but it also depends on your hardware, I know all ATI video cards support dvd playback in media player but as for other cards im not sure as the last card i had that wasn't an ATI was a ge-force 2 ultra which wouldn't play movies in media player.

Out of curiousity though, Is it an nvidia card your using?
Yes mate its a nvidia card,but WMP is working ok now.
I don't know why because i've not done anything,it seemed it just didn't like playing the movies that i'd backed up with a NEC2500.
I've sent the drive back now anyway because i was really disappointed with it.

[geobon]

Well thats good you have it sorted.. Just to add i had 2 of those nec's and had the same problem, I have 3 standalone players and any discs recorded on any media would only play on 1 of them, yet the same discs recorded with the pioneer played on them all. Just as well i had 3 DVD players or i would't have noticed how crap they are regardless what peeps say about them.