I’m a computer dunce, so I am not even sure if that is the right name. I have a dvd/cd drive, it plays cds fine, but it won’t play dvds. It loads the software it needs from the cd (interactual player), but then I get this error message “Playback failed due to a problem with the video subsystem. Lowering your screen resolution or color depth may fix the problem”. Google says this is because I don’t have a dvd decoder such as WinDVD or PowerDVD. I downloaded the trial of WinDVD to see if that would work, and it did for 5 minutes, now I need to register it. I’m too poor/cheap right now to pay $50 for this software, so I am hoping someone out there can recommend a free program that does the same thing for Windows XP, if there is one.
Free and legal don’t go together for DVD decoders. The people making the players have to pay a license fee per copy back to the DVD Consortium. So giving it away for free would lose them money. Most people get properly licensed software with their drives.
Doesn’t Windows Media Player in XP play DVDs?
Sort of. From the Media Player Help files:
However, there is a program called DVDPLAY located in two folders: C:\I386 & c:\windows\system32. I tried them but they kept crashing the Media Player.
I used this when I had WinME on my last computer.
SmackFu is right, there is no such thing as a free and legal DVD decoder. Windows Media Player and other free 3rd party media players often have front-end functionality built into them to play DVDs with other company’s decoders but they will never contain the decoders themselves (if they’re legitimate, that is).
However, if you’re running WinXP, there’s no need to pay $50 for WinDVD. Rather, you could purchase the Sonic CinePlayer Decoder Pack for only $15. This pack only includes the decoders with no other functionality so you will still need to use Windows Media Player to actually play the DVDs. The Sonic decoders are very high quality so I’ve never had any reason to purchase a dedicated program like WinDVD or PowerDVD.
Ah, it must work with me because I have a registered version of PowerDVD installed.
Hey, it would be funny if after installing the demo of WinDVD, that they forgot to disable the DVD playback in Windows Media Player after 5 minutes.
To play DVDs under windows you need an appropriate DirectShow filter… usually supplied with the drive (I.E. the software that comes with the drive). Most of the software you can download does not actually include a DirectShow filter… you should already have it if you have the DVD drive. Since the software doesn’t supply a decoder, no licensing fees (for them, you can still buy their program from them.).
How about Power DVD 5.0 OEM version for 3.99? It costs more to ship but in the end it is only around $10.00.
Software and Stuff
What Toddly said. Look for PowerDVD on eBay - you should be able to find an OEM copy for around $10 (or less) shipped.
If 1010011010 is correct, since the OP has a DVD drive, s/he shouldn’t have to buy anything.
1010011010, can you give the OP some advice on how to check if the Directshow filter is installed?