OK, I kind of have an idea of what a video card is: isn’t it the hardware that does the video business? So, I have a “LiteOn” DVD drive, external, that I bought from WalMart last summer. I think it had InterActual as it’s software. I am trying to play one of my DVD’s. Interactual’s software screen comes up and tells me to insert a disc. I already have a disc in. The IA screen says go to the IA website, which appears to be gone.
So, I downloaded LAN or VLAN or VLC or something like that (it has the white and orange street cones as their icon). It is a POCrap. Real Player wants me to pay money to play my video, as does Nero. So, I allowed myself to be degraded and submitted to Windows Media Player’s demand that I validate my Windows. It went quicker than I thought, so I popped in my DVD. And, got this message:
Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card.
Of course, I do not know what my video card is: If they had said that my DVD drive needed a new driver, I could track that down, but, no, they must throw all of this other info at me, and confuse me. Is the video card the LiteON? Is it something inside of my computer that controls the WMP? How do I track it down?
Can you help?
Thanks,
hh
Here’s one way to go at it (assuming you have XP?):
Click start, settings, control panel. Then click system. At the top of the window are some tabs, click hardware, then device manager. Go down to display adapter(s), and if necessary click the plus sign to make the list expand. Write down what it says, like “Radeon buncha numbers and some sexy letters.” (Canonical advertising wisdom dictates that letters like X and Z are sexier than the others.)
Now google the name of the video card manufacturer. When you get to the OEM site, there should be a series of links to follow to find drivers for your specific card.
I often find it is easier to just google the name of the video card followed by “driver free download.” (without quotes.) Then if one of your results is the manufacturer’s site, it will frequently take you to the very page you want.
IF IT IS NOT the manufacturer’s site, be careful. Brothersoft, Cnet, Softpedia are all safe sites to download from; many others are bullshit sites trying to get you to pay them for a free driver, or worse.
If you have trouble at all, you can PM me, I am happy to help.
PS: VLC is not crap! VLC rules! It is more trouble-free than anything else, honest.
NVIDIA is a video card manufacturer, they have a utility to help find which driver you need. ATI is the other major video card manufacturers, their site is here.
Also, are you getting the error with more than one DVD? It could have something to do with some kind of insidious copy protection. It keeps you from pirating the disk by not letting you play it at all. 
Ooops, sorry…yes, I do have XP.
OK, I’m working on it as we speak… I have copied “Intel® 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV GRAPHICS CONTROLLER” as the only element under Device Managers. I guess that I’m googling “Intel video card…” then clicking thru to my particular graphics controller???
Thanks,** brujaja**. I’ll keep you updated on my progress!
BTW, the VLC works great, often, but, at certain points on the movie, it acts like the old broken record, where it repeats the same 1 second area for about 10 times before continuing. Then, later in the movie, it will freeze the video signal, and keep playing the audio.
Best wishes,
hh
Thanks, EvilTOJ. I’ll use this info, as well!
I am getting the same error message with more than one DVD. I was shocked when I got that message; I hadn’t even got to the ripping point, yet! Actually, I wasn’t planning to, but, the clinker made that all academic!
Thanks, and best wishes,
hh
Even easier - go to Intel’s website and click “Automatically detect and update…” at the top of the Latest Downloads section. That should launch a discovery applet that will sniff around and determine what’s needed.
Looks like the latest driver package is from 2007, so you might already have the most-current drivers. Another thing to try is to run Microsoft Update and look on the left side for Hardware updates and Optional updates.
Have you tried playing any old DVDs? Some of the newer ones just don’t play well on computers.
For Intel graphics card look here. I like VLC, but my other go-to player is Windows Media Classic. It’s like the old style media player, but better. You might be missing a codec, which is software used to code and decode media files. I like the k-lite code pack. Have you been able to play DVDs before? Can you tell I’m bored at work? 
Forgot to say that the problem probably actually isn’t the video card driver.
The first thing I’d try is to uninstall the InterActual player, VLC and Windows Media Player, then start fresh. There’s a good chance that something’s gone kerflooey behind the scenes with a conflict among all those apps.
You can get WMP directly from Microsoft.
Hmmm, “graphics controller” sounds more like the onboard graphics rather than a card.
I agree, it’s probably not the driver. InterActual has always caused me problems.
You know how to uninstall it, right? (start --> settings --> control panel --> add/remove programs)
Uninstall that one first, then download & install the codecs. You may not have to uninstall WMP and VLC at all.
Then, put your movie in, open VLC, click media, then open disc. Check the box that says “no DVD menus.” Then click play.
The stuttering behavior really sounds like a codec thing.