Rawr! DVDs are not playing on my computer!

So I reinstalled WinXP on my computer. Ever since I did, whenever I try to watch a movie on my computer I get a message saying:

I have the latest driver. I did not have this problem before I reinstalled my OS. I have tried both with Windows Media Player (that's where the detailed message comes from) and with GOM Player, which is my preferred DVD player in XP. I have tried it with several different movies, and each time the legitimate purchased DVD disc was in the drive.

This is making me unhappy.

 

4.6 Why do I have problems playing DVDs on my computer?

There are thousands of answers to this question, but here are some basic
troubleshooting steps to help you track down problems such as jerky
playback, pauses, error messages, and so on.

* Get updated drivers. Driver bugs are the biggest cause of playback
problems, ranging from freezes to bogus error messages about regions.
Go to the support section on the Web sites of your equipment
manufacturers and make sure you have the latest decoder drivers as
well as the latest drivers for your graphics adapter and DVD-ROM
drive.
* Make sure DMA is turned on. For Windows, go into the System Properties
Device Manager, choose CD-ROM, open the CD/DVD driver properties,
choose the Settings tab, and make sure the DMA box is checked.
Caution: You may run into problems with an AMD K6 CPU. Check for a
BIOS upgrade and a CD/DVD-ROM driver upgrade from your system
manufacturer before turning DMA on.
* If you get an error about unavailable overlay surface, reduce the
display resolution or number of colors (right-click desktop, choose
Settings tab).
* Try turning off programs that are running in the background. (Close or
exit applets in the Windows system tray.)
* If you are using a SCSI DVD-ROM drive, make sure that the it's the
first or last device in the SCSI chain. If it's the last device, make
sure it's terminated.

Here Mimsy copied this from google dunno whether youv'e already read it or not but it might help !

 

Um... thanks? But I'm not sure that applies to my situation. There is nothing wrong with the drive, it installs and plays games, and it plays music CDs. It also burns them, I just finished burning one I am going to listen to in the car.

It just won't play movies.

 

I would try VLC Player and/or install the KLite Mega Codec Pack. It includes Media Player Classic which will take advantage of the installed codecs and will play back just about anything. The KLite pack also includes their 'Codec Tweak Tool' which will scan for broken/corrupt codecs and will either remove or repair them. It could also be that some other software (perhaps some burning software?) has installed some type of DRM, but I'm kind of guessing with that and I'm no expert on the subject of DRM. Are the movies just standard DVDs or are they HD or BluRay? Are you trying to play via an HDMI cable or just to a std. display with a standard VGA or DVI cable?

 

Standard DVD movies, standard VGA cable. The movies are Army of Darkness and Pitch Black, both of them used to play on this computer, but now that you mention it, I can't remember if I installed the codec pack or not. Let me run that real quick, and I'll get back to you...

 

Mimsy, quick question. Could you be using the wrong region code on your DVD player/reader? Also, have you tried VLC, just a thought. And last but not least. Mind me asking what movies you tried ?

Thanks.

 

The movies were bought in the US, as was the optical drive, and the two worked great together until I reinstalled my operating system. And the movie titles are in the post just above yours

Now for what really matters: IT WORKS!!! :celebrate

GOM Player is the one I used to use, but since I have no idea if the codec pack dlb linked to would work in it or not, I uninstalled GOM and put VLC on instead, and then the codec pack. And now it's working!

dlb is a super hero of movie players! :wine <-- *salutes dlb with screwdriver*

And I'm now going to go watch Pitch Black... one of my all-time favourite movies. :drool