DVDs...Banging My Head on the Desk!

I don't know what to say. It seems that you've been experiencing endless issues with dvd playback. Almost all of them seem completely random and unlinked. The only common factor I can think of is... well... you.

Here are three things that I would try if the laptop was mine:

1. Remove all video related software. Everything that you've installed in any way related to videos. Reset your video drivers to default configuration. Reinstall windows media player and install a popular dvd decoder.

2. Reinstall windows and start from scratch. Install a popular dvd decoder.

3. Install Linux or some other popular OS other than windows. Use popular movie playback software.

All three of these are rather extreme and would consume a lot of time. But I'm out of ideas, so when you're desperate and you have some time to kill...

 

Sorry to double post. I just looked up Ace Media Codecs and XP codecs, because I've never heard of either before. It seems both are collections of free encoders and decoders, like divX, ffdshow, etc. I would suggest uninstalling all the codecs you installed, and if you installed any, uninstall all the decoders you installed. Then just install one decoder(all you need for dvd's) and see how that works. I would try using something mainstream like cyberlink's decoder, or perhaps nVidia's dvd decoder(they have a free 30 day trial).

 

omg. Macrovision? That is copy protection stuff for DVDs. That could conceivably be the problem. Macrovision causes DVDs to playback all corrupted when it detects a VCR recording on the line. Perhaps there is some computer version of Macrovision on your PC that is doing something similar to that. See if you can remove that. Search around online for a way.

 

Well yeah but the funny thing is I have a registry entry for Macrovision on my desktop. The DVDs work fine on it.

 

WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I did it! I did it! I did it!!!! It's working now! It is! It is! It is!!!!!

Ahem.

Anyway, it turns out it really was just the codecs. I took off all the codecs. ACE, CCCP, everything. I tried downloading Power DVD. Wasn't really helpful but just now I downloaded and installed the XP Codec Pack 2.3.6 and whaddya know? It works! I'm so relieved cause now I don't have to lug along my portable DVD player when I go on my trip.

Anyway, thank you all for your relentless help. I greatly appreciate it and hope I can return the favor for any of you someday.

Thanks again!

*walks up the wall and dances on the ceiling*

 

Glad to hear it is working now.

The reason it works now is probably because powerdvd comes with cyberlink's dvd decoder. It is using the cyberlink decoder instead of any of the decoders that come with the collection known as "xp codec pack". I bet powerdvd would have worked fine without xp codec pack. To be honest, I don't really like the look of "xp codec pack". You realize it is not something released by microsoft and it just installs a ton of media encoders and decoders, right? Generally, codec packs are a bad idea. As you've seen, they can really mess things up. In my opinion, it is much better to hand select which decoders and codecs you really want on your machine, and install them individually.

 

Funny thing though. I installed PowerDVD, the trial version, and got the same problem...I think their trial version kind of limits the picture quality. WMP9 wouldn't play DVDs or AVIs until I installed the codec pack. I just figured what I would do was try doing what I did on my desktop over time and just installing a codec pack after WMP9 seemed to do it. I just installed WMP11 and it works fine. Although there is some verrrrrrrry slight ghosting on faster motion but I'll bet that's just the LCD trying to keep up with it. I don't really notice it if I don't put it on full screen mode. A little more tweaking I suppose.

 

maybe the dvds u're trying to watch are not originals. maybe they're pirated? theater screens? that would explain everything.

 

Hmm strange CCCP when installed usually will tell you "hey XXX codec is known to cause problems and it is recommended you disable it would yuo like to do so now"

If you had a bad codec, I am surprised you didnt get that message.

I lost video for my .AVI for a few days because my video editing program didnt like to see only certain kinds of .avi files and google lead me to find this codec called morgans motion jpeg codec or something like that that fixed the problem for several people.

Well it didnt fix my problem, but it became my main avi codec and I didnt really know. 2 weeks later the codec trial expired *i didnt even know it was only a trail and do not remember anything like this when I installed it* Suddenly I had no video for anything and was so confused.

I tried every player and video editor I had until finally it was one of my more rare programs that prompted me when i opened a video "morgan motion jpeg codec trial has expired please purchase ect ect" while none of the other players prompted me for some reason.

I reinstalled CCCP and sure enough it bumped the bad codec for me and everything was fixed.

 

Sweet, glad to know your problem is fixed. Enjoy your movie watching! Dasterdly codecs and players....

 

Actually CCCP did give me that warning and disabled one codec. I think it was the order in which I had things installed. I upgraded to WMP11 before any codecs and that didn't work. But once I went back to WMP9 and added the codecs it worked. Adding WMP11 and it still works. Seems codecs don't like to be added on top of WMP11 although I can't imagine why the order would make any difference. Sort of makes me wonder how I'd fare doing a codec install on Vista.