Can't Play DVD Video

I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Device Manager shows no errors for any device. I can play music on
same drives just fine.

What is the most likely cause? I have tried several dvd's some I
made, some are commercially made.

Just looking for a suggestion as to what I may try to make the things
work.

Thanks

Fred

On 6/24/2013 5:19 PM, wrote:
I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Device Manager shows no errors for any device. I can play music on
same drives just fine.

What is the most likely cause? I have tried several dvd's some I
made, some are commercially made.

Just looking for a suggestion as to what I may try to make the things
work.

Thanks

Fred
Are you real sure that they have DVD capable drives?
The machines are old enough that they may just have CD only
drives. Take a look at the drives. Otherwise it's probably a
bad drive.

wrote:
I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Device Manager shows no errors for any device. I can play music on
same drives just fine.

What is the most likely cause? I have tried several dvd's some I
made, some are commercially made.

Just looking for a suggestion as to what I may try to make the things
work.

Thanks

Fred


Assuming you do have a DVD player, go to
http://getwapi.com/software/view/fil...-Pack_244.html
and get the codec pack (XP-Codec-Pack 2.4.4.exe). It will solve your
problem. I tried many codecs in an effort to get XP to play DVDs
properly, this one works.

On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:01:31 -0400, Pen wrote:

On 6/24/2013 5:19 PM, wrote:
I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Device Manager shows no errors for any device. I can play music on
same drives just fine.

What is the most likely cause? I have tried several dvd's some I
made, some are commercially made.

Just looking for a suggestion as to what I may try to make the things
work.

Thanks

Fred
Are you real sure that they have DVD capable drives?
The machines are old enough that they may just have CD only
drives. Take a look at the drives. Otherwise it's probably a
bad drive.

Good catch! Device Manager says the drives are HL-DT-ST-CD-RW
GCE.....

So naturally they are not DVD drives. I should have seen that.

Thank you

Fred

roger wrote:

I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Not a hardware issue hence off-topic. The Windows XP newsgroups is
over at:

microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

DVD video? Does that mean you are playing a file, like .flv or .wav,
stored on a DVD? Or are you trying to play a movie (VOB files) from a
DVD? You don't say WHAT you are trying to play, only that it's on DVD
media.

Windows XP did not come with a DVD movie player. You had to install
one. See:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000826.htm

You installed some 3rd party codec or player app to play movies.
Usually when you bought a pre-built computer the movie player software
was included and pre-installed along with the OS. If you built your
own computer and purchased a non-OEM CD/DVD drive then the movie
player software was included with the hardware (OEM usually came as
"white box" sales which meant only the hardware was inside and no
software, cables, or anything except the drive).

One possibility if you didn't get movie player software with the
CD/DVD drive was to install the codecs for movies. One solution was
to get the K-Lite codec pack. Any of its editions play VOB files;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Lite_...d_file_formats.
The hope is that having the codecs available (to decode the encoded
media files) will allow Windows Media Player to playback the media.
Most times that will work except playback may suffer some artifacts,
like halting or jerkiness. If you install the K-Lite code pack, you
might want to include and try their Media Player Classic app. Other
solutions include installing a 3rd party media player and use its
included codecs, like VLC. For other freeware solutions, ask in the
freeware newsgroup at:

alt.comp.freeware
(ignore a lot of the bitch noise)

Cyberlink's PowerDVD costs money but a often a free reduced-feature
version is bundled with non-OEM hardware so you might want to hunt
around your old CDs to see if it's still around. I believe Nero has a
movie player, too, but it's been a long time I used it. Back when I
had it (payware), you had to enter an install key printed on the CD to
include their codecs and player.

Ken wrote:
wrote:
I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.

Device Manager shows no errors for any device. I can play music on
same drives just fine.

What is the most likely cause? I have tried several dvd's some I
made, some are commercially made.

Just looking for a suggestion as to what I may try to make the things
work.

Thanks

Fred


Assuming you do have a DVD player, go to
http://getwapi.com/software/view/fil...-Pack_244.html
and get the codec pack (XP-Codec-Pack 2.4.4.exe). It will solve your
problem. I tried many codecs in an effort to get XP to play DVDs
properly, this one works.

That's half the story. DeCSS helps too, for a commercial DVD.
If you were playing one of my home-made DVDs, then likely all
you'd need is CODECs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

"libdvdcss is part of the VideoLAN project and is used by
VLC media player and other DVD player software such as Ogle,
xine-based players, and MPlayer."

My home-made DVD, wouldn't have any of this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_scrambling_system

"Disc keys are stored on the lead-in area of the disc, an area
that a compliant drive is only supposed to read in a special
way; the sectors of the DVD are encrypted, preventing the
copying of VOB (Video Object) content, which can only be
retrieved with authentication keys."

HTH,
Paul

On Mon, 24 Jun 2013 22:47:34 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:


Not a hardware issue hence off-topic. The Windows XP newsgroups is
over at:

microsoft.public.windowsxp.general



Sorry

Fred