Windows Media Player 11 won't play DVDs.

As a software engineer this is just straight out of the 'the rest of the
world can do it right, so why can't Microsoft' department.

I 'up'graded to Vista 64 last week, and Windows Media Player 11, under
Vista, will not play any of my DVDs. It suggests checking my screen
resolution (whut?), and offers a link to a help page, which offers the
suggestions I would expect (codec, video drivers, etc.) and more hilarious
suggestions (pay Roxio $15 for a DVD decoder, pay Microsoft for a Vista
upgrade, start throwing new hardware in there at random, etc.).

The thing is, every other media player on my computer plays the DVD fine.
Media Player Classic, VLC, etc. All fine. Windows Media Player plays every
format I can play in those media players too. Except DVDs. It uses the same
codec I've set up for DVDs (ffdshow), but apparently Windows Media Player is
unable to play it.

I want to use Windows Media Player because I like the interface. I like
having a nice, big, full-featured (except, apparently, DVD playback) media
player on one monitor. The interfaces for Media Player Classic and VLC are
awful and stick out like a sore thumb in any operating systems made after we
stopped worrying about two-digit year codes.

So why won't Windows Media Player 11 play my DVDs? It's not the codec, it's
not the video driver, it's... something else.

-Dru

Post in reply to: Druadan

Which version of Vista? What are the results of WMP's Help:About:Technical
Support Information menu page about MPEG filters?

I would suspect that this due to the cable between the PC and the monitor is
the actual problem. How is it connected (which cable type)? What video
card do you have? What monitor do you have?

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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