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Resolved Question

Can't watch DVDs on WMP 11

by Sep 9, 2011 2:04PM PDT

When I put a DVD into CD/DVD tray Windows media player comes up a window in center says "Windows media player can not play DVD because a compatible dvd decoder is not installed on your computer" Last week it played, but yesterday my brother tried to update his i phone which lead to 8 hours of him and an apple tech trying to figure why his phone would not update blaming everything from avg free software to Malwarebytes software and I have no idea what else. Both these items were uninstalled and Microsoft security essentials was downloaded. I honestly don't know what my brother and the apple tech all did but the result is I can no longer watch a DVD. When I click web help from the error window it sends me here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/help/windows-media-player/dvd-codecs?locale=409&geoid=f4&version=11.0.5721.5280&userlocale=409 it tells me to buy a compatible plugin. I would just restore to an earlier date but a disk clean-up was done and yes went to more options and did a systems restore clean-up too. I have XP pro OS on a HP Compaq Presario SR 1617cl PC. Is there anyway I can fix this short of buying a plug in or even a recovery to play DVD with WMP? Any help or ideas would be appreciated thank you

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1moreprodigal has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer
4 Posts
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Best Answer

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Other options
by Forum moderator Sep 9, 2011 7:58PM PDT

That "More Options" in Disk Cleanup should only have removed 'all but the latest' System Restore point, so if that latest point is before all these changes took place, restoring to that might work.

Other options;

1] Reinstall the DVD software you had previously installed.

2] Download and install the VLC Player which doesn't need codecs and plays DVDs.

Mark

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Answer
You have a missing CODEC
by Sep 9, 2011 7:53PM PDT

What is was and where it went is something I can't say. Sometimes these come with the DVD player, sometimes with the motherboard and sometimes you buy or acquire them. Originally they were not free to download but I don't know about now. Names such as WinDVD, PowerDVD and some Nero offerings included such a CODEC. Some motherboards such as ASUS would include a version of WinDVD that would only install on ASUS boards. If you're lucky, you may still have such a disk around. If not, you will need to acquire one but I can't say it will be free.

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I do have an ASUS motherboard
by 1moreprodigal Sep 9, 2011 9:58PM PDT

This is what the PC came with Board: ASUSTek Computer INC. Amberine M 1.03, but I have reformatted HD which came with XP home and it did have WinDVD. But I also removed partition D and now C drive is all I use. I put a legal version of Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)Install Language: English (United States)System Locale: English (United States)Installed: 8/22/2011 8:42:32 AM. Which has now been updated to SP3. I checked add/remove and there is no windvd in it. All I have is the OS disk in which I download the program and I also have a WinDVD disk it didn't come with this computer but with an Dell PC, being the original was a prepackaged deal that did not come with disks. Is there a way to repair this from F10, F8... or XP Pro OS disk? Thank you for you help.

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Here's about all I can find
by Steven Haninger Sep 9, 2011 10:30PM PDT
http://ptf.com/intervideo/intervideo+windvd+bd+for+asus/

It lists as "shareware". That's an old term and I won't try to explain what it means. I also can't can't say this is legit but it could be the version that came with some ASUS boards. It appears that WinDVD is now a Corel product. Sometimes old versions are abandoned and left to public domain. Originally it was called "ASUS DVD" but was their bundled version of WinDVD. It was generally an older but functioning product. All you really need is the coder-decoder but I've no idea how to extract the exact components without installing the software. I think, as part of the licensing agreement, the software needed to install as the idea was to encourage you to update to their newer product. In any event, you can try this or search for some reliable download site that might have the old software. There's not going to be a way to recover from what you did without reinstalling the codec or using some alternative such as Mark suggested.
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