Vista Media Center won't play a DVD

I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
advance to first chapter.
It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet Earth
series.

How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound system.
Please and thank you.

Make sure that the Media Center option to play DVDs is enabled in Set
Program Access and Defaults.

Open Control Panel > Default Programs > Set program access and compurt
defaults > Expand Custom configuration > Choose a default Media Player >
Make sure Windows Media Center is enabled.

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]


FireBrick wrote:

> I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
> advance to first chapter.
> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet
> Earth series.
>
> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound system.
> Please and thank you.
>
>

Thanks but that didn't help.
I hear the intro music, but the picture is still pixilated and moving the
page button doesn't work.

It's like I'm missing codec's or something.


"FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
> advance to first chapter.
> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet Earth
> series.
>
> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
> system.
> Please and thank you.
>
>

Do you have any other DVD application installed in your Vista?If so then
try removing the other DVD player application to correct the problem.

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]


FireBrick wrote:
> Thanks but that didn't help.
> I hear the intro music, but the picture is still pixilated and moving
> the page button doesn't work.
>
> It's like I'm missing codec's or something.
>
>
> "FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
> news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>> I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
>> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
>> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
>> advance to first chapter.
>> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet
>> Earth series.
>>
>> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
>> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
>> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
>> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
>> system.
>> Please and thank you.
>>
>>
>

Have you tried playing them in Media Player which also comes with Vista
instead of in Media Center?
"FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
> advance to first chapter.
> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet Earth
> series.
>
> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
> system.
> Please and thank you.
>
>

Thanks for asking. I should have mentioned that.
No joy in Media Player either
Same problem, it's all pixilated, like a cable TV show that has a weak
digital cable signal

Apparently my version of Vista Premium does not have or 'lost' the codecs to
play DVD's.




"Curious" <mailmenot@nomail.com> wrote in message
news:uve0upCbJHA.2124@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Have you tried playing them in Media Player which also comes with Vista
> instead of in Media Center?
> "FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
> news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
>> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
>> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
>> advance to first chapter.
>> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet
>> Earth series.
>>
>> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
>> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
>> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
>> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
>> system.
>> Please and thank you.
>>
>>
>

Check it with:-
Vista Media Center Decoder utility
http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.co...r-utility.html

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]



FireBrick wrote:
> Thanks for asking. I should have mentioned that.
> No joy in Media Player either
> Same problem, it's all pixilated, like a cable TV show that has a weak
> digital cable signal
>
> Apparently my version of Vista Premium does not have or 'lost' the
> codecs to play DVD's.
>
>
>
>
> "Curious" <mailmenot@nomail.com> wrote in message
> news:uve0upCbJHA.2124@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
>> Have you tried playing them in Media Player which also comes with
>> Vista instead of in Media Center?
>> "FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
>> news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
>>> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
>>> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would
>>> not advance to first chapter.
>>> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet
>>> Earth series.
>>>
>>> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
>>> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
>>> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
>>> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
>>> system.
>>> Please and thank you.
>>>
>>>
>>
>

When you run the decoder utility make sure that the MSmpeg2 decoder built
into your Vista OS is selected for both both video and audio decoding.
Do you get any difference between using your 2 built in DVD drives?
If you pause a DVD for a minute or so and then start playing it again does
the problem also occur?
"S.Sengupta" <ssengupta_@msn.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:eTl75LEbJHA.4068@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Check it with:-
> Vista Media Center Decoder utility
> http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.co...r-utility.html
>
> regards,
> S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]
>
>
>
> FireBrick wrote:
>> Thanks for asking. I should have mentioned that.
>> No joy in Media Player either
>> Same problem, it's all pixilated, like a cable TV show that has a weak
>> digital cable signal
>>
>> Apparently my version of Vista Premium does not have or 'lost' the codecs
>> to play DVD's.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Curious" <mailmenot@nomail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uve0upCbJHA.2124@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> Have you tried playing them in Media Player which also comes with Vista
>>> instead of in Media Center?
>>> "FireBrick" <w9ol@billnjudy.com> wrote in message
>>> news:O6LsTc7aJHA.1600@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>>> I have legal DVD's, both from PBS.
>>>> I tried playing them in MediaCenter.
>>>> It would play try, the picture would be all pixilated and it would not
>>>> advance to first chapter.
>>>> It is a PBS David Foster and Friends and the other is the PBS Planet
>>>> Earth series.
>>>>
>>>> How do I get my DVD drives to play in Media Center?
>>>> This is a Dell machine with 2 stock DVD drives, one is RW.
>>>> The DVD's play on my laptop with XP Pro.
>>>> Very frustrating I can see these on high quality monitors and sound
>>>> system.
>>>> Please and thank you.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>