Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD

[Rono]

I get this message

Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because there is a problem
with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder, and
video card. Try installing an updated driver for your video card.

when i try to play a dvd in media player i can not seem to get this
fixed i have installed the vista codecs pack i have in stalled the vlc
player i have updated my video card driver, my dvd player driver and
all update for media player i can play dvd with nero or vlc player but
i want to use media center and it uses media player. Please help if
you can.

[dcastner]

I found this thread when searching the site and I am having the exact
same problem. I can,t however find if there was a resolution for this
problem. Is there anyone that can assist me to find the resolution.
The problem states:

Windows Media Player cannot play the DVD because there is a problem
with digital copy protection between your DVD drive, decoder and video
card.

[siddhbos]

Download K-Lite Codec pack
save it on the desktop and run it from there, then close all the
windows and relaunch Window media player.

It will work....

If not download VLC Media player.
It will surely work

[Peter Foldes]

You are wasting your time answering these leach posts. Nobody on the other end. You can see by the post properties when posted from Usenet.gateway with the post starting with Re:

I don't think it really hurts anybody to have accurate information out
there. Plus it does hurt people to have bad information out there, so - it
doesn't seem like anybody really suffers here.

[zachd [MSFT]]

You are aware that Service Pack 1 has a work-around to block part of
K-Lite's badness given that K-Lite was causing horrible and crippling
problems for users?

Codec packs are pretty horrible plans in general. The onl yone I'm aware of
that has a serious interest in stability and sanity is CCCP. K-Lite has
done very significant damage to people's systems and it always saddens me
when people are recommending that joke.

[CodyG [Windows Team]]

::Hi, my name's Cody, and I'm working witht the Windows Media Outreach
Team to help answer questions people might have about their copies of
Windows Media Player. ::

::It sounds like your issue is due to your recent upgrade of your video
driver. Hardware upgrades can sometimes lead to issues with digital
rights management (DRM). DRM is what retailers use to control the way
their files are distributed and shared. ::

::You might want to check out this FAQ, as it should be able to guide
you through resolving your issues! 'Using protected files (DRM)'
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...aq/drm.mspx)::

::Let me know if this was helpful. If you're still having problems,
there may be some other options for resolving the issues. ::

[Flagging Vista User]

Hi CodyG

Whilst I appreciate that there is DRM built into the operating system and
video which in my humble opinion is an unfortunate blight, for folks like
myself that have legitimate (bought and paid for DVDs) having the OS refuse
me access to the playback is enraging to put it politely. The more I
encounter DRM on the software and videos I legally purchase makes me
completely sympathise with the pirates out there. At the moment Vista running
the MC either refuses to play back the files due to copyright issues and
hardware or it plays it but gives me stuttered blocky checkerboard like video.

Is there any way that I would be able to play this content using the Media
Centre software that comes with Vista ? I can play it fine using third party
software like VLC, however I would like to be able to use the Media Centre as
it makes life easier for others in the family.

Thanks for your time and advice, its appreciated

[zachd [MSFT]]

The FAQ that Cody pointed you to was an incorrect reference contextually and
inappropriate for DVD playback issues, as you probably noticed when there
were no DVD issues covered in that FAQ.

The sole questions of initial interest for this exact error should be:
* What "MPEG filters" are listed under WMP's Help:About:Technical Support
Information menu tool?
* What video card driver do you have, and what version is it? Does the
video card vendor have an updated version available?
* What cable connection type is connecting the monitor and the PC, if any?

That'd give investigation into this particular area a baseline to start
with. The WMDRM FAQ you were accidentally pointed to here was probably not
helpful to you in any way and resulted from an accidental misperception.

[truerock]

About 95% of the time, your problem is caused by a DVD CoDec that is
incompatible with Windows Media Player 11 (or 10). WMP11 requires a
special codec that will either support its copy-protection logic, or
by-pass it. I don't use WMP11 because it doesn't play DVDs without a
special codec, but I use a trial version of nVidia's PureVideo codec to
test WMP11 from time to time. I think you would be better off not using
WMP11. I have heard the Windows Vista Premium and Windows Vista
Ultimate include the DVD codec - but, I haven't had the oportunity to
test that rumour. All of my Vista computers (Dell and HP notebooks)
have a 3rd party media player on them. It would be nice if there was a
way to tell which CoDec WMP11 is trying to use, but that is not
possible. I use Nero 9 Showtime to watch DVDs.

Many times it is recommended that a bundle of CoDecs be installed to
fix WMP11. Personaly I would not do that. I recommend keeping you
system as un-complex as possible. If you really want to fix WMP11 so
that it will play DVDs, find a specific CoDec designed to fix it. Don't
dump dozens of CoDecs into your computer.

[Bob Campbell]

But that is the best way to fix these problems. I *always* install K-Lite
codec pack onto my machines. They are just codecs - they don't get used
unless/until a specific audio/video file needs it. Once installed, I can
play any video/audio format that I encounter.

I would much rather do a single install that covers everything you will find
than install one at a time. Eventually you will end up with many codecs
installed anyways, because different DVDs/AVIs/MPEGs/whatever will need
different codecs. Might as well install them all at once and be done with
it.

[zachd [MSFT]]

If you're really going to go down this bad path:

K-Lite has caused several million crashes due to some abject incompetence.
They know it, I know it, and a lot of confused people who downloaded K-Lite
because they trusted people who told them it was "OK" never really knew why
they were crashing randomly.
Anyways, they know they screwed up. This is not in question.

CCCP on the other hand is both relatively legitimate and is competent.
Between CCCP and any other codec pack, use CCCP.

It's not possible to install "all codecs at once". You can't just "be
done". Because of some serious malfunctions in various codecs (including
ones that K-Lite liked to install), certain codecs are disabled, certain
codecs conflict with each other, and so forth.

I respect what you're trying to do - to provide a lifetime supply of fish to
someone, but this is unfortunately a brutally difficult area where people DO
need to learn to fish and we DO need content providers to not just throw
users into the buzzsaw of random trojan codec packs.

Please stop the bad advice here. This is my personal plea to you. AVI has
been destroyed through bad codec packs such as K-Lite and I'd like to
continue to help rebuild its viability such that it stops being toxic.
Providing only good advice will really help us here.

[Bob Campbell]

So has Microsoft at one point or another. What is your point? That
software has bugs? Gee, let's alert the media!

I'll see your anecdote and raise you one. I have been using K-Lite for
years, on *many* XP and Vista machines. No problems here.

My point was not to "sell" K-Lite, just the idea that a single install is
better than one-at-a-time.

I'll keep on using it, and you can keep on using whatever *you* like, OK?

[zachd [MSFT]]

If Microsoft was shipping pirated software that crashed every application
that tried to access sound APIs as K-Lite has done, I would expect it to be
nailed to the wall.

Everything you think K-Lite does, CCCP does better. And more competently
and less dangerously.

The problems from K-Lite should be well known to anyone versed in
multimedia. If you're not aware of this area, and you're not aware of the
problems K-Lite has caused, you probably should not be recommending software
in this dangerous arena.

Look, a lot of people have given up on AVI due to dangerously bad codec
packs such as K-Lite. I'm trying to help make it a viable format again and
the first step towards that is ensuring good information. K-Lite has been
and is dangerously incompetent software. If you are not aware of that, you
should research the software you're recommending.

Regardless of your current choices, I will continue to have to clean up for
their incompetence for probably four or five more years at the least. So
.... thanks to all those who promoted the K-Lite malware. That's really done
the end user a lot of good. =\

[felinis]

I had the same problem with WMP 11.

I solved mine after hours of work, three system restores and switching
on and off dozens of codecs.

My problem turned out to be that two of my Monitor device drivers were
disabled on the Device Driver panel. How this happened, I haven't a
clue. The monitors worked fine.

I could never figure out why a screen or monitor needed a PnP driver in
the first place - you already have the video chip/card driver and its
GUI.