Codec Guide

ive been trying to watch dvds in windows media player but keep getting the "windows media player cannot play dvd" error. with my previous computer, i installed the k-lite codec pack and it worked fine. now, with my new computer, when i went to install the pack, the cyberlink dvd codec was greyed out. now this computer did come with PowerDVD installed, so im thinking that may be the reason. but if the codec is already installed, why cant media player use it?

well i went ahead and uninstalled the powerdvd software, and reinstalled the k-lite codec pack. this time i was able to select cyberlink in the install process. but wmp still gives me the error. i would use media player classic, but it makes the dvds look like crap. its way too pixelated.

What is the exact error message that WMP gives?

It may be a problem with the region protection of your DVD drive. You need to set it to the same region code as the DVD you want to play. Usually that is done automatically by Windows. But maybe it is somehow set wrong.

the message is "Windows Media Player cannot play DVD video. You might need to adjust your Windows display settings. Open display settings in Control Panel, and then try lowering your screen resolution and color quality settings."

according to the faq here, that just means that wmp doesnt have the right codec installed. like i said, i got this same message with my old computer, and installing the codec pack solved it. i dont think its a region issue, ive set all my region settings to region 1.

That is a generic error and it can be caused by many things. The correct codec is installed, so that shouldn't be the cause of the problem.

What version of Windows do you have? If you are using XP, then you should update WMP to version 11, if you haven't done that already.

vista home basic sp1. i will actually be upgrading to windows 7 soon as soon as my upgrade disc comes in the mail. maybe ill just wait to upgrade and see if that solves it.