Best DVD playback software?

[Aero]

OK, here's the deal- I want to be able to play DVD movies/music videos on my computer system.

Thought I was all set, got me a Plextor 320A CD-RW/DVD combo drive installed, got a licensed version of WinDVD that came with my GeForce4 Ti 4200 video card.

Today I go and start to install the WinDVD player software. Right off the bat it informs me that "This software contains advertising technology that will occasionally use your internet connection".

<installation aborted>

Now, I don't know exactly what's up with that- but it certainly can't be good...


So, now I'm on the lookout for some good DVD playback software, preferably free and without any of that advertising garbage. Does such a thing even exist?

TIA!

[Sixpac_XP]

For Free - Microsoft Media Player 9 plays DVD's just fine on my computer.

[Aero]

WMP 9 doesn't seem to work for me, I get an error message "Cannot play this DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on this system".

Is that an error caused by my DVD drive, or is it WMP 9's fault?

[paul9]

i use powerdvd, it came with my drive and graphics card, no adware. you could use dvdshrink as a player, not the best solution, but workable and free. i think wmp 9 needs a software player installed in order to play dvds.

[cunokyle]

I use WinDVD, Real Player 10, and Windows Media Player...they all do what I want. I prefer Real Player 10 though.

[willy_ph]

You could always try finding an older version of WinDVD that doesn't contain advert-ware and use it.

[Bizkitkid2001]

Media Player should work fine. make sure you got all of the windows update for WMP9.

[Aero]

OK- I've been doing some research, and this page at Microsoft indicates that I do need to install some sort of decoder for WMP 9 to play DVD's. But they don't mention any free ones...

I don't understand why my version of WinDVD should contain adware in the first place- It's a licensed version with a serial#/key, not an evaluation version...

I found a free player called VLC which looks pretty good, but I'm still reading the documentation.

Anybody here using VLC?

[Sixpac_XP]

have you tried using the Windows Media 9 codec pack.

You can download it for free from here.

http://www.soft32.com/download_2592.html

[davidamarkley]

I've used lots from open-source, to freeware, to 'freeware' and even retailware. I keep coming back to PowerDVD, has the features I want, and I've never had any problems with any DVDs, evah...

Dave