Problem with authentic movies in Sp2

Hi Guys,

I have a very strange problem. In XP (sp2) my DVD drives both read and write DVDs/CDs fine but will not read authentic DVD movies.

The strange thing is that copied movies are fine but authentic ones will not work. I've checked the region settings and they are fine.

At the moment my only solution is to play my DVD movies through another computer on my network and open the movie remotely but as you can imagine this is a bit of a hassle!

Any ideas?

John

What program/codecs are you using as a dvd decoder?

Thanks for your response,

I'm using CyberLink Power DVD, Windows Media Player, VLC Player, and DivX. None of which seem to work. Is there any way to determine which specific codecs i have or require?

I'm not sure if it is a codec issue since i am able to play DVD's on the other system's drive over the LAN

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackpotJ

... Is there any way to determine which specific codecs i have or require?..

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Look for its 'Gspot' !! :devil: :D

But since you can play it over a network I doubt its that too, as the codecs are required to be local most times.

Since you have 'copied disks' perhaps consider what mischief your copying proggies might have wreaked on windows DRM ?

& if you copy say a '.vob' from a DVD to your local hard disk can you play that ? (or can you even play a .vob from the dvd ?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by confus-ed

Look for its 'Gspot' !! :devil: :D

But since you can play it over a network I doubt its that too, as the codecs are required to be local most times.

Since you have 'copied disks' perhaps consider what mischief your copying proggies might have wreaked on windows DRM ?

& if you copy say a '.vob' from a DVD to your local hard disk can you play that ? (or can you even play a .vob from the dvd ?)

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Well the strange thing is, some authentic DVDs such as Nightmare On Elm Street, and a couple of music-based ones seem to work fine but others such as Lord of The Rings are not read by the dvd drive. That said, even the ones that do work seem to take an unusually long amount of time before they load up.

When i insert an 'incompatible DVD' My Computer locks up for a while or sometimes the disc spins for a while then when i click on the drive it suggests that there's no DVD in there.

If i copy a DVD to my HDD i can play it fine and as i mentioned earlier; playing movies over the Network is a solution but it is just hassle.

Here is a screen shot of what GSpot found, does it look ok? http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3...decs9yx.th.jpg

Right now i'm guessing that either it has something to do with protection on movies (if this is the case, is there any way around it?)

Or it is a problem with the configuration of my system's codecs. I have already tried removing the Secondary IDE and both drives through System config then hoping that on re-detection the problem would be solved but no luck there either.

Faulty codecs? Protection on DVDs?

Any comments are appreciated :)

If I were you I would download K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.49 and try that

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm

It's the 3rd one down on the page.

It also has a quicktime and realplayer alternative so you don't have to ever those progs either.

I wonder if you have inadertently loaded a copy protection rootkit like the one that Sony is infamous for that is somehow screwing up your ability to play copy protected DVD's. Just because Sony got nailed for it doesn't mean that other companies haven't been up to the same funny business. Try downloading and running RootkitRevealer from Sysinternals http://www.sysinternals.com/ . I admit that this is likely not the actual problem but it doesn't hurt to look in that direction. Also, F-Secure has(had?) a beta of Blacklight rootkit detector for download too. Good luck.

I think I'd clean the drive before delving into more 'serious matters' - or if its possible to fit another temporarily, I'd try that too to eliminate this being a bit of fluff flapping about inside your DVD unit or some dirt on the lens ..

Thanks for your comments guys!

I've got two drives in there and they both have the same problem- freaking out whenever a dvd movie goes anywhere near them. It's really strange.

I'm tempted to do a format and start everything from scratch but it seems a bit extreme. For now, i'm playing about with codecs (thanks to the poster who suggested that codec pack)

It might be an idea to try one of my drives in another system to see if the same thing happens, this would eliminate the possibility of it being a physical problem with the drive.

The quest continues. Again, if anybody has any further suggestions i'd appreciate it