Problem with Playing DVD's

**Orangeman** · July 29th, 2004, 07:37 PM

Hi Gang,

I just got a new DVD-RW today. It is a Refurbished DVDRW that I
purchased from Dumpinggoods.com. It didn't come with a manual. I'm trying to locate one now.

The probem is that its not playing DVD's.

Its reading them but not playing them. The one I have is a factory made DVD that I got from the video store.

Moded of DVDRW is NEC 1300-A. Its installed as a Slave to a CDRom Master. I'm running Nero 5.5. I also have Windows Media Player 9.0. My OS is Win98SE.

Device Manager reads no problems. Bootup is fine and it is recognized in bios. I also adjusted Nero so that it would read it.

When I click Explore the DVD, I get a lot of .vob files and .ifo files so I can see them, I just can't play them.

Do I need an update, a patch, more software, or did I buy a bad DVDRW?

Thanks very much for your help.

Orangeman

**GrandDad** · July 29th, 2004, 08:14 PM

Hey Orangeman .

What are you using to try play a movie ?

Seems like NooNoo said somewhere about try'ing put a DVDrom as Master and by its self if possible and a link for a free player to test it ;
http://www.videolan.org/
But I'll let others work with you on that if no player will play anything .

**Orangeman** · July 29th, 2004, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

Hey Orangeman .

What are you using to try play a movie ?

Seems like NooNoo said somewhere about try'ing put a DVDrom as Master and by its self if possible and a link for a free player to test it ;
http://www.videolan.org/
But I'll let others work with you on that if no player will play anything .

I'm using Windows Media Player to play movies. Should I be using something else?

**GrandDad** · July 29th, 2004, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Orangeman

I'm using Windows Media Player to play movies. Should I be using something else?

Try that free Player to see what happens ,
if it can't play it either
that will give NooNoo or others more to go on .

Oh , are you still running 98 ?
and what ver WMP you have ?

**Orangeman** · July 29th, 2004, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

Try that free Player to see what happens ,
if it can't play it either
that will give NooNoo or others more to go on .

Oh , are you still running 98 ?
and what ver WMP you have ?

Hi Grandad,

I downloaded the player and installed it. I clicked the VLC icon and it asked me to locate the source of my meda. I directed it to my F drive and then I had a choice of three files. I directed it to the Video file. Then I clicked Play.

Nothing happened. I asked me to locate the file again.

Then I dowloaded The Cliprex DVD video player from Microsoft. I tried to play two different DVD's.

When I clicked the DVD icon for PLAY it said "No Valid DVD found in drive F" Then an error message said:

"Can't Render 1 Streams, Playback Aborted, DVD Decoder not found"

Media Player version is: WMP version 9.00.00.3128

What should I do now?

**GrandDad** · July 29th, 2004, 09:46 PM

Try having WMP open (without a DVD disk in)
then insert DVD disk and see if WMP picks it up on its own or will find it .

Since you put that NEC 1300-A in have you tried windows update ?
in a way this all sounds like codec's are missing maybe .

But I'm not doing much else for awhile if you want to keep messing around with this .

I'll do a Google of that and see what comes up about it .

**Orangeman** · July 29th, 2004, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

Try having WMP open (without a DVD disk in)
then insert DVD disk and see if WMP picks it up on its own or will find it .

Since you put that NEC 1300-A in have you tried windows update ?
in a way this all sounds like codec's are missing maybe .

But I'm not doing much else for awhile if you want to keep messing around with this .

I'll do a Google of that and see what comes up about it .

Thanks for your help Grandad,

I've already emailed NEC about a manual and I'll get a new PCI IDE connector tomorrow. Then I'll be able to install it as a Master and on its own cable.

Maybe then I'll have a better answer to my problems,

Orangeman

**GrandDad** · July 29th, 2004, 10:27 PM

Ok .

I went thru NEC's web sites and they don't have anything (drivers or Firmware) offered there , just says they only sold them as OEM's and to go original seller's site for drivers or Firmware updates , but if you do a search on that NEC thier is some places that have last updates .

Sorry I couldn't help more .

**Orangeman** · July 29th, 2004, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by GrandDad

Ok .

I went thru NEC's web sites and they don't have anything (drivers or Firmware) offered there , just says they only sold them as OEM's and to go original seller's site for drivers or Firmware updates , but if you do a search on that NEC thier is some places that have last updates .

Sorry I couldn't help more .

I found a page that has NEC firmware updates for my DVD:

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.ph...&manufactor=23

The problem is that there about six different versions of 1300-A and I don't know which I should install?

**NooNoo** · July 30th, 2004, 05:05 AM

In device manager, look in the properties for the dvd - what firmware version is it showing?

"Its installed as a Slave to a CDRom Master" Install it as master, make the cdrom a slave. You don't need to have it on its own ide, but they do like to be master on the chain.

**Taz Devil** · July 30th, 2004, 08:09 AM

You HAVE to have a 3rd party DVD decoding software installed before WMP will play DVDs. It does not have native DVD playing capabilities, but relies on the external software. From the WMP 9 Help File:

"To play DVDs, you must have a DVD-ROM drive, and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options, and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder. For more information about DVD decoders, see Windows Help."

There are some free players available here

**shanff** · July 30th, 2004, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Taz Devil

You HAVE to have a 3rd party DVD decoding software installed before WMP will play DVDs. It does not have native DVD playing capabilities, but relies on the external software. From the WMP 9 Help File:

"To play DVDs, you must have a DVD-ROM drive, and a software or hardware DVD decoder installed on your computer. If you do not have a compatible DVD decoder installed, DVD-related commands, options, and controls do not appear in the Player and you cannot play DVDs. By default, Windows does not include a DVD decoder. For more information about DVD decoders, see Windows Help."

There are some free players available here

Heh, looks like Taz had the ONLY valid reply in this thread. When at first you don't succeed, read the help file and try the simplest solution. DVD Decoder in this case.

**NooNoo** · July 30th, 2004, 09:12 AM

Shanff, read the entire thread, videolan is a free player with decoding capabilities, it didn't read the dvd's either.

**Orangeman** · July 30th, 2004, 01:52 PM

Hi Gang,

I just swapped out the DVD for the CDROM and now its the Master. CDRW is the Slave. Am installing firmware version 1.06 (thanks Noo) and Yes Taz, I didn't know I had to install DVD software BEFORE I began this project.

I do now!

Thanks Everyone,

Orangeman

**Orangeman** · July 30th, 2004, 04:21 PM

Well I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that I updated the firmware and switched out the former Slave for the Master and now it recognzes and burns DVD's.

The bad news is that when it plays DVDs I get an error saying the DVD isn't recognized - even though the dvd is shown to be loaded and named in My Computer.

So I'm going to try some of the suggestions of Taz's in his Free DVD Player post.

Thanks again,
Orange