someone help me watch dvds on my computer

a while ago my hard drive broke, and i had to buy a brand new one. my computer didn't come with a reboot disk thingy, so i didn't get back all the bonus stuff you get when you buy a new computer.

so now... i can't watch dvds beause i have no program for it. anyone know anything free that i can download?

are you on mac or PC?

pc

Whoever you got the computer from should have supplied you with disks of all of the software loaded on that computer.

realone
windows media player
intervideo windvd

well they didn't, that is the whole point.

"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer."

i have all sorts of players, i need something baser then that.

try downloading powerdvd, i think there is a trail version that only allows you to watch a dvd for 15 minutes. that should install all the things windows media player needs to decode the disc, and if not you can always purchase/borrow/steal a serial for powerdvd.

ok, about here...

http://www.tucows.com/preview/213357.html

"dvd/video playback graph has not been built yet"
"one or more codecs required to open this content could not be found"

i don't know what that means... thanks for trying, and at least now it lets me see a little icon picture of the movie i want to watch.

anyone have any other ideas?

get a mac.

Freck-Deck, you should have said something earlier, I can get give you a program or two for that.


Speaking of, some DVDs have their own program to watch them in them. Maybe try a few, you might get lucky.

See, Clara agrees, so it must be true.

1) Yes you should have gotten a back up copy of sum form when you purchased the computer.

2) Some computers don't come with a back-up disk (dvd) but the hard drive is partitioned (seperate drive and on the hard disk for factory settings) you most first burn a copy (a set limited times) of windows and the factory programs b4 making any changes or you are pretty much out of luck.

3) If you bought it second hand I hope u got it really cheap....

[Edited on Mar 10, 2004 by fiendish]

I got a DVD player and burner for my computer they both came with the same software, I could send you one of the extra ones if you want

did you say that you're getting an error that just says the problem is lack of proper codec?

if so, hunt around zdnet.com/cnet.com for dvd/divx codecs... it takes a bit of fiddling, but eventually you'll find the right ones. i still have all the codecs i downloaded on my computer, so i can't remember which one(s) it was that actually made it work..... so i can't just be helpful and say "hey, you might need the thing named this _____"

ok, i'm generally useless....

I know shrek and scooby doo have an interactual player because my little sister and brother used to watch them on their computer all the time

actually almost all dvds have this program... but i don't need a player i need a decoder.

if you have one of those... yes please yes please.

those players are really cool though. the pirates of the carribian one is my favourite, beause it's all nifty and piratey.

[Edited on Mar 10, 2004 by freckle]

ok, look... i don't mean to sound bitchy, but i didn't get a reovery disk, and people telling me that i should have gotten one doesn't really help my problem at all.

my computer was one of those that came with a partiition on the hard drive, but my hard drive physically broke (the little arm inside stopped working and made a lot of clip cloping noise). so now i have a new hard drive that didn't come with my computer, so it has no partition.

DVD X Player

It's a free multi-region DVD player for your PC.

Any help?

woohoo!

SWEET!!!!! ive been looking for a multi-region player... i was about ready to dig inside my laptop to try and convert my region one to multi. THANK YOU!!!!! by the way, screw Pioneer for making this a problem in the first place

VLC is also a region-free DVD player, it's also free, open-source, and supports digital surround sound. It also plays MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, Xvid, OggVorbis, RealMedia, Windows Media, and anything else you can throw at it. Best part is it streams your DVDs or any other video on a network, for remote viewing.

It runs on OS X, Linux, and yes, Windows too

Aww shucks, i think i'm blushing

[Edited on Mar 11, 2004 by Shackbu]