Jo:

Hi. Here's what I did this morning (been very busy haven't I??) lol

I removed the whole NERO program. OH MY GOODNESS, WHAT A BIG THING.

I did not remove the VLC. I have no idea why, but I didn't.

I then installed the codecs thing (from one of the links you provided).

The name of the codecs thing that I installed is:

cole2k.media-codec.pack.v7.9.1.-advanced-,setup.exe (I might have misplaced some letters, but it's the codec v7.9-1 thing.

So I installed it, THEN I PUT IN AVATAR.

Nothing autoplayed, so I went to My Computer, right clicked on Drive E where Avatar was (the icon was on the screen, so my drive is being read).

I opened it up in Windows Media Player (so the codecs thing worked, right??)

But..... it played a bit slow and the audio was a bit slow.

So I gather there is something wrong with my dvd drive (either it's dirty, or it's broken).

Now here's a good question.

What is the difference between paying the $14.99 for a codec, and the free codec I downloaded?

Are codecs different? I mean the film came up, the picture was quite stunning but the actual video played a tad slowly, and the music was choppy.

I can't wake up Alan yet and tell him "we have to unplug the tower and take it to the guy". He's too exhausted.

So I'm taking a walk to the guy and telling him what I did and what it's doing.

If I have no choice, and the guy says "I need to check it", then I'll wait until Alan can help me. This is no emergency, and I do have my portable dvd player, but I will not bring this thing in and be told "oh, you need a new dvd drive, blah blah".

Not going there. I don't play dvds usually. I have Avatar and that's the only one I'll play.

But what I'm really curious about is ....what the heck is the difference between what I downloaded (the codecs) and what they are asking me to pay $14.99???

Thanks much

Melody