Would it not be easier for me to bring the computer into the shop (and of course I know not to bring the monitor, keyboard, mouse, (do you think I'm stupid?? lol).

The reason it would not be easy is this is a TOWER, and I'm 62 years old with degenerative joint disease and lifting things is HARD for me. Unplugging all the peripherals is a pain in the behind. And then re-hooking everything up.

My husband is no help in this department. He'll complain like the dickens. That's why I just wanted to know if I could uninstall Windows Media Player 11, and install 10 and update the codecs thing.

And I am NOT driving myself crazy. I'm just posting this on a computer message board.

Life is too short to drive oneself crazy over computers. I joke and post stuff but many people know me and when I add LOL to my post, they know I am not at all STRESSED over this.

Last month, we had the computer in the shop for over one month. That's one month with no computer.

I simply went to the guy, he let me access my emails from time to time, but I had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

I am not chained to this thing. It has its benefits, it has it's use, and it most certainly provides us with information.

But it's not my life. So don't worry, no stress.

lol

Melody

This is interesting:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question474.htm

I think Avatar has some mega coding on it to prevent duplication.
This is purely an economical intervention by the manufacturer.

wow, VERY interesting.
And I can tell you one thing. This is my very first and my very last purchase of any DVD. I'm not going to get stuck again.

I'll play this on my little portable thing.

For now, that's enough for me. When it comes on cable, I'll just tape it and I'll have it for myself.

Thanks for this link.

VERY GOOD INFO.

Melody

You can only change the region settings a total of 5 times.

but most likely Mel's is region 1 which is USA - just as mine is.


Mel if you want to remove WMP 11 and re download & install WMP 10 to give it a try go ahead.

It's just the same as removing any other program -
from the control panel - Add or Remove Programs.
find windows media player...



UPDATE - I just tested this to be sure and it says it will roll back to the previous version!

I gonna try it have to do a restart then I'll pop in a dvd to see if it plays??

might save Mel the steps...

I'll post as soon as I find out.

Hi MelodyL.

I was just trying to help, and I did not know about your limitations. I apologize if it came across wrong.

If taking the tower back to the shop is impossible, you may find that your easiest solution is paying the $14.99 for the decoder (even though you don‘t want to).

You may also want to try to download a free trial version of expensive multimedia software like Nero (or another expensive robust brand, the expensive brands sometimes get you better results). The trial versions are free to try for 15 days or more, and you may want to use a trial to see if you can get the DVD to play. This may get you outside of some of the possible compatibility issues, and it may get you the decoder you need to play a DVD. It is even possible that once the decoder is installed, and the free trial version stops working, that the windows player will then be able to play the DVD since the decoder is in place.

Just some ideas, I hope this was a little helpful. God Bless You.

Bernclay-

I downloaded the HUGE Nero Multi media thing. GOD WHAT A HUGE DOWNLOAD. I now have all these icons on my desktop Nero, this, Nero that. All I care about is playing a dvd. So I downloaded, installed, blah blah.

I uninstalled my other media players. The bestplayer, and the vlc one.

I didn't touch the Windows Media Player 11 because it's a WINDOWS XP THING and I didn't want to touch that.

so I re-booted, I put in Avatar, it loaded up just fine.

There was Avatar, but the sound is crappy and the video moves slowly.

Same thing with my other dvd's.

I tried cleaning my dvd rom drive thing by blowing air out of my mouth into it. (I read where you can buy a can of air and do this, but since I don't have a can of air, I used my mouth).

It was a bit better but NOT MUCH.

So I gather my dvd rom thing is dirty. I am going to go to the computer guy, borrow a can of air from him, come home, and try again.

this Nero thing is a free trial.

Thank god.

Melody

Okay, here's the latest on my journey to play my Avatar DVD.

Thinking my dvd lightscribe dvd rom thing might be dirty or dusty, I went to the computer guy but he wasn't there. So I said to myself: 'If they have VCR HEAD CLEANERS, they MUST have dvd rom CLEANERS.

So I went to my local Video Store, telling the guy (who I know for years), I told him my story. He handed me a

JVC DVD lens cleaner (a little round disc thing).

He said "put this in the center of the dvd rom", it will then come up on your screen, you press play, and when you're done, you press close"

I go home, (now remember I uninstalled my VLC media player and now I have NERO which brings everything up but plays jerky, and the sound is not right.

I insert the dvd lens cleaner thing (thinking that it will now come up on my screen). I look at the dvd rom drive and it's doing SOMETHING. The light is on, so it's doing something. But NOTHING is happening on my screen.

I really thought that Nero (being my default media player now), would read the dvd rom drive and bring up the lens cleaner message. No such luck.

I then went to my computer thinking that I would see it in Drive E (where I always see Avatar or any other dvd that I have inserted)

There is nothing showing. It's like my computer does not know that there is anything in the dvd rom drive.

so I said "hm, well, Nero is not reading this cleaner, I'll re-install the VLC thing and that might read the JVC lens cleaner.

So I download the VLC yet again. I see the little icon on my screen.

I insert the dvd cleaner once more. I bring up the VLC media player. I press PLAY, and a little disc kept popping up, BUT NO MESSAGE, NO NOTHING.

So if anyone knows how I can get this little dvd lens cleaner thing to clean my dvd rom I would be very appreciative.

I mean, I spent $7.99 on this stupid thing and my computer doesn't even know it's there?

And I tried to insert it in the other drive, the cd drive. Nothing happened there either.

So what I want to know is why Nero or the VLC is not reading what is in my dvd rom drive????

Thanks.

Melody

Hi MelodyL.

A question. Is the DVD cleaner the same size as a regular DVD or smaller?

Here is some other information.

Don’t worry about Nero being big, after the trial ends you can always uninstall it.

But I have a question. You said you loaded Nero and then uninstalled some other media players, and then rebooted. Is this exactly how you did it, or are you just paraphrasing?

Because, sometimes, when you load a new program, and then uninstall another similar program, the uninstall can mess up parts of the new program you just loaded. This can happen since they share components.

So. As a general rule, whenever you install a new program, if you are going to uninstall other programs, do it this way.

First, uninstall whatever you don’t want.
Then reboot the system.
Then install whatever you do want.
Then reboot the system.
Then try it out.

Always reboot in between whatever you are doing (also in between individual uninstalls or installs). Windows needs this step to reorganize itself. I can explain why this is important but it is beyond the scope of what we are talking about.

So if you did not do it this way, and you did get partial results, believe it or not, the only way to know if it will work for sure is to uninstall everything, and then reinstall it in the correct order.

I know it stinks, but it is the only way to know for sure. Unless you have a tech physically looking at your system, diagnosing and repairing these kinds of things can be messy.

A side note. The compressed air is probably a good idea to try

A second side note. I don’t know how old your system is, but if it was aging, and the guys at the shop replaced the motherboard, they could have physically damaged the DVD drive and not realized that they did it. A little movement here, a little pressure there, sometimes it does not take much, especially if the drive is a few years old (you may have even done it if you bounced it around a little when moving it). If the drive is physically damaged, the only way that you will know for sure (without a tech looking at it), is to hook up another DVD player (even an external one) and see if it works or not. If the secondary DVD works then it means the original DVD is failing since they will both be using the same software to operate. You may be able to borrow an external DVD drive from someone to test this possibility. You may also buy one from a big store with a good return policy, try it out and diagnose your system, and then return it to the store if you don’t want to keep it. Maybe not the best way to go, but it would tell you if it’s your DVD or your system that is causing the problem.

Having said all of this. You may want to consider paying a kid in the neighborhood $20 to take your system into the shop for you (or with you to do the lifting). I know you don’t want to spend the money (or you would have spent the $14.99, which you can still do), but getting it to the shop is still your best option (other than getting a tech to look at it at your home).

I hope this helped a little. God Bless You.

Bernclay-