Help Please

I never had any trouble playing any DVD's before my computer went into the shop and got a new motherboard about two months ago.

So my husband got me Avatar as a present and tonight I popped it in my DVD LightScribe DVD Writer thing and all the prompts came up asking me which option I wanted to open up the DVD with.

I chose Windows Media Player (because that's what I did in the past).

Well, I get a message "Windows media player cannot play DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer".

It then gave me a "web help thing", and I clicked on it and it took me to a Microsoft thing that said it could check my computer and see if I have a decoder installed, but I have to click on continue and get validation.

It prompted me to download something that would, I guess, tell me if I have this decoder thing or not.

I have a HP Media Center PC. I NEVER have had a problem playing dvds.

When I pop in this Avatar it gives me other options besides Windows Media player. I tried all of them.

Nothing works. I clicked on the "Real Player" option and I got this screen saying there are two versions. A $39.99 real player and a free two week version".

What the heck is going on?

All I want to do is play my Avatar.

Help pulllleeeeeze.

Melody

P.S. I pulled out my old portable dvd player and I'm watching Avatar. I don't care how small the screen is, I ADORE THIS MOVIE. It puts me in a whole different zone. Very calming

But I WOULD really like to know what happened to my lightscribe dvd player thingee

You probably do need to get the decoder - most likely due to the new parts that got installed. Whatever you had before that worked must got removed during the changes.

Having the motherboard changed would almost certainly cause this kind of issue. Not just with this but I am sure other things you used to do will be effected too and may need to be reloaded.

For a computer person the fix would be relatively easy. They would just get on the internet and download whatever decoder was needed. The best thing to do is get a friend who is into computers to take a look, it should not be hard for them to fix. If that’s not possible, you may want to call or go to the place that did the motherboard work and see if they will help you out. Since you already paid them they may be willing to help.

Some decoders cost money and some don't. Someone into computers should be able to download a decoder for free.

I hope this was helpful.

Bernclay-

When our laptop died, so did the stuff that came with it. If you didn't have system rescue discs, and/or they were not installed when you had your fixes, then the decoder is gone. (when you buy a computer there are things like decoders already installed on them as part of the package). Sounds like your computer fix gave you a bare bones unit back.

We downloaded one from the net. It was free. (our son's advice)
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

This works INSTEAD of Windows Media Player. It works fine.

Hubby says you have to right click on "play with" command that comes up when you put the DVD in and CHOOSE VLC or set it as your default.

Aha!!! I just went to the site, and decided to download the first option. Something about videolan.

So it gave me a message saying "you already have Videolan something or other on your computer (now last night, when I tried to play my dvd, it got like 6 options to choose from to play the dvd. When I had no luck with the real player or the Media center thingee, I clicked on the option that said Videolan (so yeah, it DID give me that option). but I couldn't play the dvd.

So fast forward right now, and when I was prompted "do you want to overwrite the videolan software and install this NEW thing, I simply said "yes", and clicked on Uninstall, and then it did it's thing and then it INSTALLED this videolan thing.

I am now going to attempt to play my Avatar dvd.

let's see what happens.

be right back.

And THANKS MUCH, IF THIS THING WORKS.

lol

Melody

Well, I put in the dvd of Avatar (which plays perfectly on my dvd player by the way).

So up comes all the prompts that I can choose from to play a dvd.

I chose the VLC thing.

This is what I got on the screen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file "dvd:E:\".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:E:\'. Check the log for details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, WHAT DO I DO NOW???

lol

Melody

Did you reboot after installing it?

Oh!!!!!!!

lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

Be right back

lol
Melody

Nothing worked.

I rebooted it, I inserted the dvd.

Got the same message

---------------------------------------------
File reading failed:
VLC could not open the file "dvd:E:\".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:E:\'. Check the log for details.
-----------------------------------------------------

What exactly does this message mean anyway?

I'm doomed, DOOMED I SAY!!
lol
melody

On our computer, the DVD is assigned to the D drive. Go into my computer and look to see where yours is.

I can't ask my son as he is at Disney World until late Sunday.

E is typically for external harddrives or backups.

I have no idea what is going on with yours, or the E drive business. Our use of that program was simple. Hubby did it and he is no whiz by any means!