Windows 7 Media Center won't play DVDs

NathanE

NathanE

NathanE

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Joined
21 Oct 2002
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London & Singapore
OK this one has stumped me.

I put a disc in the drive and Media Center tries to play it... then I get an error message saying it cannot.

I've also tried it in the Media Player and that won't play ball either.

Windows 7 includes a MPEG2 decoder, so I shouldn't have to install any extra codecs to make this work.
 
I think there's a way to change the MPEG2 decoder for WMC and WMP. The MS one has caused me trouble on the Win 7 RC releases on certain hardware configurations, for pretty much unknown reasons to me. Having said that, as above, it was only with region locked discs, but definitely a problem with the codec/hardware. I think a mix of AnyDVD and a new MPEG2 codec (maybe cyberlink one) sorted it for me.

I guess the first thing to try is another media player if you haven't already. VLC may be able to eliminate a hardware/firmware issue.

You could try a region free disc and see if that works, and also try the AnyDVD trial and see if it plays then.

In short, the MS MPEG2 codec has needed improving for some time now but it hasn't been. If you google it, you'll find many people with this issue.
 
Region free dvd works fine for me in Win 7 mediacenter, but not an ordinary commercial dvd, although it (commercial dvd) plays fine in VLC mediaplayer...
 
They're legit movies I'm trying. One was "Taken" and the other was "Da Vinci Code". Both bought in this country so presumably Region 2.

I've set the DVD drive to Region 2 in the Device Manager. Previously it was not set to anything.

Everything works absolutely fine in VLC (surprise surprise ;)).

I did some more tests last night and amazingly both movies worked. For a brief 5 minute window; they were working. Then I closed Media Center down and restarted it. Then they wouldn't work any more. Just some error message about "cannot play this disc" or something.
 
There are no additional codecs installed. The only "media" related software I've installed on it is VLC and MPC-HC. Neither of which tamper with the system codecs.

It is pretty much a fresh install of Windows 7 Professional x64.
 
The first thing I install on my media centre is Anydvdhd, removes region protection and seems to stop any weird errors like this.. Not a proper solution, but it works, and lets you limit the drive speed when a movie dvd is in

I assume they work ok in MPC-HC ?
 
Auraomega said:
Having issues playing DVDs on Win7, first noticed with the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the DVD at a certain part goes all funny (looks like a decoding error) and then skips 30 seconds or so, other DVDs don't work full stop.

The discs themselves work fine, the drive works fine, and I assume the player works fine as not all movies are effected. I use Media Center to play back (so basically media player), I have PowerDVD OEM which came with my drive, however it's limited to 2 channels only so my 5.1's are being wasted, however it does work on PowerDVD. (EDIT: Seems I can use surround sound, still not ideal as I have a media remote, but it'll do for now).

Is this a known issue with a fix, is my decoder messed up, or is there something stupidly obvious I'm missing? :confused:
Click to expand...

Just quoting from another thread. A lot of movies don't work, however my Doctor Who collection appears to work fine, everything else I've tried though fails. Maybe there's a pattern or something specific about the movies that don't work?
 
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