Windows Media Player won't play a DVD movie

[Neal Carron]

I have 32bit Win7 Pro on a Toshiba Satellite laptop purchased in December, 2009.
The DVD player is set to Windows Media Player
When trying to play a movie on DVD (borrowed from local library), I get this msg:

"Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD because it is not possible to turn on analog copy protection on the output display. Try installing an updated driver for your video card."
The button choices are "Close" or "Web Help"
I really couldn't find any help on the Web.
The problem is not a codec, I downloaded a "complete" codec pack for Win7.

The Toshiba help site is also not helpful. None of the listed problem categories fits my problem. It won't even tell me what make my video card is (nor does the original paper documentation that came with the computer. Nor does any search on my machine).

Does anyone have any ideas? -Thanks

 

[Trouble]

Does anything in this article pertain to your situation http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2004673
Are you using an external monitor? Are the desktop(s) cloned rather than extended? Have you tried setting the resolution higher?

If not you may give this a shot http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
I've found that it often works without some of the peculiar caveats of Windows Media Player.

 

[Neal Carron]

Does anything in this article pertain to your situation http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2004673
Are you using an external monitor? Are the desktop(s) cloned rather than extended? Have you tried setting the resolution higher?

If not you may give this a shot http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
I've found that it often works without some of the peculiar caveats of Windows Media Player.

-------
There is no external monitor, just the original attached one on the laptop.
The VideoLAN VLC player sounds promising, and I'll try it if no other solution comes up.
But do I really need to use a third party player just to play a common, normal, standard DVD? It would seem that surely Microsoft would have a fix for this problem. Thanks for help. Perhaps someone out there will know of a bonafide Microsoft solution.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Just a guess but, try downloading and installing Media Player Classic.
If it worked previously then recent Windows updates may have caused this problem, causing some kind of conflict with your older hardware.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_media_player_classic/

See if that helps.

Mike

 

[dansalankuma]

I think the problem is your dvd movie, it is analog copy protection.

 

[Loreal Lavigna]

I have the same issue on my Dell Latitude 6530 running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit edition. I am not using any secondary or external moniter, only the laptop moniter. Why will these anylog copy protected dvds not play in my new laptop when they played fine in my old and now dead and gone Windows XP laptop which was another Dell Latitude E5400 running Windows XP Professional 32-bit edition?

 

[sammytruck]

I think dansalankuma, has the answer. Most OS's will ask you for, or detect your region, of the world.

Though VLC and MPC are both good third party players.http://windowsforum.com/members/dansalankuma.81407/

 

[Ralph Bromley]

Sometimes third party software works better regardless.
VLC for example is the Swiss army knife of media players and I often find it better then Windows media player.
Especially on 8 where it wont even play dvd's anymore because Microsoft is stupid.

 

[whs]

I would just copy the file and convert it to another format - e.g. with Freemake.

 

[sammytruck]

VLC rocks even in Windows 8, but you can't use the "shortcut" Windows wants to give you.

Pin VLC to your taskbar, and you are good to go...!