DVDs on Vista (more DRM crap)

Is there anyway to get Vista to play DVDs when you have unsigned video drivers?  The fact that you can't, is well, extremely annoying. 

I'm stuck between using official signed video drivers that haven't been updated since March (thanks Dell!) and recent, bug-fixing ATI drivers that may or may not contain a "slight hack" to allow them to be installed on my laptop.

Why OEMs don't let ATI/NVIDIA distribute laptop drivers I'll never quite understand. But anyway, this has to be the first time DRM-related technology has actually pissed me off. I'm stuck between being able to play DVDs and having video drivers that can run recent games.

Microsoft, go fix the industry please, thanks.

creditcard wrote:

libdvdcss

Sure I could probably use VLC, but its a buggy piece of crap.

Whats so buggy about it?

I only use VLC on my PCs now, never have any problem with them.

Much better IMHO than WMP (not wanting to start a WMP vs the world thread, but in my experience VLC is better).

DigitalDud wrote:



Is there anyway to get Vista to play DVDs when you have unsigned video drivers?  The fact that you can't, is well, extremely annoying. 

I'm stuck between using official signed video drivers that haven't been updated since March (thanks Dell!) and recent, bug-fixing ATI drivers that may or may not contain a "slight hack" to allow them to be installed on my laptop.

Why OEMs don't let ATI/NVIDIA distribute laptop drivers I'll never quite understand. But anyway, this has to be the first time DRM-related technology has actually pissed me off. I'm stuck between being able to play DVDs and having video drivers that can run recent games.

Microsoft, go fix the industry please, thanks.

Now then, AndyC, what's that about me getting hysterical over conspiracy-theory level DRM in Windows Vista?

RobbieCrusoe wrote:

I only use VLC on my PCs now, never have any problem with them.

Much better IMHO than WMP (not wanting to start a WMP vs the world thread, but in my experience VLC is better).

Thing with VLC is it's just a stopgap solution if your codec/DShow filters tree is fubar'd. I prefer to have DShow working perfectly, that way I can watch anything in any player.

W3bbo wrote:



DigitalDud wrote:  Is there anyway to get Vista to play DVDs when you have unsigned video drivers?  The fact that you can't, is well, extremely annoying.  I'm stuck between using official signed video drivers that haven't been updated since March (thanks Dell!) and recent, bug-fixing ATI drivers that may or may not contain a "slight hack" to allow them to be installed on my laptop. Why OEMs don't let ATI/NVIDIA distribute laptop drivers I'll never quite understand. But anyway, this has to be the first time DRM-related technology has actually pissed me off. I'm stuck between being able to play DVDs and having video drivers that can run recent games. Microsoft, go fix the industry please, thanks.

Now then, AndyC, what's that about me getting hysterical over conspiracy-theory level DRM in Windows Vista?

Uhm... the fact that you talk about signed vs unsigned drivers means that you are talking about 64bit, right?

PaoloM wrote:



W3bbo wrote:  DigitalDud wrote:  Is there anyway to get Vista to play DVDs when you have unsigned video drivers?  The fact that you can't, is well, extremely annoying.  I'm stuck between using official signed video drivers that haven't been updated since March (thanks Dell!) and recent, bug-fixing ATI drivers that may or may not contain a "slight hack" to allow them to be installed on my laptop. Why OEMs don't let ATI/NVIDIA distribute laptop drivers I'll never quite understand. But anyway, this has to be the first time DRM-related technology has actually pissed me off. I'm stuck between being able to play DVDs and having video drivers that can run recent games. Microsoft, go fix the industry please, thanks. Now then, AndyC, what's that about me getting hysterical over conspiracy-theory level DRM in Windows Vista?

Uhm... the fact that you talk about signed vs unsigned drivers means that you are talking about 64bit, right?

But we'll all be moving to 64-bit eventually.

W3bbo wrote:

Thing with VLC is it's just a stopgap solution if your codec/DShow filters tree is fubar'd

PaoloM wrote:

Uhm... the fact that you talk about signed vs unsigned drivers means that you are talking about 64bit, right?

Actually it's possible to have unsigned drivers in 32-bit windows...

Right I'm running 32bit Vista, the protected media path doesn't allow DVD playback with unsigned video drivers.  This is different from the total ban on unsigned drivers on 64bit Vista.

W3bbo wrote:

Now then, AndyC, what's that about me getting hysterical over conspiracy-theory level DRM in Windows Vista?

'tis Macrovision support, I suspect. I've had the exact same thing happen on XP with drivers that don't have Macrovision support on a laptop with TV out.

DigitalDud wrote:

Right I'm running 32bit Vista, the protected media path doesn't allow DVD playback with unsigned video drivers.  This is different from the total ban on unsigned drivers on 64bit Vista.

The protected media path is not used to play DVDs.

Xaero_Vincent wrote:

Whats so buggy about it?

Eh, from experience I've had lots of bad issues with it.  From garbled audio and video after seeking to flat out crashes.  And its always seemed to have trouble when moving the player between multiple monitors.

Besides I'd perfer to use the built-in video capabilities provided by the OS and my player of choice.

PaoloM wrote:


The protected media path is not used to play DVDs.

Well the error messages I get suggest that DVD playing was disabled because of some OS-level protection.  Basically, when I play a DVD it'll make it past the initial copyright screens and then it'll error out with something like this:

"Media Center cannot play this DVD, the DVD may be in use by another application or it is copy protected"

Or similar error messages in other players such as WMP or Media Player Classic.  The errors go away if I use the ancient, but official and signed drivers for my video card.

DigitalDud wrote:



"MediaCenter cannot play this DVD, the DVD may be in use by another application or it is copy protected"

Yep, that's Macrovision. It's a copy protection used on normal DVD's to stop you recording them to VHS.

DigitalDud wrote:



PaoloM wrote:  The protected media path is not used to play DVDs.

Well the error messages I get suggest that DVD playing was disabled because of some OS-level protection.  Basically, when I play a DVD it'll make it past the initial copyright screens and then it'll error out with something like this:

"Media Center cannot play this DVD, the DVD may be in use by another application or it is copy protected"

Or similar error messages in other players such as WMP or Media Player Classic.  The errors go away if I use the ancient, but official and signed drivers for my video card.

That's Macrovision and it's the same as it was in XP. Not a Vista problem, or, as we say in here, "not a regression"

creditcard wrote:

Despite being developed by VideoLAN, libdvdcss is actually player agnostic in that it will work with most video players.

Does it bypass Macrovision?