PS - It was a legitimate DVD (BBC DVD no less)

If that does not work, complain away.

But frankly I don't see what graphics drivers have to do with DVD play-back anyway. Just making it more complicated than it needs to be. You take the DVD, you decode it, and you pump it out to a box. It isn't rocket science.   

8 minutes ago, ManipUni wrote

They're up-to-date according to both the laptop's manufacturer and Windows Update.    

But frankly I don't see what graphics drivers have to do with DVD play-back anyway. Just making it more complicated than it needs to be. You take the DVD, you decode it, and you pump it out to a box. It isn't rocket science.   

notice the words "Digital Copy PProtection" in the message ?? Hint  talk to the content owners about why they make the process more difficult than it needs to be.

can you play other DVD's ??    if it's just the BBC disk then talk to them.

But frankly I don't see what graphics drivers have to do with DVD play-back anyway.

If your video card doesn't support DRM and Windows streams the decoded video stream through it then that's a generic DRM bypass and a way to rip any DRM video file to a non-DRM video file.

I'd have thought that'd be obvious 

I know that at least one manufacturer (Dell), and this is within the last year and a half, likes to sell computers advertised with Blu-ray players, but then neglect to tell their customers that their computers are actually incapable of playing Blu-ray discs because Dell didn't bother to include all of the required DRM software and hardware components -- so customers end up having to buy separate software and/or hardware to legitimately play BR discs, even though they bought a computer that was advertised with a BR player.

In industries other than "the computer industry", things like this would be regarded as "defective," but unfortunately, the computer industry doesn't follow the same kind of rules and products that don't work out of the box are expected and the norm.

Windows Media Player eats an entire bowl of donkey member, but if you're trying to play a Blu-ray and it isn't working, my $5 bet is on the computer manufacturer and not WMP.

1 hour ago, Minh wrote

It's not a blu-ray, is it? If so, your system must be HDCP compliant

WMP can't play blu-rays because there isn't a DirectShow filter for it.

I've touched that hot stove already. Never again!!

9 minutes ago, ScottWelker wrote

@figuerres: Yep! I'm now VERY careful not to spend any of my hard earned $$ on anything DRM'd.

I've touched that hot stove already. Never again!!

So you don't buy DVDs or Blu-rays?

3 hours ago, W3bbo wrote

*snip*

WMP can't play blu-rays because there isn't a DirectShow filter for it.

This still annoys me so much. Every single BR add-on for Media Center is absolutely horrible. I wish you could just play them natively.

52 minutes ago, Bas wrote

*snip*

This still annoys me so much. Every single BR add-on for Media Center is absolutely horrible. I wish you could just play them natively.

Microsoft is sitting on a fence here:

• They could re-negotiate a treaty with Oracle to license the Java VM so they can play Blu-Ray, and thus continue the system where people have to use optical discs to watch media.
• They could adopt Apple's strategy where the future is downloadable media - to hell with hardware DRM and kowtowing to the MAFIAA

Unfortunately for us they've met with Hollywood half-way by implementing hardware DRM (much to our frustration).

Anyway, I prefer playing BDs on my dedicated BD player because it sets my projector to 24fps mode, whereas through WMC it stays at 60fps which means doing reverse-telecine which doesn't result in the best picture.

24 minutes ago, AndyC wrote

@ManipUni: It presumably means your video driver doesn't support Macrovision (a requirement of the DVD standard) or something is confusing the system to think that's the case. Not convinced it actually has anything to do with WMP, per se.

If in doubt, just run AnyDVD; or rip the DVD with a tool that strips out the UOPs and other copy-protection mechanisms; it works for me.

Copy protection: infuriating legitimate consumers while pirates get a superior product for free since the late-1980s.

1 hour ago, W3bbo wrote

Anyway, I prefer playing BDs on my dedicated BD player because it sets my projector to 24fps mode, whereas through WMC it stays at 60fps which means doing reverse-telecine which doesn't result in the best picture.

I just set my HTPC to 24Hz to fix that, although I have to admit that I don't notice the judder on 60Hz.

7 hours ago, AndyC wrote

@ManipUni: It presumably means your video driver doesn't support Macrovision (a requirement of the DVD standard) or something is confusing the system to think that's the case. Not convinced it actually has anything to do with WMP, per se.

I've also seen similar messages on systems where the DVD drive had been flashed with RPC-1 (region-unlocked) firmware, and the Windows software DVD region was either not set or didn't match the disc.

BBC discs are probably Region 2 and your DVD drive may be set to Region 1.

Poor old WMP has to try to interpret the error code coming from your drive into something more meaningful but there probably isn't any standard way of reporting this problem so it just has to guess.

DVD drives often have their region code set in their driver properties and have special software to stop you changing the region code often. (You may only get a fixed number of changes before it stops you changing it again or you may only be allowed to change region once a month.)

Having region codes on DVD players and discs was at the insistence of the Hollywood studios as a (very poor) anti-piracy measure.

2 hours ago, SimonJ wrote

 

Having region codes on DVD players and discs was at the insistence of the Hollywood studios as a (very poor) anti-piracy measure.

I'm afraid not.

Region codes were for preventing grey-market imports and for easier market segmentation, not piracy (as when pirating a disc you can easily set the region code, or remove it entirely). DVDs bought in Africa would be cheaper than in the EU, yet Morocco is only a short ferry trip away from Spain - this prevents most consumers from buying them en-masse then reselling them at a profit and undercutting local retailers (grey-market importing), it also allows for staggered releases: where films are released in the US or some other market, where word-of-mouth gets around and builds up hype, which allows for the film to be sold in Europe a few weeks or months later to maximum effect (apparently if it was released at the same time, people wouldn't care so much).

I'm skeptical of the whole thing (about staggered releases), really, and I think it might have been true in the 1990s before people had the Internet, but now it's just evil.

And geographical market segmentation is just about being greedy - check out Adobe, for Photoshop CS5 Extended they want $999USD from the North America, or £952GBP ($1502) - even taking VAT of 20% into account that's still price-gouging.

28 minutes ago, W3bbo wrote

And geographical market segmentation is just about being greedy - check out Adobe, for Photoshop CS5 Extended they want $999USD from the North America, or £952GBP ($1502) - even taking VAT of 20% into account that's still price-gouging.

Different currencies aren't directly comparable. A hamburger at McDonald's costs me 89¢, but in the UK it costs 99p ($1.56). Minimum wage in the UK is £6.08/hr ($9.59/hr), but in the U.S. it's $7.25/hr.

If I wanted a fun little app like that I'd get the "zombie simulator" app that has zombies chasing you and you have to avoid them.

Why exactly are you resurrecting these old threads? You are simply spamming threads so my guess is you will probably be banned soon.

23 minutes ago, BitFlipper wrote

my guess is you will probably be banned soon.

I was having my coffee. Don't rush me