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"WinME, Media Player 9 and DVDs"

I just did a fresh install of WinME on my mum's PC, and installed Windows Media Player 9 among all the other updates I downloaded.

For some reason, WMP9 insists on telling me that there's no disc in the drive whenever I insert a DVD movie.

All discs - DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, CD etc. - are recognised in Windows itself - you can browse them in Explorer.

I have both InterActual and PowerDVD installed with their software decoders (have also tried them independently), and both packages play DVDs just fine - but WMP9 just doesn't want to know about DVD movies.

It's a P3-500 system, 128MB RAM, 32MB GeForce2 graphics, and Ricoh DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive.

The exact same system played DVDs just fine prior to this installation, using Win98SE and an older version of WMP.

Any ideas?

It's not a major issue, but it's bloody annoying when there's no apparent reason for it not to work.

Tóm wrote:
> Were you expecting something different from a Microsoft product?

A very valid point!

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> It just galls me that they take out a major piece of functionality,
> and the only place they mention it is in an obscure part of the Help
> file.

Were you expecting something different from a Microsoft product?

They need to find as many reasons as possible to get people to buy XP.

At least they can say

'We told you'

I don't mind Media Player myself, but then I have XP and no limitations. However I do use RealOne to record my MP3s, and I don't watch DVDs on my PC.

It just galls me that they take out a major piece of functionality, and the only place they mention it is in an obscure part of the Help file.

Tóm wrote:
> Now might be around the time when you realise how gay WinME and Media
> Player are.


;-)

Sorry, I didn't copy all of the message... it finishes...

"Still, thanks for the info. At least now I know that it's down to dodgy software, and not a dodgy system!"

I got this reply from an MS bod...

"That'd be correct - per WMP9's Help file (Special Features section), the 9 Series player solely support DVD playback on Windows XP."


And indeed it does. So I have just replied...

"I'll admit I didn't see that - but then, after previous versions supported it, I didn't expect it to be a 'special feature'. Oddly enough, I looked at the "Using the Player -> Playing DVDs" section, and nowhere in there does it say that it's only available on WinXP. If I was the cynical type, I might think that it's a case of MS subtly trying to force people to upgrade...

That's a bit crap though, isn't it? Removing functionality that was already there? Suggest you re-name the software "Windows *Some* Media Player" at the next build!"

Now might be around the time when you realise how gay WinME and Media Player are.

I just tried it with BRASSeye t'is fine

I remember it didn't work with Scary Movie 2 though

Also posted this on the MS WMP newsgroup.

Someone else there is having the exact same problem on WinXP Pro, so I'm not alone. Not that that's any comfort!

It's not a big deal, but I just want to know what the heck's wrong, because WMP9 should play DVDs!