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AR15.COM
3/23/2007 8:01:51 PM EDT
I got a new laptop and it has a DVD drive.  Unfortunately, windows media player does not have a DVD decoder pre-installed.  Anyone know of a good free player or codec to download?
3/23/2007 8:06:39 PM EDT
[#1]
To my knowledge there isn't a good DVD decoder out there for free, look to spend a little bit of money on Power DVD or something.

What does your laptop have for a graphics card? Sometimes companies like NVidia or ATI have them available for download if you have their type of video card.
3/23/2007 8:09:28 PM EDT
[#2]
On-board video.  My wifes desktop came with powerDVD pre-loaded for free from Dell, not sure why this one doesn't.
3/23/2007 8:09:47 PM EDT
[#3]
K-Lite Codec Pack   will play DVD using Media Player Classic
3/23/2007 8:16:12 PM EDT
[#4]
FFD Show Free decoder that works with any format and with Micro$oft Vi$ta.
3/23/2007 8:39:47 PM EDT
[#5]
There are a few codec packs that will allow any Windows media player to play DVDs.  BUT...  if you have an NVidia GeForce or ATI Radeon card, there are codecs available that off-load the decoding work to the graphic chips on your card, instead of having your CPU do all the work.  And the video card hardware even does a little better job rendering the video.

NVidia's PureVideo costs money, but works great.

www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html


ATI's codec is free, but you have to have a Radeon install CD to get it.

ati.amd.com/support/drivers/common/mmc9-14.html

-Troy
3/23/2007 8:45:18 PM EDT
[#6]
Everything is on-board audio and video.  Thankfully, its a 1.8 dual core w/ 2 gigs ram so its not chugging or anything.

I tried both the above ffshows and the video was great but the sound was all screwed up.  The music played fine but voices couldnt be heard.