roger said:
I am resurrecting a two Dell Optiplex GX280's, with XP SP3 - they
work fine - but neither will play dvd video.
Not a hardware issue hence off-topic. The Windows XP newsgroups is
over at:
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
DVD video? Does that mean you are playing a file, like .flv or .wav,
stored on a DVD? Or are you trying to play a movie (VOB files) from a
DVD? You don't say WHAT you are trying to play, only that it's on DVD
media.
Windows XP did not come with a DVD movie player. You had to install
one. See:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000826.htm
You installed some 3rd party codec or player app to play movies.
Usually when you bought a pre-built computer the movie player software
was included and pre-installed along with the OS. If you built your
own computer and purchased a non-OEM CD/DVD drive then the movie
player software was included with the hardware (OEM usually came as
"white box" sales which meant only the hardware was inside and no
software, cables, or anything except the drive).
One possibility if you didn't get movie player software with the
CD/DVD drive was to install the codecs for movies. One solution was
to get the K-Lite codec pack. Any of its editions play VOB files;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Lite_Codec_Pack#Supported_file_formats.
The hope is that having the codecs available (to decode the encoded
media files) will allow Windows Media Player to playback the media.
Most times that will work except playback may suffer some artifacts,
like halting or jerkiness. If you install the K-Lite code pack, you
might want to include and try their Media Player Classic app. Other
solutions include installing a 3rd party media player and use its
included codecs, like VLC. For other freeware solutions, ask in the
freeware newsgroup at:
alt.comp.freeware
(ignore a lot of the bitch noise)
Cyberlink's PowerDVD costs money but a often a free reduced-feature
version is bundled with non-OEM hardware so you might want to hunt
around your old CDs to see if it's still around. I believe Nero has a
movie player, too, but it's been a long time I used it. Back when I
had it (payware), you had to enter an install key printed on the CD to
include their codecs and player.
