Prerecorded Video DVD's not recognized as being in DVD Drive

[WGSLATER]

Occasionally I come across a DVD Video that is not recognized as even being
installed in the DVD Drive. Neither Windows Explorer or Windows Media Center
see the DVD. If I insert the DVD into my laptop with XP installed, it
automatically starts and plays fine. Other DVD's play fine, so I know my DVD
Drive is working. My OS is Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Using codecs:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/codec.mspx

 

[WGSLATER]

Mark, thanks but I had checked those FAQ's but since I don't know the format
of the DVD's that aren't recognized, I don't know what Codec might fix my
problem.

Bill Slater

 

[KDE]

Are these store bought DVD's? Home made DVD'S?

If store bought, where do you live (country) where did you get the DVD's?
Commercial DVD's are created using Region settings, so a DVD can be made to
not be playable on a machine from a different corner of the world.

If homemade, it could be a media problem DVD-R vs DVD+R vs DVD-RW, or it
could be Codec related.

you could also download GOM player, www.gomplayer.com a great free media
player that uses internal codecs (not your system ones) and see if it will
recognize and play the DVD's

 

[John T]

I am having a similar problem with some DVD's. All my DVD's are US region 1
DVD's however when I place some store bought DVD's in my DVD rom the DVD is
not detected. It is not a hardware issue, MOST DVD's are recognized. It's not
a CODEC issue it's not recognizing a disc at all. This isn't a failure in
play. It's a failure in detection of media. Anyone have any idea. Examples of
a movie that would play Ghost Busters. But not Ghost Busters 2.

 

[WGSLATER]

I'm not sure if GOMPLAYER fixed my problem or Microsoft did, as I've received
a lot of updates in the past few weeks since I experienced the problem. I
loaded GOMPLAYER and then took a few comercially made DVD's that didn't work
on Vista and now they were recognized as being in the drive and Windows Media
Player (not gomplayer) opened and played the DVD. For now it appears my
probolem is solved.