Problem with new DVD Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Barry Higginbottom
  • Start date Start date
B

Barry Higginbottom

Hi

A friend of mine has bought a DVD (+R/W?) drive for his Dell computer from
Dell. After many fruitless and unsuccesful hours on the phone to Dell's
support line he has asked me for assistance.

He has fitted the drive OK and the drive will play ordinary data and music
CDs but if he inserts a DVD movie CD he gets an error message concerning
the video subsystem. I can't give a more accurate report as that really is
the sum total of the error message.

There was some software supplied with the drive by Dell that seems to be
required for recording DVDs.

Is there some special software required in addition to that which is
supplied with Windows XP Home to let him play DVDs?

Is this a can of worms?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

His computer is only a few months old and is very well specced. (other than
the DVD drive!)

TIA
 
Hi Barry,

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 19:54:11 +0100, Barry Higginbottom

[...]

Is there some special software required in addition to that which is
supplied with Windows XP Home to let him play DVDs?
Click to expand...

Windows XP does not have the decoders to play DVD movies. You have to
buy DVD software to get those decoders, like Win DVD or Power DVD.


More info about DVDs:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com

HTH
 
He should have received one of these programs with his DVD drive.

roger said:
Hi Barry,

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 19:54:11 +0100, Barry Higginbottom

[...]

Is there some special software required in addition to that which is
supplied with Windows XP Home to let him play DVDs?
Click to expand...

Windows XP does not have the decoders to play DVD movies. You have to
buy DVD software to get those decoders, like Win DVD or Power DVD.


More info about DVDs:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com

HTH
Click to expand...
 
He should have received one of these programs with his DVD drive.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought, Ted, but the only programs I could find on the
supplied CD from Mr Dell were for *recording* DVDs

Anyway I've emailed him links to the Win and Power DVD web sites, he can
download trial versions of the software to try out.

Thanks for your input...
 
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