Watching a DVD in Windows 10

1

I hope you’re all doing well through this crisis.

I’m trying to watch a commercially bought regular DVD (not Blu Ray) in W10 Pro.

It seems problematic from reddit.

I have the most recent VLC Media Player installed on W10.

I inserted the DVD into the player and I can choose Media, Disc and place a dot in the circle next to DVD but it only plays the feature film trailer (15 seconds).

I see Feature listed but when I click on it nothing happens. I tried using the Tab, Return, space bar - I’m not sure how to make the feature play.

I have the W10 Media installed but it prompts me to play DVDs from a library.

Is there a way to play a commercial DVD with either VLC Media Player or Windows Media Player without installing other software?

Thank you!

Since 2012, native DVD playback has not been included in Windows due to licensing issues for the MPEG2 codecs. It previously was available in some versions of Windows 7 having Windows Media Center, or as an extra cost option for Windows 8.1 Pro if you purchased the Media Center Pack. But that software has now been discontinued and is not included in Windows 10.

For people who are upgrading from a version of Windows with Media Center, Microsoft gives you the new Microsoft DVD Player app for free, but the license is tied to the machine, not to your Store account. Alternatively, you can buy the app and use it on multiple devices.

It’s just a simple player for watching DVDs, not a replacement for Media Center’s live TV and DVR features, but it does the job intended. Otherwise there are several 3rd party products, commercial and community, some of which also include Blu Ray support.

2

…and how is Shotcut related to this?

3

It’s not to be honest. But being a media site some people may find it useful.

Even in Windows 7 I started using the K-Lite Codec pack. It’s free, it’s pretty simple and it has MediaPlayer Classic integrated if you select the right version. It plays everything I have come across and doesn’t try to upsell you in any way. https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm is the page and standard is what most people will want. You can download the smaller version and set the codec’s up with the inbuilt windows media player as well and use it that way.

4

The K-Lite Codec pack doesn’t exactly have a great reputation, search on line to see what I mean.

There are plenty of ways to get the media off a dvd and play it on VLC, but will leave that to others, this is hardly the place to describe such methods.

BTW, does anyone still use Windows Media Player or in fact DVDs?

5

It’s worked fine for me for well over 10 years. Never heard of any issues with it myself nor had any.

It is true there are other ways, tons in fact. I guess it’s more what works and seems the most straightforward solution.

I can’t stand WMP, after XP they started pushing their store and that was about the time I switched. I open a file I don’t want to be bombarded with “buy our stuff” messages. DVD’s, everyone once in a while I will end up with one, like Gallagher’s stand-up stuff or something like that which will never be put on Blu-Ray. Maybe some TV shows that are a little older and predate HDTV. Honestly they only grace my computer for a short time though as they end up being ripped and added to my Plex Server. Then they get tossed into a box and stashed under a bed likely to live for the rest of my days.

6

Fair enough, there will be some content that is only available on DVD.
First thing I do, much like you, is rip it to my home server, then the disk becomes a
drinks coaster. :grinning:

I only mentioned the potential pitfalls of K-Lite so others reading this, will be aware of them and
decide if they want to try it or not.

7

I inserted the DVD into the player and I can choose Media, Disc and place a dot in the circle next to DVD but it only plays the feature film trailer (15 seconds).

I think this is not a codec-problem (VLC has an MPEG-2-Codec inside). It looks for me that this 15 seconds film trailer is the only part on the DVD which is not encrypted (copy protection of commercial DVDs).

I think you need a thing such as:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libdvdcss

8

It is true there are other ways, tons in fact. I guess it’s more what works and seems the most straightforward solution.

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