chirpy Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 As a new non pc person what is the simplest way...step by step ...to play a dvd on my lap top??Our garden club has bought a projecter and THEY WANT TO USE MY LAP TOP TO SHOW A DVD OF GARDENS.I can sychronose everything ....but what do I DO TO PLAY A DVD.THE SYSTEM IS XP and it has on it intervideoWin dvd, realPlayer and even Apple Quick time player.Unless something has corrupted the system I know my son who is in uk has used it successfully to play dvd's.I recently bought a Canon camera and theirZOOM browser can play slides ok and I have a dvd alredy on the laptopfrom the internt made by tonight's speaker and I CAN PLAY THAT.BUT IF IF INSERT ANOTHER DVD INTO MY LAPTOP IT DOES NOT PLAY ![8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Have you tried Windows media player? (Ours is version 9) Click on 'start', then on 'all programmes', find 'windows media player', click on that. Wait for 'Windows medis player' to start up, then put DVD in the slot. I then clicked on 'now playing', then 'unknown DVD'. It all went blank for a while, then started. I'm not at all savvy about these things, but asked OH. Hope this helps. [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Do you get an error message and if so what is it?Is the DVD that does not play a commercial DVD like a film you bought from a shop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 If GG's method doesn't work try coming at it from a different direction:IIRC (I've got Linux here so have to do this from memory - which isn't always that great!)Pop your DVD in the driveOpen "My Computer" in the start menuIn one of the drives you should spot your DVD (if it's a commecially producedone it will probably appear by name)Right click on the drive where your DVD is and it should say "open with" somewhere on the drop down list. Click on one of the available programmes (possibly Windows Media Player as above, DVD Cinema, Roxio or any of many programmes pre-loaded for the purpose.)If it still won't play then it may just be that your laptop hates the DVD. It happens.If I've got this wrong then somebody with a Windows laptop will no doubt correct me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suze01 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 On my old laptop it didn't have a DVD player so I downloaded for free the player DIVX which worked a treat - just Google "DIVX" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 If the above suggestions don't work and if there is something a bit unusual regarding the format of the DVD you are trying to play you might want to download (free) and install VLC Media Player. I use it and it has a reputation for playing a wide range of formats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krusty Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 I agree with Derek ...VLC is the one to use ...it always plays everything I try on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Nowt wrong with VLC but I'll recommend KMPlayer, does everything VLC does, and more, and more elegantly [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briwy Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 If you are still having problems open Windows Explorer, right click on the DVD drive and choose "Properties" , usually the bottom option on the menu.Click on the Autoplay tabFrom the Content window choose DVD movies and then choose below which option you want from the Actions window.If you tick the Prompt Me Each Time box then it will do just that, ask you which program to use.If none of the aforementioned programs will play the DVD then it does look as if its a duff one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 FWIW although XP was advertised and sold as being able to play DVD'sthe fact is it didn't, at least not natively. You had to install 3rdparty software of some sort in order to do that, it usually came with aDVD drive.A con if I ever heard one ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.