VideoLAN VLC Media Player Purpose: Multi-format, cross-platform media player
Web site: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Skill Level Required: Intermediate
It can be surprisingly difficult to play DVDs on a computer.
If you've ever added a new DVD-ROM drive to a computer yourself, or if you've ever just had to completely reinstall Windows, you may have found that Windows Media Player doesn't want to play your DVDs. What happened, you ask? You probably lack the proper codec.
CODEC stands for "compression/decompression algorithm." In simple terms, the video on your DVD (and other digital videos) is compressed--packaged--before it's distributed. Your media player needs to have the know-how (packaged in a codec) for decompressing the file and making it usable on your computer. Microsoft chose to not include a standard DVD codec in Windows. Bummer. Hopefully you happen to have a DVD software program that has the necessary codec; you may just need to find and install it. But if you don't own such a program or can't find it, what can you do?
I can offer you at least one solution. One day when I was looking for a free solution to this problem, I stumbled upon VideoLAN's VLC Media Player. It's an open-source project, and it's still under development. I personally found the video to be a little jerky at times, but usable. I suspect this problem will be eliminated in time, if it hasn't been already.
I also found the software to be less intuitive than Windows Media Player, but that too is likely to be fixed in time. The point is, I now have a solution for any computer that tells me I don't have the proper codec for playing a DVD.
UPDATE: While researching codec licensing options for my company, I found that users of VLC Media Player are technically required to pay royalties to one or more patent-holders. You can read about it here. (And for the systems administrators out there, it's worth noting that a couple of the big players in the commercial DVD codec market say that we're not allowed to use our OEM licenses when we clone PCs, meaning that buying WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. preinstalled on your PCs is useless unless if you use cloning. This leaves two viable options: 1) buy a site license for a DVD player or codec, 2) use Windows Vista Ultimate or similar OS, which does come packaged with a DVD codec. Microsoft recommends not using Ultimate in a business environment though.)
UPDATE: While researching codec licensing options for my company, I found that users of VLC Media Player are technically required to pay royalties to one or more patent-holders. You can read about it here. (And for the systems administrators out there, it's worth noting that a couple of the big players in the commercial DVD codec market say that we're not allowed to use our OEM licenses when we clone PCs, meaning that buying WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. preinstalled on your PCs is useless unless if you use cloning. This leaves two viable options: 1) buy a site license for a DVD player or codec, 2) use Windows Vista Ultimate or similar OS, which does come packaged with a DVD codec. Microsoft recommends not using Ultimate in a business environment though.)
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