Help! I can't play a DVD on my new laptop. How can I make that happen?

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I am able to play regular DVD's on my laptop with no issue. I purchased some training DVD's for my business and would like to be able to play them on my laptop.

I have the latest versions of Real Player and Windows Media Player on my laptop. Neither one will play the DVD's. I can get them to play on my TV using a regular DVD player.

If I go to computer, then dvd, then properties it says IDVD_ONESTEP_DVD as well as the file system is UDF

What player can I download for free I hope that will enable me to play these?

My laptop is a Dell Studio 64 bit system running Windows 7

How can I play them on my laptop?

Thanks for the help.

 

[miketsp]

Post deleted. I misread your problem. I just saw that UDF files can be problematic.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Well sort of. I understand you are telling me I need to install something, but not sure exactly what to do. I am just barely computer literate. How do I install those or check to see if they are there?

I found this download and am trying it now http://www.oldversion.com/download_PowerDVD_7.html

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

It worked! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[miketsp]

That's great. I was about to tell you it wouldn't work.


After I wrote my post I saw that UDF is an old (several years) format that was supported in Windows XP but there are a lot of people on other forums with problems similar to yours when trying to read the disks on a 64 bit operating system like Windows 7.
Especially if the disks were recorded with any sort of compression.

The suggestions I saw in various forums are to try recovery programs, such as cdroller (CDRoller - Data Recovery from CD, DVD, Blu-Ray discs (BD/HD-DVD) and flash cards) or ISOBuster (CD Recovery | CD DVD Data Rescue software, featuring BD HD DVD) but the consensus seems to be that it would be better to read them on an older machine and then transfer the files.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

While I have you here, I have another question. Sometimes when I watch embeded clips or youtube the picture is all crazy. The audio is fine. I am browsing most of the time in firefox. I need to check it out to see of the same clip is crazy in Explorer. Any thoughts?

What browser do you think is best from a security standpoint?

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

OK when I go to exit the program it tells me my trial version expires in 30 days. Uggg! At least ti buys me some time until I can figure out a solution.

 

[diversteve]

2 things to try:

Upgrade Flash if you don't already have version10.something. Adobe - Install a different version of Adobe Flash Player - uncheck the include McAfee box on that page or you'll have to remove it manually later.

Try VLC - it's free. I've never found anything it can't play. VideoLAN - VLC media player - Open Source Multimedia Framework and Player

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I already had the latest version of Flash.

VLAN won't play it.

PowerDVD will play it version 7, but it expires in 30 days and I am not inclined to want to pay $80 for a player after I just spend $350 on the DVD's. I am a bit frustrated. At least for the next 30 days I can watch them on my laptop, but I will need them longer than that and would like to find a permanent solution as well as one that I can use on the go.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I know you hate to hear this but what about one of those 79 dollar portable dvd players?