Trouble with Windows Media Center (Vista Home Premium-32)

[Sky Black]

I've found a rather odd problem I can't seem to solve. I've previously been able to play DVD's fine using either windows media center or media player but suddenly its refusing to play DVD's its played before. I'm currently getting the following error message: "Cannot Play DVD - The DVD may be in use by another application. If all other applications are closed, the video resolution may need to be lowered or the display connection type may not support playback of the DVD."

The thing's driving me crazy, I've reinstalled graphics drivers (CCC 7.10-latest), tried adjusting resolution to various settings (working at 1680x1050) and gone into settings via media center itself. Any help on this would be great as its refusing to play a DVD I was watching just last week, yet its working with others. All DVD's are legit and region 2, not changed firmware on DVD drive, added any other software, nothing. Thanks in advance. Any information needed just ask. Currently downloading Power DVD 30-day trial as im hoping that'll work till I get media center/player running again, but really don't see why I should have to call it a loss and use something new.

Update: Power DVD trial playing DVD's fine so its literaly something to do with media center/player :s

Edited November 10, 2007 by Sky_Omega

[CoolCatBad]

Mpeg 2 codec problem, not resolutiom. Get Vista Media Center Decoder utility to change the default codec to the Power DVD codec. http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.com/2006...er-utility.html

[Sky Black]

Mpeg 2 codec problem, not resolutiom. Get Vista Media Center Decoder utility to change the default codec to the Power DVD codec. http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.com/2006...er-utility.html

Downloaded that nice little program but alas it hasnt solved the problem, tried changing the default codec to Power DVD and even Nero...any other suggestions?

[Prince123]

Downloaded that nice little program but alas it hasnt solved the problem, tried changing the default codec to Power DVD and even Nero...any other suggestions?

Sky - I have the EXACT same problem. MCE on Vista. DVD's used to play fine. Play in other players, but all of a sudden they don't work in Media Center or Media Player. I get the same error... "Cannot play DVD. The DVD may be in use by another application...". When I pop the DVD in it shows the FBI warning first, then dies.

I've tried everything I'm capable of, even had Dell support on the line. They were no help and eventually "accidentally" disconnected me. Please post any solution here... I will do the same if I find one.

[GusValentine]

I can't test for a solution because I don't have Windows Vista, but I do know of 3 different free, open-source DVD codecs you could try:

FFDShow (the option must be enabled in the FFDShow config)

http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/

DScaler 5 Alpha MPEG Filters:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420

Gabest MPEG-2 Video decoder (used to work on XP, I'm guessing a Windows update may be causing these problems on both XP and Vista):

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=246121

For codecs that have no installers, you usually copy them to the System32 folder and register them using regsvr32 codecfilename

[Sky Black]

Hard to beleive after all this time a resolution has come to play, praise ATI CCC 8.2 as its eradicated whatever bug was preventing play of DVD's via Media Center/Player on Vista 32-bit that many including myself have been prone to. Download and play away.

[Knife Party]

forget media centre, i use VLC on my vista laptop for all my dvd/video needs :D

[lmwashere]

I know that there are many great free players out there, and I use them myself on my laptop. However I just completed my first computer build for a friend. Anyway, I need to use media center as the default player for everything. Everything is great except a few days ago, the DVD function in media center started malfunctioning. It will play normally as long as the mouse is still active, but when you stop moving it and it disappears, the playback becomes very jerky and flashes back and fourth between different frames of the video very rapidly. All of the other players on the PC play the DVD flawlessly including media player. It also does this with any DVD. I have tried Nero's decoder as mentioned above, but that just gives me the error stating "Cannot play DVD". I tried stinky's mpeg2 decoder and fddshow but I cannot get them to appear in the default decoder utility.

Any ideas or help that anyone could give me would be sincerely appreciated.

Vista home premium (32bit)

3GB pc6400 CAS 4

Intel E6750 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo

Asus PW5 DH deluxe

ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4

Thanks in advance,

Lmwashere

[lmwashere]

I know that there are many great free players out there, and I use them myself on my laptop. However I just completed my first computer build for a friend. Anyway, I need to use media center as the default player for everything. Everything is great except a few days ago, the DVD function in media center started malfunctioning. It will play normally as long as the mouse is still active, but when you stop moving it and it disappears, the playback becomes very jerky and flashes back and fourth between different frames of the video very rapidly. All of the other players on the PC play the DVD flawlessly including media player. It also does this with any DVD. I have tried Nero's decoder as mentioned above, but that just gives me the error stating "Cannot play DVD". I tried stinky's mpeg2 decoder and fddshow but I cannot get them to appear in the default decoder utility.

Any ideas or help that anyone could give me would be sincerely appreciated.

Vista home premium (32bit)

3GB pc6400 CAS 4

Intel E6750 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo

Asus PW5 DH deluxe

ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4

Thanks in advance,

Lmwashere

I found the answer on another post, about another media player. Here it is:

This problem can occur if the Optical drive's operating mode has been

changed due to repeated errors. Normally, an Optical drive will run at

or above UDMA Mode 2. If the "Step-Back" operating mode to avoid

errors has occurred the mode may now be in a slower PIO mode. To

resolve this you sometimes have to remove the ATAPI/IDE controller

that hosts the optical and then allow Windows to re-detect it and the

Optical drive. Most recent controllers have an Advanced (TAB) in the

details box of the device that shows connected device's operating mode.

Now it works perfectly again. Maybe this will help someone else.

Lmwashere