Playing DVD

[PCKlutz]

I have a laptop with a Ma****a DVD rom drive. The laptop came with Win Me, which was giving me mucho problems. So I switched to Win98se and everything is working fine except that I cannot play DVD movies now.

I never paid much attention to what software or drivers were loaded when I had Win Me -- I just popped in a DVD movie and it played. I think WinDVD was loaded under WinMe when I got the laptop.

WinDVD is embedded in the Win Me recovery CD, so there is no way for me to install it, and it would not work with my Win98se anyway.

I found an old Xing DVD playing software and installed it. I get only sound and no movie.

I installed Windows Media Player 9.1, and that doesn't work either (though I am not sure if it is meant to play DVD movies in the first place).

My question is, what am I missing so that I cannot play DVD movie? (I have Directx 8.1 installed.) Would a stand-alone DVD software player like WinDVD bring back my DVD movie capability? Why doesn't the Xing DVD software work? Am I missing some kind of DVD rom driver when I switched to Win98se?

Your help greatly appreciated.

[glc]

Yes, you need WinDVD or PowerDVD. The old Xing player may not have the codecs you need these days.

[Zachman]

Originally posted by glc Yes, you need WinDVD or PowerDVD. The old Xing player may not have the codecs you need these days.

Are there any programs I don't have to pay for in order to play dvds?