How to Play DVD movies with Windows Media Player

Have collected a bunch of DVD movies and hope to insert them to Windows Media Player for direct playing? However, most of the questions that you might encounter are Can Windows Media Player play DVDs? How to play DVD with Windows Media Player? How to solve WMP playing DVD error. However, this is not to say that Windows Media Player is faulty when it comes to playing a DVD. Just like any other media player there are problems that people do encounter and sometimes they lack the knowledge when it comes to using WMP for playing DVD purpose.

Can Windows Media Player play DVDs?

In Windows Media Player, you can play audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs that contain music or video files (also known as media CDs). If you have a DVD drive and a compatible DVD decoder installed on your computer, you can use Windows Media Player to play a DVD-Video disc—this is the type of DVD that movies are distributed on. If you are using a version of Windows 7 that supports DVD playback, you should be able to load the DVD in Windows Media Player without issue. The real frustration is that DVD playback has been removed from Windows 8 and Windows 10. That’s to say, the Windows Media Player packed on Windows 8/10 cannot play DVD movies out of the box.

How to play DVD with Windows Media Player

*Click the Start button > Select Control Panel on the start menu. For Windows 8/Windows 10 users you can simply search the Start Menu for “Control Panel” and it will show right up in the list.

*In the search box > type troubleshooter > click Troubleshooting.

*Click view all in the left pane > click Windows Media Player DVD.

It will probably lead to this window (see below) to ask you to install a Windows Media Player DVD decoder.

In case there are a lot of unsolved problems that you are experiencing every now and again when it comes to playing DVD with Windows Media Player, there are better solutions below that you can adopt so that you can continue to enjoy your DVD videos and troubleshoot a DVD that won’t play on WMP.

> Check Correct DVD Titles on Windows Media Player

Solution for DVD not working with Windows Media Player

Solution 1.

If the DVD is from another region, there’s a very good chance that it will not play. This is because regions are hard-coded into DVD drives to help fight piracy. To play DVDs from other regions, you’ll need to flash your DVD player’s firmware, which is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.

> See how to remove DVD region code

Solution 2:

Your drive may be physically failing. If this is the case, you’ll need to install a replacement. See How to Install a DVD Drive for details.

Solution 3:

If you get a message that says that your computer is missing a codec or that you require a DVD decoder, you are probably trying to play, burn, or sync a file that was compressed by using a codec that Windows or the Player doesn’t include by default.

Click “Go Online to learn how to obtain a DVD decoder” and then check the Microsoft recommended Windows Media Player DVD decoder such as CinePlayer DVD Decoder and Advanced Corel DVD Decoders. But those WMP DVD decoder are all costing around $ 15. For more information about codecs, see frequently asked questions about codecs.

Solution 4:

There is lots of Windows Media Player DVD decoder for free downloading on the download sites and all claim to be the best solution to fix Windows Media Player not playing DVD. But the safety cannot be guaranteed. Those free add-ons and Plug-ins are the least you should be trust cuz they may containing virus and create continuous ads. But there is still solution 4 – replace Windows Media Player with another more powerful Windows DVD player freeware.

If you have another DVD player program installed, it may be messing up Windows Media Player. Either use the other DVD player, or uninstall the program so that Windows Media Player works properly again.

Top 4 Windows DVD Player for Windows 7/8/10 Free Download

1. VLC Player

VLC Player is a comprehensive media player and all region free DVD player for windows. This universal Windows DVD player plays all kinds of DVDs easily and smoothly. Blu-rays are another story, as they are supported but many of them won’t play because of DRM encryption. And this DVD player for Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix gives you more controls over DVD playback, you can set a given title and chapter using the Title and Chapter selectors.

Pros:

– Support more operating system including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, etc.

-Integrated with feature for MKV, MP4 video and MP3, AAC music playing.

Cons:

– Not working prefectly on Windows 8.

– VLC audio delays problem not solved properly when playing DVD videos.

– User interface out of date.

2. GOM Player

GOM Player is also a standard Windows DVD player that works similarly to other media players, and it compatible well with Windows 8/7/XP and is able to play VCD and SVCD with perfect surround sound. And this Windows DVD player also has an official remote control app for iOS and Android devices.

Pros: 

– Codecs are included for playing popular video formats.

– Advaced features: screen capture, audio capture

Cons: 

– Its default user interface seems to be undesirable.

– No help documentation built in this player.

3. KMPlayer

The KMPlayer, or K-Multimedia Player, is a Windows DVD player which can play a large number of formats such as DVD, VCD, AVI, MKV, OGG, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, etc. It plays DVDs with movies on them without individually clicking on each .VOB files.

Pros: 

– Plays DVD folders.

– The original version of this Windows DVD player is recommended by lots of users.

Cons: 

– Not support h.264/h.265 video codec playback.

– No video only sound or videos not showing full screen bugs.

4. PowerDVD

PowerDVD is developed by CyberLink Corp. and can play any video, audio, pictures, DVD, Blu-ray and HD movies. It supports playback any files across PC, tablets, smart phones, TV and more. The supported OS include Windows 8.

Pros: It’s high playback image and audio quality makes it famous in the DVD player market.

Cons: What makes people frustrated is that PowerDVD is expensive and its superabundant version usually makes users refused and hard to decide which to choose.

5. BS Player

BS Player is claimed to be the best multimedia player in the world. It supports DivX, HD, AVC video, movie, audio, DVD and YouTube files.

Pros: There’s a free basic version of BS player to fulfill users’ needs.

Cons: But if you want to navigate the DVD menu, you need to purchase it first. Besides, there’s no “Play DVD” button, which means you need to upgrade to the pro version as per needs.

Solution 5:

Another alternative solution is ripping DVD to Windows Media Player friendly video, then enjoy those converted DVD movies with WMP freely.

Pavtube ByteCopy is one of the powerful DVD converters in the market today. It has the ability to remove DVD protection or extract audio from DVD and save them as Windows Media Player playable format with fast speed and high quality. Besides enabling you to do the DVD to Windows Media Player conversion, such tool also endows you with the ability to choose desired subtitles and audio tracks or keep forced subtitles for far better movie enjoyment.

What’s more, you can finish the DVD ripping process with only three simple steps: Load DVD, choose an output format and start the ripping process. Pavtube ByteCopy has a quite neat and well-designed interface. And the software lets you tweak just about everything after you’ve got the movie from disc. Some of you may be using a Mac computer, please visit Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac. Please select the right link below for your operating system (PC, Mac). The following instructions will show you how to rip and convert DVD to Windows Media Player friendly format – WMV, so that you can then put the movie onto Windows Media Player.

Free Download and Install Pavtube ByteCopy:

Other Download:

– Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/bytecopy/

– Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-ByteCopy/3000-7970_4-76158512.html

Steps to convert DVD to Windows Media Player

Step 1. Load DVD movies 

Insert a source DVD in optical drive. Install and launch the excellent DVD chapter converter, click disc button to load DVD movies. You can then select the chapters you want by clicking the checkbox. If you want to export the multiple chapters into one single video, please click “Merge into One File” box.

Tip 1: To get the certain desired part, you can also click “Edit selected task” to trim the videos. In addition, you can also crop, add watermarks, etc. to customize your videos.

Tip 2: DVD movies always contain subtitles and audio tracks in different languages. For better than ever DVD movie enjoyment, you are highly suggested to choose desired subtitles and audio tacks for output, via opening the subtitle and audio track selecting box at the bottom of the left processing list.

Step 2. Set output format 

Click on “Format” bar to select output format. Here you can choose to rip DVD to .wmv, .asf or .wma from “Common Video”, “HD Video” or “Common Audio” for playing with Windows Media Player. <Refer to Windows 10 Supported Video/Audio Formats>

See File types supported by Windows Media Player:

Detailed information can be found here.

P.S. 

a. Keep in mind, if you rip the DVD to another common format and playback it on WMP, you may hear audio but no video picture displayed, which means the video codec isn’t installed. You need to install extrac codec pack to solve the issue. That’s why we prefer to choose WMV, a format developed by Microsoft.

a. ByteCopy also helps you to convert videos to mobile devices supported formats, such as iPhone, iPad, iPod, Samsung Galaxy, etc.

c. In profile settings, you are allowed to adjust video and audio codec, size, channels, etc for better video quality. You also can set to preserve 5.1 channels when copying DVD to Windows Media Player.

Step 3. Start converting DVD on Windows Media Player

In the end, you just need to click the “Convert” button start the conversion. When the converting process ends, you can open output folder to check and play converted DVD videos in Windows Media Player with the best quality. Enjoy.

How to Add items to the Windows Media Player Library

There are several methods you can use to add files to your Player Library:

Monitoring folders: When you start the Player for the first time, it automatically searches certain default folders included in the Music, Pictures, Videos, and Recorded TV libraries on your computer. If you ever add or remove files from these media libraries, the Player will automatically update its available media files. You can also include new folders in your Windows libraries from other locations on your computer or from removable storage devices.

Add media files that you play: When you play a media file on your computer or from a removable storage device, the file is automatically included in your Player Library so you can access it directly from the Player. And if you have access to remote media files stored on other computers on your network, you can change the Player’s settings to add these remote files to your Player Library when you play them.

Windows 10 Tip: Find Windows Media Player

To find WMP, click Start and type: media player and select it from the results at the top.

Alternately, you can right-click the Start button to bring up the hidden quick access menu and choose Run or use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key+R. Then type: wmplayer.exe and hit Enter.

If you plan on using it a lot, you might want to pin it to the Taskbar while you’re here. To do that, right-click on it and select Pin to taskbar, Pin to Start, or both.

Windows Media Player hasn’t changed at all since its last update to version 12 in Windows 7. So, if you recently upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, and aren’t quite ready to use the new apps, you’ll be happy to see its familiar UI.

Personally, I would have like to see at least a fresh coat of paint on the WMP interface. However, it’s obvious that Microsoft is phasing out some of its legacy software for the new universal apps instead.

When you first dive into Windows 10, you’ll find that your media is already set to open in its new universal apps (Groove, Photos, Movies & TV). But if you want to stick with WMP, you can set it as your default player by adjusting file associations.

It’s also worth noting that while DVD support has been taken away, support for FLAC and MKV files is added to Windows 10, and you can use WMP for that.

Related Software:

BDMagic for Windwos/Mac – The best Blu-ray solution to rip and backup any commercial and region-locked Blu-ray to H.265, M3U8, MP4, MKV, AVI, FLV, etc.

DVDAid for Windows/Mac – Capacity of ripping copy-protected and homemade DVD to iPhone 6S/SE, iPad, Surface Pro, Synology NAS, Seagate Wireless Plus, etc with suitable format.

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac – Function of converting Blu-ray/DVD, 4K/SD/HD videos to play on Windows Media Player video format and nearly all popular devices you have ever seen.

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