Which DVD software package?

July 7, 2005 11:16 AM

I like watching DVDs on my PC. What program should I use for greatest enjoyment?

I'm running Windows 2000. I currently have Windvd 5, which came with my video card, and I've tried out Windvd 7. The interface in Windvd 7 seems much, much improved. But is there anything else I should try before plunking down a slightly excessive 70 bucks on Windvd?

posted by selfnoise to technology (10 comments total)

I don't watch DVDs on my PC much, and I've never used Windvd, but what's wrong with simply using Windows Media Player, or some other free program? You'd still need a DVD decoding codec, but you can get that for free, too (try the K-Lite Codec Pack).

I can't imagine a DVD viewer worth spending $70, or even $20, on.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:28 AM on July 7, 2005

My favorite on Windows was always PowerDVD, because of the video and audio postprocessing. The Dolby Headphone audio mode really works quite well, better than any other surround audio downmixing postprocessor I used with phones on.

I don't watch a lot of DVD using the laptop & phones any more, but if I did I would fork out the $40 again just for the Dolby Headphone feature.
posted by majick at 11:42 AM on July 7, 2005

If you want free, just install the K-Lite codec pack. It comes with the appropriate codecs (I think -- I know I have them and can't think of any other way they could have gotten there) and Media Player Classic, which is a decent free media player.
posted by neckro23 at 12:02 PM on July 7, 2005

VLC is simple and also skips any region protection. Which makes extra software, tricks, fixes and new DVD players redundant.
posted by Navek Rednam at 12:24 PM on July 7, 2005

I second Navek's VLC Media Player recommendation. It is completely free, installs in seconds, and supports all platforms known to man.

The program's user interface is elegantly minimalist -- none of the loud, annoying GUI junk that you find in other media players, including Windows Media Player.
posted by killdevil at 2:02 PM on July 7, 2005

I like PowerDVD because it's the only DVD player I've encountered that let's me take screenshots that don't suck.
posted by xyzzy at 3:26 PM on July 7, 2005

Note that no software, not even VLC, will get around "newer" (as in built after about 1998) RPC-2 DVD-ROM drives hardware region protection. Of course, that is "downgradeable" to RPC-1 (software based) protection in many models with a pirate firmware flash (find it yourself).

PowerDVD is nicest, but I find myself using VLC most of the time because PowerDVD = expensive.
posted by shepd at 3:30 PM on July 7, 2005

Note that no software, not even VLC, will get around "newer" (as in built after about 1998) RPC-2 DVD-ROM drives hardware region protection.

Note that this only applies to "some" RPC-2 DVD-ROMs. For example, VLC works fine on the 2003 RPC-2 Matsushita drive that came in my ThinkPad. Since it's free, it's pretty easy for you to figure out whether it works with your drive or not.
posted by grouse at 4:37 PM on July 7, 2005

If you're interested in DVD drive firmware that corrects the region-coding restrictions placed on you:

Here's one page, and here's another.

I also second (or third/fourth) VLC. I've come across nothing it doesn't play, and it works better than any other players I've used, in my personal opinion.
posted by odinsdream at 5:38 PM on July 7, 2005

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to end up keeping my free DVD player for the moment, but I did download VLC and it plays my non-DVD video files fantastically... the sound, in particular, is much improved over WMP. No idea why, but I don't need to know the details.

My DVDs stutter though, which is weird because I can play DVDs in software mode on my other player just fine. Oh well.
posted by selfnoise at 11:33 AM on July 12, 2005