A DVD codec for Win2K?

January 8, 2004 4:33 PM

A DVD codec for Win2K? Uhm....

Buddy of mine gets a hand-me-down DVD drive after the holidays, installs it correctly in his machine(amazing by itself), I point him to free dvd movie playing software, and it claims he needs a codec.

Is this software drive specific, or video card specific? I can't seem to make heads or tails out of this stuff. Anyone know the quick right answer for a source?

posted by dglynn to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Windows doesn't come with the MPEG-2 codec needed to play DVDs. You can get one by buying something like PowerDVD or WinDVD, but what's the fun in that? Here is a free set of MPEG2 codecs. They probably aren't the most featureful or best-looking, but they do work, at least with Windows Media player and the free Maximus DVD player app.

AFAIK these codecs are legal. The copyright notice says they're made by Fraunhofer and are freely redistributable.
posted by zsazsa at 4:42 PM on January 8, 2004

Looks like that link doesn't work. Go to this page and click on the link for "Free DVD Filters" to download.
posted by zsazsa at 4:46 PM on January 8, 2004

The VideoLan player is a good standalone player that comes with its own codecs - give that a shot as well. It's also great for playing video clips that don't cooperate with the Windows player.

(last post, I swear)
posted by zsazsa at 4:59 PM on January 8, 2004

If he wants to play them in Windows Media player, look for DVDPack.msi on and around the internet.
posted by j.edwards at 5:08 PM on January 8, 2004

Google helps those who help themselves. So, um, help yourself to it.
posted by majick at 6:57 PM on January 8, 2004

klites codec pack (majicks link) works very well for me. The only real reason you would want to pay for a DVD app is for 5.1 sound.
posted by Keyser Soze at 7:53 PM on January 8, 2004