DVD playing software
Author
Discussion

t1grm

Original Poster:

4,657 posts

308 months

Monday 26th July 2004
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When I try to play DVD’s on my new Samsung X05 laptop using Real Player or Windows Media Player I get a message saying I need to install the DVD playing software first. Strange, I thought Real Player and WMP were software DVD players? In any case, Samsung has provided me with a DVD-RW drive but very thoughtfully included no DVD playing software and there’s bugger all on their site (drivers, but no player software).

So I tried downloading Cliprex DS from cnet.com which although free has the cruddiest GUI I’ve ever seen, is loaded with spyware and worst of all the picture is very jerky. The good news is I can now play DVD’s using Real Player or WMP so I don’t have to use the cruddy GUI but I still get a jerky picture. I’m have in the process of all this learned of something called codecs (sp?) and I assume this is the bit that came with Cliprex DS than now lets me use Real Player and WMP to play DVD’s.

So the question is; are the codecs with Cliprex DS causing the jerky picture and if so where can I download ones that will not produce this effect (preferably for free)? If it’s not the software then are their any hardware settings that I need to look into? I’m using XP Pro and it’s a 1.5 GHz Centrino with 512 Mb RAM so I wouldn’t have thought it would have any problem playing a DVD.

I’ve just moved from a Thinkpad which was a PII 900 with 256 Mb RAM and that played DVD’s perfectly using the Mediamatics player that came with it.

Any ideas?

chrishillcoat

168 posts

269 months

Tuesday 27th July 2004
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AFAIK codecs for DVD playback usually cost money - and when they don't, they're crap (as you've found with Cliprex). It might be worth your while splashing out £10 or so for a program like PowerDVD or WinDVD which do the job better than WMP and Real anyway.

Surprised there was no software with the laptop! Pretty stingy, any way you look at it.

Chris

FourWheelDrift

91,950 posts

308 months

Tuesday 27th July 2004
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Extra software for laptops like DVD playing software are sometime on the HDD but uninstalled, you have to install them from the laptop. Or hidden on the System OS backup Disc.

Hamster

136 posts

261 months

Wednesday 28th July 2004
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Hi There

Try http://xinehq.de/, free DVD Player and pretty good.

KS